Knowledge network rollout in 6 months

The National Knowledge Commission8217;s NKC ambitious project to digitally interconnect all educational institutes in the country is set to roll out in six months. Tentatively christened the National Knowledge Network, it will interconnect all universities, libraries, laboratories and ultimately, also hospitals and agricultural institutions enabling nationwide sharing of data and resources. The network, in its final stages, is likely to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister who is said to have taken a special interest in the project. A provision of Rs 100 crore for this project has already been made in the 2008-09 budget.

8220;The revolutionary idea of a nationwide knowledge network is finally set to take wing and will be rolled out very soon. This will be a 15-gigabit network connecting all research organizations and educational institutes and has the potential to be expanded in a very big way. The network will be activated through lighting up of the existing optical fibre network in the country,8221; S Regunathan, advisor to the National Knowledge Commission told The Indian Express.

India has over 7,00,000 km of optical fibre network spread between BSNL,VSNL and private telecom service providers.

The aim is to connect some 5,000 nodes covering all educational institutes in a phased manner.

8220;It is like building a super expressway and teaching cyclists to use it. So we have asked all states to prepare for the roll out if the knowledge network. While many institutes are already wired up, there are several others that need to join in and upgrade. The system can easily bring in schools into the network and the Ministry of Human Resource Development is already investing Rs 6,000 crore to incorporate schools into the Information 038; Communication Technology network,8221; added Regunathan who spoke at length on the concept of e-Learning at an information 038; communication conference in New Delhi.