Govt. to invest Rs. 500 crore in tech education

NEW DELHI: The government has proposed to launch a new national program for "Human Resource Development (HRD) in Information Technology (IT)" and another on "Quality Text Books" and "Technical Education". The program for HRD in IT will have a bouquet of several sub-programs. These will form part of the new joint initiatives taken up by the Center for quality improvement in Technical Education, especially involving the IITs.

The Ministry of HRD has already launched three programs, out of the four approved under the new joint initiative. They are National Program on Earthquake Engineering Education, National Program for Technology Enhanced Learning and the Indian Digital Library for Engineering, Science and Technology Consortium. The fourth one on special thrust to Bio-sciences and Bio-engineering education and research programs in technical institutions is in the process of approval. Apart from these, an exclusive channel for technical education i.e. the "Eklavya Technology" channel was commissioned on the Republic Day this year.

The National Program on HRD in IT will strive to overhaul the entire engineering education, making it IT-enabled to meet the challenges posed by globalization. The total cost of the program is estimated to be around Rs 500 crore. The Rs 11.54 crore program for quality text books in technical education aims at providing low-cost, high-quality text books to improve the quality of technical education. The Rs 90 crore program on bio-sciences and bio-engineering education will help to build a strong academic and research base in these fields in select technical institutions of the country.

(CNS)