HRD Initiatives:  

Government of Maharashtra will wholeheartedly participate in the Operation Knowledge proposed by the IT Task Force. The Task Force has proposed three schemes. Engineering institutions like degree colleges, polytechnics and other specialized teaching institutions in the State will be encouraged to expand their intake for IT courses in a big way with a view to substantially expand it by 2003. For this purpose, if any institution is desirous of starting additional IT courses on a no grant basis, the State Government will welcome such a move and freely permit the same.  

IT Task Force has proposed setting up of an Indian Institute of Information Technology. We feel that C-DAC being located at Pune, this city is the ideal location for an IIIT. The Government will offer land and other facilities at Pune and also contribute to 50% of the initial cost for setting up the IIIT. Other major cities of the State such as Nagpur, Aurangabad and Nasik can be linked to the IIIT as hubs or as virtual IIIT.

 Most of the resources available on the Internet or in electronic format are from the Western world. A wealth of relevant information and knowledge needs to be made available in electronic format to the neo-computer -literate of the State so that they can reap the real benefits of their computer literacy. For this purpose, state will set up a digital library, C-DAC, NIC,NCST, Universities in the State, Sahitya Sanskriti Mandal, Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha and premier research institutes in the State will be associated with this project which will be an on-going one. It is proposed to set              up a dedicated centre in the University of Pune for this purpose, which will be the nodal agency for this project. This centre will also collaborate with NCST and C-DAC to make software available in Marathi.

 There are a number of institutions, university departments and a research organization like C-DAC that offer high-end IT education