Bill baiters we're not. Actually, for the record, we don't bait anyone although we did observe, at the time of Bill Gates' visit to India in November last, that the four-day road show was inspired in part, a very large one, by his desire to convince more people to buy into the Microsoft way. The timing of the world's richest man's visit couldn't have been more appropriate: circa 2003, everything seems to be coming together for Linux. In February, Intel and Silicon Graphics held a meeting in Delhi to demonstrate what they termed "the previously inconceivable" capabilities of Linux. In reality, the occasion was just a product launch-of a family of servers called Altix 3000, a combination of Silicon Graphic's supercomputing architecture, Intel's 64-bit Itanium 2 processors, and Linux, an achievement of sorts since the best-known member of the open source genus was an unproven quantity in its ability to operate in 64-bit computing environments. Linux, evidently, is catching on fast in the areas of technical- and high-performance computing. "High-power computing has very special needs," says Narendra Bhandari, Regional Manager (Asia Pacific), Strategic Relations, Intel. "Linux is especially suited for that."

Intel isn't the only convert. From IBM, an early champion, to h-p to Oracle, most technology companies are hedging their bets with Linux initiatives. "The value proposition Linux offers our customers is extremely compelling," explains Murli Subramanian, Vice President (E-business Development), India Operations, Oracle. "It drives down their total cost of ownership-more than 25 per cent of the work we do in our development centre is Linux-oriented." Market intelligence firm IDC predicts that Linux will become the most-used operating system in the world by 2004. Analysts suggest it could have as much as a 30 per cent share of the server market in India, but those numbers aren't backed by any credible studies. And Linux still hasn't managed to establish itself in the mission-critical database-server market or the so-vast-growth-rates-don't-matter desktop one. It is largely present in the file- and print-server markets, although Linux activists believe, and would have everyone else believe, that the operating system can do well nigh everything. "What isn't possible with Linux?" asks Sachin Dalbir, Head (Enterprise Sales), Red Hat. Actually, we can think of some-like high-end SMP. Symmetric MultiProcessing, for the benefit of the uninitiated, is a computer architecture where multiple CPUs (Central Processing Units) work on individual tasks simultaneously. This increases the speed of computing exponentially. Both Unix and Windows NT support SMP. Still, that doesn't change the fact that infotech users are looking at Linux seriously. "Most Linux initiatives are in the pilot phase," says Sunil Mehta, a Vice President at Nasscom, India's association of software companies, "but many large companies are looking to implement the operating system in the long-term- cost-benefits are the big lure."

Linux vendors such as Red Hat, SuSE, Furblinux, and VALinux have been quick to spot the opportunity. Red Hat, for instance, is working with National Informatics Centre (NIC), the various Indian Institutes of Technology, and National Centre for Software Technology to develop applications built around Linux.

While vendors have had limited (but growing) success with corporates, they have managed to convince constituents of India's administrative machinery that open source is the way to go. The governments of states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra have either decided on, or are considering Linux as the operating system for their e-governance projects. And others like the Supreme Court, NIC, and the Directorate of Estates are testing the waters with Linux initiatives. "The source code is available to all," says Raj Mathur, an active member of India Linux Users Group, Delhi, or Linux-Delhi as it is popularly known. "Users can customise it to suit their own unique needs." And the cost makes it attractive to small enterprises-Linux can run web-servers and mail-servers, things that could otherwise be well beyond the means of most SMEs. That and the possible success of various language-computing experiments built around Linux (See Vern Version on page 80 of this issue) could take computing to the masses, making it imperative, and profitable, for hardware manufacturers, application builders, companies, and service providers (the government included) to adopt the operating system. After all the hype, the Penguin may have finally learnt to fly.

-Vinod Mahanta

RIVERWORLD
Joining The Dots
All you wanted to know about the Grand Canal Project.

Former Minister Suresh Prabhu: The PM's choice to run the project

The Objective: To link 35 rivers by 2016.

The Cost: In excess of Rs 5,60,000 crores; for the record, the top 500 companies on Bombay Stock Exchange had a market capitalisation of Rs 5,56,706 crore on February 17.

Source of Capital: Infrastructure bonds; user charges on use of wasteland converted into agricultural land; commercial participation-navigation rights and hydroelectricity generation.

Benefits: Savings on future flood-relief expenditure; creation of effective waterways; increase in the volume of land under cultivation; generation of 30,000 MW; a 4-5 per cent boost to GDP through the indirect route of providing a fillip to manufacturing, services, and agriculture.

Panels set up under the National Water Development Agency to accelerate the project: Financial Issues; Social Issues; Awareness Issues; Ecological Issues; International Issues (water sharing with Nepal and Bhutan); Technical Issues; Technological Issues; Legal Issues; Organisational Issues (the Indian Institutes of Management are working on special purpose vehicles to implement the project).

Total Number of People to Be Employed: 1,000; the rest will be hired on contract.

-Moinak Mitra

GROUNDED
Who Killed Airline Privatisation?
Yes, the disinvestment of Indian Airlines and Air India do seem to be off.

