National
Hardware tech. park to come up in Bangalore
By S.K.Ramoo
BANGALORE, DEC. 8. The endeavour of the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, in the field of information technology appears to be yielding fruit as the Minister of State for Information Technology, Prof. B.K. Chandrashekar, plans to establish a Hardware Technology Park in the City.
Prof. Chandrashekar wants Karnataka to become a base for assembling high-quality affordable computers and related appliances. The intention is to increase PC ownership, especially in rural areas.
A plan has been formulated for the setting up a network of computer kiosks in rural regions with a comprehensive data base for providing information on agriculture, horticulture, and related activities to farmers. The kiosks will also provide information on agriculture marketing trends and data to enable the farmers to plan their crops, avoiding surplus production and consequent slump in the prices.
The Minister was recently in Malaysia, accompanied by Dr. G. Parameshwar, Minister of State for Higher Education, to explore the possibility of Malaysian investment and partnership in Karnataka's plan for hardware development.
The response was ``positive and encouraging.'' They had a useful interaction with Mr. Moggie, Malaysian Minister for Multimedia and IT. A high-level delegation from Malaysia is likely to visit Karnataka early next year. They delivered Mr. Krishna's letter to the Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahatir Mohammed, to visit Karnataka for exploring the planned IT tie-up. Prof. Chandrashekar was impressed by the Multimedia University at Kuala Lumpur, where IT applications and ``technopreneur'' development are taking place.
The university was earning precious foreign exchange by making animation films for the U.S. and European countries. The university was interested in exchange of faculty members and students with the Visvesvaraya Technological University and some leading engineering colleges of Karnataka.
Prof. Chandrashekar said he had a useful meeting with the New Zealand IT, Communications and Commerce Minister, Mr. Paul Swain, who evinced interest in his country's institutions collaborating with Karnataka's engineering colleges offering IT courses. The New Zealand Minister mooted the twin city concept involving Wellington and Bangalore.
The Government would shortly convene a meeting of IT professionals, including hardware experts, on December 13 in Bangalore for evolving a roadmap for Karnataka's ambitious plan of hardware technology development, and rural initiative for propagation of IT and bio-technology.
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