Andhra signs MoU with MIT for e-governance
Tuesday, 09 January 2007, 18:30 IST
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Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and California State University of the US for collaboration in e-governance, data standards and service-oriented architecture. The memorandum, signed by the Institute for Electronic Governance (IEG) of IT and communications department of the government, will enable initiating Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) consortium. The representatives of the three institutes signed the MoU at the inauguration of Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) here in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. MIT will provide funding and technological assistance for developing and promoting different software components including an open source platform. IEG will provide the required manpower and lab facilities for the project. "Through the consortium the state will be hugely benefited because the OKI technology would help in e-governance and also improve the employability of students. It will also benefit people with improved on-line services and corporate world with new technology for their usage," said K. Ratna Prabha, principal secretary, IT and communications department. Using the concept of Open Course Ware (OCW) of MIT, the students will be benefited with the classroom lectures of MIT and other world-class institutions. "Another initiative I-Labs will help our students with web accessibility to the expensive lab experiments of MIT and other institutions," she said. The IEG also signed two MoUs with US-based Computer Science Corporation (CSC) and Microsoft Corp. The association with CSC will give students accessibility to their labs, which will promote innovative technological research and projects. The CSC and Microsoft will also train the faculty and students of Jawahar Knowledge Centers (JKC) besides offering project works and internships to students. JKC, an initiative of IEG, has 50 branches in the state and is working to bridge the gap between university and industry. Selected engineering colleges have been designated as JKCs, where several multi-national companies (MNCs) provide training to students before recruiting them.
Source: IANS
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