Murthy stresses on computer literacy at school level

Bangalore, Dec 18 (UNI) IT major Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy, heading the Vision Group on IT today stressed the need for increasing computer literacy at the primary and secondary school levels.

''If India, and Karnataka in particular, has to maintain its pre-eminent position in the IT sector, top most priority will have to be assigned to primary and higher secondary education,'' he said.

Mr Murthy's comments came at a meeting of the Vision Group, which discussed various issues like increasing the talent pool, computer literacy, enhancing higher education standards and IT penetration, particularly in Government schools.

Lauding the 'Mahithi Sindu' and Yuva.com' programmes of the Government, he said there was a need for synergy between the industry, academia and Government, particularly on increasing the talent pool for the knowledge sector.

The Vision Group suggested that e-governance should become more relevant for faster delivery of Government services to the citizens in a transparent manner.

E-Governance initiatives in all the citizen-centric departments should be expedited as these measures would go a long way in enhancing the public image of the service providers, an official statement here said.

The Vision Group felt that Bangalore, being a recognised IT brand, should set benchmark/standards for itself vis-a-vis global benchmarks by giving thrust to steps for increasing talent pool and step up efforts in e-governance, the statement said.

It urged the department of IT, BT and Science and Technology to provide a series of baseline figures like number of school students per PC and number of government employees per PC, which would not only give the present score card, but also help the vision group in providing useful inputs in enhancing the penetration of PCs at the school and Government level.

UNI GD KR HT1742