Intel launches Digital Skills initiative to support government e-inclusion drive

04th December 2014
Intel launches Digital Skills initiative to support government  e-inclusion  drive
From left: Vikas Jain, Co-Founder, Micromax Informatics, Debjani Ghosh, VP (Sales and Marketing Group), MD - Intel South Asia, Timothy Parker, VP (Sales and Marketing Group) Interim GM Asia Pacific Japan, R.S Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and IT, Government of India, Aruna Sundararajan, Administrator (USOF) and Chairman-cum-Managing Director, BBNL and Umesh Sachdev, CEO, Uniphore Software Systems at the launch of the Intel Digital skills for India programme.

New Delhi, December 4, 2014: Intel India has   launched  a  ‘Digital Skills for India’ programme, working  with the government to  touch the lives of 5 million citizens by the end of 2015 with skills to compete in the global digital economy.
The first initiative is the Digital Skills Training Application comprising of modules on Digital Literacy, Financial Inclusion, Healthcare and Cleanliness in 5 Indian languages. This Application will be available freely on the Android Play Store from Decembner 6 while a similar offline training module will also be made available in 7 Indian languages.
Intel India will also work with Bharat Broadband Network Ltd to build capacity by imparting digital literacy training to key resource persons in the first 1000 Panchayats under the National Optic Fiber Network roll-out in India. 
Says Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology: “The Digital India programme is an umbrella initiative with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. For this digital transformation to be completed, it is imperative that the government and corporates work together in creating a sustainable model for digital education. It is great to see technology leaders like Intel come forward and support the cause with innovative computing solutions that will eventually help Indians harness the benefits of a Digital India.”
Adds Aruna Sundararajan, Administrator (USOF) and Chairman-cum-Managing Director –BBNL: “Enabling Broadband Highways is an imperative of the Digital India vision and the National Optic Fiber Network roll-out aims to deliver true broadband to Panchayats. I am happy that corporate citizens like Intel are working with us to digitally empower citizens at the grassroots so that they can fully utilize the benefits of these Broadband Highways to impact their livelihoods and build empowered societies.”
Debjani Ghosh, Vice President- Sales and Marketing Group, Managing Director- Intel South Asia says,:“We believe that the government’s Digital India vision is going to be imperative to propel the country into its next phase of growth. The industry has been asked to participate to realize the vision and it is now up to us to work jointly with the government to do the right thing for our country. At Intel we believe that skill development and innovation are imperative for realizing the Digital India vision and these are the two areas in which Intel will begin working with the government to digitally empower the citizens of India. We are proud to launch the Intel Digital Skills for India Program which will set India on the path of becoming a digitally inclusive society. We are also excited to announce the Intel Innovate for India Challenge which will foster local innovation for pervasive technology adoption and usage across India.”
At the  launch event earlier this week,  Intel showcased the latest Micromax Canvas Tab P666 powered by the Intel Atom Processor.  Vikas Jain, Co-founder Micromax Informatics joined Tim Parker, VP (Sales and Marketing Group) and  Interim GM Asia Pacific Japan, Intel and  Umesh Sachdev, CEO of Uniphore Software Systems to demonstrate an innovative speech recognition prototype in Tamil language that can be used to control a personal computer in line with Intel’s vision of simplifying user interfaces and making computing more intuitive. Intel also showcased the Intel Sensing Platform, a unique solution combining hardware, mobile applications, analytics and cloud-based technology that enables mobile-based affordable and personal healthcare management application for masses.