Red Hat News Desk

Red Hat  and IIT Bombay  announced that they are working together to support and spread open source programming skills among engineering colleges, MCA programs and other institutions. With the latest Red Hat Scholarships program and a new, collaborative learning program, Red Hat and IIT Bombay are bringing new ways for Indian students to acquire open source experience.

Red Hat has launched the Red Hat Scholarships 2006-2007 program, which will operate under the eKALAVYA program set up by the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT, IIT-Bombay. This is the third consecutive year of operation for the Red Hat Scholarships program. The program will help thousands of students looking for guidance on software development projects that they must submit as part of their annual academic requirements.

The two organizations have set up a collaborative program where students can sign up online for open source projects, seek advice from mentors in the open source community, find list of projects they can participate in, download open source software and get information on programming standards and guidelines. Given the rapid adoption of open source in education, government, and the financial industry, this program aims at ensuring that engineering students are equipped with open source skills.

A sum of Rs 20 lakh will go toward prizes for students and mentors participating in the program. There are also special recognition awards for best participation from a women's team, best participation from a rural college and more. The college with the largest number of project submissions received will be offered a Red Hat Academic Bundle.

Javed Tapia, President, Red Hat Indian Subcontinent, adds, "The National Knowledge Commission, a premiere body constituted by the Prime Minister that advises on how India can promote excellence in the education system, has recently recommended that India must use open source software in education to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century. Open source will play a huge part in building India's IT infrastructure, and we have to ensure that the next generation is ready for this. The Red Hat Scholarship program's primary objective is to ensure that Indian students are familiar with the open source philosophy, development model and software tools. We are happy to work with IIT Bombay in this initiative."