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Following the trend of ‘Make In India’, another step has been taken towards digitization of India.

In this bold move, the government in all set to resurrect their own operating system which is named Bharat Operating System Solutions or BOSS.

This OS, which was initially developed in 2007 by National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) of India, is a free and open source operating system. The latest version of BOSS was released in 2013, after that it is said to have undergone many changes to fit the process.

According to a report by DNA, it has been launched to overcome the vulnerabilities that exist in government cyberspace which lead to frequent hacking attempts by Chinese hackers and Indian group of hackers.

Government officials have reported that the system will be unveiled and discussed in an internal meeting in union home ministry during this week. The latest version of BOSS, which has been tweaked by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) has passed all tests of attacks during the trial period.

The OS is available in 18 languages including regional languages such as Assamese, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and many others.

It has an on-screen keyboard and a bulk file converter inbuilt in the system to ensure a safe and speedy transfer of data from one OS to BOSS.

It is actually a “LBS certified” Linux distribution, which means that the software has been certified by the Linux Foundation for compliance with the Linux Standard Base standard.

It’s being claimed that fresh codes have been written for this OS, and is being given to department of electronics and information technology (DEITY) to make it foolproof and ready to use for the ministry.

In future, the government plans to collaborate with industry giants to develop it further to create an open source OS with hardware and network systems that are BOSS friendly.

The reports leaked by Edward Snowden had brought to light the vulnerabilities of most countries’ cyberspace.

It also showed that India was the most scrutinized nation by the US intelligence agencies. However, a successful implementation may safeguard our cyberspace from unethical hacking attacks in the future.

We really hope it becomes a reality and we get to switch from ‘Hey Cortana’ to ‘Yess Boss’ (or something less cheeky probably).

Source: DNA and The Hindu

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