India to launch 50 educational TV channels

In a bid to boost its education sector, India on Wednesday said that it is all set to launch 50 educational TV channels across the country. Indias Human and Resource Development (HRD) secretary Ashok Thakur during a function stated in New Delhi that HRD Ministry will launch 50 Direct To Home (DTH) educational channels in the country which would aim to benefit the students. Stressing the channels will air interactive programmes, he claimed the initiative to launch channels will be one of the largest anywhere in the world of its kind. "Later on the number of the channels will be increased to one thousand," Thakur noted, adding, "Over 400 universities and twenty thousand colleges have been linked with bandwidth of these channels". Highlighting the potential of the National Programme on National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), the Secretary said that the entire country can be made into a big classroom which will help improve quality of instructions in engineering colleges particularly belonging to the remote areas.