IT major Hewlett-Packard (HP) today announced that it has donated $1 million in support of a new Education Innovation Challenge Fund (EICF) led by a consortium of education organisations in India.

“The Education Innovation Challenge Fund is meant to motivate institutions and students to think out-of-the-box for solutions and ideas that are both collaborative and creative in furthering STEM education in India,” the HP Director of Global Education Programmes, Office of Global Social Innovation, Mr Jeannette Weisschuh, said in a statement.

The fund will grant public and private (not-for-profit) education institutions the opportunity to pursue novel approaches to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning for the 21st century, HP said in a statement.

EICF will be an independent fund which will be managed by an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO). The NGO is yet to be identified.

The Pratham Education Foundation CEO and President, Mr Madhav Chavan, the Akshara Foundation Chairman, Mr Ashok Kamath and the Education Initiatives Managing Director, Mr Sridhar Rajagopalan, are serving as advisors for the establishment of this fund with an NGO that can run and manage it.

The goal is to operationalise the fund by August 2011, and encourage other private sector organisations to support and promote innovations in STEM education through similar donations of cash, equipment and expertise.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the first-ever HP Catalyst Summit in Delhi. Outcomes of the HP Catalyst Summit will be captured in a special report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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