Microsoft launches first knowledge centre

Microsoft Corporation India's senior vice-president Brad Ford L Smith today virtually launched the first Rural Knowledge Centre (RKC) at Addakal mandal in Mahabubnagar district under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) Programme "� titled 'Project Jyothi', from the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat).

The focus of Microsoft's UP programme is to impart basic computer literacy to disadvantaged women and rural communities.

Speaking at the launch, Brad Smith, said, "The mission is to establish a knowledge centre in every village by 2007."

The mission envisaged is to set up a knowledge centre in each of the 6,00,000 villages in the country by 2007, the 60th year of India's Independence, said J D H Keatinge, deputy director-general (research), Icrisat.

Under the UP programme, Microsoft had, in July 2005, issued a grant of $3,75,000, along with software worth $2 million, to Nasscom Foundation's Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) programme. The RKN programme is aimed at establishing a national-level hub of 65 RKCs to be located on the Icrisat campus.