(a) whether the Government have constituted an `Education, Research and Technology Department` under his Ministry;
(b) if so, the date on which the said department was constituted;
(c) the average annual budget of this department during the last three years;
(d) whether the department has made any achievements in the field of research and analysis;
(e) if so, the details thereof; and
(f) the way they are likely to be made available to the common people?
MINISTER OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SHRI PRAMOD MAHAJAN)
(a) and (b): Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) has set up
a Division called `Education Research Division` on 1.02.2001 as a
part of reorganization of various Divisions of MIT. The areas of
responsibility handled includes. Online Learning/e-
Learning/Distance Education, Media Lab Asia, Technologies for
21st Century, ERNET India and Institutes of Higher Learning in IT.
(c),(d),(e) and (f): In the area of Online Learning, MIT is
setting up a National Resource Centre for Online Learning at
National Centre for Software Technology(NCST), Mumbai and also
supporting a few development projects at IGNOU, BITS Pilani, IIT
Delhi, IIT Kanpur. Expenditure for the above activity in the past
three years is approximately Rs.608 lakhs.
Project formulation in the area of Quantum Computing, Molecular
Computing, Biometrics etc. is being explored.
Setting up of Media Lab Asia jointly with MIT Media Lab, USA has
been approved. An amount of Rs. 65 crores has also been approved
for the one year exploratory phase. The objective of Media Lab
Asia programme is to carry out research which focuses on bringing
the benefits of stae-of-the-art and future technologies to the
common man and thus help bridge the digital divide. The thrust
areas for Media Lab Asia programme are creation, innovation and
invention of futuristic technologies including Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) for the benefit of common man,
mainly for the areas of improvement of health, education and micro
entrepreneurship.
In respect of ERNET India, approval for upgradation of the network
has been obtained and implementation is in progress. Rs. 55 crores
of budgetory support for a period of 4 years has been provided