Corporate Diary: Oct 2007

PARTNERSHIP

Intel Announces World Ahead Alliance, UNESCO pact in India

Marking a new phase of Intel’s World Ahead Programme, an alliance of 16 companies has formed to expand Intel’s efforts to provide people in developing countries with the benefits of technology.

During a visit that coincides with the country’s observance of “Teachers Day,” Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett announced the formation of the World Ahead Alliance in India. The memorandum of understanding calls for UNESCO and Intel to work jointly in areas that include teacher professional development, developing policies for the innovative use of technology in curriculum and promoting scientific research in higher education.

Sun Microsystems to facilitate e-Learning with Aunwesha

Sun Microsystems India has entered into a technology alliance with Aunwesha Knowledge Technologies Pvt Ltd, a software product development company operating in the IT segment of e-Learning and knowledge management, to deliver an end-to-end e-Learning solution to the academic community.

Aunwesha’s software suite, LearnITy, including its various components such as Learning Management System (LMS), Online Assessment System (OAS), has been certified on both Solaris 10 for x64 (Intel and AMD) systems, Sun UltraSparc architectures as well as on the Sun Java Enterprise System. LearnITy is a pure ‘India Inc’ brand developed from scratch using open source and open standards. In order to make LearnITy more accessible, Aunwesha has drawn a very simple flexible licencing policy, which ensures low cost of ownership for the end customers.

Educomp acquires  Canadian online teaching solutions company

Educomp Solutions, the online, interactive and multimedia education content and solutions provider announced that it had acquired a 70.05 per cent stake in Canadian online teaching solutions company Savvica.

Educomp offers solutions in pre-school learning management, K-12 schools, school management and online as well as offline tutoring. Its specialised product range also includes e-Tutoring products such as Mentoraide, Mathguru.com and Roots to Wings.

To add online solutions to its kitty, Educomp had previously acquired AsknLearn, a Singapore based e-Learning content provider. It also took a 76 per cent stake in ThreeBrix e-Services, the owner of learninghour.com, an online and offline learning solutions provider focused at Indian students. The acquisition of Savvica will add online community building capabilities to Educomp’s repository of content across its various initiatives. Later this year, Educomp plans to launch a project to build online communities of instructors and learners based on geographical regions and subject matter, leveraging Savvica’s skills.

IBM signs MoU with Vasavi College of Engg

IBM and Vasavi College of Engineering signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which enables the Hyderabad based premier educational institution to conduct IBM India’s Accelerated Career Excellence (ACE) programme.

IBM India’s ACE programme is aimed to groom technical talent at workplace. This unique programme provides the non-engineering employees of IBM India with an opportunity to upgrade their skills and qualification by doing a 4-year MS programme in Software Engineering. To facilitate this higher education programme, IBM signed a MoU with the University of Mysore in 2006 to develop a 4-year MS programme for its employees with BSc degree. The curriculum of this course has been designed and developed jointly by the University of Mysore and IBM.

Nokia ties up with SRM Univ of Chennai in India

Mobile handset maker Nokia has tied up with SRM University to offer a fully sponsored specialised B.Tech degree programmes for its employees at its Sri Perumbudur factory. This initiative is expected to encourage employees with diplomas to acquire engineering degrees.

The course, a seven–semester credit-based programme, is open to Nokia’s shop floor employees selected on the basis of lateral entry eligibility criteria of the SRM University. Selected candidates can opt for a B.Tech degree in Mechatronics/Mechanical engineering or in Electronics and Communications Engineering. Two classrooms have already been set up within the Nokia premises for faculty from SRM University to conduct classes during weekdays.

Intel will provide content to 1800 schools in Tamil Nadu in India

Intel Technology India has signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu Government to provide Internet based content to more than 1,800 higher secondary schools for students learning and teachers training.
Intel will assist the government in rolling out an education content framework, which enables accessibility of education content to the students. The company will work with the government to expand the network to scale the deployment to connect several schools, government offices and health centres in the state. Intel will also donate 500 PCs to the government schools and assist in WiMax connectivity for 50 schools in towns with Wimax base station infrastructure. The company has already trained 18000 teachers across 1100 schools in 30 districts and will continue its teaching initiatives. Intel is also investing in tele-health centre project for affordable and accessibility of cardiac and ophthalmic care in Villupuram district to benefit over 2.85 lakh people.

PROJECTS

Core Technologies plans to buy 3 companies for USD45mn

The Core Projects and Technologies would acquire three companies in the education sector for  US$ 45 million in the US and the UK.  The company is buying US-based KC Management Group, UK-based Azzurri and Hamlet Computer Group.

The KC Management Group provides schools management systems, worths USD 30 million, while the UK-based Azzurri is an educational software provider, which worths USD 12 million and the Hamlet Computer Group, an assessment administration systems maker, worth USD 3 million. The company had raised nearly USD80 million through overseas convertible bonds in May and earmarked USD 60 million for acquisitions. Apart from these acquisitions, the company is also looking to close another acquisition by the end of 2007. In addition to serving the US and UK markets, the company is also planning to tap the public schools and colleges in India. The company is talking with several state governments for deploying its products in the state-run schools.

Intel to give ICT education to students of Bangladesh

Intel Corporation Chairman Dr Craig Barrett announced introduction of its Intel World Ahead Programme aiming at providing information and communication technology (ICT) education and its access to the general population across Bangladesh.

The World Ahead Programme, which Intel has been running worldwide for many years now, will be implemented jointly with Grameen Solution in collaboration with the government.

Barrett and Grameen Solution’s founder Prof Muhammad Yunus have been running education programmes in developing countries for a few decades, and in the last decade they have spent 1 billion US dollars. Intel and Grameen will jointly introduce several programmes to help the people access the vast resources of medical, educational, and commercial knowledge on the Internet. They will offer low cost PCs on easy monthly instalments and will launch a project to set up tele-centres across the country. Intel and Grameen have planned to make the Intel powered Classmate PCs available for students. Those PCs are affordable and full-featured student laptops – well suited for promoting project based learning in primary schools.

Intel is also developing plans to launch its education initiatives in Bangladesh, including Intel Teach, and Intel Learn programmes.

NIIT to expand to 250 locations in China

NIIT is planning to set up around 85 new training centres in China in the next three years.

NIIT has already 165 locations in China, and it is taking the total to 250 in the country. Out of 165 centres, NIIT has 129 “NIIT Inside” units, which are located in the various universities and colleges in China. Under the “NIIT Inside” model, the company embeds its training programmes in the curriculum of universities and colleges. NIIT is also ramping up its corporate training in the US, where it has more than 500 professionals and serves 1500-plus customers, and in Europe. Currently, the company has 35000 courses in e-Learning format.

Ericsson launches rural broadband project in India

Ericsson has launched the Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project, an initiative to introduce benefits of WCDMA/HSPA technology in rural India and connect communities to high-speed internet services for the first time.

The trial project was launched in early September and will showcase the benefits of mobile broadband applications across 18 villages and 15 towns close to Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

By creating a stable ecosystem based on leading WCDMA/HSPA technology, Ericsson will provide these communities with high-speed Internet so they can access a range of new services including e-Education, online local information, voice and video call services; and live TV and entertainment.

Communities and schools will be among the beneficiaries of the initiative. More than 3,000 high school students within these communities will now have high-speed Internet and can take e-Learning courses, gaining access to new information and educational resources for the first time. 

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