At one time, a possible answer to that question would have been India's private airlines that fear competition. Now, it could be, a strand of convoluted bureaucratic logic. Union Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie has long wanted to privatise Air India and Indian Airlines, and he doesn't mind if the Ministry of Civil Aviation does what is needed to make the two airlines profitable (after all, that would increase their valuation). Union Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, young and eager to prove himself, would like to do just that-turn the two airlines around. There's the small matter of the Rs 30,000 crore he needs to refurbish the fleets. But the finance ministry is against spending that amount on companies that will soon be privatised. And so, Hussain has written the Cabinet asking that the two airlines be taken off the disinvestment bill of fare. Ironically, even if the finance ministry were to withdraw its objections to the investment, potential suitors are certain to shun the airlines-they will now carry more debt on their balance sheets. Either way, it is the disinvestment process that suffers.

-Ashish Gupta

ALLIANCE
Taking Aim
Magazine publishers get together to further their own cause.

Did you know that nearly 40 per cent (18.5 million) of total print circulation in India is accounted for by magazines? Or that with a readership of 86.2 million, magazines almost equal (48 per cent) newspapers in terms of readership? If you didn't, you aren't the only one. Even the government, especially the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) does not recognise magazines when it comes to releasing statutory advertisements.

Obviously, magazine publishers want their due recognition. With that in mind, eight such publishing groups-including that of India Today, The Outlook, Business India, Cybermedia, Delhi Press, Ananda Vikatan, Chitralekha and Meri Saheli-joined hands on February 25 to launch the Association of Indian Magazines (aim). The association promises to be the industry's voice, be it in promoting readership, advertising, or lobbying.

MR RELIANCE
Gurumurthy Redux
The long-time Reliance investigator grabs the headlines with a missive to the Finance Minister on Reliance's misdeeds.

I would never have got into investigating Reliance Group but for the fact that there is today not a single newspaper or magazine, which would publish anything against this group. Not a single political party or leader who would expose their misdeeds. Not a single official who would conduct a fair and fearless investigation against them.
Post Script to letter written by S. Gurumurthy to Jaswant Singh on January 13.

SJM Co-convenor Gurumurthy: Friend of Reliance

The late Dhirubhai Ambani had a term for people who worked against the interests of Reliance Industries-he called them Friends of Reliance. That 53-year-old Chennai-based chartered accountant Swaminathan Gurumurthy remains foremost among Friends of Reliance was evident from two letters he wrote Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, a detailed note on January 11, 2003, and a summary version of the same two days later. The letters refer to the December 1992 issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures entitling 34 companies to a 11 per cent equity holding in RIL at the price of Rs 31 a share. Gurumurthy's claims that the 34 corporates are shell companies controlled by the Ambanis and that the issue is one of 'fraudulent preferential allotment' are being investigated by India's securities watchdog SEBI and the Department of Company Affairs (DCA).

It was as an investigative journalist that Gurumurthy first made news; from 1986 onwards, as the then corporate advisor to the late Ramnath Goenka, Chairman of Indian Express Group, he authored some 50 articles on Reliance's corporate tactics. The man has tilted at other windmills-he, and then Indian Express editor and now Union Disinvestment, it, and Communication Minister Arun Shourie, launched the investigation into the Bofors kickback, and he has waged a long drawn-out battle against the Maharashtra Government for signing a MoU with Enron -but Reliance remains his favourite cause. Now the Co-convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a think-tank loosely allied with the BJP that propagates a message of economic nationalism, Gurumurthy has come up against one-time friend Shourie with his opposition to the disinvestment process. "We are not against disinvestment per se," he qualifies. "We are just cautioning the government that it should not result in private monopolies. This has happened in the case of Reliance and IPCL." There's that R-word again.

-Ashish Gupta

Taking Guard: A flop show

STUMPED
Analyse This
ESPN-Star's flanking fails.

ESPN-Star considers its team of six cricket commentators-Sunil Gavaskar, Harsha Bhogle, Geoffrey Boycott, Alan Wilkins, Ravi Shastri, and Navjot Singh Sidhu-unbeatable. In reality, the six have been trounced by a verbose Charu Sharma, his comrade-in-arms Mandira Bedi, and a clutch of boring cricketing has-beens.

Manu Sawhney, the Managing Director of ESPN Software India, had set a fairly straightforward target for the channel's pre- and post-match analysis. "Even if we were to get average channel ratings (0.3-0.4) at a time when the World Cup is on a competing network, it will prove our equity with the discernible cricket viewer."

The ratings are out now and it is clear that the channel's strategy has flopped. Taking Guard and Follow Through, its pre- and post-match analysis sessions have lost out (and how) to set Max's Extraaa Innings. "It is a case of pure studio-based analysis against action in and around the playing field," says Sandeep Vij, Head, Optimum Media Solutions. Devoid of replays, capsules on best catches and shots, and the atmospherics (ESPN Star can't show anything at all), there is little reason for the cricket enthusiast to zap to ESPN-Star Sports on the remote.

-Shailesh Dobhal