Dr V T Ingole, an expert in the field of IT and member of the IT Committee set up by the State Ministry of Higher and Technical Education, has prepared a comprehensive report on the subject and submitted a detailed proposal to the State Government recently. Reads the report, ``It appears that there is great scope for IT in rural areas of the State and we have selected the rural youth segment as our first target zone. Computer-educated youths can open information kiosks in villages and act as effective information providers.''

Dr Ingole, after consultation with experts like Dr Vijay Bhatkar of C-DAC, Pune and Dr Arun Nigawekar, Vice Chancellor of Pune University, has even drafted proposed syllabi for the rural students. Most importantly, the medium of instruction for the fourproposed courses will be Marathi by way of optimising the programme's reach in rural Maharashtra.

The courses proposed in the report are IT certificate (information provider), Advanced IT certificate (hands-on data operator), IT diploma (web page designing/ computer hardware and networking/ business accounting) and Advanced IT diploma (advanced multimedia/ advanced programming and advanced accounting). All the four courses are village-specific in its structure.

According to Dr Ingole, the proposal has multi-dimensional attributes. ``It envisages quick access to information by end users. The problems of general illiteracy and computer ignorance can be overcome by utilising the services of IT-trained rural youth, especially school dropouts and college-goers. With the availability of such youth, it is proposed to make national, State and local level information available on the internet and the world wide web.''

The Higher and Technical Education department has already started working on the report and theMinister, Datta Rane, has convened meetings to set the ball rolling. It is expected that the proposed plan will be implemented from the next academic year.

The State Government has already decreed computers as a school subject for academic year starting June 1999.