Kannada should be rescued from the clutches of three persons / CVSS, GNNM and Dr Panditharadhya of KAGAPA /These people have no technical competence./ Written BY Dr. U. B. Pavanaja
Kannada should be rescued from the clutches of three persons / CVSS, GNNM and Dr Panditharadhya of KAGAPA /These people have no technical competence. / Written BY Dr. U. B. Pavanaja
In a message dated 7/9/2004 10:35:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time, U. B. Pavanaja writes:
Dear Kumaraswamy,
Here is the second part of my mail about my association with Kannada and IT. In this part, I will detail about KGP and Good, Bad and Ugly of it.
As mentioned in the first part, the sowing of Kannada Ganaka Parishat (KGP) was done on Dec.29, 1996 at Bangalore. I came to Bangalore to settle down in June 1997. KGP was inaugurated in Aug 1997 by then CM of Karnataka, late J H Patel. I was very actively involved with KGP for majority of its good days. I was the one who did the welcome speech on the day of inauguration of KGP. I got B V Jagadeesh to inaugurate the web-site of KGP in the year 2000. I created the logo for KGP. I created the web-site also. Even the domain name was registered by me. KGP didn’t have even an Internet connection and I used give my account for the boys working there to use it.
Initially KGP did good work and everyone was happy. The executive committee had 18 members that included C V Shrinatha Shasthry (CVSS), G N Narasimha Murthy (GNNM), myself, Sathyanarayana, K G Chandrashekhar, S K Anand, Yathindranath, Sheshadri, Prakash, Udayashankara Puranik, Dr Panditharadhya, Subbanna, M A S Rajan, Shriganesh, etc. In reality there were two kinds of members -committee members and committed members. I was a more of a committed member than of a committee member. Only Shrinatha Shasthry and Narasimha Murthy used to run the Parishath in reality with occasional backing of Panditharadhya. Other members were not attending all the meetings. Even when they attend, they never used to ask any questions to these two persons. Everyone was approving the actions of these two persons with the assumption that they are doing something good to Kannada. I was also under the same impression. But it took a long time to realize how wrong this assumption was.
Sathyanarayana wrote the bye-laws of the Parishath and got it registered also. Initially people have paid the money assuming that is for the membership fee. CVSS and GNNM very conveniently and cunningly converted this money into donation and did not make the people who are not liked by them as members. Sathyanarayana, Anand, Chandrashekhar and Anbarasan fall into this category. These people realized this cunningness of these two people only when the elections for KGP were declared in 2003. Fortunately or unfortunately I escaped this and became a member due to my insistence that KGP should follow the procedures. It is like this: I had registered the domain name for KGP while I was at USA during Oct-Dec. 1999. I had paid 70$ for that. After I was back at Bangalore, I mentioned to CVSS that KGP should pay me about Rs.3000 for the domain name registration and I will pay Rs.1500 back to KGP as my life membership. CVSS was eager to pay me Rs.1500 by cash. But I insisted that I will give a cheque for Rs.1500 and KGP should give me a cheque for Rs.3000. Since this was followed at my insistence, I became a life member; else I also would have been a non-member by this time.
Initially everyone was concerned with the chaos and haphazard way the things were in the field of Kannada software. Even the developers like Aanand, Anbarasan, Muthukrishnan, and some more, were eager to see that the usage of Kannada on computers increases. It is quite natural for them. They wanted more and more usage of Kannada on computers and thereby increased business and profit. I don’t find anything wrong in the declared intention of making profit by Kannada software development and making a living by that. Everyone wants to make a living. But CVSS, GNNM and Panditharadhya have a different notion. According to them all activities for betterment of Kannada should be voluntary. CVSS and GNNM gets paid by the Govt. CVSS is a scientist at NAL, GNNM was working at a nationalized bank and Panditharadhya works as a Reader at Kannada Dept of Mysore Univ. I used to ask the question to Panditharadhya that if every work of Kannada should be voluntary how come he is getting paid for teaching Kannada.
The first hurdle for using Kannada on computers was the lack of standardization in various aspects. CVSS was all the time harping on keyboard standardization. He took the keyboard design of K P Rao and modified it slightly. He could convince the Govt of Karnataka (GoK) and get it notified as a standardized keyboard layout for Kannada. I was not very keen on the keyboard standardization. I am more interested in the data portability between applications. It was virtually impossible to use the Kannada text typed using one software package of a particular vendor in another vendor’s software package. But CVSS had the notion that keyboard standardization is everything. I had to convince him about the data portability.
