Even as the Union Government has begun laying emphasis on IT-enabled education, PC maker Dell India is eyeing the huge government spending on cards in the education sector. The company is planning big to add more clientele to its existing list of nearly 300 educational institutions — especially universities and colleges in Pune — and working towards formalising long-term tieups with many of them.

In Pune, Dell, in partnership with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has already launched ‘The Climate Eduxchange’ — an IT-enabled initiative to improve environment education. The project that covers five other cities — Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mohali — will target class V-XI students in 50 schools of each city.

Joe Kremer, general manager for Public Sector, Asia-Pacific and managing director, ANZ, Dell Inc. said in India, the company was looking to replicate the success it reaped in countries like Mexico and Australia, where it focused on the education sector. “Since Pune is an education hub in India and as Dell too is focusing on this sector, it becomes an important market for Dell. We will be focusing on long-term partnership with educational institutions for providing adequate technological tools and classroom connectivity. The ‘classroom-connect’, a project aimed at digitisation of classrooms, will be launched soon in the country.”

Though Dell officials said it was difficult to estimate the exact market size of this particular segment, according to a forecast by Springboard Research, the education sector will step up IT spending from an estimated $356 million in 2008 to $704 million in 2012, reflecting an annual growth rate of 19 per cent in this period. Investment will largely go in the areas of networking, basic infrastructure and implementing IT security solutions — areas where Dell is set to leverage.

... contd.