Friday, September 23 2005 14:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Silicon Valley: Stepping up cooperation with Indian Government, Microsoft has announced a slew of initiatives to accelerate IT literacy and enable e-governance to bridge the digital divide in the country.

The announcement follows a series of in-depth discussions this week between visiting Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at the software giant's Redmond headquarters.

The collaboration will focus on strategic areas including enabling access to affordable and language-based computing, accelerating IT literacy, facilitating adoption of E-governance at an accelerated pace, enabling research on Indic Language Computing technologies and co-operation around IT security.

"Yesterday's (Sept 22, 2005) announcements by Microsoft including the launch of new multilingual Windows XP Starter Edition for India, are steps in the right direction," Maran said.

He said the various steps address important issues like IT literacy, taking high-quality, interactive IT education to schools in India, availability of local language computing solutions and e-governance.

"There is an urgent need to enable affordable access to locally relevant IT applications at a broad level. I believe that through effective private-government partnerships we can deliver on this objective," Maran said.

Gates said the announcements were steps towards a common goal to bridge the digital divide in India.

Elaborating on the announcements Gates said, "we are delighted to be working with Minister Maran towards our common goal of bridging the digital divide for people across India."

"In particular, I'm excited about the promotion of e-Governance technologies, the expansion of teacher education and broadening our Windows XP Starter Edition for India offering to better meet the needs of Indian citizens," he said

"India is synonymous with IT success today. As a long-term partner for India, Microsoft strives to be a key contributor to this success and at the same time help create a digitally-inclusive society where technology reaches out to the over one billion strong population to help them to realize their full potential," said Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.

Terming the meeting with the Indian delegation led by Maran as 'extremely constructive', he said "we seek to work closely with the Government to help realise this vision."

The initiatives include plans to broaden language availability for first time PC users and offer a multilingual Windows XP Starter Edition licensed and built exclusively for use in India for speakers of any of nine Indic languages who may also want to use English.

The plans also aim to transform education instruction through ICT-based learning, ensure affordable access to technology in rural areas, offer special package in collaboration with partners to deliver a broadband and PC package and facilitate adoption of e-Government.

The initiative also promises to enable local language computing and create a more secure IT environment.