The Hindu Business Line : Tele-education project gets rolling

The larger Rs 2,000-crore project covering 10,000 venues is expected to become operational over the next two years on ISRO's dedicated satellite - the Rs 90-crore Edusat.

For now, 50 engineering colleges of Karnataka will get into the loop in phase 1 using one of ISRO's Insat-3A or 3B transponders.

While the experimental Edusat itself is planned to be launched in July this year, consultations are on for developing the content, the ISRO Chairman, Mr Madhavan Nair, said.

The main beneficiary, the Visveswaraya Technological University, Belgaum, has set up 100 nodes to connect all its engineering colleges. Similar pilots will follow in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in the second phase and tele-education will be later extended to the rest of the country.

Once the entire project has been finalised, ISRO will seek financial and infrastructure support of end user institutions and private industries in setting up the ground facilities. It will have the HRD Ministry, the States, NGOs, and academic institutions among its stakeholders.

The Chief Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, who launched the State-level pilot, hoped that the project would bridge the gap of good teachers and trainers.

The educational pilot is meant to cover all sections including primary, secondary, higher, professional and continuing education, teachers' training and distance learning, according to Dr B.S. Bhatia, Director, ISRO's Development & Educational Communication Unit, Ahmedabad.

It enables interactive multi-media deliveries, videoconferencing. With this, VTU is gearing up to set up a parallel virtual e-learning university and has started a data centre in Bangalore, its Vice-Chancellor, Dr K. Balaveera Reddy, said.

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