Microsoft upset over BIS voting against Open XML

Microsoft India expresses disappointment over Bureau of Indian Standards voting against the software giant's Open XML, which is file format specification for electronic documents.

Microsoft India on Thursday expressed disappointment over Bureau of Indian Standards voting against the software giant's Open XML, which is file format specification for electronic documents.

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However, the company said that it would continue to work with the Indian government to achieve its "stated goal of technology neutrality".

Microsoft said that even though it is disappointed, the company is encouraged by the support of the of industry players Nasscom, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys, which voted in favour of Open XML. Nasscom and the three IT companies formed a part of BIS LITD committee.

"While we are disappointed with the decision of the BIS LITD 15 committee, we are 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," Microsoft India said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Open Document Format (ODF), is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems and Google, among others.

"It is a good decision as by favouring open source the government would not lock itself to a single vendor," Dravida Seetharam , Vice President of Government Programmes at IBM said.