School connectivity project gets Centre's approval

Government is planning to connect educational institutions and colleges in the country. The Centre has given an inprinciple approval for the proposed connectivity project, said Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and Information Technology (IT).

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of Connect 2009, a two-day ICT event organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with government of Tamil Nadu,

Pilot said the government is working on a plan to provide broadband connectivity to around 5,000 schools and 20,000 colleges located in rural and other areas so that the students enjoy the e-learning opportunity.

The project has got an inprincple approval, he added. The USO fund can be used for the project, he said.

“We are holding discussions with the finance ministry to work out the modalities and the funding required for this project. Poor students should not feel deprived of the necessary facilities to update their knowledge”.

This project would help these schools and institutions to have access to virtual classroom.

He added, the Centre is also planning to develop common software on behalf of the states to facilitate e-governance initiatives. Development of common software on behalf of different states will reduce the expenditure incurred by various states on software to provide similar services.

Earlier speaking at the conference he said that the IT industry needs to diversify its export market so that its revenues are stable and not affected by slowdown in any one particular market.

Citing the huge disparity between the teledensity in urban and rural India (85 percent in urban and 15 percent in rural) Pilot said the gap should be bridged.

Urging the central government to move the IT subject to concurrent list from the central list of the Indian Constitution, Tamil Nadu Information Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna said there is a need for separate funds for the state governments to develop software to offer e-governance services.