SWAYAM Prabha

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

SWAYAM Prabha is a group of 34 DTH channels devoted to telecasting high-quality

educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite among which 12
channels are earmarked for school education and 22 for higher education. SWAYAM
Prabha was launched by the Honourable Former President of India, Shri Pranab
Mukherjee on July 09, 2017. The project was chaired by the Chief Coordinator, Prof.
Mangal Sunder, Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras till June 2022 and then it is
proceeded by Prof. Arun K. Tangirala, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT
Madras.

The Swayam Prabha DTH channels can be received by Free DD Dish and subscribers
of Dish TV. They are also available on Jio App.

CHANNEL MANAGEMENT AND CONTRIBUTORS:

Channel 1-10 and 21 is managed by CEC, New Delhi, Channel 11-16 by 6 IITs ((IIT
Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras) and 17-20 by
IGNOU and IIT PAL channel by IIT Delhi. Courses were developed and recorded in
studio by IGNOU, CEC and First generation IITs (IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT
Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras) and other central universities in different
parts of the states.

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LAST 5 YEARS:

 IIT PAL CHANNEL (CHANNEL 22) - To assist class 11 and 12 prepare for
competitive exams and to aspire to join IITs by encouraging scientific thinking
and conceptual understanding critical to answer the ‘tough’ questions of JEE
Advanced.
 NPTEL COURSES: Courses are generally designed to be certification-ready
in their detailed offering through SWAYAM (NPTEL). They are telecast in
Channel 11-16.
 CURRICULUM MAPPING: The video content on SWAYAM Prabha shall be
mapped to the curriculum and the academic calendar.

 BROADCASTING NEW CONTENT: New content for at least 8 hours which

would be repeated 2 more times a day, allowing students to choose the time
of their convenience.

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 MODE OF RECORDING ADOPTED DURING COVID PANDEMIC:

During the COVID Pandemic 2020-21, education was badly affected, and studio
operations was also restricted. Consequently, the Ministry approved to adopt Home-
Based Recording (HBR). Many Professors from various institutions were identified
to record lectures for home-based recording. HBR successfully completed 1500+
hours of recording of video contents that is telecast in SWAYAM Prabha channels
01-22.

There was a huge dip in the number of hours of recording during this period. Since
July 2022, SWAYAM Prabha resumed their studio recording.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow in UP recorded their daily

lectures ahead on selected semester courses and telecasted the same in Channel 15
during the Covid pandemic which is also ongoing. Students studying in AKTU was
given the broadcast schedule details of channel 15 to attend the semester courses.
The subject coverage includes all engineering, management, pharmaceutical and
applied courses.

Nearly 4500 unique videos are recorded and ~ 2050 hrs of content are telecasted in
SWAYAM Prabha channel 15 managed by IIT Madras.

During October 2020, the online courses (mostly second year/last semester) by IITs
and the popular NPTEL courses were transmitted through the six NPTEL channels
(11-16) of Swayam Prabha DTH. The details of the courses including the course
contents, time-table, etc. are available in the website
– https://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/index.php/

Live doubt-clearance sessions were also conducted and the engineering students
across the country were benefitted by making use of this golden opportunity to learn
from the IIT Faculty and supplement their education. Live interactive programs with
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were also done by NCERT and NIOS during COVID-
19 outbreak.

More than 3000 institutions setup facilities for reception.

COMPREHENSIVE PORTAL:

The portal has the following features:

 Login based access for admins of stakeholders (Channel Coordinator, MoE,

BISAG and Chief Coordinator).
 Searching of video content on different parameters such as channel-wise,
subject-wise, etc.

