By Arun Kumar

Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) An Indian American pioneer in digital 
education has won the 2006 Champions of Digital Literacy 
Inspiration Award for making the most contributions globally to 
bridging the digital divide.

Appu Kuttan, chairman and founder of CyberLearning, the global 
non-profit leader in digital education, was presented the award by 
David Saedi, president and CEO of Certiport, at a ceremony at 
Disney World in Orlando, Florida, Saturday.

"This award is given in recognition of exceptional vision and 
leadership in bridging the digital divide. We selected Appu Kuttan 
unanimously for this prestigious award because of his outstanding 
leadership efforts and contributions towards bridging the digital 
divide by advancing digital literacy in many countries over many 
years," he said.

Kuttan was chosen for the Inspiration Award from 13 Champions of 
Digital Literacy award recipients. They included education, 
government, corporate and non-profit leaders from China, Japan, 
Greece, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and the US, a Certport 
release said.

Kuttan founded CyberLearning in 1994, and has since built it into 
the world's leading global non-profit organisation bridging the 
digital divide through digital education.

CyberLearning has trained over a million disadvantaged students and 
adults in digital literacy and IT skills. Its programmes have been 
implemented in the US, India, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritius among 
others.

Kuttan's contribution to digital and IT education spans 20 years 
from advising late Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on making 
India an IT power, to currently helping Mauritian Prime Minister 
Navin Ramgoolam transform Mauritius into an IT-focused nation by 
providing digital literacy and IT education to 400,000 Mauritians to 
providing digital education to thousands of disadvantaged school 
students and teachers in the US and India.

"I am heartened that many country leaders have asked us to help 
them replicate the Mauritius model in their countries by 
implementing cost-effective holistic systems for digital literacy and 
IT education," Kuttan said.

Kuttan is an international management and education systems 
expert, and author of several innovative concepts, such as 
"CyberLearning," "Management By Systems (MBS)," "Total Tennis" 
and "Holistic Executive."