[ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1059475.cms The article appeared in today's Times Of India , Page 4 ]

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corporation India has opened a Microsoft Technology Centre at Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka.

The centre has been launched as a part of the 'academic developer programme', introduced by the world's biggest software company in end 2002.

The technology centre will function as a one-stop shop; a research lab for faculty and students, a training centre for faculty, and an e-learning resource centre.

VTU is also introducing a 4-semester M. Tech. programme in Microsoft's .NET technologies — a set of Microsoft technologies for connecting information, people, systems and devices

The programme will kick off in the next academic year, and will be available to students in 118 VTU-affiliated colleges across the state.

The centre will include hardware and software support and will impart training to faculty and students on a range topics including .NET.

Independents Software Vendors (ISVs) can also avail the facilities of the centre to test their applications.

Commenting on the alliance, Mr T N Chaturvedi, governor of Karnataka and chancellor of Visvervaraya Technological University said, "In line with our mission to become an outstanding university by producing world-class engineers, we strive to offer our students and faculty with the cutting-edge technology. We realise that the next computing wave will be that of web services. This partnership will help students and aspiring developers leverage the immense opportunity in building web services-based applications."