According to an official release on August 31, Mumbai based Vedanta Foundation and Vedanta Limited, a globally diversified natural resources company, in collaboration with the Directorate of Education, Government of Goa, has launched a pilot project to promote digital education in schools across the state. The chief minister of Goa, Laxmikant Parsekar, who also holds the portfolio of education minister, recently launched ‘The Smart Class and Science Lab’ project. 
“The launch of this smart class and science lab project in schools is an additional initiative to support the cause of education. Vedanta has already funded Goa’s mining department in the Goa Engineering College and also runs two Industrial Training Institutes. Both these institutions are running very well. The choice of the government schools for introducing digital education was to help the less privileged students get oriented with education, in a smart and technology friendly way,” said Parsekar. He further requested Vedanta to extend the initiative to 77 high schools in the state as well. 

“At Vedanta, we believe that harnessing the full power of leveraging technology and innovation in school education is our endeavor towards investing in India’s future leaders. I am grateful for the honourable chief minister of Goa, Laxmikant Parsekar for recognising our efforts and commitment towards transforming and empowering the students of our host communities in Goa. I am confident that the Smart Class and Science Lab Project which is a pilot project will also have the opportunity of being adopted by other states as well,” said Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta. 

Vedanta Limited has a strong-rooted culture of innovation across its operations globally. The company launched Eureka in May 2016 to create an online platform to nurture and incubate in-house innovation that has the potential to maximise Vedanta’s value chain, optimise costs or simply improve employee engagement. It is a part of Vedanta’s innovation and technology drive for which a first tranche of INR 200 crore has been infused. Agarwal believes that in a milieu where technology and innovation are transforming businesses across the world, the natural resources sector too must keep up the pace to maintain relevance. 

The Smart Class project will be implemented in 13 schools, one in each taluka in Goa. Under the project, Vedanta will enable innovative learning through K-Yan, a portable device which converts any wall into an interactive teaching surface. This allows students to experience interactive multimedia content, virtual experiments, curriculum-based educational videos, and also facilitates training for teachers. 

A second project, Science Laboratories, will be implemented across 30 schools located in Goa’s mining belt. The Science Lab incorporates a package of 55 different science interactive working models mapped to the state educational curriculum, providing a forum for children to pursue their natural curiosity and inventiveness. Further, this technology simplifies the learning process by providing vital hands-on experiences to students. 

A demo of the smart class and its benefits was made to the gathering by ‘K-Yan’ representative, Gaurav Jagarwal. Also present on the dais were Virendra Kumar, education secretary (IAS), Gajanan Bhat, director, education, Nagaraj Honnekeri, director, SCERT, Anil Pawar, state project director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Taher Vohra, project Head, Vedanta Foundation and Leena Verenkar, Head – cororate affairs and CSR – Sesa Goa Iron Ore.
Vedanta endeavors to promote digital education and literacy through innovative measures and the company will continue to invest in the education sector as part of their community development initiatives. 

Panjim, Goa headquartered Vedanta Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil and gas, zinc – lead – silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power. For more information, visit www.vedantalimited.com. 

Set up in 1992, Vedanta Foundation is a Public Charitable Trust registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. It is an extension to the company’s efforts for focused sustainable development of the underprivileged population of the country.