Friends: Mr Sam Pitroda wants knowledge to be freely available. The Knowledge Commission headed by him may kindly recommend to the Government of India that the Government mandate open access archiving of all results of publicly funded research. That would make a big difference. The IISc EPrints archive, for example, has led to increased visibility of the papers deposited in it. More than a lakh downloads (or viewings) have been recorded so far, and most of them from the USA. Subbiah Arunachalam More on the Indian Knowledge Commission and OA Access to knowledge imperative for prosperity: Pitroda, The Hindu, August 5, 2005. Excerpt: Knowledge Commission Chairperson Sam Pitroda, today said it was imperative to provide the masses access to knowledge if the country was to become prosperous. Delivering the 'Fourth Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture' here, he said providing access to knowledge to people in remote corners of the country should be accompanied by right to information, enhanced literacy and widened broadband connectivity for all. Also see Pitroda pushes e-portals, education revamp, The Indian Express, August 6, 2005. Excerpt: Father of the massive PCO network Sam Pitroda said today that it was time India revolutionised its university education and e-governance set-up. Delivering the fourth annual Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Pitroda said, access to knowledge — through broadband, internet portals and a revamp of education — are necessary before India can face globalisation....Pitroda said portals must be one-stop shops for all information, and not extensions of "The Raj philosophy" of creating barriers between rulers and people....Sam, who is credited with the plans that brought about a PCO revolution in the country in the 1990s, said Indians need to lose their fear of failure to build an "open, accessible" system. "Because we are afraid to fail here, we basically don’t move...If you don’t fail, you don’t end up creating new knowledge," he said.