Datawind signs MoU with Indian firm, Canadian varsity

NEW DELHI: Canada-based provider of affordable mobile Internet connectivity Datawind has signed two Memorandums of Understanding’s, one with AK Education  and the other with Carleton University, Ottawa, in the presence of the Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, John McCallum.

McCallum has visited the DataWind Factory and said “ My mission to India is an ideal opportunity for us to share knowledge and expertise in key areas, including technology and education. We are proud that Canada based company DataWind, has become India’s largest tablet player and is contributing immensely in the field of education by offering rich content to the Indian student community. Their reach and focus on creating access to education and quality content will help in lifting the Education sector in India. I am happy to visit DataWind’s facility in Amritsar, the divine city of Golden Temple.”

Suneet Singh Tuli , President and CEO, DataWind Inc. said, “ I and the entire team of DataWind are extremely humbled by the presence of Honourable Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, from Canada- Mr. John McCallum who has taken his time out to visit our Amritsar facility. On behalf of all of us at DataWind, I sincerely thank the Honourable Minister and members of his delegation for their presence here. I am sure this visit of the Honourable Minister would strengthen ties between India and Canada. We would come closer to meeting the objective of bridging the digital divide, with which DataWind had come to India.”

To mark the visit of MsCallum, Datawind Inc. signed an Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with A K Education From DataWind Inc. MoU was signed by Tuliand from AK Education it was signed byits Director Kamaljit Singh.

The MoU was signed for testing of DataWind’s patented technology, software solutions and products across India.A K Education Pvt. Ltd. has further tied up with Chandigarh Group of Colleges of Engineering for analytical reports and testing of the software.

DataWind Innovations also signed an MoU with Canada India Centre of Excellence at Carleton University, Ottawa at the occasion.The Memorandum is to facilitate and promote co-operation between Datawind Innovations and the Carleton University, with a view to supporting and imparting knowledge through Technology, research collaboration, and other forms of academic partnerships.

Talking about the MoUs Tuli said, “We aim to bring a PC Tablet for every student in India, but the hardware itself is not enough to serve the purpose of empowerment. These partnerships will allow Datawind users to access high quality, interactive and engaging educational content for free. DataWind is pleased to be in the company of like-minded organizations and initiatives such as A K Education Pvt. Ltd. and Carleton University that are working towards a common goal of delivering high quality education to the students and empowering individuals and communities in India and globally.”‖

To meet the educational challenges in India, DataWind is constantly working towards addressing the key demands of a large population, whose poor communities often face disproportionally high illiteracy rates. The company is focused on expanding the roll-out of its tablets for the students, which are designed to be affordable, deliver high quality educational content and free apps, and also to provide internet access at the lowest cost or for free, where possible.

Tuli further added“ Education is the only veritable way that we can help deliver on the Digital India programme as it also contributes in a meaningful manner towards our goal of bridging the digital divide. Ever since our first launch, we have focused on three objectives – 1) make devices more and more affordable 2) getting the best empowering content together on our tablets and 3) deliveringfree or almost free internet. The tie-up with Carleton University for imparting knowledge through Technology directly links in to our second objective.”

“Unlike other available educational content and software, we have worked very hard to ensure that the price is low, just so that good quality learning resources are most accessible and that learners are not challenged by the affordability barrier,”Tuli said.