New Delhi: On Wednesday i. e. February 11, 2010, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has launched six new FM radio stations on education. These would be an addition to the already existing 31 radio stations of the university. Mohan Jatua, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting has launched the new stations, which will be operational in Agra, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Trichy and Thiruvananathapuram.
As per sources, the first of the Gyan Vani stations was launched in 2001. Gyan Vani, as the FM radio stations are called, aims to improve and enhance the teaching-learning procedure by reaching across to learners through a low-cost, popular mass medium using interactive formats. V.N. Rajashekharan Pillai, IGNOU Vice Chancellor (VC) has said that through 'Gyan Vani', students can call a toll free number and get counseled on different educational matters from experts of National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) and NGOs working in the field.
Further, IGNOU celebrated a decade of the launch of its educational TV channel Gyan Darshan on Wednesday. A collaborative effort of IGNOU, Prasar Bharati, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Gyan Darshan is a bunch of four channels on vocational and technical education, higher education and sustainable development. Moreover, Ravi Kant, Director of Electronic Media Producing Centre (EMPC) said that the centre is very happy about the launch of the new stations. He also appeals to the minister that EMPC should be waived of the carriage fee for the transmission of the channels on DTH.
