Bangalore: Global IT major IBM and Karnataka government on May 7 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote e-learning initiative based on Open Source Technology.

Under the MoU, IBM would develop an e-learning platform for BITES (Board for IT Education Standards) for higher technical educational institutions in Karnataka.

IBM would also participate, along with BITES and Indian Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) in Hubli in creating IBM Centre of Excellence devoted to the development of Open Source Software.

The MoU was inked by Karnataka IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni and Frank Luksic, Country Executive, Software Group and Developer Relations, IBM India, in the presence of Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna and Steve Mills, Senior Vice-President and Group Executive, Software Group, IBM Corporation.

With this initiative, Mills said, IBM would leverage local talent through educational programmes and bring existing syllabus, faculty and students on par with the emerging technologies in IT.

"We are excited about this investment and committed to open standards and open source," he said.

Krishna said the initiative "opens up very exciting prospects for Karnataka" and it was a "new era in skill building".

To a query, Mills said IBM had "long term expectations" from India, where, he said, they had invested more people than in China.

PTI