Trivandrum: The 11th edition of the annual Kerala State School IT Mela will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on January 23, 2013. The School IT Mela 2013 will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy in the presence of Minister for Education, Shri P K Abdu Rabb and Minster for Industries & IT, Shri P K Kunhalikutty.

Tvm: In order to realize the dream of the ‘Digital Inclusion’ programme in Kerala by empowering all students in the State in ICT, the IT@School project has planned to introduce specific ICT training programme for students who require special attention. As the first step, the training module for teachers has been developed and it is to be noted that this training programme is being developed entirely using the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) based application, GCompris.

Tvm: The Technopark based International Centre for Free & Open Source Software (ICFOSS) is set to commence research and development activities on the popular smart-device platform, Android, through a composite project awarded to it by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India. Android is a FOSS-based generic Operating System platform for mobile phones, pads, slates, tablets and a variety of other emerging devices. It is promoted by the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 84 IT and Telecom firms led by Google, which originally owned the platform.

Tvm: The 4th Governing Body meeting of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), chaired by the Minister for Industries, IT and Urban Affairs, Shri P K Kunhalikutty on October 21, 2011, has decided to adopt a revised vision document for its structure and functioning. The new Vision and Mission were based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee Chaired by Prof. Rahul De (IIM Bangalore).

Tvm: The Ministry for Human Resource Development, Government of India, has lauded the State Government’s IT@School project for conducting the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) enabled training programme for all visually challenged teachers in Kerala using Free & Open Source Software (FOSS).

Tvm: Insight, an initiative of the Kerala Government, aimed at empowering the differently abled - through computers, Internet and other Information & Communication Technology (ICT) tools, will soon be extended throughout the State. Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy gave a directive to this effect at the review meeting of Insight held on September 07, 2011. The meeting was attended by Industries & IT Minister, Shri P K Kunhalikutty and A Shajahan IAS, Director, KSTIM.