Take new technology to rural India

Updated on: Saturday, July 25, 2009

Chennai: Only if new technology is taken to rural India, the urban-rural divide, "the mother of all divides," can be bridged, eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan said here on Friday.
Speaking at a meeting held to discuss the role of the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy and Training School in content creation and capacity building, Mr Swaminathan said along with the technology, training on its use for practical purposes should also be provided, and this can be done only through innovative methods like video-conferencing and mobile applications.

At the felicitation function for Professor Swaminathan on the occasion of the oral examination of his 75th Ph.D. student at M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), also saw participation from Village Knowledge Centres (VKC) established by the foundation in villages in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, through video-conferencing.

S. Senthilkumaran, Director, informatics division, MSSRF, presented the evolution of the National Virtual Academy (NVA) from a consultancy and database-manager role to its current capacity-building role. He said, nearly 1.65 lakh villagers had visited VKCs between 2006 and 2008.

P.C. Kesavan, honorary principal, NVA, said that the programme was built based on a need-based and demand-oriented manner.

The curriculum for the training programmes was decided on after performing an appraisal of the specific needs in each area, he said.

This participatory, bottom-up approach created an atmosphere of learning and villagers were taught through practical demonstrations, he added.

Ajay Parida, executive director, MSSRF, and P. Dayanandan, professor, Madras Christian College, spoke of the contributions made by Professor Swaminathan in the course of his long career of 51 years in which he had advised 75 Ph.D students affiliated to 14 different universities.

Take new technology to rural India

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