New Delhi: On Friday i.e. on August 20, 2010,Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in collaboration with Army, has launched a satellite link with Leh. The satellite education centre is set up in order to facilitate distance education to its personnel in remote areas. Moreover, IGNOU has also announced the setting up of an Information Technology Academy, jointly with Microsoft India.
As per sources, V K Singh Army Chief General has inaugurated the IGNOU satellite link with a military base in Leh, thus extending the university's educational online resources to the army troops positioned in the Ladakh region. This facility, as part of the university and the Army's joint project Gyandeep, will be replicated soon in other parts of the country, the Army announced in the presence of IGNOU Vice Chancellor Prof Rajashekaran Pillai, Microsoft India chairman and vice president Ravi Venkatesan and Army Western Command chief Lt Gen S R Ghosh.
The IT Academy, which is part of the Army-Microsoft's 'Kshamta' project of the last one year under the umbrella of 'Samarth' initiatives, would train Army personnel in IT courses of various levels to empower them with skills to find an alternative post-career retirement. The flagship initiative under 'Samarth' is 'Gyandeep', which recognizes 'in service' training done by soldiers and makes them eligible for the award of certification by IGNOU.
Furthermore, under this scheme, over 68,000 soldiers have been registered so far and over 2,300 of them have been awarded diplomas and degrees already.
