Date:19/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/19/stories/2006121904300500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Vision Group wants focus on schools

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The Chairman of the Vision Group on Information Technology and Chief Mentor of Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy, has said that the focus of the State Government should be to improve computer literacy, particularly at the primary and secondary schools levels.

The Vision Group met here on Monday and discussed on various issues, primarily focussed on increasing the talent pool, computer literacy, enhancing higher education standards and information technology penetration, particularly in the government schools.

The Mahiti Sindu and the Yuva.Com were the two important programmes of the State Government aimed at introducing computer education for schoolchildren, particularly those in government schools.

The State Government constituted the Vision Group after Mr. Narayana Murthy retired as Manging Director of Infosys in August last. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy personally requested Mr. Narayana Murthy to head the vision group. The 11-member group includes Managing Director of IBM Shankar Annaswamy, Managing Director of CISCO Devarajan, Managing Director of Microsoft Ravi Venkatesh and Secretary of Information Technology M.N. Vidyashankar. Director of Information Technology and Biotechnology Rakesh Singh is the member-secretary.

The vision group also suggested that e-governance should become more relevant for faster delivery of government services to the citizens in a transparent manner.

It was mentioned that the newly constituted vision group would meet once in two months.