Southern States - Kerala   

Malaysian team lauds Akshaya project

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI DEC. 20 . The Rural Development Minister of Malaysia, Azmi bin Khalid, has evinced keen interest in the `Akshaya' rural e-literacy programme of the Kerala Government currently on in Malappuram district.

Mr. Azmi, who visited Malappuram along with a 13-member delegation on Thursday, told mediapersons in Kochi that Akshaya was a bold initiative. "We are impressed with this programme that is empowering people at the grassroots level," he said. "I am amazed how you could goad the rural people into wanting to learn the computer," he said. He noted that the programme could empower small entrepreneurs who would in turn effect economic improvements in the countryside. "Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can open up the market," he said.

Mr. Azmi said the delegation was in Kerala specifically to look at the Akshaya programme and to see if it could be tried out in his country. Malaysia was keen on applying ICT to empower its people at the grassroots level, to improve their standard of living and to strengthen democracy. The South-East Asian country, which is an economic-success story, had set a target of achieving a per capita income of 10 dollars a day.

The Minister said the delegation had, skipping the `advanced models' of Bangalore and Hyderabad, opted to examine the `basic model' of Malappuram as his country wanted to drastically improve computer literacy in the rural areas. It was on the suggestion by another Malayasian Minister, Palanivel, who regularly visited Sabarimala, that the delegation had chosen the Kerala programme. "Empowering people is a tough challenge for the Malayasian Government," he noted. In Malaysia, the urban-rural divide was wide besides the economic gap between the ethnic groups. The Government was keen on bridging these gaps and was examining if ICT could be of help. He said India was far ahead of Malaysia in IT and that it was moving fast.

The Minister for Industries and Information Technology, P.K. Kunhalikkutty, who hosted a dinner for the Malayasian delegation, said his Government was checking if ICT could be turned into an `instrument for social change.'Already, the results from Malappuram were very positive and highly encouraging. It was remarkable that even uneducated elderly people in the district were now, through the Internet, communicating with their children working in the Gulf. The programme would now move to its second stage in the district with the Akshaya centres offering IT-enabled services.

Aruna Sundarrajan, Secretary, Information Technology, said the Akshaya programme would be extended to the rest of the State shortly. She noted that computer penetration, which was just one per cent in the country, was much higher in Kerala.

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