[icernet] DIT Pitches For Rs 50-80 Cr Allocation For Media Lab

[Arul Selvan]

  The Department of Information Technology is proposing a budget 
allocation of up to Rs 80 crore for the fiscal ending March 2004 to the 
government of India for Media Lab Asia (MLA). MLA, is an initiative of 
the government with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT). With the help of a $13 million (Rs 65 crore) seed-funding from 
the government of India, the Media Lab at MIT established Media Lab Asia 
in March 2001. For this fiscal ending March 2003, a total of Rs 470 
crore was allocated for the department of IT.

The R&D initiatives of MLA are centred around technologies that build 
low-cost computing devices, bits for all (rural connectivity), tools for 
tomorrow (censors) and integration into digital village. MLA has tied up 
with top scientific institutions in India to create a North-South 
collaboration that addresses the largest humanitarian issues in 
countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Every regional laboratory 
is formed around several core projects, each involving academic, 
industrial, and village community partners.

Source:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=26010