Lok Sabha Question No. 302 (STARRED), answered on 2025-08-11
Subject: e-Learning Hubs
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 302 ANSWERED ON 11.08.2025

## e-Learning Hubs

## †*302. SHRI SUKHJINDER SINGH RANDHAWA:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to increase the availability of e-learning hubs and wireless internet infrastructure at village level in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot in Punjab under Digital India Mission;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  introduce  Village  Digital  Equity  Index  to provide digital resources to backward and digitally deprived villages on priority basis;
- (d) whether any proposal is under consideration of the Government to formulate a special digital education plan for rural children; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  302  FOR  11.08.2025  ASKED  BY  SHRI SUKHJINDER  SINGH  RANDHAWA,  HON'BLE  MEMBER  OF  PARLIAMENT REGARDING E-LEARNING HUBS

(a) to (e): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the schools are under the administration of the respective State Governments. While this Ministry does not  compute  Village  Digital  Equity  Index  and  there  is  no  scheme  specifically  called 'eLearning  Hubs' under  its  purview,  there  are  several  comprehensive  digital  education initiatives undertaken for rural students. This Ministry implements ICT and Digital initiatives under  Samagra  Shiksha,  aligned  with  National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020,  to  enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. These initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into learning and teaching processes.

To facilitate the online learning by all students including those in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot, a comprehensive initiative called 'PM eVidya' was initiated as part of 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan' on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to  digital/online/on-air  education  to  enable  multi-mode  access  to  education  across  the country. States/UTs collaborate with NCERT  to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. PM eVidya includes 200 DTH TV Channels allotted to States/UTs/ABs/Other Ministries and 400 Radio channels to enable them to provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. The State of Punjab has been allotted five channels (PB PM eVIDYA 143 to PB PM eVIDYA 147) under the 'PM eVidya' initiative of the Ministry of Education.

Digital  Infrastructure  for  Knowledge  Sharing  (DIKSHA)  is  the  Nation's  digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs along with QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). As a participant  in  DIKSHA,  States/UTs/ABs  have  generated  and  contributed  over  3.69  lakh content  in  local/regional  languages.  Overall,  564.05  crore  learning  sessions  have  been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. The stakeholders have access to more than 300 Virtual Labs on DIKSHA.

Punjab is one of the participants on DIKSHA and has 6.60 lakh registered users with Learning sessions of 8.40 Cr+ and 75.41 Cr+ Learning minutes. The State has uploaded 79 Digital Textbooks and has 6,350 e-content on DIKSHA.

Under National Mission in Education through ICT (NMEICT) Scheme, Ministry of Education in collaboration with IIT Madras has launched Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) portal to make available high-quality content to learners free of cost with the approach of 'Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning'. SWAYAM portal provides  high-quality  educational  content  across  various  domains,  curated  by  premier Institutions  for  a  well-rounded  learning  experience.  The  platform  has  hosted  over  16,530 courses, including 4,100 unique courses till date. The cumulative enrolments have crossed 5 Crore mark, with more than 1.62 crore unique learners.

The  Ministry  of  Education  (MoE)  is  implementing  a  National  mission  to  improve learning  outcomes  at  the  School  Education  level  through  an  integrated  teacher  training programme called 'National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement'  (NISHTHA).  NISHTHA  courses  have  been  designed  and  are  run  for Elementary, Secondary, FLN, ECCE and Educational Technology and are offered online by NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high-quality professionally made e-content.

Additionally, the Government of India, in the Budget 2025, has announced provision of  broadband  connectivity  to  all  Government  Secondary  schools  in  rural  areas,  including Punjab,  under  the  'BharatNet'  project  to  enhance  digital  infrastructure  in  remote  areas  by BSNL in a phased manner.

The  Ministry  of  Education  implements  ICT  and  Digital  initiatives  under  Samagra Shiksha, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to enhance digital learning in Government  schools  across  the  country.  The  initiatives  aim  to  enhance  the  quality  of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes including hardware, software, tablets, laptops, and training resources, supporting digital boards, virtual classrooms,  and  DTH  channels.  Under  the  scheme,  funds  are  provided  for  setting  up  ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirement of State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B).

To  saturate  all  secondary  and  higher  secondary  schools  with  ICT  Labs  and  Smart Classrooms, a Supplementary Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting was held on 28 th May 2025. A total of 20,456 ICT Labs and 29,896 Smart Classrooms have been approved, with financial  approval  of  Rs.  911.13  crore  for  ICT  Labs  and  Rs.  630.38  crore  for  Smart Classrooms under Samagra Shiksha, in addition to earlier approval of 1,56,213 ICT Labs and 1,46,040 Smart Classrooms including State of Punjab.

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