A deal was struck between Bharathidasan University with the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) to establish its function as a nodal institution in its jurisdiction comprising seven districts with 104 Arts & Science and Fine Arts colleges, and 13 approved institutions. 18 is the number of autonomous colleges and the student strength in the affiliated colleges is over 1.5 lakh, out of the above mentioned colleges and institutions.
The ICTACT, a consortium of the Centre, State and Confederation of Indian Industry, will provide industry relevant training programmes in the ICT spectrum to the faculty members of the university and its affiliated colleges. Various training programmes will be sponsored by the ICT industry. It is led by a governing body chaired by Lakshmi Narayanan of Cognizant Technology Solutions with members drawn from industry leaders including K. Jayaramakrishnan of TCS, Sameer Garde of Dell, Raghunandan of Redington, Gopal Srinivasan of TVS Capital Ltd., CII Tamil Nadu Chapter Chairman C.K. Ranganathan, and State Secretary of IT P.W.C. Davidar.
