: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) have signed an MoU for collaborating on sharing of knowledge, transfer of technologies and training in areas of e-learning and skill development.
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi was present at the MoU-signing function and wished the agreement, signed recently, would pave the way for a significant social impact initiative for rural India, a press release said here.
Director-general of NIRD&PR Dr W R Reddy said its reach in rural areas, when combined with compassionate research and rural technologies of Amrita University, can bring in major transformation in the rural landscape.
Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Dr Venkat Rangan said Amrita's unique live-in-labs programme requires students to go to rural areas, understand their challenges and build research-based solutions.
Live-in-labs is a credit-based academic programme that provides multidisciplinary experiential learning that breaks classroom and lab barriers by applying learned theory in real-world settings, the release said.
The programme has implemented more than 150 projects in 21 states across India that and have helped improve the standard of living for more than 60,000 villagers, it added.