ICT for Education, Employment and Empowerment in India

Abstract

This article gives a bird's-eye view of the effort taken by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in improving the quality of higher education through ICT. This is initially achieved through projects funded by the National Mission on Education through ICT, and subsequently, through other schemes. Nationally coordinated projects, such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, and Virtual Labs are briefly described. Equally successful, but less known, projects executed at IIT Bombay, such as Spoken Tutorial, FOSSEE, Affordable Laptops, and Train 10,000 Teachers, are explained in more detail. These initiatives have been well received in normal conditions, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the implementation difficulties owing to problems such as the size, lack of resources, etc., are also brought out.