Intel to work with govt on 100 learning centres

Intel India on Thursday said that it would be working with state governments and the central government to set up 100 digital learning centres at Common Service Centres (CSCs) in rural areas.

The company said it would work with state governments that are active on the Digital India programme.

It said it had launched three projects — designed to accelerate digital literacy at the grassroots level, by reaching out to the population in non-urban India, upskilling citizens in Tier-two cities and beyond, and encouraging innovation from the local level.

“We are thrilled to see the progress made through our collaboration with the government of India on various initiatives like Digital India that are bringing technology and innovation to the mainstream,” said Robby Swinnen, general manager, Intel Corporation (Asia-Pacific and Japan).

Intel India e-launched its latest Unnati Kendra (UK) at Common Service Centre in Karnal, Haryana, first in that state. It is working with the central government to open a network of up to 100 such 'UK at CSC' units across 10 states this year. Ten such have already been set up in Telangana.

It also announced that a Digital Unnati website was being set up, in collaboration with the CSC e-Governance Services India. According to Swinnen, it will enable village-level entrepreneurs to learn how to assemble a personal computer online and upskill their technology knowhow.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for communications and information technology, said the government was planning to increase the number of CSCs. Currently, there are 150,000 such centres and the government wants to take it to all 250,000 gram panchayats.