Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan: Swayam Prabha to have 12 more channels for education

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (File image: Reuters)

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Swayam Prabha platform would have 12 more channels for offering educational content across India.

She added that there have been three channels under Swayam Prabha so far. The Swayam Prabha is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of educational programmes on 24/7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite.

"Provision of telecast of live interactive sessions  on these channels with experts from home on Skype has been made," said the finance minister.

Sitharaman said that the government has also tied-up with private DTH (direct-to-home) operators like Tata Sky and Airtel to air educational video content and enhance the reach of knowledge.

Further, the government is also coordinating the various states to share an air-time of four hours daily on the Swayam Prabha channels to telecast relevant education content.

Due to the Coronavirus-led lockdown, educational institutes have been forced to temporarily suspend physical classes. However, classes have moved online.

Under the DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) platform for education and training, Sitharaman said that there has been a total of 600 million hits from March 24 (when lockdown was announced) till date.

The DIKSHA platform offers teachers, students and parents engaging learning material relevant to the prescribed school curriculum. Students can download the DIKSHA application and scan the textbook QR codes for easy access to the lessons.

Till now, a total of 200 textbooks have been added to the e-Paathshala so far, said the finance minister.

These initiatives are part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan (Self-Reliant India Mission) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deal with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.