[icernet] India to Manage Media Lab Asia

[Arul Selvan]

  MIT has decided to discontinue its involvement in the management of 
Media Lab Asia, said Walter R. Bender SM 80, Media Lab executive 
director and senior research scientist. 
Professor [Alex Paul] Pentland 
and I went to India to meet the new minister
 this week and decided 
not 
to continue our involvement,
 wrote Professor Nicholas P. Negroponte 
66, chairman of MIT Media Lab, by e-mail. Earlier this week, Arun 
Shourie replaced Pramad Mahajan as the Indian governments 
communications and information technology minister, according to the 
Media Lab Asia Web site. MIT will still be involved in research for 
Media Lab Asia, Bender said. 
We have graduate and undergraduate 
students working over there,
 he said.

Minister takes different approach

The new minister is making changes in the way research is being 
conducted by Media Lab Asia. 
Changes are already being made as we 
speak,
 Bender said. 
The new minister does not believe in rural 
development through ICT [information and communications technology] and 
is even less interested in basic innovation. He wants a very directed, 
project oriented research with step-by-step deliverables,
 Negroponte 
wrote. Media Lab ICT projects included rural wireless networks and 
speech interfaces designed to make information accessible to illiterate 
people. MIT is no longer involved with Media Lab Asia management because 
of this change, Bender said. Bender believes that the most important 
thing for Media Lab Asia to do is to assemble the right people to work 
on research.

Rural technology research

The goal of Media Lab Asia is to 
focus on technologies that respond to 
the needs of the millions who require them most in Asia, Africa, and 
Latin America,
 according to its Web site. 
A lot of good work was being 
done and [the] previously-isolated India Institute of Technology labs 
started to collaborate,
 Negroponte wrote. 
There is some interesting 
work in rural [wireless networking], wireless power, and desktop 
manufacturing,
 he wrote. Bender said that the work has 
primarily been 
in rural areas,
 but not entirely. For example, a computer clubhouse was 
established in Dehli. Negroponte thinks that some of this 
will continue 
through traditional research contracts.
 Bender thinks that even with 
the change in leadership, the work will continue. 
My expectation is 
that most of the research is going to continue,
 Bender said. MIT first 
became involved with Media Lab Asia began when it 
entered a one year 
agreement to explore the long-term establishment of a Media-Lab-like 
entity in India Negroponte wrote. 
This was funded 100% by the Indian 
government as a non-profit entity, whose board they always controlled,
 
he wrote. The 
Ministerial change happened just before the time MIT was 
to make its decision
 regarding what was to happen after the agreements 
term was up.


Source:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N23/mlabasia23.23n.html