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Kerala strives for complete e-literacy
Tuesday, 03 February 2004, 20:30 IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government announced plans Tuesday to make the state 100 percent e-literate in the next two years.
This dream follows the stupendous success of the government's Akshaya e-governance project, launched in Malapurram district and which imparts the basics of IT through a 10-hour course to one member of every family.
Industries Minister P.K. Kunjalikutty told the Kerala assembly that the town planning department was looking to set up Akshaya centres in all the districts to make the state 100 percent e-literate.
"We have set aside 
250 million in the budget for this programme to be launched in the coming financial year. Like in Malapurram, one member from every family in all the other districts would be made e-literate," said the minister, who is in charge of IT as well.
Under the programme, each person gets a 10-hour lesson in the basics of computer through interactive games. While the student pays 20, the village council puts in 120.
Akshaya was launched by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in November 2002. In a little over a year, 615 Akshaya Centres opened by individuals in Malapurram have made over 600,000 people in the district e-literate.
Gita Pious of IT Mission here, the nodal agency that runs the programme, said Akshaya centres in other districts would begin in April.
"The survey for locating each centre is going on. We aim to have a centre suiting everyone who lives in a radius of two sq km. In other words, there would be one centre for every two wards in a village council," Pious told IANS.
Each centre would be opened up by interested entrepreneurs who would need to invest about 300,000-400,000. The entire back up service would be provided by the IT Mission.
Malapurram has already moved to the next stage.
Efforts are now on to make value additions in the existing centres and ensure that each centre gets Internet connectivity. Trial runs have commenced to see how these centres could function as collection centres for all payments like telephone, water, electricity and other similar services.
Source: IANS
250 million in the budget for this programme to be launched in the coming financial year. Like in Malapurram, one member from every family in all the other districts would be made e-literate," said the minister, who is in charge of IT as well.
Under the programme, each person gets a 10-hour lesson in the basics of computer through interactive games. While the student pays 20, the village council puts in 120.
Akshaya was launched by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in November 2002. In a little over a year, 615 Akshaya Centres opened by individuals in Malapurram have made over 600,000 people in the district e-literate.
Gita Pious of IT Mission here, the nodal agency that runs the programme, said Akshaya centres in other districts would begin in April.
"The survey for locating each centre is going on. We aim to have a centre suiting everyone who lives in a radius of two sq km. In other words, there would be one centre for every two wards in a village council," Pious told IANS.
Each centre would be opened up by interested entrepreneurs who would need to invest about 300,000-400,000. The entire back up service would be provided by the IT Mission.
Malapurram has already moved to the next stage.
Efforts are now on to make value additions in the existing centres and ensure that each centre gets Internet connectivity. Trial runs have commenced to see how these centres could function as collection centres for all payments like telephone, water, electricity and other similar services.
Source: IANS