ZILS sights break-even; announces tie-up with Karnataka government

The newspapers are filled with reports about the ongoing slowdown in the infotech sector. Nonetheless Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS), which is less than two years old, says that it is all set to break even by next year with a turnover of Rs 1 billion.
ZILS is the wholly owned subsidiary of Zee Telefilms. In a Rs 20-billion information technology education market, ZILS claims to have crossed the Rs 300 million mark for the year 2000-2001 and is bullish on hitting Rs 3 billion by 2004.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Government has chosen the company to be its training partner in the `Mahithi Sindhu? scheme. The Karnataka government saw value in ZILS?s credible alliances, domain knowledge, technology expertise and experience in generating multimedia content, a company spokesperson said.

Under the `Mahithi Sindhu? scheme, ZILS will implement computer based education in 1,000 government high schools. The company will develop software for the subject - Science from Standards VIII - X. Side by side teachers will be trained.

All this is part of the initiative of The Department of State Education Research & Training. DSERT is a body of the Karnataka government which is responsible for implementing computer-based education to government high schools in the state.

The software installed will be in English and Kannada. So students will find it easy to follow and they will be able to use it in an effective manner. The software will entertain and educate through interactive features, animation, voiceover, graphics, pop-up questions. There will also be video clips based on imaginative analogies and components locally available and which children notice in day to day existence.

ZILS CEO Dilip Mahapatra had these remarks to make: The Schools Board prepares the syllabus, the course structure and conducts the examinations. We provide the infrastructure for conducting the courses. We make these courses interactive. IT education is becoming an integral part of most of the upper crust schools. We have identified 15,000 schools in the country that are imparting IT education or are planning to introduce it in the near future."

Besides this ZILS has already prepared customised multimedia courses in Mathematics, Science and English for Standard VIII - X. This is aimed at the CBSE, ICSE and SSC boards. Right now the company is working on preparing the course in Geography. ZILS plans to provide software to the schools abroad.

ZILS also offers Information Technology solutions for teachers and school?s management. ZILS has developed an Internet-based software. Therefore the school?s task of track a student?s progress based on their mark sheets, home assignments, attendance and discipline records is made all the more easy.

The company has also made its mark in the corporate world. It claims to have trained Insurance agents from companies like Reliance, ICICI- Lombard, Bajaj Allianz and Royal Sundaram. Zee Interactive Learning Systems is the training partner of Institute of Company Secretary of India (ICSI) for training students pursuing the Company Secretary course.