Sibal inaugurates NPTEL 'National Video Server'

New Delhi, Feb 9 (ANI): Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal inaugurated the 'National Video Server' of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) here on Wednesday, which makes the entire NPTEL content available through this server.

With this Video Server located at IIT Madras and connected to 1 Gbps link of National Knowledge Network and 155 Mbps link to the Colleges' Virtual Private Network (VPN) under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), e-content download would be possible for all the Universities and Colleges that have got connectivity under the NMEICT.

At present, more than 250 University/University level Institutions and nearly 11000 Colleges are already connected on NKN and College VPN and they could straight away start using or downloading the e-content for their storage and local use.

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is India's largest technical knowledge dissemination programme through ICT in the higher education sector.

Its main objective is to increase the reach of high quality engineering and sciences education across our country, which has the potential to transform India into a strong and vibrant knowledge economy.

It involves developing cutting edge curricula and delivering the same as video and web courses with free and easy downloads from the NPTEL website at: http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in.

NPTEL is extensively used by students, faculty members and working professionals from various companies. NPTEL channel in 'YouTube' has received more than 39 Million upload views (up to February 6) and has more than sixty thousand subscribers. NPTEL has received lot of appreciation from the users.

The national server is set up at present to enable free and fast direct downloads using the National Knowledge Network and the VPN set up by MHRD under NMEICT. This facility has become necessary since You Tube access is severely limited by many organizations in India. (ANI)