Digital initiatives in higher education in India include: 1. SWAYAM - An online platform for Massive Open Online Courses provided by the government for free. 2. SWAYAM PRABHA - A group of 34 DTH channels broadcasting educational programs 24/7. 3. National Digital Library - A digital library providing free access to textbooks, articles, videos and lectures. These initiatives aim to improve access, equity and quality of education through online and digital resources.

1. Digital Initiatives in Higher Education
Mr. Basavaraj M. Naik M.Com, UGC NET, KSET
Teaching Assistant
Department of Studies in Commerce
Rani Channamma University Belagavi
Post- Graduate Centre, Jamkhandi

2. Introduction:
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India in order to
ensure the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically
by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or
making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.

3. Introduction:
For strengthening digital education in India, the govt. made regulations
on online education and finally allowed universities and colleges to
extend >20% of a degree online from 2020 onwards. This initiative has
enabled Indian institutes to further improve their portfolio of higher
education internationally.

4. By taking various Digital Initiatives in Higher Education, the MHRD
works for the development of the basic infrastructure of the Higher
Education Sector. In the last few years, the National Mission on
Education through ICT has made some developments in IT to change
the scenario of higher education.

5. 1. SWAYAM:
This platform is developed by MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource
Development) and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education). It’s an IT
Massive Open Online Course for providing the best quality education anywhere
and anytime.
Study Webs of Active – Learning for Young Aspiring Minds ) is a program initiated
by the Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of
education policy viz., Access, equity and quality.
.

6. Courses delivered by SWAYAM are available for free to learners , however learners wanting
a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come with a fee and
attendee in-person designated centers.
In 2017, the government launched Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds
(SWAYAM) to offer an integrated platform for online courses at affordable costs to all citizens,
especially the underprivileged section in the country.
The portal hosts Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to offer quality education on various
subjects for students (from Class 9-12 to Under Graduates and Post Graduates).

7. 2. SWAYAM PRABHA
In 2017, SWAYAM PRABHA, a group of 34 DTH (Direct-to-Home) channels
dedicated to broadcasting educational programmes 24x7, was introduced. The
channels broadcast new content for a minimum of four hours every day, and this is
repeated five times in the same day for students to select a convenient slot.
It is a group of 34 DTH channels to telecasting high-quality educational programmes
by using the satellite – GSAT-15. The programme will be available for 24X7. The
contents are provided by NPTEL( National Program on Technology Enhanced
Learning), IITs, UGC, , IGNOU, etc.

8. 3. ePathshala Portal
In 2015, the government launched the ePathshala portal to build a resource store for educational
videos, audios, flipbooks, etc. Resources on the portal are available in Indian languages such as
Hindi, English and Urdu and can be accessed via smartphones, laptops, desktops and tablets.
ePathshala is a portal/app developed by the CIET,Central_Institute_of_Educational_Technology)
and NCERT. (National_Council_of_Educational_Research_and_Training) It was initiated jointly by
the Ministry of Human Resource Development, CIET, and NCERT, and launched in November
2015. It hosts educational resources for teachers, students, parents, researchers and educators,
can be accessed on the Web, and is available on Google Play, App Store and Windows. The
content is available in English, Hindi and Urdu.

9. 4. National Digital Library
The NMEICT has initiated the National Digital Library of India project to develop a
framework of virtual learning resources with a single-window search facility. The
NDL will contain textbooks, articles, videos, lectures, etc.
The National Digital library of India is a project under Ministry of Education,
Government of India. ... The NDLI provides free of cost access to many books in
the Indian languages and English.

10. National Digital Library of India (NDLI) is a National Mission on Education
through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) Project
developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP), under
the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of
India.

11. 5. Virtual Lab
The Virtual Lab does not require any setup for conducting experiments at user
premises. A computer is you need to perform the experiments remotely. There are 205
virtual labs in Engineering & Science disciplines. More than 6 lakh students are using
these virtual labs in India.
But even schools with quality labs can benefit from these innovative and flexible
online simulations. The following top virtual lab sites and apps are all free, highly
engaging, and informative—and most don't require registration.

12. 6. Campus Connectivity
NMEICT aims to provide 20 Broadband connections of 5123 kbps speed to over
25000 colleges and 2000 polytechnics and optical fiber connectivity on 1Gbps
to 419 universities. The MHRD has now decided to made campuses of
Universities WiFi enabled. IITs, IIMs, and NITs have already established WiFi
campuses.
The process of laying the optical fibre and provision of the Wifi in Central
universities is currently underway.

