India's software giant Infosys Technologies wants to expand its affirmative action initiative for the country's disadvantaged groups in association with the government.

Having already trained around 100 graduate and postgraduate science students free of cost as a pilot project in 2007, Infosys has written to the social justice and empowerment ministry, offering to continue the training programme for poor students, mainly from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

A well-placed source in the ministry said that Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar had written to Infosys, requesting the industry leader to continue imparting IT training to SC and OBC students.

In response to Kumar's request, M P Ravindra, advisor, research and education, Infosys, has expressed willingness to continue the affirmative initiative through a private-public partnership (PPP) mode.

"It is our sincere endeavour to help out the people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to understand and gain competence to become competitive," Ravindra said.

"We are working very closely with the state and central governments on this by providing some portion of the funds. The job selection is completely dependent on the way the programme is run and the performance of the candidates," he added.

More companies should join hands to support such programmes and Infosys will be more than willing to share the know-how," Ravindra said.

The ministry has agreed to share expenses and is in the process of finalising the blueprint.

"The ministry is willing to pay Rs.40,000 to Rs.45,000 per candidate against the tuition cost, and would offer monthly allowance of Rs.1,500 to hostellers and Rs.700 to others. We would have at least 70 to 80 poor SC and OBC students in each batch," the source said.

The joint secretary in charge of the ministry's Scheduled Castes division, D.V.S. Ranga, is coordinating with Infosys for the early implementation of the scheme, which could become a role model for other industrial houses.

"Such an affirmative action could be sustained only through the PPP mode. It is a highly specialised six-month-long programme carried out with the help of ace IT experts drawn from Infosys and other sources. We won't mind in sharing the financial burden," a ministry official, who did not want to be named, said.

The idea to train 100 SC and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students was first mooted during a meeting between Kumar and Infosys chief mentor S. Narayana Murthy in 2007, when the latter called on the minister to discuss affirmative action and a quota for Dalits in the private sector.

Several industry chambers have taken a slew of affirmative measures for deprived sections in an attempt to upgrade their skills and enhance entrepreneurship so that their employability increases.