The Hindu Business Line : Icrisat signs pact with Sun to promote e-learning

THE International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Sun Microsystems Inc., that will pave the wave for creation of a centre of excellence to promote e-learning under VASAT (Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics).

The Director-General of Icrisat, Dr William Dar, said that the collaboration would bring together the expertise of the two institutions to deploy e-learning services to anyone, anytime, anywhere and on any device.

The Vice-President, Global Education and Research, Sun Microsystems, Ms Kim Jones, said this centre of excellence would help Sun to use the fruits of its technology to alleviate poverty in the semi arid tropics.

As per the terms of the MoU, Icrisat and Sun will work together and promote Icrisat's e-learning services to other international agricultural research institutes under the umbrella of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. They will work to build a network of learning portals with other institutions in the country aimed at facilitating mutual exchange of contents and services through an open architecture, leading towards the development of an e-learning hub here.

Together, the two institutions will explore projects on the convergence of e-learning with the digital library, where even the re-usage technologies would be leveraged to reach out content through various delivery channels.

Being one of the 15 international agricultural research institutes, Icrisat concentrates on working towards developing technologies for sustainable development in semi arid tropics with an accent on improvement of agricultural productivity.

Becoming a part of Sun Microsystems e-learning network, Icrisat will have access to various learning centres located across the world. This would in turn enable mutual exchange of best practices which can be reached out to the farm community, Ms Jones said.

More Stories on : IT Training | Agricultural Institutions

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