The Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced the launch of a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Systems programme. The programme will be offered online by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and will span four years on Monday, March 6. The primary aim of the programme is to address the increasing demand for qualified graduates in the electronics and embedded manufacturing industry in the country, in line with the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), stated a report by PTI.
All students who have completed Class XII and have studied Mathematics and Physics are eligible for the programme, regardless of their age. It offers various exit options, including a Foundational Level Certificate, a Diploma, or a Bachelor of Science degree. For more details on the programme, the students can check here — study.iitm.ac.in/es/
According to the official website, the course is also flexible. The website stated, "Learn from anywhere, at your convenience. The option is available to choose the number of courses per semester. The BS degree will be awarded once 142 credits are earned."
The ISM is to make the country a global hub for electronics manufacturing and design. "This is the second online BS programme from IIT Madras following the BS Degree in Data Science and Applications, which has more than 17,000 students studying currently," an IIT-M press release here said.
In a virtual launch, Dharmendra Pradhan congratulated IIT Madras, under the leadership of Prof V Kamakoti, for the successful launch of the BS Data Sciences course in 2020 and now for adding another achievement to its repertoire with the launch of the BS in Electronic Systems. He further commented the launch aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and emphasized the importance of introducing new courses, stated the PTI report.
On his Twitter handle Pradhan said: "In this era of innovation and research when we are coming up with initiatives like #DigitalUniversity, this new-age course will give further impetus to enhancing the reach of quality and affordable education till the last mile as well as boosting employability."
Pawan K Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras said, "The course today on Electronic Systems is also very timely. All sectors today are becoming very electronics dependent. If I look at the automobile sector, for example, you can call a car a computer on wheels. Even in servicing automobiles, you need to have electronics knowledge. As we look to the future, jobs will be more and more moving towards electronics expertise and therefore, to offer a course like at this time to prepare the youth for being ready to participate in this growing field of electronics is very timely," as reported by PTI.
