Asian countries agree on IT to eradicate illiteracy
Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: Asian countries have agreed to work together on a major project to use information and communication technology (ICT) to eradicate illiteracy. The decision was taken by ministers and officials from 31 countries who attended the two-day Second Asia IT Ministers' summit that concluded here Tuesday. Indian Minister for IT and Communications Arun Shourie told reporters that the delegates at the summit decided to encourage research and development to facilitate accessibility of ICT for all disadvantaged groups to bridge the digital divide. India offered to share the software being developed to help spastic children. The participants were impressed with the demonstration of software that converts text into voice for blind children. Representatives from Myanmar decided to use this software in their country. The minister said the countries agreed to share the best practices and technologies in using ICT for eradicating illiteracy. He felt that the text to speech software developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for the blind could also help in making people literate. Participants at the summit said they would take up at least one major project each towards this end. They also agreed to work on the availability of affordable software and applications using different software models, including the open-source model. Shourie, however, declined to elaborate on the open-source model software saying he would not like to get into corporate issues. Another highlight of the declaration, adopted by the summit, was the agreement to standardise ICT development in the region. It said special emphasis would be placed on language handling capabilities in IT products in view of the wide spectrum of languages being used in Asian countries. The countries also agreed to harmonise the legal and administrative framework of developing trust in e-commerce transactions across the region and establish an Asian Institute of System Auditors. The countries said yes to setting up community information centres (CICs) on a pilot basis in the region. India offered to share its experience on the establishment of CICs in Jammu and Kashmir and in its northeast. Bahrain, which would host the third summit next year, would work with India to implement the declaration. The fourth summit would be held in Myanmar.
Source: IANS
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