Intel expands horizon in education sector

Information technology giant Intel on Friday announced its latest initiative to strengthen the use of technology in the education ecosystem. The company has plans of getting into the $40-billion sector.

It said in its effort to contribute to the Digital India initiative, it is aiming to accelerate the penetration of technology in the education sector. At an event, 'Education Solutions Technology Framework' Conclave, jointly organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Intel highlighted its collaboration with leading device manufacturers, education digital content publishers and solution providers, to build end-to-end solutions.

As part of this collaboration, it has made available the Intel® Pentium® Processor A1020 to leading device manufacturing partners.

The processor delivers power savings and is optimal for devices designed for running education applications in semi-urban and rural India. The company said the initiative taps on the system of vendors to deliver one-stop solutions.

Intel is enabling the standard availability of devices, education content and solutions on the processor. Going forward, any educational institute looking to implement technology solutions will be able to deploy technology-based solutions in an efficient manner.

"Over the past decade, Intel and Intel® Foundation have invested more than $1 billion in 100 countries towards universal education programs. This initiative to create a comprehensive ecosystem is another such endeavour to establish an accessible digital infrastructure which enables affordable solutions," Debjani Ghosh, vice-president (sales and marketing) and managing director, Intel South Asia, said.

In March, Intel entered into a partnership with digital education company Extramarks. The alliance offers optimised learning solutions based on Intel architecture (IA) to create and extend computing technologies for schools and students.

It is operating in 70 countries. "There are around 77 million students in private schools in India and we are definitely looking at those who would be acquiring devices in the next five years. We want to make sure they use Intel devices," Sam Al-Schamma, director - education sector (Asia Pacific and Japan) Intel said.