Electronic link to provide access to research databases

CHENNAI Dec. 22. Ernet Society, an agency sponsored by the University Grants Commission for providing electronic link among educational and research institutions in the country, has offered a high capacity connectivity to the Anna University. The arrangement would not only enable the university to get good connectivity but also provide access to high quality educational and research content, say university authorities.

Besides providing two megabits per second connectivity, the Ernet initiative will help in gaining access to databases of research organisations and e-journals. The university was asking its affiliated colleges to get financial assistance offered by the All-India Council for Technical Education and the UGC for securing a link with the University.

A professor engaged in developing the network said Ernet wanted to provide a satellite and terrestrial link of 128 kbps, though the university wanted a higher capacity line for video conferencing and e-governance initiatives.

The UGC and the AICTE offer was to provide Rs.3 lakhs per college as seed money to get the ISDN line.

The Ernet Director, Gulshan Roy, along with S.V. Raghavan, professor, who was involved in Ernet's formulation, made a presentation before a group of college principals.

After the meeting, about 60 principals came forward to collect application forms for seeking the AICTE-UGC offer.

The professor said the 2 mbps connectivity could cost a college up to Rs.12 lakhs, but the price could come down, especially with the prospect of private service providers entering the scene for providing high bandwidth connectivity.

There was also a possibility of the university getting a dedicated transponder from the educational satellite being developed by the ISRO.

Once the Anna University gets the 2-mbp connectivity and the colleges are electronically linked with it, the colleges could access the databases available to the university.