The Hindu Business Line : Karnataka Govt succeeds in taking IT to rural areas

AS the seventh edition of the Bangalore IT.com came to a close on Friday, children from the districts of Karnataka had a sense of satisfaction of having been part of the event, even while they were away from Bangalore.

The first three editions of the Student Internet World were organised here, in which students from the neighbouring villages were brought to the venue and exposed to the Internet. On an average about 5,000 students were covered per day. This year, the Government in keeping with its commitment to take IT closer to the rural areas, decentralised the set-up which saw the growth of IT revolution across the State. Students from Chamarajanagar, Haveri, Gadag and Koppal districts were provided an opportunity to explore the Internet World.

In all the 27 districts, the response is so overwhelming that the organisers and the students have galvanised themselves into long-term partnerships to access and reap the fruits of the knowledge revolution currently transforming the urban areas. The districts organising committee led by the Deputy Commissioners grabbed the opportunity and transformed it to bestow the benefits of IT on to the rural students.

About 3,00,000 rural students have been introduced to the basic principles of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Emphasis has been made to instil in the students the art of navigating the Web to access specific information on subjects such as History, Geography, Mathematics and Nature, apart from teaching them to use e-mail for communications.

About 270 master trainers were deployed across the districts who guided 1,400 faculties sourced from the Yuva.com centres and also from Mahithi Sindhu schools to train about 3,00,000 students in all the 27 districts.