Thiruvananthapuram, Saturday, 05 June 2010: A state-level workshop on ‘Knowledge sharing for Rural Development in Kerala - India Development Gateway as platform’ was inaugurated, here today.

The workshop was aimed at formulating ideas and suggestions for the development of Malayalam version of the India Development Gateway (InDG) webportal, C P Narayan, newly appointed Political Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said, inaugurating the programme.

All the Government schools in the state would be equipped with IT enabled education systems before next year, he said.

Pointing out that the divide between rural and urban areas in IT enabled services in the country was a serious social issue, he said ”India Development Gateway(InDG) is a country-wide initiative that targets specific country needs in the domain of rural and social development.” The workshop was jointly organised by the Centre for Developments of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad, and Santhigram, an NGO based in the state.

”The Gateway is the national portal of India, developed as a single-window access to information and services, with the specific objective of reaching the ‘un-reached’ rural communities of India, especially women and poor. It catalyses the use of ICT tools for knowledge sharing, leading to development,” he said.