IT firms extend support to Jawahar Knowledge Centres

Over 38 IT companies including reputed names like Microsoft, Wipro Technologies, Dell, Satyam and HSBC, have come forward to support the state government's initiative to improve the skills and employability of students through Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKC).

The companies will support at least one such centre by either providing faculty from their own human resources (HR) wing and offer live projects to students for hands-on experience or adopt those centres to support them even financially.

In a significant gesture, Microsoft and BEA Systems have offered all their software suites, worth crores of rupees, to all the JKCs free of cost. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today launched the JKC programme, which is primarily designed to cater to the IT sector's human resource needs across the state.

About 33 engineering colleges have been selected to start one centre each where the managements of the respective colleges will provide basic infrastructure to JKC. The top four per cent of the final year ECE, CSE and IT students will be selected to undergo training at these JKCs.

The training will be conducted by the Institute of e-Governance in coordination with the Andhra Pradesh State Higher Education Council and various universities.

Addressing the gathering at the launch of the programme, the chief minister reminded the fact that only five per cent of the 70,000 to 80,000 students who have been passing out of the professional courses each year could get employed by the IT firms and other companies.

JKCs are part of the government's effort to create the state as a bastion of quality IT manpower to attract more and more IT operations to Andhra Pradesh. These centres with 100 per cent placement assurance will provide both technical and software skills to students beside hands-on experience.

According to M N Rao, deputy director of the IT department, the number of these centres may go up to 100 within a short time, going by the enthusiasm shown by more and more companies who are willing to support the government's initiative. A situation where one company supporting two or more JKCs is also expected to develop, he said.

Companies which have already come forward to support these centres include GE, Infosys, Deloitte, ADP, Colorchips, Knoah Infotech, Nipuna Services, Ckar Systems, Pinexe Systems, Elico Limited, Linkwell Telesystems, Kwality Photonics, Cypress Semiconductor Technology, HCL, TCS among others.