Bangalore: In a significant step towards bridging the digital divide, the country on September 26 launched its first research and training centre of the Development Gateway Foundation (DGF) and India Country Gateway.

The centre launched by Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Pramod Mahajan, would support and develop practical information and communications technology (ICT) based solutions for bridging the digital divide.

India Country Gateway, a department of Information Technology initiative funded by the World Bank, is a portal aimed at involving government, private and public, and international organisations sharing information on various developmental aspects in India.

The prototype portal, implemented by the centre for development of advanced computing (C-DAC), along with its partners, is also aimed at how use of ICT can be leveraged for socio-economic development.

Mahajan, in his speech, said digital divide would create a "gap that is unimaginable" and it could be bridged by taking the IT from classes to masses. Creating a 'great' telecom infrastructure and connectivity were also required.

Saying that the Indian telecom business was "the fastest growing" in the world, he said by the end of the next year, each of the 600,000 villages across the country would have a public telephone.

The setting up of a network of research and training centres is one of the four key programmes of the Development Gateway Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to fostering the use of ICT for sustainable development. The centre at Bangalore is part of India's commitment of USD five million to the Foundation.

PTI