IT majors log in @ UP.com

UTTAR PRADESH cannot guarantee uninterrupted power supply. And it has the nagging law and order problem. Yet it looks enviously at all new industrial projects coming up in neighbouring Uttaranchal. The list of problems why most multinational corporations have not invested in Uttar Pradesh during the past two years could go on endlessly. In contrast, there is one sector that global software and hardware bigwigs have been betting their money on to get a solid footing in the country?s most densely populated state ? IT education. In this too, there is more than a fair share of emphasis on online education, both at the school and university levels, as most IT majors still want to keep away from investing in any physical infrastructure for promoting IT education in Uttar Pradesh.

The best efforts of the UP Government to attract industrial investment in the State have come to naught. However, global IT players see it as fertile ground for future plans.

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UTTAR PRADESH cannot guarantee uninterrupted power supply. And it has the nagging law and order problem. Yet it looks enviously at all new industrial projects coming up in neighbouring Uttaranchal. The list of problems why most multinational corporations have not invested in Uttar Pradesh during the past two years could go on endlessly.

In contrast, there is one sector that global software and hardware bigwigs have been betting their money on to get a solid footing in the country’s most densely populated state — IT education. In this too, there is more than a fair share of emphasis on online education, both at the school and university levels, as most IT majors still want to keep away from investing in any physical infrastructure for promoting IT education in Uttar Pradesh.

And the interesting fact remains that all global giants in IT education vertical (field) aren’t trying to go it all alone in the State. Each one of the software and hardware majors have either already held talks with the UP Government, or are in the process of doing so, for identifying areas in online education. In the coming months schools and universities would be covered in projects where IT education would become an essential part of a student’s curriculum.

Consider the satellite services bellwether Hughes Communications. While the company had already set up a number of on-site learning centres in Uttar Pradesh during the past two years, it is now planning to join hands with the UP Government in bringing on-line education modules in schools and colleges of the State. Its basic agenda is to be part of the e-Governance platform of Uttar Pradesh Government, which would provide the company a reliable services-delivery platform in the education space. They would then be able to offer a wide set of courses starting from basic IT education in schools, to offering on-line degree courses of universities across the globe.

And while Hughes has plans of working on the ‘public-private partnership model’, it had already started ramping up the number of HughesNet Fusion Centres. This is a satellite-based ‘multi-service superstore’ offering broadband-based services in the areas of interactive onsite learning, besides broadband access and e-commerce across the State.

Meanwhile, a high-level French delegation of professionals from AURALOG, the global software giant in speech recognition technology arrived at the UPTEC headquarters in Lucknow on May 22, to help the company run a state-of-art ‘Language Laboratory’ in the State Capital.

The other software major to arrive in the past two weeks was Oracle India, with its plan to forge meaningful tie-ups with a large number of educational institutions in Uttar Pradesh, to offer Oracle software, which are in sync with the technology needs of the industry.

Oracle India Pvt Ltd regional director (mid market technology sales) Anup Verma, who was in Lucknow some time back, had told the ‘Hindustan Times’ that quite a few projects for testing and development of new software applications were being taken up at ‘Oracle Competency Centres’ in Uttar Pradesh. Some of these centres are also located in IT training institutes of the State.

“Much of the Oracle software being developed locally could also go to schools and universities in Uttar Pradesh, to help students learn cutting-edge software applications right in their school, university or college premises” Verma had stated.

Only last week, software major Tally India Pvt Ltd announced that it is holding talks with the Uttar Pradesh Government to launch training programmes for enabling backward class students become certified accounting professionals.

“We have already approached the Department of Social Welfare, for identifying educational institutions where backward class students could be trained to become certified accounting professionals”, said Tally India product manager (global education & training business) Rashmi Bhargava. “A mere emphasis on job reservation as a government policy cannot help uplift the condition of the backward classes in any state. The need of the hour is to train the backward class students in handling accounting practices through IT-enabled tools and software, to bring their skills at par with globally certified accounting professionals”, she said.

Bhargava said the company had already tied up with the Uttaranchal Government for training backward class students through government schools.
The other global IT majors such as computer chip maker Intel India, announced a month back plans to launch the ‘Intel Teach to the Future Programme’, targetted at thousands of school teachers in the State.

Intel India country manager (government & education vertical) Vinesh Paperwala, at the state’s first major IT Show ‘UPInfocomm2k6’ held in Lucknow had stated that the ‘Intel Teach to the Future Programme’ is the global computer chip maker’s worldwide programme created “by the teachers and for the teachers” to help them effectively ‘integrate’ technology into instruction and enable enhanced student learning in schools and even universities across the globe. “Our programme had already trained 530,000 teachers during the past five years across 30,000 schools in India”, he said.

As a major step towards public-private partnership in primary education, the Uttar Pradesh government is joining hands with the global software major Microsoft to launch an ambitious ‘Project Shiksha’, the brainchild of software bellwether Microsoft.

‘Project Shiksha’, for training teachers, is the first major initiative attempted by the State Government in years. The project draft is ready and it is being launched immediately in joint association with the Uttar Pradesh Government, a senior Microsoft official said. It will focus on devising a comprehensive teacher-training programme using technology for education, while providing a teacher scholarship programme. The programme would involve assisting the State Government in setting up a ‘teachers’ portal’ and actively co-operating with the government in devising curriculum and scholarship programme.

It would also be the first endeavour by Microsoft to impart its expertise in the field of elementary education in Uttar Pradesh, which has the maximum enrolments of students in the primary education sector in the country.

As per the plan, Microsoft would train at least 3,000 teachers, every year, for a period of five years. According to official sources, the State Government had been providing a major emphasis on Information Technology (IT) initiatives by planning to introduce IT as a regular subject at various levels.

As per Microsoft plans, the company would also work with the State Government for determining and designing the content of the student curriculum to be introduced as a subject from Class III up to XII. A limited number of copies of the student curriculum developed by Microsoft, will be provided to the State Government for replication and adoption. The curriculum will also be developed in Hindi. Officials said that the State Government and the Microsoft had intended to set up a quality-review programme so as to evaluate the success of ‘Project Shiksha.’

Meanwhile, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is supporting a computer literacy programme where rural women are being made IT literate at Chinat, an industrial hub having the presence of automobile behemoth Tata Motors.

Overall, given the scale of operations of all software majors globally, Uttar Pradesh is a small market but with immense potential in the IT education sector.

And as for bridging the digital divide, a small beginning seems to have been made in Uttar Pradesh.