IBM to strengthen ties with varsities

IBM India is planning to strengthen the Indian IT ecosystem by partnering educational institutions and introducing business partner initiatives.

The company imparted training to over 80,000 students in over 745 colleges in India in 2006 on open standards-based technologies. It launched the reinventing education programme in partnership with the governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

It will continue to enhance its partnership with state governments on various e-governance initiatives and strengthen the science curriculum with Indian universities, according to Shanker Annaswamy, regional general manager, IBM India/South Asia.

"In 2007, investment in education will remain a key focus. We will expand the Kidsmart programme and university relations initiatives across India, and create unique opportunities for our employees to contribute to social causes through our volunteer and grants programmes," said Annaswamy.

He said all programmes the company had initiated in 2006 were part of the $6 billion investment earlier announced by IBM chairman Sam J Palmisano during his June 2006 visit to India.

He added that under the Kidsmart Early Learning Programme, over 3,000 students across 200 schools were covered in 2006. The Reinventing Education Programme launched by the company, focuses on improving the quality of teaching and learning in middle and secondary schools.

The programme, to be run over a two-year period starting 2006, will help with the development of new curricula and teaching methodologies at the primary and high school levels, he added.

Incidentally, although IBM India's 37 per cent year-to-year growth in 2006 is said to be the fastest for the company globally, this is less than the 2005 growth when the company grew by almost 55 per cent.

IBM says that this is due to the larger market base in India. Going forward, Annaswamy said the company's focus areas would be financial services, telecom, SMBs, automobile and pharmaceutical sectors.

IBM, which is the largest global firm to invest in India, has raised its headcount from about 43,000 by the end of 2005, to 53,000 as on January 1. In 2006, India became IBM's largest global delivery location with the addition of 10 new global delivery centres thereby taking the number of technology and delivery centres in India to 35.

Annaswamy said the India Research Lab continued to be in focus by developing many path-breaking technologies. These include a national health data network, web-based interactive language technology, business finder technology and a model-driven monitoring solution for large IT infrastructure projects.

Presently, IBM India's Research and Technology labs house over 3,200 professionals. IBM has over 3,000 customers in India.