The Hindu : MIT pulls out of project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 10, 2003

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MIT pulls out of project

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 9. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has pulled out of a two-year-old joint venture project with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology citing differences with the Union Minister, Arun Shourie. This is a second project to collapse. Earlier opposition to a project proposed by Carnegie Mellon University was not even allowed to take off following determined protest from some quarters.

In a riposte later in the day, Mr. Shourie wondered over the MIT's motive in raising the issue over a month after the agreement was allowed to lapse. The project had failed on all fronts. There was no value addition, Indian masses had not gained and private sector investment failed to materialise.

MIT cited differences with the Minister over focus and management of research projects. ``Alex Paul Pentland and I went to India to meet the new Minister'' this week and decided ``not to continue our involvement'' because changes were being made by Mr. Shourie to the projects, Nicholas Negroponte, who heads MIT Media Lab, said.

Agency reports quoted Prof. Negroponte as saying that Mr. Shourie did not believe in rural development through information and communications technology and is even less interested in basic innovation. ``He wants a very directed, project-oriented research with step-by-step deliverables.''

However, Mr. Shourie imparted a different spin about the project launched with great fanfare by his predecessor, Pramod Mahajan. He said the Government felt there was no need to renew the project because no substantial benefits had accrued from the tie-up.

``The agreement with MIT which lapsed on March 31 was not renewed, not because I am not interested in rural development but because researchers in five IITs to whom funds had been given for the project were unable to quantify the contribution from MIT,'' he said.

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