With relentless follow-up by CVSS with GoK, they constituted a committee to look into the standardization of Kannada on computers. Myself, CVSS and Panditharadhya were members of this committee apart from many other luminaries. This committee did standardize a monolingual truetype font glyph set for Kannada. The committee did not take up Unicode. This was in the year 2000 when Unicode was still in its nascent stage w.r.t. to Indian languages. On the last day of the committee meeting, late Chandrahasa Gupta, Chairman of the committee, asked me when we shall take up the standardization of bi-lingual font for Kannada. There was a demand from developers for the bi-lingual font which was needed for developing applications using VB 6. I replied him that it is better to go for Unicode rather than bi-lingual font. Unfortunately, these discussions were held at the fag end of the meeting while everyone was getting up, and hence was not recorded in the minutes of the meeting. GoK accepted and notified the report of this committee as the stipulated features to be present in any Kannada software to be bought or used in GoK departments.
Then there were deliberations and discussions between DIT, GoK and CVSS on how do we check whether any software has followed the standards stipulated by GoK. CVSS used to brief me on daily basis and take my advice on various aspects like what DIT people said, what he replied, what he should tell them next, etc. I was suggesting a methodology for testing the software submitted by any vendor for certification to the GoK. As per my suggestion, there should be a certifying committee working under DIT, GoK, which should meet at DIT and test the software. But CVSS went ahead and grabbed the certification process for KGP itself and got the notification from GoK that KGP is the certifying agency for Kannada software. Myself and Sathyanarayana were against this move. But in the true democratic manner, we buried our differences and continued with the association.
I was working at Tally Solutions as the Technology Architect in charge of localization. My task was to localize Tally into Indian languages. I used to visit the KGP office almost every alternative day. One such day, CVSS and GNNM introduced K M Harsha, who is a distant relative of GNNM, to me. He is from N R Pura and had come to Bangalore in search of a job. By discussing with Harsha, I could make out that he is extremely good at C++ programming. I took him for Tally and got him appointed there as programmer. His initial task was to develop a keyboard driver for Indian languages, starting from Kannada. I guided him on various aspects of Indian languages -the font, joining of glyphs, interpreting the keystrokes and converting them into proper glyph sequences, etc. But it was decided by the bosses at Tally that they will not spend time and resources in doing basic R & D for Indian language. Instead they decided to use off-the-shelf toolkits for using Indian languages. The order was given to CDAC for the necessary toolkits. The development of keyboard driver by Harsha at Tally was shelved.
By this time KGP had become the certifying agency for Kannada software. They did not have a clue how to test whether the given software was following the GoK standards. I told CVSS that there should be a testing software. How to go about it? I mentioned to CVSS about the expertise gained by Harsha in keyboard development. Harsha was given a PC by KGP at his residence and Harsha worked late nights to create a testing software. He used to give me a version of the software everyday, I used to test and give him the feedback, give him the directions go further, etc. Finally a working software was ready. A demo of this testing software was given to Prof. Baraguru Ramachandrappa, then President, Kannada Development Authority (KDA), Shri Vivek Kulkarni, then Secretary, I.T., GoK and Dr E V Ramana Reddy, then Director, DIT, GoK. They all appreciated it and requested to make this testing tool into a package to be used by all GoK departments. On the same day, Vivek Kulkarni suggested that KGP should come out with a roadmap for Kannada software to be developed which are needed for GoK use. He offered to sanction enough grant to KGP for these developments. He also mentioned that the amounts to be asked by KGP should be on par with industry standard. He suggested that the salaries to be paid to programmers should be on par with the industry. He also suggested that KGP should have a good office, good staff, 24 hours support telephone, web-based support mechanism for the software, etc. similar to any professional software company. What Vivek Kulkarni wanted was that the software developed by KGP for GoK should be of international standards. But CVSS threw all these suggestions into the wind.
CVSS was very happy with the good appreciation of the demo by Baraguru, Vivek Kulkarni and Ramana Reddy. CVSS did not know how to make a roadmap. I made the roadmap on a spreadsheet. CVSS elaborated it with detailed writings in Kannada. I had put all industry standard figures while making the estimations. For ex., I had put Rs.50,000 per truetype font. CVSS showed the figures to GNNM and Panditharadhya. They were shocked at the figures. They have never heard or seen the kind of salaries people were getting in the IT industry. These three people reduced all the amounts to almost one-fifth of what I had put. Thus the amount requested from GoK per font became Rs.10,000. It is impossible to get some professional font designer to deliver a font for Rs.10,000. I was not consulted CVSS while submitting the final figures to GoK.
I was of the opinion that KGP should be an organization working for standardization and proper implementation of Kannada on computers. I was against KGP becoming a software development company. Many people in the executive committee were also had the same opinion. But CVSS used to act like listening to them, promise to them that KGP will not do any software developments, and then continue with the activities. Everyone in the executive committee of KGP knew that things are not going on in the way it should be going. But people were allowing CVSS to continue to function in his own style with the sole assumption that the end result will be good for Kannada. In every meetings I used to tell that it is not the aim alone which has to be good, the means also has to be good, on the lines of what was preached and practiced by Mahatma Gandhi.
