India to launch 50 educational TV channels

India’s Human and Resource Development Ministry has announced that it will partner with the country’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati to launch 50 educational TV channels via the direct to home (DTH) satellite service.

Expected to be launched in January 2014, the channels will be free to air, with content from IITs, Central Universities and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

India’s Human and Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has been pushing for the channels for two years. The HRD will sign an MoU with Prasar Bharti which will hold the broadcasting licence for the service. A consortium of education channels will enter into an agreement with Prasar Bharti for content development.

HRD Secretary, Ashok Thakur, said the educational initiative is one of the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, and will see the broadcast of live interactive channels aimed at students.

As part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), Thakur said the entire country could become one large classroom. In particular, the initiative will help engineering colleges in remote areas.