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 Panel for Channel Coordinator to create the programme schedule and
metadata for each video content.
 Facilitate viewers with ‘My-Library’ features and SMS alert (programme
schedule) system.
 Facility for uploading the schedule by the Channel Coordinator
 Facility for giving feedback regarding the channels by viewers.
 Registration of viewers.
 Dashboard for MoE which gives the status of videos and program schedules
uploaded by each Channel Coordinator.
 Dashboard for Chief Coordinator and National Coordinators for monitoring
the channels.
 To enable Subject Coordinators to answer queries by viewers using the
discussion forum software.
 Development of mobile app to allow viewers access the timetable, download
videos etc.
 Set-up a mobile gateway for SMS query management. The gateway will be
funded by the project, and it is free for the users.

SWAYAM Prabha COURSES:

SWAYAM Prabha has created content of more than 205 courses of 4655+ hours in
various disciplines like Multidisciplinary, Management, Agriculture, Applied
Mechanics, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Science
and Engineering, Design, Earth Sciences, Economics, Electrical Communication
Engineering, Electrical Engineering, English, General Sciences, Geography, History,
Humanities, Language, Management, Mathematics and Statistics, Mechanical
Engineering, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, and Sociology.

BIOLOGICAL & LIFE SCIENCE COURSES:

SWAYAM Prabha has also created 378+ videos of approximate 202 hours of content
on 6 major disciplines in Biological Life Sciences subject. These courses cater
Anatomy, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathology, Pharmacology and Physiology.
Nearly 29 institutions from different states have contributed for content creation.

REGIONAL CONTENTS:

Tholkappiyum series - Regional content on Tamil are recorded to create models for
the recording of literature of all Indian National languages and to archive the best of
ancient and medieval period learning for the present generation. Seven professors
from the department of Tamil language in Madras University have initiated to give
video content related to Tamil language and Tamil literature under the guidance of

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former EMMRC Coordinator of Anna University, Dr. Gowri who is currently the
Vice -Chancellor of Madras University.

COVERAGE OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES ON SWAYAM Prabha CHANNELS

17 - 20:
Channel 17: Channel 19: Channel 20:
Regional Channel 18:
Social Sciences Professional and SOUs and Total
Languages on Basic and Applied
SWAYAM and Humanities & Vocational Teacher Hours
Sciences
Prabha EMPC Education Education

From commencement of SWAYAM Prabha till 26th October, 2022

Hindi 182 5 - 2 189

Hindi /
English 285 - - - 285

Tamil 172 3 1 - 176

Punjabi 167 4 - 1 172

Gujarati 171 4 1 - 176

Urdu 3 169 1 2 175

Malayalam 3 172 1 1 177

Odia 3 182 2 2 189

English 4 4 175 - 183

Telugu 4 5 171 2 182

Assamese 5 3 177 1 186

Marathi 4 3 2 168 177

Kannada 2 2 1 145 150

Bengali 4 4 2 168 178

Total hours 2569

Note: Channels 17-20 are hosted live and the same is aired on SWAYAM Prabha

LIVE SESSIONS:

Regular live sessions are being conducted by IGNOU, New Delhi in SWAYAM
Prabha channels 17 - 20.

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As approved by the Competent Authority, the reorganization of SWAYAM Prabha
channels (four) reallocated to IGNOU (CH-17 to 20) with effect from September 01,
2020, in place of earlier five channels (Ch.23-26 and Ch-32) was done. These four
channels cater to 21 schools of IGNOU, and channels are broadcasting the recorded
videos as well as LIVE telecasting of IGNOU programmes on a 24X7 basis using the
GSAT-15 satellite.
TRANSLATION:

Subtitle for the SWAYAM Prabha courses was initiated and around 30 courses of 429
hours are being transcribed in English. The courses which cover First year UG/ PG
was selected and the work has been completed. The courses fall in the category of
Language, General Sciences, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Sciences, History,
Management, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and Humanities. IIT PAL courses
of approximately 700+ videos have been transcribed in English. The idea was to first
have the courses in English and then extend to other regional languages. The
government is working towards translating reference materials for courses in
Engineering in the eight major regional languages - Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi,
Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu

The repository of SWAYAM Prabha courses are available in SWAYAM Prabha

website and in YouTube. The data is maintained by INFLIBNET.

