K'taka: Rural IT Quiz-2007 from Sept 10

Bangalore, Sep 1: An estimated two million school children in the rural areas of Karnataka will participate in the eighth edition of the 'Rural IT Quiz-2007', the world's largest IT Quiz programme beginning on September ten.

Organised jointly by the Karnataka IT and BT Department and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the programme, mainly aimed at popularising IT education in the rural areas of Karnataka, was formally launched here yesterday.

Speaking to newspersons, Karnataka IT and BT and Science and Technology Secretary M N Vidyashankar said that in this year's IT Rural Quiz, over 20 lakh students drawn from more than 10,000 schools and junior colleges would take part. The quiz was open for students from class eight to 12.

''The Rural IT Quiz is an effort to spread awareness, application and advancements in IT at the grassroots level. The IT quiz is experiencing growing popularity every year.'' The state government on its part was spending over Rs 15 lakhs for the programme, in which IT giant TCS and also ITPL were actively involved.

Mr Vidyashankar informed that the quiz programme was designed to be held in four rounds and the first phase would be held at the school and college level on September ten. In the next phase, the district level Quiz Programme would be conducted on September 24 in each district and the top 50 teams would be selected for the regional level competition in Gulbarga, Dharwad, Davanagere, Tumkur, Hassan and Udupi.

He said the quiz would conclude at the mega IT event 'BangaloreIT.in 2007', scheduled to be held here from October 29.

He claimed that the impact of Rural IT Quiz was tremendous and the toppers in the earlier editions were found pursuing education in IT and IT related courses.

Mr N G Subramaniam, President, TCS Financial Solutions, said the Quiz programme was designed to expose more students to IT sector and help find a solution to manage shortage of human resources in the sector.

UNI