COIMBATORE: The Union Government proposes to launch a skill development programme soon to improve the skills of students, Union Minister of Information Technology and Communications A. Raja said here on Sunday.

Inaugurating “Interface T10”, a National-level students’ technical festival, at Coimbatore Institute of Technology, he said the government would start the programme next financial year at an outlay of Rs. 250 crore.

The government launched the National Knowledge Network to bring together all the stakeholders in science, technology, higher education, research and development and government. The programme would interconnect about 5,000 universities in the country and thousands of small-scale units.

The research papers presented and events held in the colleges would be made available to the industries immediately. The Rs. 6,000-crore programme would be fully implemented in five years.

e-governance

The government launched e-governance programme last year.

It aimed at networking all taluk, union, village administration and panchayat offices in another five years at a total cost of about Rs. 20,000 crore.

This would take technology to the common man in rural areas too.

The country’s entrepreneurial success in the information and communication technology sector till date was just a beginning.

A lot more should be done on several fronts to leverage the vast talent pool available to trigger the next set of transformations, he said.

Correspondent of the institute SRK Prasad said the conference was to emphasise the research skills in students.

He urged the Central Government to assist in developing the information technology sector further so that the country would be able to face the competition from China. Coimbatore Mayor R. Venkatachalam and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik also spoke.

Courtesy - Hindu