THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a move to cooperate in areas including e-leaning, skill development, rural technologies, sanitation, energy conservation and outreach programmes, the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD-PR) have signed an MoU on Friday. The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD-PR), an autonomous organisation under the Union Ministry of Rural Development, is a premier national centre of excellence in rural development and Panchayati Raj.
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi honoured the occasion and wished the MoU came out as a significant social impact initiative for rural India. NIRD-PR Director General W R Reddy said, “NIRD-PR’s reach in rural areas, when combined with compassionate research and rural technologies of Amrita varsity can bring major transformation in the rural landscape of India.”
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Vice Chancellor Venkat Rangan said, “Amrita’s unique Live-in-Labs programme require students to go to rural areas and build research-based solutions.” Live-in-Labs is a credit-based academic programme that provides multidisciplinary experiential learning which breaks classroom and lab barriers by practically applying learned theory in real-world. Live-in-Labs has implemented more than 150 projects in 21 states across India.