HRD ministry inks pact with IEEE

Union Human Resources Development (HRD) ministry, power and defence have tied up with the US-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to supply research-related databases to key academic and research institutions in the country.

Major institutions and their employees, who would be benefited by IEEE data includes the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Council of Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

About 1,000 private engineering colleges and 800 management institutions would also benefit from the database, a senior IEEE official said.

"The partnership with the human resources ministry will make our data accessible on a massive scale to maximum institutions in the country, facilitating research activities. Till now our databases were open to a select few institutions," said Paul Canning, director, publication and information marketing, IEEE.

IEEE is a non-profit organisation for the promotion of technology in the electrical and electronics domain. The organisation's foundation is traced to the scientific legend, Thomas Edison. IEEE holds innumerable patents.

The CDMA technology is one example of content-based on IEEE science. IEEE data include patent information, scientific papers, presentations, magazines, and periodicals on the electrical and electronics industry.

Siemens, ABB, GE, Samsung, Canon, Sony, IBM, Microsoft, Hitachi, Samsung, Intel, among others, depend on IEEE content for their research, said a senior IEEE official.

"Currently about 400 engineering institutions subscribe to our printed editions and some 140 subscribe to online. We are expecting annual growth of 75 per cent over the next few years," said Ashok Chawla, managing director, Global Information systems Technology Pvt Ltd (GIST). GIST is the Indian agent for IEEE.

"Government institutions subscribe to our electronic library, whereas private companies and organisations mostly subscribe to our product called Enterprise," said Chawla.