AICTE for cloud-based solution

Updated on: Saturday, April 14, 2012

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Microsoft Corporation announced that the AICTE will deploy Microsoft Live@edu, a cloud-based solution over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud deployment will expand students' access to high-quality technical education and collaboration.

"Microsoft's cloud platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country's technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students," said SS Mantha, chairman, AICTE.

Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage to over seven million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members under the AICTE, with a total reach of seven.5 million users - roughly double the size of the Los Angeles population. AICTE is Microsoft's largest cloud customer.

Kapil Sibal, Union minister for HRD, said, "India is seeing rapid economic activity and growth. Developing India's youth and their skills is going to play an important role in the country's inclusive growth. The union budget also laid emphasis on skill development and so does the proposed 12th Five Year Plan with a National Policy on Skill development. The PPP model (public-private partnership) is most essential in running and managing training institutions to address the skill gap most efficiently. Microsoft's commitment to empower students by deploying Microsoft Live@edu for seven.5 million users across the country with AICTE is commendable and a step towards an informed and developing India. I congratulate both AICTE and Microsoft on this significant milestone."

According to the AICTE, technology and higher education are becoming increasingly vital to the Indian economy. To carry out its charge of evaluating the curriculum and quality of education for all technical institutes across the country, AICTE needed to have consistent and timely communication with these colleges, some of which are located in the remote districts of the country. AICTE and the ministry of human resource development wanted to deploy a technology that would provide an efficient platform for students and the institutional framework and would foster efficiency and support broader educational reforms.

AICTE also plans to deploy Microsoft Office 365 for education when it becomes available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online email and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional as the technical infrastructure to support member colleges and institutes.

Sanket Akerkar, MD, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited, said, "We are delighted with the confidence posed by AICTE in Microsoft. Microsoft has always seen education as a priority area and believes that technology offers possibilities that can help empower not just teachers and students but collectively India as a nation."

AICTE for cloud-based solution

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