BANGALORE: IBM India and Board of IT Education Standards (BITES) on Tuesday announced the launch of a unique programme, Project INVITE (Initiative to Nurture a Vibrant IT Ecosystem), to fuel academic excellence in the State.

According to an IBM release, the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology and BITES will participate in Project INVITE, an initiative aimed at capacity building in the State by enhancing the local talent pool and leveraging the ecosystem to fuel the IT growth at the grassroots level.

The project complements the IBM Academic Initiative, a programme to help universities train students on Open Source, Open Standards based technologies and IBM Technologies for a more competitive workforce. It sought to reach out to IT progressive cities in the State that were rapidly adopting IT to enhance e-governance and citizen services.

The release said the major objectives of the project included building a repository of e-Governance Prototype/POC (Proof of Concept) solutions and making it freely available to government agencies, solution providers and academia, conducting technical seminars and workshops in major cities across the state and support local IT community activities.

On the occasion, IBM India Country Executive Software Group, R. Dhamodaran said, "Though Bangalore is already the leading IT city in the country, there are many other upcoming regions in the State that need attention. We will work closely with the State Government in identifying projects and implementing it." The project also aimed at involving students and faculty for creating prototype solutions for local e-governance needs at various levels like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, school administration software and efficient project monitoring software for Infrastructure Development.

State IT and BT Secretary M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda said, "Through INVITE, students will be empowered to implement IT solutions at the grassroot level and also impart training to stakeholders fulfilling the true objectives of e-governance.

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