Information Society Watch

October 31, 2006, Akshaya Mukul, The Times of India

Sakshat has been introduced by the Indian Minstry of Human Resource Development to function as a one-stop education portal in all fields of study, including vocational education. The portal indicates a positive trend of non-ICT ministries taking up ICT projects in India. The portal is aimed at tapping the country's talent and will address the educational and learning related needs of students, scholars, teachers and lifelong learners. It will consist of five modules including: educational resources, providing links to knowledge resources such as e-books and e-journals; scholarship opportunities; testing, to enable learners to test and upgrade their skills and knowledge through online exams; and interactions, to facilitate student-teacher/mentor relations in real time through e-mail, weblogging, webcasting, online chat and discussion forum. Additionally, the portal will have a virtual class system. In a year's time, the portal should be accessible to students in 700 cities.

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