SWAYAM Prabha: YouTube Report

Year Views Subscription
2017 685514 12896
2018 8455534 262735
2019 11957146 169778
2020 10863868 439567
2021 10705207 133618
2022 7876286 75109

BROADCASTING SUPPORT:
Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL) will be the PI for operationalizing the 34
DTH channels by procuring the necessary infrastructure. They will act in
conjunction with BISAG for this purpose.

▪ Uplinking of the 34 channels as per the schedule given by the Channel

Coordinators

▪ Insertion of banner (at the bottom of the channel) - Organization, Title

of the program, duration (remaining duration at any instant) and logo.

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Total no. of hours/videos broadcasted from 2017 – 2022 

No of Videos Video Hours

106130 59410

For more information on Swayam Prabha courses, please visit the official website:

www.swayamprabha.gov.in

SP PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

As part of the promotional activities, we do the Digital Marketing for Swayam

Prabha by email, campaigning throughout India, reaching out to the colleges and
students studying in various disciplines. The program strategy is to send bulk emails
whenever a new course is planned to be broadcasted under the Swayam Prabha
channels. We also plan to share the new course information through social media
network.

 Swayam Prabha - Marketing Activities 

1. Started in May 2020

2. Initially only press releases and groundwork was started. 
3. Started email campaigning since August 2020.
4. Reached out to over 2300000+ students across India.
5. Frequent news updates are posted in social media platforms – (Instagram and
Facebook)
Facebook @ Swayam Prabha
Instagram @ SwayamPrabhadth

7. Social Media (SM) group for SWAYAM Prabha has been created as per directions
of MHRD. The IGNOU SM team also created an account on Twitter and Facebook.
The team is managing the account and is regularly updating information. The
updates are also shared in the WhatsApp group.
The Swayam Prabha booth/stall setup:

Event Date Venue

DIDAC INDIA 2019 Sep 24 - 26, Bengaluru International Exhibition
2019 Centre, Bangalore

DIDAC INDIA 2022 Sep 21 – Sep Bengaluru International Exhibition

23, 2022 Centre, Bangalore

10th Asian Symposium Dec 11 to Dec ICSR, IIT Madras

PSU 14, 2022
8th Indian Control Dec 14 to Dec IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai
Conference (ICC) 16, 2022

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SWAYAM Prabha Booth was set up to:

Promote the Swayam Prabha channels and share the perspective of the project with
participants who are mainly from the educational background. To help people know how
effective Swayam Prabha is when it comes to learning and teaching and how well the
available technology is used to telecast high-quality course lecture videos that disseminate
education and learning to the masses.

A booth was setup as part of the promotion of Swayam Prabha where the Swayam Prabha
staffs explained the visitors about the DTH project and distributed Swayam Prabha
pamphlets. Also, there was a demo of the live telecast of the teaching session through the
DTH channel 15. More than 1500 + visitors visited the booth during the event.

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 SWAYAM Prabha
DTH SWAYAM Prabha: Physical and Financial Target: 2018 - 2023
Project:
DTH-
SWAYA 2018 - 2019 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2021 - 2023
M Physic Physic Physic Physic Physic Achieve
Prabha al Achieve al Achieve al Achieve al Achieve al d
Target d  Target d  Target d  Target d  Target Targets
s Targets s Targets s Targets s Targets s (till Q3)
Content
Creation
(In Hrs) 4800 2375 4800 3706 3200 5296 4000 3313 4500 2031

REASON FOR THE SHORTFALL IN CONTENT CREATION:

1. Due to COVID, all studio recording was put on hold.

2. Transition from studio-based recording to home-based recording.

MEASURES PROPOSED TO REACH THE TARGET

1. Since July 2022, all studios are functional and have increased individual
subagencies to meet out the target.
2. As a current priority, additional lessons are also planned for new subjects and
filling up on gaps in the subject recording. 
3. Expanding the reach to many institutions including private and EdTech
companies.
4. Conference recording and Symposium recording are included as an additional
effort.

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