Let’s e-mpower generation with the power of IT Technology

Let’s e-mpower!

 

The Google Student Ambassador (GSA) Programme, another NDLM initiative, offers an opportunity for students to learn about innovative Google products. At the same time, it also teaches under served communities to use the computer at a basic level. A team in Mumbai trained senior citizens in using the web through an event called ‘Connect Elderly Online’. The senior citizens showed immense interest in learning online banking, online shopping and video chatting in particular, and seemed excited about how these would make their day-to-day lives a lot easier. “One of the senior citizens thanked me for teaching him how to access the Internet and spoke about how it had impact him”, shared Jaspreet, a GSA.

NDLM, and the firm-specific initiatives under its umbrella, will encourage technology adoption domestically, thus helping create an empowered India. The NASSCOM Foundation urges you to join DLW 2013 from December 9-13 and volunteer to make a difference. If you wish to be the force behind positively impacting lives.

While India continues to take pride in her IT prowess with the IT-BPM sector contributing a large share to the national GDP, 80 per cent of her population remains digitally poor. The NASSCOM Foundation is working to alleviate this inequity.

In rural areas, the government, through initiatives like the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), is working to extend connectivity. However, digital illiteracy exists in urban, connected areas too! The Digital Literacy Week (DLW) is a corporate collaboration where employees from IT organisations like Dell, Google, HCL, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft and NII T volunteer to tackle digital illiteracy in partnership with local NGOs and ITIs. This initiative is a part of the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) that will complement the government’s efforts in making one person per household e-literate by 2020. Through DLW 2012, 500 volunteers from the industry were instrumental in training approximately 22,000 people across 10 cities.

Vikas Puri, like many others from his village had heard about the internet and its benefits but never got to experience it personally. The lack of jobs in Arain (the biggest Panchayat in Ajmer district of Rajasthan; also the first in the country to receive the fibre optic line laid by the NOFN) makes many youth migrate for jobs. But, Vikas, 20, didn’t follow suit. After completing his graduation, he started helping his father in their grocery store. However, the income generated from the shop remained modest. In order to improve his livelihood, he joined the computer and digital literacy programme at one of the NDLM Centres set up by Intel.

Today, Vikas runs a cyber café right next to his grocery store, thanks to the basic computer skills he acquired through the programme. This has not only transformed his life, it also helping young students like him learn computer skills and access basic information like exam results, admission forms, etc. without having to travel to the nearest town.

The Digital Literacy Week (DLW) is a corporate collaboration where employees from IT organisations like Dell, Google, HCL, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft and NIIT volunteer to tackle digital illiteracy in partnership with local NGOs and ITIs. This initiative is a part of the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) that will complement the Government’s efforts in making one person per household e-literate by 2020.