Shocking revelations about KGP found by Shri V. M. Kumaraswamy of E-KAVI

Shocking revelations about KGP found by Shri V. M. Kumaraswamy of E-KAVI

KGP has misled the GOK about its ability to undertake all and sundry tasks of developing Kannada software. It has no real technical personnel or expertise or infrastructure to develop Kannada software
KGP is run as a personal fiefdom of just two or three key functionaries, who took arbitrary, secretive decisions without consulting the committee members; hence it is an unprofessional organization.
KGP has garnered GOK funds by making false claims about its ability to develop Kannada software. KGP functionaries are misusing the funds with possible collusion from some elements in GOK.
KGP’s only development to date, Kalitha/Nudi software has infringed on the Intellectual Property Rights of others like “Akruti” by being derived from “Baraha” which itself has admitted to being derived from “Akruti”.
KGP has also misused the trust of software developers, when they submitted their software for evaluation and have reverse engineered the features of their software and Intellectual property and created Nudi. Hence, Nudi is not the original work of KGP as claimed.
KGP has not completed the majority of the tasks assigned to it by GOK for which funds have been released and is doing some trivial tasks like typing Kannada classics in the name of Kannada software development. Thus it is hoodwinking the GOK.
KGP is in an untenable position as both the referee (certification agency), competitor (developer) and has declared itself as the winner (self declaration).
KGP is monopolizing the supply of software to the GOK, by claiming it developed it and released it as freeware, whereas funds amounting to more than 30 lakhs were sanctioned for it without due processes demanded by the Transparency Act, like a tender and thereby preventing any other software vendor from supplying to the GOK.
KGP has been tacitly allowed by DIT to establish a monopoly by insisting only on usage of Nudi in all e-Governance projects that too using non-standard (bilingual) fonts.
Appendix II
Conclusions of the meeting held at Vijayanagar Club on 16-7-2004
KGP showed its hostility and non-cooperation by not participating in the meeting probably to cover up its inadequacies.
KGP is not equipped to shoulder the onerous responsibility of standardizing or certifying Kannada software due to lack of technical ability and inadequate skilled manpower or infrastructure, and hence the G.O. permitting it to certify Kannada software for standards compliance should be immediately withdrawn.
The GOK should constitute a two tier committee with immediate effect having people concerned about Kannada and Kannada software from various disciplines like literature, arts, academia, research institutions, software industry and non profit organizations. This committee should henceforth guide the development of Kannada software regarding standards, certification, funding of research and development and implementation and progress of Kannada usage in the GOK and the other public spheres.
Nudi developed by KGP using questionable means had become a monopoly and though it flouted the standards set by GOK and had some serious flaws, due to the support within the GOK by DIT, it was being imposed on all departments and undertakings as the only solution. This was against free and fair competition and hence Nudi’s monopoly should be curbed in interests of Kannada software development and opportunity should be given to all software developers whose software complied with the GOK standards.
Since Nudi was developed using GOK funds, it should be made “Open Source” and any interested developer should be able improve on it and make it available to the public, thereby reducing reliance on a sole agency like KGP, which as pointed out earlier was inadequately equipped for the task.