Edu Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal: National Knowledge Network has made revolutionary changes in the field of higher education

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday announced in the Rajya Sabha that the National Knowledge Network has embarked on revolutionary changes in the field of higher education. Responding to a query from YSR Congress party member V Vijayasai Reddy, the Minister said that the High-Speed National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been made available in collaboration with the Ministry of IT and all the high schools in the country under the National Mission on Education scheme.

He said that the most unique network was set up with the aim of building a Boundless Knowledge Society. The Minister said that the Government of India has also launched a massive open online course learning platform under the self-scheme. This has led to the availability of online courses in many disciplines such as science, engineering, technology, humanities, social sciences, jurisprudence, and management. "Translating digital content into local languages is an ongoing process. So far 521 courses have been translated into various regional languages," Pokhriyal said.

The Minister said the Fifteenth Economic Forum had recommended that professional courses be also taught in regional languages. Pokshriyal said the government has set up a task force to consider the new national education policy guidelines for teaching higher education in mother tongue or regional languages and recommend appropriate action.

Artificial Intelligence Course in BTech

Replying to another question, the Education Minister said that all AICTE-approved engineering colleges have been directed to start BTech courses in the Artificial Intelligence and Data Science branches. The country is already the IITs and many of the top schools in artificial intelligence in relation to the Deep Learning Foundations, Applications, machine learning, learning, reasoning, predictive and principal data analytics, system identification, cyber-physical security, digital image processing, such as the courses teach Pokshriyal informed.

The Education Minister also said that the establishment of central universities is an ongoing process. At present, 46 central universities are functioning in different parts of the country under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. Apart from these, there are also Central Universities belonging to the respective specialities under various Ministries. The minister said that central universities were working as a compass for high schools in different parts of the country. The minister said Rs 9,607 crore has been earmarked in this year's budget for the creation of capital assets in higher education institutions across the country to facilitate education loans to students.