Intel's 'Connected Indians' to bridge the digital divide
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 20 July 2009, 18:12 IST
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Intel's 'Connected Indians' to bridge the digital divide
Bangalore: Intel had launched an industry-wide movement called the 'Connected Indians' where government, industry associations and private enterprise come together for the common cause of connecting a billion Indians last year in August. The movement was intended to mobilize people, resources and infrastructure to connect citizens to information, ideas, people, capital and services leading to overall development and future success. Since then the momentum for this initiative has been building up rapidly. Till date Intel has forged partnerships with more than 20 companies, reached out to over 50 towns and 100,000 people through various initiatives. "Intel recognizes that the Internet is capable of transforming lives and the future of our country. At the same time we also recognize that there is an urgent need for industry and government to collaborate for enabling people to connect with the Internet. We therefore launched the 'Connected Indians' movement to achieve precisely that," said R Sivakumar, Intel South Asia's Managing Director of the Sales and Marketing Group. Since launch, a number of initiatives have been undertaken under the aegis of the Connected Indians movement. These initiatives include Intel's partnership with many institutes like NIIT and IL&FS education and technology services. NIIT Swift net-connect program offers an affordable computing course on PC fundamentals and internet basics while IL&FS education and technology services will educate youth in small towns on the benefits of internet. Also, ePCO initiative aimed at transforming PCOs in India through broadband and PCs to deliver the benefits of Internet to millions of citizens in the country in partnership with BSNL and Itz Cash. Intel is also working with NGOs like DEF to drive digital empowerment by initiatives like Digital Panchayats & eNGOs. Intel is also trying to reach out to consumers to tell them about 'Connected Indians' movement. The movement recently completed a Net Yatra, where a specially designed bus powered with laptops and Netbooks and Internet connectivity toured various cities in the country. The bus reached out to 53 cities, 60 schools and 81 colleges, educating over 90,000 Indians on the power of Internet.

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