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NT Bureau
Chennai, Aug 23:
 

Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan speaking at the convocation of the first batch of TCS's Ignite in Chennai yesterday.

        Innovations in technology can spread literacy to the remotest of places to help in the development of people, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has said.

        He was speaking at the convocation ceremony of the first batch of Ignite - TCS's pilot project in software learning and development programme.

        At Ignite, 500 science graduates were picked up from over 200 colleges in nine states and transformed as software professionals.

        Swaminathan said 'we belong to a country of contrast and technology could play a great role to bridge this divide'.

        Mentioning a recent study conducted by a panel, he said 80 million live in the country with just Rs 20 a day and many more are hit by poverty, illiteracy and disease.

        He emphasised the intervention of technological tools to reverse these problems and include it in the ' Grhamin Gyan Abhyan '(Rural Educational Programme) brought out by the Central government, which would benefit in the development of people in the remotest and rural parts of the country.

        Applauding the innovative measures taken by TCS, Swaminathan stressed the need for more innovative learning programmes to develop and meet the requirement of human resources, while tapping the talent pool in the village and underprivileged rural areas.

        He emphasised the need for a shift from teacher centric learning to a better and innovative way of knowledge delivery methods, which would help the learning process more enjoyable.

        S Ramadorai, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS said the programme has helped to prove that science graduates can be empowered with the right learning methodologies thereby developing new sources of talents to sustain the growth of the IT industry.

        He said the performance and success of this project has shown that science graduates are in par with engineers and has broken the myth that only engineering students are qualified to pursue a career in the IT industry.

        All 500 graduates were inducted into the company after rigorous selection process and training.

        Over 60 per cent of them are women belonging to various states including the north eastern states which have not been a traditional talent sourcing destination for IT companies.

        TCS has plans to train 200 students this year and 3,000 by next year.