Union Grant Commission launches New Web Portal for free e-content
The Union Grant Commission in a bid to bridge the digital divide and enhance the accessibility of higher education in remote parts of the country is launching a new web portal as part of the second anniversary of the National Education Policy-2020.
The new web portal will provide for free e-content for over 23, 000 higher education courses include programs such as artificial intelligence, biomolecules: structure function in health and disease, cyber security, early childhood care and education and animation, etc. in eight Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Bangla, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada besides English.
The commission has tied up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to integrate the e-resources with their over 7.5 lakh Common Service Centers (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Centers to offer these courses from the forthcoming academic session of 2022-23.
Nearly 2.5 lakh CSCs and SPVs are operating in Gram Panchayats and more than 5 lakh CSCs/SPVs centers are functional across the country. The CSCs provide digital access and make e-governance services available to the citizens especially those who are living in the rural part of India at their doorstep.
As per the UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar, “As part of its efforts in making higher education accessible to all, the UGC has been constantly working in making digital resources available to students in English as well as regional languages.”
He also added that “All courses are free. However, for availing the services and infrastructure of CSC/ SVP, a user has to pay a fee of Rs 20 per day or Rs 500 per month to reimburse the VLEs efforts and cost of their infrastructure.”