[icernet] Focus of Media Lab to remain unchanged despite MIT exit: Shourie

[Arul Selvan]

The Media Lab Asia will continue to focus on research projects aimed at 
bridging digital divide despite Massachusetts Institute of Technology's 
(MIT) withdrawal from it, IT Minister Arun Shourie has said. 

MIT's Media Lab, since its inception in 1985, has 40 registered patents 
to its credit. Its contributions include advances in electronic paper, 
new forms of data hiding, wearable computers, musical jackets and 
quantum computing. Its annual budget is about $30-35 million. Media Lab 
Europe was opened in Dublin, Ireland, in 2000 with the Irish government 
pledging about $35 million over 10 years. India, with a population of 
over one billion, has a yawning digital divide. There are fewer than 
five computers for every 1,000 people while fixed-line telephone lines 
have grown at a very slow pace to touch nearly 40 million now. Media Lab 
Asia, based on the outskirts of Indian financial capital Mumbai, was in 
the process of setting up a chain of regional laboratories, linked 
together to facilitate inventions that benefit the masses.

Source:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_251088,0003.htm