Hyderabad: IT is now Intelligence Technology, says KTR

Hyderabad: IT for twenty years has been Information Technology. But, it doesn't hold any water now. IT is now Intelligence Technology. The time has come now to redefine it, said IT Minister K. Tarakarama Rao while addressing the 2,000 plus engineering education experts at the inauguration of 7th International Conference on 'Transformations in Engineering Education' here in the city at Anurag Group of Institutions (AGI) Campus at Venkatapur on Monday morning.

The theme of the event is "Socio-humanistic approach in Engineering Education" with sub themes such as outcome-based education, game based and project based learning, innovation in teaching, learning process and entrepreneurship and others.

"Government of Telangana is committed for quality in all stages of education. The state has 220 Engineering colleges with an intake of 1.2 lakh students in various streams. When we took over the realms of the State, we observed that engineering educational standards were deteriorating. We appointed a committee and inspected the standards. It was a tough call. But to our surprise, the number of colleges have not come down drastically," he shared

KTR said that when industry complained that skillsets among engineering students was a problem, the State Government came up with TASK (Telangana Academy of Skills and Knowledge). TASK in last five years reached out to 680 colleges, trained 5070 Faculty and 2.9 lakh students in various skill sets, KT Rama Rao informed.

TASK will expand its foot print to Tier-2 and 3 cities like Warangal, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Nalgonda, he announced. He suggested that Practice School Option, similar to the one existing in Germany must be introduced as part of our curriculum.

'The Practice School programme allows a student to practice concepts learnt in classrooms in real-life situations while also sensitising them to the ways of workplace behaviour by assigning time-bound projects as in a company. JNTU is actively considering this. We must seek BVR Mohan Reddy's support as he is the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany. It can be either six or 12 months and hopefully the institutions must kick start this from next year', he said.

India has a demographic dividend. 50 per cent population is below 27 years and 65 per cent below 35. They are the one going to drive India. If we don't use these resources by skilling them properly it will boomerang as demographic disaster, he cautioned. Hyderabad is popular and known for IT Services. But it is also known as a Hub for Electronics Manufacturing, Emerging Technologies, Defence and Aerospace sectors, he shared.

KTR said the State Government's vision was to foster innovation driven economy in Telangana. The Minister also unveiled ICTIEE-2020 Souvenir.

Addressing the event, Education Minister P. Sabitha Indira Reddy said that looking at the plight of people going abroad for higher education, Telangana Government has decided to create an educational infrastructure to establish institutions similar to some existing in abroad by introducing Private University Act. Speaking further, she added that it is the aim of Telangana to improve its literacy rate from current 70 per cent to 100 per cent in next few years.

Dr Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MLC and Chairman of Anurag Group of Institutions which is hosting the 7th International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Education, while giving his remarks said that to build a strong nation we need better engineers. He announced that AGI is likely to become a private university soon once the permission processes are completed.

Today students are demanding more from their teachers. Now student has emerged more powerful, he observed. ICTIEE 2020 is being organised under guidance of Prof Krishna Vedula founder of IUCEE.