Education park in Kanpur on the cards

US-based Indian entrepreneur Rajeev Tondon announced at the UP Calling 2004 summit that he was ready to set up an education park in Kanpur that would provide world-class e-learning programmes, provided the state government gave the requisite clearances in 60 days.

"We propose an education park, which will produce high-quality training courses aimed at the global market," Tondon told Business Standard.

"This requires a partnership of the government, educational institutions, service providers and e-learning experts, who can partner with a few leading organisations to produce modules in specific areas," he added.

In the US, Tondon's companies provide financial services and also does defence-related work for the US Army. In Hyderabad, it provides food and agricultural services.

Tondon plans to develop Kanpur as a hub for services relating to the automotive industry.

"In five years, automobiles will undergo a fundamental change in technology, mechanical engineering will be replaced by electro-mechanical systems. So, we shall start with training people in software programmes meant for cars and then move on to two-wheelers, three-wheelers, trucks and buses. This will give us the first-mover advantage and help develop the city as the outsourcing destination of choice for the global automobile industry," he said.

Unveiling his blueprint for the project, Tondon said initially about 50 people from diverse disciplines would be recruited and trained. This human capital would then be deployed to further develop the programme, he added.

He said the global e-learning industry, which was worth $2-billion in 1999, was projected to go up to $23 billion in 2004, and $182 billion in 2009.

"India today is the preferred destination for an e-learning education park as it has a diverse industrial base with companies that have global reach. These companies have domain knowledge in industries as diverse as automobiles, pharmaceutical, financial services etc and they can become partners to e-learning providers to come up with cutting-edge training solutions in the country," Tondon said.

Listing the advantages that Uttar Pradesh had over other states, Tondon said it had a broad industrial base.

The presence of major towns like Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra and Lucknow provided the opportunity to initiate pilot programmes immediately.

Moreover, the proximity to major industrial centres such as Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon meant easy access to additional corporate partners.

Significantly, the state could offer an attractive alternative to the cut-throat competition of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, he added.

Tondon said if the project was initiated it would help Uttar Pradesh generate a revenue of Rs 16,000 crore and would lead to the creation of 300,000 new high-paying jobs, by employing designers, graphic arts, writers and infotech professionals, and additional wages of over Rs 4,000 crore by 2009.