The testing software was finally converted into a software package. It was released by B K Chandrashekhar, then I.T. Minister, GoK, in a function. It was called Kalitha, a name coined by me, meaning Kannada Lipi Thamthraamsha. Baraguru did not like that name and changed it to Nudi. The first version of Nudi had just one font, a keyboard driver, a simple editor and a software development toolkit (SDK) for programmers. One could use the Nudi SDK in his VB, VC or Foxpro program and develop applications for Kannada. All software developers became unhappy with the release of Nudi. CVSS pacified them saying that Nudi is only a benchmark software. In one of the meetings, vendors asked what they will do if GoK makes its own software. Then they were told to shift to application development using Nudi toolkit. But soon they have to be disappointed as KGP started making applications also.
I had suggested CVSS on how to implement the roadmap submitted to GoK and approved by GoK. According to me, KGP should have a list of empanelled software developers who were actually into software development much before KGP came into existence. KGP should award the contract of developments to these vendors. KGP can keep some percent of the allocated money for its running. This model was appreciated many in the meetings. But CVSS and GNNM never formulated any mechanism for implementing my suggestion. Instead they got some amateurs and part-time developers to develop the software. This resulted in many unprofessional products. The fonts that are bundled with Nudi are the best examples. Try running Micorosft Font Validator, which tests a font, on the Nudi fonts. Then run the same test on any professionally developed font like Akruti, ShreeLipi, CDAC, etc, and see the difference yourselves.
GoK issued a notification saying that everyone in GoK must use only Nudi and not any other software. Version 2 of Nudi had come out by this time. This notification became problematic for software developers. It was painful to develop Kannada applications using VB employing the monolingual font of Nudi. Majority of the applications for GoK were developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), a Govt of India (GoI) undertaking. These people were using the SDK from CDAC, another GoI undertaking. CDAC’s toolkit had bi-lingual fonts meant for programmers. NIC people informed GoK that they will not touch Nudi SDK unless it contains bi-lingual font for development. By this time Windows XP, Office XP and Visual Studio.NET from Microsoft with Indian languages (including Kannada) support was available employing Unicode. One day GNNM mentioned to me at the KGP that they are working on the version 3 of Nudi. I asked him what are the specifications and who wrote them? He replied that there is nothing called specifications and only new feature will be bi-lingual fonts. I was taken aback. KGP came into existence for standardizing the usage of Kannada on computers. This KGP is now going to create a bi-lingual font which is not as per any standard. I told him that I being the originator and the person who was guiding the development of Nudi will not allow having a non-standard font being added to Nudi. GNNM asked me to provide a solution for the problem faced by software developers. I replied that they should use Unicode and not bi-lingual fonts. But there was a problem. Majority people were using Windows 98 and rendering of opentype fonts which are needed for using Unicode was not possible on Windows 98. I suggested that we should write a opentype font rendering engine using the Uniscribe APIs for Windows 98. This is really a tough job but not impossible. KGP did not have a full-time expert programmer to accomplish this task. Instead of implementing my suggestion, GNNM told me that they will go ahead with making of Nudi 3 with bi-lingual fonts. I opposed that move. GNNM told me that in that case they don’t need me any more. According to him only Harsha was needed for programming and I was no more needed for guiding. CVSS supported GNNM. That was my first major difference with these two persons. They went ahead and made version 3 of Nudi which had the non-standard bi-lingual font. This was released at the house of S M Krishna, then CM of Karnataka. CVSS and Harsha are the only two people went for that function. CVSS neither invited nor informed anyone at KGP about the release function.
After this, I became a trouble person for CVSS and GNNM in every meeting of the executive committee. Earlier I used question CVSS and GNNM personally and now I started questioning on each and every aspects in the executive committee meetings. For ex., I wanted transparency in their actions and spendings. The detailed balance sheet was never placed in front of the committee. I was asking how KGP can go ahead and take many software development orders which were not part of the roadmap sanctioned to KGP. My point was that CVSS should discuss everything in the executive committee meetings prior moving forward with any of these projects. After my insistence, a software development sub-committee was formed to look after the software developments. Even though I was the originator of Nudi, KGP got all name and fame due to Nudi, got the money sanctioned from GoK, I was kept out of this sub-committee. Nobody in this sub-committee had any actual hands-on experience of Kannada software development. No one person from that sub-committee has ever used the Nudi SDK meant for programmers. Their lack of expertise is evident in the outcome, ie., Nudi versions 3 and 4, which have come out with so many bugs.
