Bengaluru: Government first grade colleges in State will be provided with 12,500 debonded desktop computers as part of the ‘Help Educate’, a public-private initiative taken up by Department of Collegiate and Technical Education (DCTE), said Higher Education Minister Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister. 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed in this regard by officials and members of DCTE, Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited and Rotary Club Whitefield Central, District 1390, Bengaluru. 

The primary objective of this programme was to help students of government first grade colleges and make a difference in learning as most of them hail from a socio-economically marginalised background. 

Dr. Ashwathnarayan, said that under ‘Help Educate’ initiative, the DCTE has been partnering with MNCs and philanthropists to educate and train students for employment, train professors in modern methodology through Faculty Development Programmes and Digital Teaching and also equip government colleges with digital assets to adopt digital learning which is both a recent trend and also an inviolable necessity of times. 

He said that government colleges required around 30,000 computers and now, 12,500 computers have been provided. This contribution worth about Rs. 50 crore would help to fill the digital divide of the students. More Multi-National Companies (MNCs) would follow suit of Cognizant Technology and Rotary Club to help the needy students.

As part of the initiative, Cognizant India Pvt. Ltd. has volunteered to provide 12,500 debonded desktop computers to the Department, which in turn will be distributed among all government first grade colleges to establish computer labs. Rotary Club, Bengaluru, which has offered to install Windows OS and Office 365, will transport computers and install them at respective colleges. 

 Naveen Rao, Head, Cognizant Bengaluru Centre, said that under the “Digital Inclusion” initiative of ‘Cognizant Outreach,’ an employee-led volunteering programme, the company has been supporting educational institutions, community libraries and other institutions across the country with computer infrastructure to help them tide over the disruption by adopting  digital learning. 

Rtn. Nagendra Prasad, Governor, District 1390 expressed confidence that the initiative would lend steadfast support to students of government first grade colleges to benefit adequately from the Karnataka LMS-based Digital Learning.

P. Pradeep, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate and Technical Education, Deepak Prabhu Matti, Director CSR, Cognizant, Hari Singh, Assistant Vice-President, Global Procurement, Cognizant and others   were present.