Red Hat and IIT Bombay Deliver New Education Opportunities For Open Source Programming

Red Hat Scholarships and collaborative program provide open source training for Indian students

MUMBAI, INDIA -

Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, and IIT Bombay today announced that they are working together to support and spread open source programming skills among engineering colleges, MCA programs and other institutions. With the latest Red Hat Scholarships program and a new, collaborative learning program, Red Hat and IIT Bombay are bringing new ways for Indian students to acquire open source experience.

Red Hat has launched the Red Hat Scholarships 2006-2007 program, which will operate under the eKALAVYA program set up by the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT, IIT-Bombay. This is the third consecutive year of operation for the Red Hat Scholarships program. The program will help thousands of students looking for guidance on software development projects that they must submit as part of their annual academic requirements.

The two organizations have set up a collaborative program where students can sign up online for open source projects, seek advice from mentors in the open source community, find list of projects they can participate in, download open source software and get information on programming standards and guidelines. Given the rapid adoption of open source in education, government, and the financial industry, this program aims at ensuring that engineering students are equipped with open source skills.

A sum of Rs 20 lakh will go toward prizes for students and mentors participating in the program. There are also special recognition awards for best participation from a women's team, best participation from a rural college and more. The college with the largest number of project submissions received will be offered a Red Hat Academic Bundle.

Javed Tapia, President, Red Hat Indian Subcontinent, adds, "The National Knowledge Commission, a premiere body constituted by the Prime Minister that advises on how India can promote excellence in the education system, has recently recommended that India must use open source software in education to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century. Open source will play a huge part in building India's IT infrastructure, and we have to ensure that the next generation is ready for this. The Red Hat Scholarship program's primary objective is to ensure that Indian students are familiar with the open source philosophy, development model and software tools. We are happy to work with IIT Bombay in this initiative."

Prof. DB Phatak, Subharao M. Nilekani Chair Professor and Head KreSIT, IIT-Bombay said, " Today, in several parts of India, students and teachers often struggle to keep pace with the latest developments in technology. Though talented, they lack resources, experience and exposure, and competent guidance. We are thrilled to team with Red Hat and ensure that Indian students are exposed to open source technology."

Students interested in being part of Red Hat Scholarships can get more details of the program at in.redhat.com/community/rhscholarship.php ## About Red Hat Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. The most trusted name in open source, CIOs and other senior-level IT executives have ranked Red Hat as the industry's most valued vendor for two consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

Red Hat India is a subsidiary of Red Hat Inc, USA. Red Hat has been at the forefront of bringing the latest open source and Linux technology to India. Red Hat has enabled adoption of open source technology across segments - Government, enterprise and education. They have six offices in India at Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and one in Sri Lanka at Colombo. OEM partners include IBM, DELL, HP, HCL Infosystems, Wipro Infotech and Acer among others. SI partners include Wipro Infotech and HCL Infosystems. Red Hat India has a distribution network of more than 70 channel partners spanning 27 cities across India. Key distributors being GT Enterprises, Sonata Software and Integra Microsystems. Red Hat Learning Services are available with over 70 training partners at over 300 locations across India. Learn more: in.redhat.com

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For further information please contact

Anantika Channa
Marketing Manager
Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd
Email: achanna@redhat.com

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