In response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement to ‘Skill India’, the Gujarat Chapter of Code For India which a U.S.- based non-profit organization of techies from India, launched ‘Skill Up India’ – India’s open source, free, online education portal. SkillUpIndia.org has been created in partnership with iCREATE, IIM-A, IIT-Gandhinagar and US-India Business Counicl Education Foundation (USIBCEF).
Karl Mehta, Code for India founder and venture capitalist Karl Mehta told a press conference, "Skill up India is a non-profit open education initiative in democratization of knowledge and learning. It is open to everyone and they can click on any course that they want to pursue. We have ensured that the login procedure is easy and frictionless."
He has also mentioned that India must take advantage of the fact that there was a massive trend followed by the big universities who are offering their entire courses on open domains. Skill up India which will be represented as a virtual university will allow anyone sitting anywhere in India to learn various courses what is being taught in the classroom at the University of Michigan or any of the other top notch University. This will empower those who want to impart knowledge and those who want to learn.
The portal which is in its initial stages is offering courses from IIM-A and IIT-Gandhinagar and there are no criteria for subscribing to the courses. Mehta further stated, "We will be setting up a review committee to assess the credibility of instructors and the courses they offer." The organization is looking forward to increase the availability of high quality content and therefore increase the pressure on the government to enhance the internet accessibility in the country. At present the courses are only available in English. However with the help of volunteer engineers who specialize in translation, they hope to offer the same courses in a variety of Indian languages.
