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IT Kerala 2000 gets underway

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After drenching Kerala with incessant rains for a few days, Lady Rain today gracefully stepped aside allowing the Kerala Governor Justice Sukhdev Singh Kang to inaugurate IT Kerala 2000 amid much fanfare. Though unwilling to tax the audience by speaking from the wrong side of the digital divide, Justice Kang, in his inaugural address, however, highlighted the advantages Kerala possessed as an IT destination over others in the field of education and infrastructure facilities. He was of the opinion that the free Rights of Way offered by the Government of Kerala to the entrepreneurs along with the undersea cable connectivity at Kochi would enable the state to achieve the parameters of a knowledge society in the near future.

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Delivering the presidential address, Chief Minister E. K. Nayanar said that as each state in the country had its own particular competence and strengths in the IT sector, each could develop its own model of IT development. He called for closer partnership among the Government, the IT industry, technical experts and the academia so that Kerala could emerge as the front line IT State in the country. The Chief Minister hoped that the State’s advanced telecom network and the liberal Rights of Way policy would attract prospective investors to the state. Along the lines of the Technopark, about 100 acres in Kochi had been earmarked for the proposed Cochin Park, he added.

The Governor also inaugurated the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala (IIITM-K), which has been conceived as an internationally renowned Centre of Excellence in IT.



The idea behind the setting up of the institute was to have a pool of technically qualified manpower.



Spanning over four days, IT Kerala 2000 comprises the IT Exposition in which about 150 organisations would showcase their latest products and services and an International Convention, which had, as opening speaker, none other than Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.

Propounding on the theme of ‘Crafting a Knowledge Society in the 21st Century’, Dr Kalam said that a knowledge society had the two objectives of societal transformation and wealth generation. When the knowledge society transformed into a knowledge superpower, it had to protect the knowledge by strengthening the Intellectual Property Rights in order to sustain as a knowledge society. There was a need for focused approach to Intellectual Property Rights and related issues and major private sector initiatives had to be launched in the area of technology generation for information protection, he added.



According to him, Kerala, which had a core competence of a knowledge society, the most important IT related service was e-education. Since India’s business would be $50 ­80 billion of IT market, Kerala had the opportunity to cash in on its improved educational and health care system.





Taking cue from Dr. Kalam that e-education was the best for Kerala, the Minister for Education Mr P.J. Joseph announced the setting up of a task force under Prof. U. R. Rao for IT education in Kerala. He also announced that school children would be provided computer education as part of the school curriculum from 2002.

An Investor’s Meet is also slated for November 24, which will provide a forum for NRI entrepreneurs and companies to meet and finalise business plans with decision makers of financial support and infrastructure support agencies in the state.

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