[LINK] India: "National Knowledge Network"

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/UCIL-becomes-first-body-
to-join-Natl-Knowledge/articleshow/10406058.cms>


JAMSHEDPUR: The Uranium Corporation of India in Jadugora has become the 
first state-based government enterprise to join the (Indian) National 
Knowledge Network (NKN) on Tuesday.

The Centre-sponsored Rs 5990crore NKN project is aimed at establishing a 
strong and robust domestic network which will be capable of providing 
secure and reliable connectivity at ultra-high speed.

Using NKN, all top institutions will be able to transcend space and time 
limitations in accessing information, and knowledge, and derive the 
associated benefits for themselves and for the society at large.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC), a high-powered panel constituted 
by the principal scientific advisor to the Centre for establishment of 
NKN, has identified 20 government-run institutions in the state for 
connectivity with the NKN.

"Initially, five institutions UCIL, IIM-Ranchi, NML, RIMS and NIFT will 
be connected to NKN, and by the end of this fiscal rest 15 institutions 
will be linked," said Saheed Ahmed, state in-charge of National 
Informatics Center (NIC), the executing body of NKN.

NKN is a significant step towards ushering in a knowledge revolution in 
the country with connectivity to 1,500-plus institutions by the end of 
2011-12.

"The NKN has been designed for reliability, availability and scalability 
with network consisting of an ultra-high speed core, starting with 
multiple 2.5/10 G and progressively moving towards 40/100 gigabits per 
second (Gbps)," said Ahmed.

NKN is a state-of-the art Pan India network facilitating development of 
India's information, he added. "The virtual library involving sharing of 
journals, books and research papers across different institutions is a 
natural application for NKN," said Ahmed.

UCIL CMD Diwakar Acharya, who inaugurated the Uranium Corporation's 
connectivity with NKN, said, "Securing high-end information for 
upgradation of technology from across the globe will be far easier and 
smoother through NKN."

The participating institutions at the edge would seamlessly connect to 
NKN at gigabit speed in the months ahead.

The government-run universities, research institutions, laboratories, 
healthcare and agricultural institutions in the domestic circuit would 
see a paradigm shift in its knowledge building exercise with NKN in the 
days to come," said the CMD.

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Cheers,
Stephen