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Intel India, Microsoft, NIIT and the State Bank of India (SBI)
have announced a joint initiative to redefine IT and IT-assisted education and
enhance ICT adoption in the private sector schools of the country. The
partnering organizations will also focus on providing an 'integrated
solution' that enhances the teaching, learning and examination processes in
these institutions. The holistic education package, being front-ended by NIIT,
will address the needs of all the key stakeholders within the education realm
students, teachers, principals, school managements and parents.
NIIT will craft a 'complete' IT-assisted training
environment on a turnkey basis and will blend these offerings with technology
from Intel and its partners. The software will be sourced from Microsoft coupled
with an easy financing package from the State Bank of India. NIIT will also
undertake the installation and support of the solutions.
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| NEELAM DHAWAN:
Using IT as an enabler to realize the potential of individuals and
communities |
Talking about the joint endeavor, Intel India President,
Franklin Jones said, “With this initiative, we plan to address the
affordability and finance issues of IT education. We hope to drive this
initiative to cover all the 2,00,000 schools in India and set up a computer lab
in all the schools by 2010.”
Microsoft India MD, Neelam Dhawan added, “It is in line
with our mission of using IT as an enabler to realize the potential of
individuals and communities. Till now Microsoft's education initiatives have
been targeted at the government schools, but with this program, we plan to touch
more schools, teachers and students.”
Commenting on the collaborative effort, SBI chairman AK
Purwar noted, “SBI will offer its easy-to-access, low-cost financing solutions
to over 2,000 schools covered in the pilot phase through its 9,000 branches. The
loans would range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 8 lakh, while the interest rate would
range between 8.5% to 10.5%. In the next two years, we hope to give loans worth
Rs 1,000 crore to schools.”
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