Reiterating its commitment to support the Government’s Digital India vision, Intel India today launched its ‘Digital Skills for India’ Program. Through the program, Intel India will work with the government to impact 5 million citizens by the end of 2015 with skills to compete in the global digital economy. As part of the initiative, Intel India unveiled the Digital Skills Training Application comprising of modules on Digital Literacy, Financial Inclusion, Healthcare and Cleanliness in 5 Indian languages. This Application will be available freely on the Android Play Store* from the 6th of December, while a similar offline training module will also be made available in 7 Indian languages. Intel India will also work with Bharat Broadband Network Limited* to build capacity by imparting digital literacy training to key resource persons in the first 1000 Panchayats under the National Optic Fiber Network* roll-out in India.
Intel simultaneously announced the ‘Innovate For India Challenge’ which will be launched in 2015. Intel Innovate For India Challenge is an initiative to drive technology innovation across platforms to create solutions that are relevant for India which will be imperative if we want pervasive technology adoption in India.
At an event held to announce Intel’s commitment to Digital India Vision through its Digital Skills for India Program Shri Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology*, Government of India said “The Digital India program is an umbrella initiative with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. For this digital transformation to be completed, it is imperative that the government and corporates work together in creating a sustainable model for digital education. It is great to see technology leaders like Intel come forward and support the cause with innovative computing solutions that will eventually help Indians harness the benefits of a Digital India.”
Smt Aruna Sundararajan, Administrator (USOF) and Chairman-cum-Managing Director –BBNL*said,“Enabling Broadband Highways is an imperative of the Digital India vision and the National Optic Fiber Network roll-out aims to deliver true broadband to Panchayats. I am happy that corporate citizens like Intel are working with us to digitally empower citizens at the grassroots so that they can fully utilize the benefits of these Broadband Highways to impact their livelihoods and build empowered societies.”
Timothy Q. Parker, Vice President- Sales and Marketing Group, Interim General Manager Asia Pacific Japan, said “The world is watching India with great interest. Through our technological innovations we strive to provide Indian citizens with computing solutions that are affordable, accessible and easy to use. We are proud to launch the Digital Skills for India program and feel we can make a substantial difference given our mission of extending computing technology to every individual on Earth.”
Speaking at the event, Debjani Ghosh, Vice President- Sales and Marketing Group, Managing Director- Intel South Asia said, “We believe that the government’s Digital India vision is going to be imperative to propel the country into its next phase of growth. The industry has been asked to participate to realize the vision and it is now up to us to work jointly with the government to do the right thing for our country. At Intel we believe that skill development and innovation are imperative for realizing the Digital India vision and these are the two areas in which Intel will begin working with the government to digitally empower the citizens of India. We are proud to launch the Intel Digital Skills for India Program which will set India on the path of becoming a digitally inclusive society. We are also excited to announce the Intel Innovate for India Challenge which will foster local innovation for pervasive technology adoption and usage across India.”
At the event Intel showcased the latest Micromax Canvas Tab P666* powered by the Intel® Atom™ Processor and Vikas Jain, Co-founder Micromax Informatics* joined Tim Parker on stage. Umesh Sachdev, CEO of Uniphore Software Systems* also joined Tim Parker on stage to demonstrate an innovative speech recognition prototype in Tamil language that can be used to control a personal computer in line with Intel’s vision of simplifying user interfaces and making computing more intuitive. Intel also showcased the Intel® Sensing Platform, a unique solution combining hardware, mobile applications, analytics and cloud-based technology that enables mobile-based affordable and personal healthcare management application for masses.
Intel believes that technology has the ability to transform lives and impact livelihoods and has digitally empowered Indian citizens through several initiatives like Intel® Teach Program that has trained 18 lakh teachers in India, or the Intel® Learn Program which has reached 1.8 lakh underserved students and the Intel® Higher Education Program which has reached 2.35 lakh students and 4500 faculty members. Pioneering the cause of digital literacy for all, Intel India had launched the National Digital Literacy Mission in 2012 and under this program has reached 38 lakh citizens through the Intel® Learn Easy Steps digital literacy training.
