Polycom pushes to make virtual classrooms a reality under ‘Digital India’

GURGAON: Video conferencing solutions provider Polycom is eyeing Digital India in a big way and believes that virtual classrooms, which are at a nascent stage in India, can help in imparting quality education across the country.

Minhaj Zia, Managing Director, Polycom India & SAARC, said, “We are associated with Ernet, the technology arm of Deity, for the last so many years and now working on virtual classroom project with them but more needs to be done to make them a reality. We should partner with non-governmental organizations to propagate the agenda of virtual classrooms.”

At present, Polycom is making virtual classes available in some of the Indian varsities such as ISBs, IITs.

Zia said that in education, e-governance, and healthcare there is huge opportunity. More than one lakh conference rooms under the government are not collaborated and there is a need to just lighten them up with collaborative technologies. Besides, there are 1.4 million schools which need to be tapped with virtual technologies.

He said that there are certain challenges with regards to virtual classrooms, but these could be sorted out with Polycom’s high quality video solutions.

Currently, Polycom claims to be number 1 video conferencing solutions provider, with a 44% market share in India and it is growing at a rate of 34%.

Polycom has partnered with the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) under Ministry of Commerce and Industry to offer high definition video conferencing solutions under DGS&D rate contract.

As per the contract, Polycom will play a key role in the digital transformation of India and will provide various video conferencing technologies to units under central and state governments. HD Video, multipoint conferencing and other products which will enable government in meeting their requirements of Digital India.

The company today also unveiled innovative collaboration solutions on its 25th year of existence.
Polycom RealPresence Trio is the first smart hub for group collaboration that transforms the three-point conference phone into a voice, content-sharing and video system that can fit into any team environment.