Hyderabad-based Boston Software has tied up with the Setwin project in Andhra Pradesh to enable online learning facilities. The project will see Boston implement its latest e-learning solution IntraLearn e-360. Although the scale of the project is currently worth Rs 20 lakh, it is expected to increase since Boston will also undertake the digital conversion of educational material.

Setwin is a society formed by the Andhra Pradesh government in 1978 to provide training to unemployed youth in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The company has also closed another deal with the National Institute of Rural Development called Bhodan Abhyas to provide online educational solutions to marginalized schools in the state.

In fact, Boston is now targeting educational institutions in other states either through a consortium or on its own. Speaking about the immense potential in this market, Deepak Kumar, Business Development manager, IntraLearn says, "We are in talks with all the IITs, IIMs and other leading institutes. Although this is an attractive segment for online e-learning solutions, this is also a very hard segment to crack since Indian educationists are seen to be a little wary of technology."

Considering the excellent repository of knowledge that exists in the tier one educational institutes in the country, it is important to make it available to a larger audience. And what better way to reach out than the online route. The hurdles here are not only lack of the physical infrastructure in terms of bandwidth, access to computers but a closed attitude amongst educationist and lack of appropriate educational content.