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March 28, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report March 28, 2001 |
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MIT Media Labs hits financial roadblockNetScribes/Abhijit Basu MIT Media Labs Asia seems to be in financial trouble. The latest topic of debate within the IT ministry seems to be the funding of the same. According to sources close to the ministry, the ministry now wants an increased commitment for the project from the parent Massachusetts Institute of Technology on funding issues and has re-initiated financial discussions with the body. Earlier this year, the total investment in the project was hiked to Rs 10 billion over a period of ten years from Rs 350 million as proposed earlier. At Massachusetts, the Media Labs is supported by over 170 corporates and they sponsor 80 per cent of the expenses. The same model was proposed for the Indian version too. After hectic rounds of debate and discussions, MIT decided to pump in 80 per cent of the expenses, with the remaining 20 per cent to be pooled in by the government of India from its own kitty and contributions from state governments. However, the Centre now seems to have developed cold feet over its own investments and is understood to have proposed an increased investment from MIT. The quantum of the increased investment could not be ascertained. Also, the ministry has proposed the setting up of the Labs at Pune. Interestingly, this is contrary to the recommendations of the task force set up by the ministry, which had proposed that the operations of the Labs be spread out across the country. The idea of setting up the MIT Media Labs in the country was mooted by Pramod Mahajan, Minister of Information Technology, during his visit to the MIT Labs in the US early last year. Since then, Mahajan is understood to be taking personal interest in the project after it hit a roadblock owing to lack of coordination, which put a spanner in the works. However, further negotiations and a sales pitch from Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratories, led to the commencement of the project. In the first phase, the Labs were expected to adopt 1000 villages across the country and develop customised solutions for them, making it an integral part of the rural computing initiative. |
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