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Katha means story in Hindi.

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This is truly a story of a Khazana, which means treasure, the treasure with which our

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children are supposed to build the future of our nation.

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The innovative spirit at Katha overwhelms you as soon as you get past its gate.

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The architecture of the building, to the paintings all over its walls, to the names given to

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myriad learning activities, and the feel, the way children relate to their environment.

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It was started in the slum of Gobindpuri in South Delhi by Geeta Dharmarajan.

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It is one of the most notable efforts to help slum children become as skilled as the best

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anywhere in their age group.

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This is the first day of the One Laptop Per Child program, when 30 laptops are handed

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over to the children as they assemble, to explore what it can mean to them.

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They have been assembled in this room, representing various grades, age groups, and as you can

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see, they seem immersed in exploring its various features, from visual to audio, to the various

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functions.

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This child is measuring the distance between two chosen laptops.

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This one is learning how to say her name.

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They sit under the winter sun and can work on the laptop without glare.

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They are eager to learn, share, explore, enjoy.

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This is Rao, harnessing the creativity, excitement, and innovating capabilities of the children

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as she teaches them color illustration.

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Ajay, the computer teacher, is struck by the networking capabilities of the laptop, including

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formatting, animation, and programming that a child can create.

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Ajay, the computer teacher, is struck by the networking capabilities of the laptop, including

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formatting, animation, and programming that a child can create.

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This teacher has created a program to help children play.

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Ajay, the computer teacher, is struck by the networking capabilities of the laptop, including

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formatting, animation, and programming that a child can create.

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As Mr. Satish Jha put it,

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I am excited about One Laptop per Child and I support the program in India and wherever I am needed.

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I'm looking at about 30 million children in India reaching out and accessing screen-based learning

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with the help of this laptop that we've created.

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Professor Negroponte heard the voice and the need of India, the voice of children and the need of what

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India needs to do seven years back, and he projected it into the future.

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We created something, he created something, Media Lab created something, which is a phenomenal product.

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What we can do is use it. By using it, we just might transform the way India learns.

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The future of India could depend on how our children learn how to use primarily screen-based techniques.

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Unless we learn how to use screens, we are not going to be part of the world citizenship in times to come.

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And digital divide has made it very difficult for us.

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In fact, every day the divide is getting wider, deeper, broader.

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It's already considered to be a chasm.

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If that's the case, we have to take very, very definitive steps, and I think it's a great step.

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If we can work with this technology, it's the cheapest possible way of making India different, computer, world-class in learning.

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And I hope our leaders, our chief ministers, our policy planners, our education secretaries, our technology visionaries,

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they see the merit of it and move forward with it.

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But a child learns from ground zero.

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A child needs a very different level of capacities, tools, and skills.

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And we have seen in 60 years of India's independence that we are still way behind our initial target of universal education.

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The quality of education is so poor that kids who are in high schools, they may not have touched or seen computers.

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Now, if you're going to work on computers and you haven't seen computers, what will happen to us?

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What good are we going to be?

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The basic issue is that our education hasn't kept pace with the changes which have come about in the global ways of educating, learning, and skill-building as such.

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We have to step up in this direction as such.

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So I would say that, well, we all have to see the potential of this technology come together and move forward.

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I think it's everybody's job, and we are trying to reach out to the government, to corporate sector, to looking at corporate social responsibilities,

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non-government organizations, foundations, high-network individuals, nearly everyone.

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We have to reach out to them to make them understand.

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If we don't have a citizenship of people who understand the skills of today, we will not be able to honorably call ourselves members of the global society.

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So for that reason, if we don't have the skills, we won't be as productive as that.

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We need, we're predicting millions of people who we need in the next 10 years to support the global process that has become world-sourcing.

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And that will not happen unless we have the skills.

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Right now, we're already way behind that curve.

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So we have to move forward.

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So I would say that each of us has to participate in this process, whatever we have, whatever we can do at any point in time.

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The budget, give it. If you can donate, please do.

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If you have social responsibility budgets, please donate it to schools.

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Adopt a village, adopt a block, adopt a district, adopt a state, depending on the capacities you have, move forward.

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♪