According to Mr Biswadip Mitra, managing director of TI India, in the first round, TI India has short-listed 25 educational institutions. "We are looking at the capabilities and strengths of these institutes in various applications. After reviewing the strengths, we will select 12 institutes which will work on any one of the 12 application domains selected by TI India," said Mr Mitra.

The 12 application domains include speech, audio, video, games, Bluetooth, connectivity. In this, software development companies and hardware manufacturers will play an important role. "In the first stage, we will select the institutes, train the students in the TI lab at Bangalore for a year and also send our engineers to the campus, set up the campus labs and sponsor the projects," Mr Mitra said.

This will be followed by a three-way alliance in which software developers, hardware companies and TI India will work closely with the institutes to produce a wide range of 3G applications, he said.In the second half of this year, TI India will enter into a relationship with hardware majors interested in the communication and Internet world.

According to Mr Mitra, three educational institutions have been selected in the first round from the eastern region - Jadavpur University, Shibpur BE College and IIT Kharagpur. TI India will help the Institutes with software and hardware."Till recently we were interested in creating IT labs but there is a change in strategy. We will call these facilities end-equipment labs as that will help students familiarise themselves with not only the inside of the equipment but also will give a feeling about the hardware structure," added Mr Mitra.Last month, TI India set up a 3G wireless centre in Bangalore where the focus is on integrated semiconductor and software solutions for key communication and Internet driven equipment.