Hewlett-Packard Vice President, Dr. Suresh Subramanian, says formal discussions held last week with Botswana’s Education and Skills Development Minister Dr. Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi concerning e-learning, ICT infrastructure and applications development charts the beginning of all encompassing smart partnerships in end-to-end solutions and support delivery.
Subramanian who is also HP General Manager Industry told Sunday Standard during the October 15 to 17, 2013 Innovation Africa Summit held in Gaborone that due to unwavering commitment of improving the continent’s e-learning capacity, HP with its Head Office in Palo Alto, US, had decided to be the main event sponsor, although a first time participator.
“Botswana, like other African countries needs sustainable partnerships to effectively overcome challenges such as the inadequate supply of electricity, infrastructure deficiencies, inaccessibility and inadequate skills especially to rural areas to achieve higher quantitative levels. The advantages of partnerships are that the more advantaged party is able to readily, without heavy financial commitments, transfer high-end solutions in terms of equipment, scarce skills and wherewithal,” Subramanian said.
“For instance, HP has forged a successful co-partnership with the Kenyan Health Ministry for testing of HIV in remote rural areas and sponsored e-researching and course material on health to Kenyan Universities. The Kenyan experience shows that Botswana given its political democracy, good corporate governance, prudential fiscal policies and conducive investment climate, more milestone achievement can be achieved within a shorter timeframe.”
The HP VP said there is a great deal of optimism for ICT to establish a broad-band-width footprint in African countries as well as globally. Given HP’s annual budget of about US$120 billion (P1.020 trillion), such a strategy would not only accelerate the rather sluggish e-learning platform but enable the universal promotion of related products including e-solutions to rural education and health programmes.
Within HP’s cyber world, Subramanian occupies the driving seat enhancing strategy and business with key industry markets including education and healthcare. With an assortment of products and services like PCs, printers, printing presses, servers, networking devices, software and services, HP brings an unmatched commitment to serving the education and healthcare customers with end-to-end solutions and support.
The California-based Subramanian holding engineering and business degrees took a 5-year sabbatical in 2005 to focus on the global AIDS epidemic. During this break he launched a healthcare NGO and served as co-founder of the Community Innovation Lb at MIT, Cambridge, focused on building learning and innovations for marginalized communities worldwide.