KGP did develop a software called vethana for DIT. This is meant for making and printing salary slips. CVSS’s son worked for the development of this package at DIT. The development of this package was never discussed at any of the executive committee meetings. Nobody knows what was the criterion of selecting CVSS’s son for developing this software. CVSS’s son had just come out of the college at that time and had no experience in professional software development. Even the software sub-committee was not aware of the development of this software. Dr Ramana Reddy announced in the press meet during the release of this package that they have given Rs.3 lakhs to KGP for developing this package. How much was paid to individual developers, CVSS’s son, etc. was never disclosed to any of the members of KGP. There was no quality control for this software. If the software is really good then why is that education department of GoK is getting a salary package made from Azim Premji Foundation? I was also opposing KGP doing some font conversions for others. Conversion of font encodings is violation of intellectual property rights and hence I was against such an activity by KGP. But CVSS went ahead and did the font conversion. He also got Rs.15,000 for KGP for doing this job. The money was shown as donation.
Another major issue was of fonts bundled with Nudi. Myself and Harsha were opposing the release of Nudi without our own professional fonts. Making a font is an elaborate process. Artists have to draw each character (glyph) on paper, they have to be scanned, digitized, hinted, etc. It takes months for each font. CVSS told me that he got the font made from someone before submitting the final package to GoK. In one of the executive committee meeting S K Anand and myself questioned CVSS about who made the fonts, how much was paid to him, etc. GNNM gave a reply that someone at Koppa made the fonts. I mentioned that KGP should have the complete record of making of the fonts like original drawings by the artist, first raw digitized data, the final font, etc. GNNM promised to get all these from Koppa and show to us in the next meeting. He never bothered to do that.
I had suggested that KGP should have a list of empanelled software developers of Kannada which can be submitted to GoK. GoK can give orders to these developers for Kannada software developments. My philosophy is “live and let live”. But the philosophy now followed by KGP is “live and let die”. I am the person who had foreseen the situation regarding Kannada software developments. KGP can not supply software to entire Karnataka. Hence it should not venture into application developments. This task should be left to professional developers who will be able to offer professional support for the product and services they offer. Kannada software developmental opportunities start with the GoK. If these are fully grabbed by KGP, the Kannada software industry will die. Then there will be no industry left to supply Kannada software to entire Karnataka. Supplying Kannada software to entire Karnataka is definitely beyond the capabilities of KGP. Unfortunately, in every meeting this fact was accepted by everyone but software development orders were undertaken clandestinely by KGP without informing the executive committee. It is a different story that none of the projects undertaken and executed by KGP are of any professional quality and people are not really making use of them to any good use. The workflow automation software developed for Kannada Univ., Hampi, is one such example.
CVSS and GNNM along with Panditharadhya are running KGP like their personal fiefdom. They never used to discuss all the details of what is going on in the executive committee meetings. The differences voiced by members like S K Anand were never recorded in the minutes of the meetings. There were 18 members in the executive committee (which was reduced to 13 in the new committee). CVSS used to inform/invite only 6-7 members for a meeting. For the next meeting he will inform/invite another 6-7 members who did not attend the previous meeting. He will tell in the meeting that he informed everyone but others who did not attend were busy and have informed him that they will not be attending. Nobody ever doubted his words. As mentioned above, the differences voiced by some members were not recorded in the minutes of the meetings and the set of people who were actually not present in the previous meeting used to approve the minutes written by GNNM.
CVSS and GNNM are visiting each and every dept of GoK and threatening them by dire consequences if they don’t use Nudi. They will show the notification by GoK wherein it was made mandatory to use Nudi. Simple usage of Nudi for typing jobs has no problem. Using Nudi bi-lingual fonts for software developments has some problems. Many people have reported them to me personally and they have posted them in mailing lists also. Unicode is the world standard. Some private companies have developed Kannada application for some department of GoK employing Unicode and VS.NET. But they have been told by that GoK department that they should go back to Nudi, apparently by the blackmailing tactics of CVSS and GNNM. They ended up having problems. These were posted in Kannada computing mailing list (I have the mails with me).
It is the time that GoK should amend the notification removing the compulsion to use Nudi. The notification should not be applicable if Unicode is used. This is amendment not possible as long KGP is being considered as the sole body in charge of Kannada on computers at GoK. GoK should immediately constitute a committee to look into the various aspects of Kannada standardization in the field of IT. I will write another mail on what GoK should do at this juncture.
In conclusion I can say these: KGP is not a representative body of entire Kannada population. It has hardly about 70 members. Only three members, viz., CVSS, GNNM and Dr Panditharadhya run the Parishat. These people have no technical competence. I will send some mails supporting these facts. People had lot of hopes from KGP and gave undue publicity for their activities. This went into the head of these three people and they started behaving as if they are the sole saviors of Kannada on computers. They have thrown out all the technically competent people who were initially with them and they got all the name, fame and money due to their works. It is the high time that Kannada should be rescued from the clutches of these three persons.
Thanks and regards,
U B Pavanaja <pavanaja@vishvakannada.com>