Microsoft India director of education, public sector, Irina Ghose at the news meet on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 23: The India Connect mission organised by Microsoft India in Patna today discussed the latest developments in the area of information technology (IT) and e-governance solutions.

The forum highlighted the role of education and skill building in strengthening the adoption of e-governance. The speakers discussed the latest developments in IT and how the masses can benefit from it.

The mission is an endeavour to facilitate a free-flowing dialogue between the government and other agencies that would accentuate the possibilities of generating innovative solutions that can make IT accessible and relevant in areas, which can enhance the state’s overall development.

At the news meet today, Irina Ghose, the director of education public sector, Microsoft India, said: “The country’s experience with e-governance has demonstrated a significant success in improving accessibility, cutting down costs, enhancing transparency, extending help and increasing access to deprived groups.”

The state government is focused on accelerating this progress by coming up with new projects and successfully implementing the projects in the pipeline, she said.

Ghose added: “The state government is focused on strengthening education by providing computer connectivity to schools.”

Microsoft is already running a project — Shiksha — with the state government through which teachers are given computer training. The teachers, in turn, will train the students.

“The project is being run in eight districts of Bihar and we have trained 4,000 teachers who have already trained 20,000 students mostly from rural areas. From the next year, the project will be run as Shiksha Pragati,” said Ghose.

Niraj Prakash, the director, public sector marketing, Microsoft India, said: “In the past few years, the government, industry and academia have been focused on how the education system can be improved through reforms at all levels. Education is the single most important investment and connecting education with IT will increase the pace of development.”

The speakers also said that focus on computer education should not be limited to urban areas, but should be spread to rural areas too.

The state government last year had decided to provide desktop access to government schools. Through this initiative, the government’s goal is to build 600 labs to provide computer access throughout the state.