Transforming communication to knolwledge will boost employment: NKC

New Delhi, Jan 15: National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda today stressed on ways of generating employment for the youth by transforming communication into knowledge.

''If we have youngsters specially who are aged about 25 years, knowledge and support from the Prime Minister, we can really make it possible of re-engineering communication into knolwledge,'' said Mr Pitroda here at a seminar -- From Communication to Knowledge -- organised by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Foreign Service Institute, Ministry of External Affairs.

He said twenty years down the line, India has a wide vision of telecom knowledge as the young Indians have wider vision and knowledge. ''The only thing needed is to have more money for the education,'' he added.

For things to happen on the right track, he said, there is a need for indgeneous knowledge, that is education, need-based accessiblity and production of markets for them.

Access is far more important than knowledge. For that it needs need-based things for the market and not market-based things for the needs, like anytime, anywhere and anyone accessibilty, he opined.

Mr Pitroda said, there are gains in telecom every year but not in knowledge as people can add up to telecom each year by changing their handsets but for knowledge they need atleast five years for a degree.

Speaking on the difference between telecom and knowledge, he said, ''Telecom forces knowledge to look at a very different way.

You cannot have a 10:1 ratio of teachers and a student and even in countries like the US, knowledge gains are very less as compared to telecom. Tuition fee of the students have increased in the US but telecom prices have reduced.'' As amount for the education is the main concern and issue for all these, Mr Pitroda said, that is what to think of and the ways to fulfill it.

''You need to think of the unthinkable, then only you can overcome the things which are not possible. Lot of things come from your guts, not from brains,'' he added.

UNI