Gates commits $20 M for Shiksha project

Tuesday, 12 November 2002, 20:30 IST
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Microsoft chairman Bill Gates Tuesday committed $1 million for India's Media Lab Asia project and another $20 million for a special project to "train the trainers" in IT.

NEW DELHI: At an hour-long meeting with Communications and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan, Gates committed $20 million for the e-learning project "Shiksha" to "train the trainers". The money would be spread over 3 to 5 years, said Microsoft officials. The project seeks to train some 80,000 teachers along with 3.5 million students in IT, over a period of five years. Gates promised $1 million for Media Lab Asia, coming up in India's commercial capital Mumbai, which aims to connect every Indian to each other and the world. Media Lab Asia, an ambitious project expected to cost over Rs 40 billion over the next 10 years, aims to use technology to make the lives of the common man less harried in countries such as India. Based on the Media Lab set up by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab Asia proposes to include a digital village that uses digital technology to "re-visit" the Gandhian idea of the village economy. It also showcases Tomorrow's Tools (digital, bio- and nano- technologies to transform traditional crafts), Bits for All (connecting every device and appliance, and connecting "every Indian"), and a World Computer that can be used to network the world-at-large. While explaining the project to Gates, Mahajan expressed the hope that with Microsoft extending assistance, more international funds would pour in. Gates and Mahajan also discussed the growth of telecom in the country in the last two years and the government's efforts in tackling the digital divide between the cyber haves and have-nots. India, with a population of one billion, a dozen official languages and hundreds of regional dialects, has a yawning digital divide. There are fewer than five computers for every 1,000 people.
Source: IANS