Workshop on scaling up ICT use for poverty alleviation

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), in association with the World Bank, Union Ministry of Technology, Nasscom and the National Software Industry Association of India will organise a two-day workshop on 'Scaling up ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) use for poverty alleviation in India' from February 26 in Ahmedabad.

Arun Shourie, Union minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication will inaugurate the workshop.

"Most of the pilot projects in the country are not scaled up, the workshop will focus to create a social application fund, that would be used to provide financial and technical assistance to the pilot projects. The workshop will identify the pilot projects that needs scaling up." said Subhash Bhatnagar, chairman, advisory committee Centre for Electronic Communication and coordinator of the workshop.

The workshop is sponsored by the World Bank, which has taken the lead in working with other donors, the Government of India and Nasscom to create and operationalise a fund of $100 to 200 million that will help scaling up worth while ICT pilots.