Red Hat has launched the Red Hat Scholarships 2006-2007 programme, which will operate under the eKALAVYA program set up by the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT, IIT-Bombay. This is the third consecutive year of operation for the Red Hat Scholarships program. The program will help thousands of students looking for guidance on software development projects that they must submit as part of their annual academic requirements.

Red Hat and IIT-Bombay have set up a collaborative programme where students can sign up online for open source projects, seek advice from mentors in the open source community, find list of projects they can participate in, download open source software and get information on programming standards and guidelines. Given the rapid adoption of open source in education, government, and the financial industry, this program aims at ensuring that engineering students are equipped with open source skills.

A sum of Rs 20 lakh will go towards prizes to students and mentors participating in the program. There are also special recognition awards for best participation from a women’s team, best participation from a rural college and more. The college with the largest number of project submissions received will be offered a Red Hat Academic Bundle.

Javed Tapia, president, Red Hat Indian Subcontinent, adds, “The National Knowledge Commission, a premiere body constituted by the prime minister that advises on how India can promote excellence in the education system, has recently recommended that India must use open source software in education to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century. We are happy to work with IIT Bombay in this initiative.”

Prof D. B. Phatak, Subharao M. Nilekani chair professor and head KreSIT, IIT-Bombay, said, “Today, in several parts of India, students and teachers often struggle to keep pace with the latest developments in technology. Though talented, they lack resources, experience and exposure, and competent guidance. We are thrilled to team with Red Hat and ensure that Indian students are exposed to open source technology.”

Source: efytimes.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Scholarship. Tags: College, Education, Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.