13. 7. National Academic Depository
The NAD is initiated for facilitating the issuance, storage, access and verification of
Academic Awards. The vision of National Academic Depository (NAD) is born out of an
initiative to provide an online store house of all academic awards. National Academic
Depository (NAD) is a 24X7 online store house of all academic awards viz.certificates,
diplomas, degrees, mark-sheets etc. duly digitised and lodged by academic institutions
/ boards / eligibility assessment bodies. NAD not only ensures easy access to and
retrieval of an academic award but also validates and guarantees its authenticity and
safe storage.

14. 8. INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network)
Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) is an autonomous Inter-University Centre
of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The objectives if the Centre are to
modernize libraries and information centres for information transfer and access, to
support scholarship, learning and academic pursuit by establishing a national network
of libraries and information centres in universities, institutions of higher learning and
R & D institutions in India.
The centre provides access to e-resources and Internet connectivity to universities
under the UGC-Infonet connectivity programme and UGC-Infonet Digital Library
Consortium (union) . The Centre also provides access to 3800 e-journals and 80000+
e-books to the colleges in India through programme entitled ʻNational Library and
Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST)

15. 9. Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN)
Govt. of India approved a new program titled Global Initiative of Academic Networks
(GIAN) in Higher Education.
It aimed at tapping the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs, internationally to
encourage their engagement with the institutes of Higher Education in India.
So as to increase the country's existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of
quality reform, excelerate India's scientific and technological capacity to global
excellence.

16. 10. The Free and Open Source Software for Education (FOSSEE)
The Free and Open Source Software for Education (FOSSEE)- Project
sanctioned to IIT Bombay. It promotes the use of open source software
through instructional material, such as spoken tutorials, documentation,
such as textbook companions, awareness programmes, such as
conferences, training workshops, and Internships( Professional learning
experience ).

17. 11.E-Yantra
“e-Yantra” is implemented to incorporate Robotics into engineering
education. This scheme comes under NMEICT Programme.
The goal of e-Yantra is to complement existing higher education
systems across a wide range of domains such as: Agriculture,
Disaster, Manufacturing Defense, Home, Smart Cities and
Service Industries .

18. 12. E- Acharya
e-Acharya is an integrated e-content portal developed under National Mission
for Education through ICT (NME-ICT).
The portal provides facility to search and browse the learners all learning
materials includes audio, video, textual materials, etc. through a single
interface.
The portal cover quality learning resources from top institutions in the
country in eight subject categories viz Agriculture Science, Biological
Science, Chemical Science, Physical Science, Medical and Health Sciences,
Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities.

19. 13. DigiLocker
DigiLocker is an Indian digitization online service provided by the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and its Digital
India initiative under Government of India.
DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of the Digital India program under the
Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY). DigiLocker aims at 'Digital
Empowerment' by Citizen's Access to Authentic Digital Documents to
Citizen 's Digital Document Wallet .

20. 14. Virtual Learning Environment
Educational technology in a virtual learning environment (VLE) is a
web-based platform for the study of digital aspects of education,
usually within educational institutions. ... VLEs have been adopted by
almost all higher education institutions in the English-speaking world.
Virtual learning environment examples include the following and more, all
of which can be accessed via an online or computer-based system:
Distance Learning Degree Programs . Professional Certification
Courses. etc

21. 15. Know Your College
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) launched a ‘Know your
College’ portal in November 2014. Since this is the time for college admissions,
MHRD has once again reminded the citizens about the existence of this portal.
In a press release, the MHRD spoke about the information available on the portal. The
Press Release said, “There is often confusion in the minds of students regarding which
colleges to join and the courses to be taken up. To help the students make an informed
decision on the choice of college and the courses, the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Government of India has developed a “Know Your College” portal”

22. 16. National Institutional Ranking Framework
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the
MHRD and launched by the Honorable Minister of Human Resource
Development on 29 September 2015. This framework outlines a methodology
to rank institutions across the country.
The NIRF ranking is one of the key decision criteria for the Institute of
Admission . ... a national ranking system of importance that will help students
choose the best university. A national ranking ensures that all higher
education institutions strive to improve their rankings.

23. NIRF Rankings 2021 was released on Thursday, September 9, 2021. The list for top
colleges and universities has been released by Dharmendra Pradhan (Union Education
Minister) under various categories.

25. Thank You