Thiruvananthapuram, April 3 : Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has been selected to the pre-final stage (Prototype creation level) of the ‘FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge’ of Government of India, with prize money of Rs 1 crore. The Innovation Challenge was constituted by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) setup for champions in innovations in Free and Open Source Software ( FOSS), KITE CEO K Anvar Sadath said in a press release on Sunday. KITE’s ‘ E-cube English e-Language Lab’ project, aiming to help the students in improving their English language learning proficiency, which was inaugurated last month by General Education Minister V Sivankutty has been shortlisted for the Challenge. In October 2021, MeitY had invited nominations for #FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge from private and public institutions for accelerating the adoption of FOSS in Government and to build Indian FOSS Ecosystem. KITE’s E-cube English e-Language Lab software has been selected to the Prototype building and submission stage (3rd round) of the Challenge after successfully clearing the 2nd round wherein the KITE CEO had presented the software before an eminent Jury. The E-cube English Lab is an application which can be used in an offline mode without the need for any specific hardware, internet or network. The application enables the students to improve their language learning skills in an edutainment manner much like playing a computer game. A key highlight of the application is that it can be easily installed in the computers available in schools in a single click, through its own Wi-Fi network. It gives multiple levels of support for students to improve their Hearing, Speaking, Reading and Writing skills KITE is setting up E-Language Labs in all schools in the State, which enables License Free usage and in line with State curriculum and pedagogy, which on the other hand would have cost the State Exchequer a whopping Rs 800 crore if any proprietary application of this sort was opted. The General Education Minister had earlier declared that this FOSS achievement of KITE would be shared with other States and Countries. DS GK