IFC to help India bridge digital divide

The International Finance Corp (IFC) will help India to embrace IT by

investing in student loans for IT education and financing a pilot project to

develop Internet-based education for children in the Indian slums. James D

Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, signed the MoU for the two IFC

projects that would be implemented with NIIT. NIIT chairman Rajendra Pawar and

Citibank CEO Nanoo Pamnani co-signed the MoU, which pledged to invest in a Rs 4

billion student loan program launched by Citibank, for students of NIIT

enrolling in the three-year GNIIT program.

The student loan project would extend access to IT education by financing

tuition fees. The student loan program being developed jointly by Citibank, NIIT,

and IFC will be the largest in India. It will be offered to IT students of NIIT

over the coming five years. The loans use the consumer lending standards of

Citibank, which are based on the future earning capacity of the student, making

loans accessible to students from lower-income families.

This project would help widen the access to high quality education, an

important factor for economic growth, Wolfensohn said. He added that it was

designed to encourage more student loan programs in India in the future.

The second project dubbed "Hole in the Wall", aims to discover how

much poor children in slums and rural areas of India can learn from a Web-based

curriculum through a purpose-built Internet kiosk. NIIT has recently conducted

experiments to determine if illiterate slum children could use the Internet

without any instruction. By giving them access to a connected computer, NIIT

observed their quick learning abilities and their interest in developing

knowledge. The "Hole in the Wall" project will strive to improve

education for poor children with a minimal level of intervention. This learning

tool ensures equal access to girls.

"The rapidly spreading use of the Internet in India is mostly restricted

to the more affluent in metropolitan areas which creates a large knowledge gap

in society", said Pawar. This project will strive to broaden the access to

Internet and education to children of all social classes.