Dr. K S Rajan gave a talk on the Role of free software earlier and now at Swecha – State Conference for Academicians and Researchers 2021 on 28 November at Learning Center, Tech Mahindra Infocity.

Swecha was founded in 2005 as an organisation to support the Swecha project, it is now a vibrant community of software users, students, academicians and software professionals/developers determined to provide quality software built on the guidelines of free software development model.

Swecha aims at providing global software solutions to locals with the free software development model by working together with the community of developers and users all over. The prime objective of Swecha OS is to provide a complete computing solution to a population that speaks and understands only Telugu.

The project aims at bridging the gap between the computer technology that exists predominantly in English and the Telugu-speaking community of India. The project also aims at providing a framework for development and maintenance of Free Software projects taken up by the community.

Swecha is a project aimed at coming out with a localised version of GNU/Linux in Telugu. The target users of the distro being the entire community that is a prey of the digital divide. This project helps in coming out with a solution for the digital divide and allows the possibility of digital unite becoming a reality.