India says 'no' again to Microsoft's OOXML

Microsoft today suffered another major blow when India said "no" to the software major's format Office Open XML (OOXML).

The software major now awaits a final verdict from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on March 31 this year when the standards organisation recompiles the votes from all countries.

India, represented by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) LITD 15 committee, had said no to OOXML (with comments) last September too. Microsoft had been given time till today to address the comments in a manner that would satisfy all participants.

This time, however, when the committee participants were asked: "Should India change its September 2007 No vote to Yes?", 13 voted with a 'No' including the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Mumbai, IIM-Ahmedabad, Red Hat, IBM and Sun Microsystems.

The five who voted in favour of Microsoft included Wipro, TCS, Nasscom, Infosys and Microsoft itself. Hardware body Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology abstained from voting.

"While we are disappointed with the decision of the BIS LITD 15 committee, we are very encouraged by the support of IT industry players like NASSCOM, TCS, Wipro and Infosys who voted in favour of Open XML becoming an ISO standard,"said a Microsoft spokesperson.

"Further, the Indian government, industry stalwarts and trade bodies have supported multiple standards and technology neutrality. We will therefore continue to work with the government to address any concerns they may have; and to achieve its stated goal of technology neutrality. We are committed to working towards what is best for the Indian IT industry," the spokesperson added.

However, not getting the ISO approval could mean a loss of government business for Microsoft since governments worldwide, including India, prefer standards that are ratified by bodies such as the ISO.

Governments are wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats that could make them hostage to a software vendor. Many store files locally using ODF, which is open and free.

States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF. Microsoft is trying to address these issues to get the "No" revised to a "Yes".

VOTING PATTERNS

13 members voted No

5 members (including Microsoft) voted Yes.

1 member abstained

3 did not attend