Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd, NASS-COM Foundation and ICRISAT jointly announced the launch of the first Rural Knowledge Center (RKC) under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) Program, better known as Project 'Jyoti', at Addakal near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.

This is a step towards 'Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Center'-an alliance of more than 180 partners from Government, civil society and industry set up in July 2004, with the ambitious aim to set up a Knowledge Center in each of the 600,000 villages in the country by 2007, the 60th year of India's independence.

The Addakal RKC will be a part of the Microsoft-NASSCOM Foundation Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) Program, which aims to establish, revitalize and foster a national grid of RKCs in strategic locations in seven coastal states of the country, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The RKCs would provide computer literacy and an array of IT enabled services to the adjacent rural comm-unities, with a special focus on empowering women in these areas. It is envisaged as a nodal point for the delivery of IT skills and income-generating vocational train-ing programs, providing e-governance services, e-learning programs, com-munity based disaster pre-paredness initiatives, infor-mation related to ecological security, health and agri-culture, besides encouraging entrepreneurship at the grass root level.

Self Help Groups will run the RKC, which is fully equipped with PCs as well as connectivity solutions.

CyberMedia News
New Delhi