Question : Swayam Prabha

(a) whether the Government is aware that educational channels launched under the ‘Swayam
Prabha’ scheme are available only on Doordarshan as private channels have refused to air
them;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
(c) whether the Government has taken any steps to make available such educational
channels through mobile app and if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the Government has appealed to cable operators and telecom companies to air
such educational channels for the benefit of students and if so, the details thereof along with
the response of the cable operators and the telecom companies in this regard; and
(e) the other steps taken by the Government to popularise the educational channels launched
under ‘Swayam Prabha’ scheme?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

Part (a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED
QUESTION NO. 22 ASKED BY SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE AND
SHRI DHANANJAY MAHADIK REGARDING SWAYAM PRABHA

(a) to (e) The (32) DTH Channels launched under “SWAYAM Prabha” have been
transmitting high quality educational content on 24X7 basis. The content is prepared by the
best teachers in the Country. The channels cover requirements of classes 9th and above till
post-graduation for wide-ranging disciplines covering: engineering, management,
accountancy, science, practicing arts and humanities. These channels are uplinked to
GSAT-15 satellite through the Bhaskracharya Space Application Centre at Gandhinagar.
For ensuring that these channels reach to the maximum persons, Minister for HRD
convened a meeting with all DTH and cable operators, and invited them to carry these to
their subscribers, without seeking any financial support from Government. Accordingly,
the following carriers have agreed to/ started carrying the SWAYAM Prabha channels,
thereby reaching more than 22 Cr subscribers.
<pre>
Name Category channels
Subscriber
base (in
Lakhs) Status
DD Free dish DTH All 220 Operational
DDC Cable All 1 Operational
Hathway Cable Teacher Education
(Channel No. 26) 85 Operational
Dish TV DTH All 140 Operational
Airtel TV app ISP All 200 Planned in next
30 Days
Jio TV app ISP All 1600 From 26th January
Total 2246
</pre>
Minister for HRD held a meeting with the Vice Chancellors of all universities, with the
objective of working out action plan for taking the digital learning forward. Based on the
action plan finalised in that meeting, 187 universities and 1196 affiliated colleges have set
up facilities to receive the SWAYAM Prabha channels in their institutions. 1,454
classrooms have been provided facilities for receiving SWAYAM Prabha channels in the
classrooms, so that the flip classroom model can be used to enrich the learning. You Tube
is hosting all the archives of the lectures free of cost, so that anyone who missed a lesson
can use that facility to catch up.
Apart from this, an advertisement campaign through Social Media is being done.
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