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Project
to spread IT education in South Asia |
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N ew delhi: Aunique social project aimed at reaching information
and education using the advancements in information technology
to the remote regions of south asia was launched here
on friday. The rainbow partnership project, an initiative
of the south asia foundation of madanjeet singh, unesco's
goodwill ambassador, would apply the gains in it to promote
regional co-operation and development among the seven
nations of south asian association for regional co-operation
(saarc).
Elaborating on the project, singh, founder-chairman of
south asia foundation, which has chapters in each of the
saarc nations, said the project would create regional
co-operation in south asia through education and development.
The idea was to reach out to the remotest corners of south
asia, and train the youth in information technology, who
in turn would help decide the needs of their respective
communities, singh explained adding his ngo had tied up
with the us-based worldspace foundation to reach out to
the remote areas with the help of its asiastar satellite.
A mou to this effect was also signed between the worldspace
foundation and south asia foundation, to provide a free
of cost link with its satellite covering all of south
asia as well as related expertise and maintenance of systems.
"as per our agreement, south asia foundation would
be required to buy the required radio receivers and interface
modems (cards) for the computers," gracia hillman,
president and ceo of worldspace foundation said. she described
the partnership as a "wonderful and far reaching
one," that embodied the mission and belief on which
the american non-profit organisation worked on. while
worldspace foundation will provide the all important connectivity,
banglore-based simputer trust, would be providing simputers
as the front-end devices to be used by the local communities,
singh said. "this triangular partnership would serve
to reduce the digital divide in south asia," singh
observed. rpo's focal areas of operation would be education,
development, cross-regional dialogue and sustainable growth.
As part of the initiative, the project is also launching
an interactive databased internet portal to promote cross-regional
dialogue within saarc. singh described the initiative
as the need of the hour, coming at a "time when saarc
had come to a stop at the official level. our's is a lobby
that would work to push them to co-operate," said
singh of his south asia foundation.
Courtesy
: TOI
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