Why in news:

• Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated the Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Advanced Technology (R-CAT) in Jaipur on the occasion of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary.

Key Points:

• The centre was announced in the state budget of 2020-21 by chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
• The Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Advanced Technology will provide ample opportunities to the local youth  to learn advanced and emerging technologies in areas like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Robotics, Machine Learning, Data Analytics. The youth will be trained by experts from big companies in these fields.
• Tech graduates will get up to 6 months training in IT technology. This will provide new employment opportunities to the youth and their capabilities will be enhanced to play an important role in the development of the state.
• The centre would be equipped with world-class infrastructure. The leading IT companies will provide training and run certification courses. The centre will feature experienced faculty and mentors in all fields of advanced technologies mentioned above.The trainees will get the opportunity to work on live projects and get real-life applications of these technologies.
• The certification courses will be operated by leading tech companies such as VMWare, autofina Robotics, SAS, Oracle, Cisco and Red Hat. The Rajasthan government received proposals from seven companies and MoUs have been signed with these companies. In exchange, the companies have been offered fully-equipped training institutes and maintenance facilities free of cost.
• In order to ensure availability of quality technical manpower as per the demand of the government and industry in the state, R-CAT has been awarded to the Department of Information Technology and Communication under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958 to conduct certificate courses on a partnership basis with leading it sector institutions by adopting a world-class certification program established under the patronage of the Government of Rajasthan.
• R-CAT will act as a finishing school for the development of youth and working professionals. Technical and soft skills will be provided in order to tailor them to industry-driven demand and support start-ups.
• Advanced and emerging IT-based technologies of one week to six months duration for professional graduates like BE, BTech, BCA, MCA MBA and MSc (IT) in collaboration with global tech giants like Oracle VMware SAS RedHat Sisco and Cadotafina, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) Blockchain, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (Azar/Azar) Training programmes on VR, Big Data Analytics Robotics and Quantum Computing etc. will be conducted.
• The centre is being established as a society and will be governed by society by-laws under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958.