baramati arun shourie minister for disinvestment communication and information technology it said on saturday that the media lab asia project in collaboration with the massachusetts institute of technology mit has been called off by the governmentpresently a fresh proposal has been presented to the cabinet it has been proposed to run the project with the help of indian scientists and engineers i would very much like the project to be guided by senior scientists like dr ra mashelkar or dr kasturirangan shourie said at a press conference herehe was speaking at the third annual baramati initiative on information and communication technology ict and development organised jointly by the vidya pratisthans institute of information and technology viit and the american nonprofit organisation digital partnersshourie praised the initiatives taken by the baramatibased viit in promoting it in rural maharashtra and said he was amazed at the it transformation in baramatithis years conference which is being attended by delegates from all over the world is emphasising on the role of social entrepreneurs who are using ict in opening market driven avenues for the poor us congressman jay inslee naina lal kidwai vicechairperson and managing director hsbc securities and capital markets walter north director usaid and motoo kusakabe former vicepresident of the world bank were among those presentshourie said several ict initiatives in the country like the eseva programme in andhra pradesh the computerised customer cell at the pune district collectorate computerised land records in madhya pradesh and the mobile computer van in baramati were going on in the countrywhen asked why these examples could not be scaled up shourie said india is like a large continent it takes time for technology and ideas to disseminate commending sharad pawar founder viit for his initiative in baramati shourie said baramati is testimony to what one person can doshourie was of the opinion that it had done more for india than just contributed to 20 per cent of exports it has helped us change the perceptions we have of ourselves if we keep doing new things we could be the educators of the worldhe said india can excel in the service industry and in manufacturing we are scared of china but if you look closely at their exports you will realise that they export lowtech products like leather toys and garments india can outdo chinahowever it is the indian state apparatus that keeps it down what we need is to embrace technology and embrace the worldasked about the latest antiindia business process outsourcing bpo drive in the us shourie said india has became a large it base it is but natural for countries to react in this manner when their own workforce is threatened we need to continue to provide quality software at competitive rates to ensure that business keeps coming to india