National convention on Digital Initiatives 9th July 2017
President of India Shri Pranab
Mukherjee has today launched the SWAYAM, the portal that takes high quality
education to the doorstep of everyone, in the National Convention of Vice
Chancellors of all Universities in the Country, and Heads of
IISc/IITs/IIMs/NITs/IIITs at Vigyan Bhawan. Along with this, he has also launched
the SWAYAM Prabha – the 32 DTH channels operationalised for telecasting high
quality educational content free of charge using the GSAT-15 satellite
transponders. The function was organised on the eve of the Guru Poornima, a day
for salutation to the teachers.
With the launch of SWAYAM, India has
become one of the few countries in the World which has its own online
interactive learning platform that provides, not only video lectures, reading
material but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in securing credits
after completing the assessment system. More than 400 Courses are available on
SWAYAM covering all the engineering and non-engineering subjects at
undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The UGC has already issued Regulation
that allows transfer of credits earned through the courses done through SWAYAM
into the academic record of the students. It is now possible for the students
and others to take courses of the prestigious IITs or IIMs without formally
studying there. The platform has been constructed by Microsoft with totally
indigenous efforts. The courses are available on www.swayam.gov.in
The SWAYAM Prabha channels are
available for free for anyone who has a set top box to receive either DD Free
Dish or DishTV. These channels transmit 4 hours of fresh content every day, and
contain lectures from the best teachers in the Country. There is no monthly
charge for viewing these channels. These channels include the IIT-PAL channels
which were intended to help students taking the prestigious JEE examination,
taught by the IIT faculty.
The President has expressed hope that
these digital initiatives would help in producing the highly qualified youth
required for the Make in India campaign. He exhorted all the higher educational
institution to march on the path of educational excellence consisting of
creation of new knowledge and dissemination of the same for the benefit of the
Nation. It was an emotional moment for the President since many of these
initiatives have taken shape under his guidance as Visitor of these
institutions.
Earlier, Sri Prakash Javadekar
Minister for HRD had honoured the President on the eve of Guru Poornima stating
that he had been an ideal teacher worthy of all the respect. Dr M N Pandey MOS
for HE has welcomed the President. Chief Economic Adviser Dr Arvind Subramanian
and Secretaries of Higher Education, and Ministry of IT were present.
Nearly 700 Vice Chancellors from
across the Country are participating in the national convention that started on
8th July and will end on 10th July. This is the biggest ever gathering of heads
of all the higher educational institutions in the Country. Many digital
initiatives taken under the National Mission for Education through ICT have
been showcased in the meeting.
The meeting ended with adoption of “
Programme 17 for 17” : - A 17 point action plan for 2017 – for building digital
campuses and high quality education. The action plan covers measures like
universal adoption of digital education, digital financial transactions in the
campuses from the current academic year. Three Books have been launched on the
occasion – account of NMEICT initiatives, list of 323 courses which are on
offer in the current academic semester and a eBook of presentation of digital
best practices by more than 500 institutions.
Regards!
Librarian
Rizvi Institute of
Management
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