Sify and MERLOT in Alliance to Increase Efficacy of Learning and Quality of Online Learning Materials and Services

By Prne, Gaea News Network
Sunday, July 19, 2009

CHENNAI, India and LONG BEACH, California -

- Sign MOU to Work Together to Realize Shared Goals and Objectives

Sify Technologies Limited, (NASDAQ National market: SIFY), a leader in enterprise data services and consumer Internet with global delivery capabilities; and MERLOT, an international cooperative formed for the purpose of aggregating and making freely accessible high quality online resources to improve learning and teaching within higher education, announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by which both organizations would co-operate to develop plans and implement programs to serve and benefit both parties and their constituencies.

Sorel Reisman, Managing Director, MERLOT, and Vice President of Publications of the IEEE Computer Society, said, “This is an initiative that will greatly complement our efforts to realize MERLOT’s vision of being a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy. Our alliance will enable us to jointly analyze, design and develop educational solutions for higher education in collaboration with MERLOT communities. We believe this will greatly enhance our ability to achieve our goal of improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses”.

Devraj Shetty, Business Head, Sify eLearning Services, Sify, said, “We are indeed delighted to partner with MERLOT for the best in online teaching, learning and training tools and applications. Sify and MERLOT share the mission of improving the efficacy of teaching and learning by expanding the quantity and improving the quality of online learning materials and services. To do this, we bring cutting-edge expertise, experience and applications to the alliance. Combined with the guidance of the diverse educational community members that MERLOT represents, this will result in successful collaboration to transform learning, education and training”.

This unique relationship will result in Sify and MERLOT working together to achieve their common goals with regard to raising the standard of online education, training and learning tools and applications: to effectively and efficiently serve their constituents by providing joint community activities and promoting the sharing of tools and resources; to enable the higher online education community to take advantage of high quality online resources and services through the collaborative efforts of Sify and MERLOT; and to provide opportunities for greater collaboration between the members of each other’s constituents, thereby adding value to them.

About MERLOT:

MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT’s vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

MERLOT’s strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty-designed courses.

MERLOT’s activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of Individual Members, Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.

Integral to MERLOT’s continuing development of faculty development support services are its:

- Building and sustaining online academic communities - Online teaching and learning initiatives - Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials

MERLOT maintains its currency through ongoing and continuing communication with its worldwide supporters in a variety of ways, including the annual MERLOT International Conference, the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), member publications, news, and our new Voices website to enable MERLOT users to communication with others.

About Sify

Sify is among the largest Managed Enterprise and Consumer Internet Services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common telecom data network infrastructure reaching 500+ cities and towns in India.

A significant part of the company’s revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services, enterprise applications and hosting. Sify is recognized as an ISO 9001:2000 certified service provider for network operations, data center operations and customer support, and for provisioning of VPNs, Internet bandwidth, VoIP solutions and integrated security solutions, and ISO 27001 certified for InternetData Center operations. Sify has licenses to operate NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) services and offers VoIP back haul to long distance subscriber telephony services. The company is India’s first enterprise managed services provider to launch a Security Operations Center (SOC) to deliver managed security services. A host of blue chip customers use Sify’s corporate service offerings.

Sify also caters to the global markets in the specialized domains of eLearning Services and Remote Infrastructure Management Services. The eLearning Services business designs, develops, and delivers state-of-the-art digital learning solutions catering to for-profit, non-profit organizations, and governmental organizations in the fields of hi-tech, engineering, environment, healthcare, education, and finance. The Remote Infrastructure Management Services provides dependable and economical solutions around managed services, hosting, and monitoring.

Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the e-port cyber cafe chain cross 180 cities and towns. Sify.com the popular consumer portal of Sify has channels on news, entertainment, finance, sports, games and shopping. Samachar.com is the popular portal aimed at non-resident Indians around the globe. The site’s content is available in 8 Indian languages, which include Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, Punjabi and Gujarati in addition to English.

For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify’s business, please see the discussion under the caption “Risks Related to Our Business” in the company’s report on Form 6-K for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.

Contact information: Sify Technologies Limited Mr. David Appasamy Investor Relations +91-44-2254-0770 (ext. 2013) david.appasamy@sifycorp.com Grayling Investor Relations Ms. Truc Nguyen (ext. 418) or Mr. Christopher Chu (ext. 426) +1-646-284-9400 truc.nguyen@us.grayling.com or christopher.chu@us.grayling.com Media Relations: Ms. Stacy Dimakakos +1-646-284-9417 sdimakakos@hfgcg.com

Source: Sify Technologies Limited

Contact information: Sify Technologies Limited, Mr. David Appasamy, Investor Relations, +91-44-2254-0770 (ext. 2013), david.appasamy at sifycorp.com; Grayling Investor Relations, Ms. Truc Nguyen (ext. 418) or Mr. Christopher Chu (ext. 426), +1-646-284-9400, truc.nguyen at us.grayling.com or christopher.chu at us.grayling.com; Media Relations: Ms. Stacy Dimakakos, +1-646-284-9417, sdimakakos at hfgcg.com

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