DIKSHA: India’s National Digital School Education Platform
Why in the news
The Press Information Bureau issued a detailed explainer on DIKSHA, India’s national online platform for schooling.
Key facts
- Launch: Teachers’ Day 2017 (5 September), inaugurated by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu of that time.
- Run by: NCERT, together with CIET (its constituent unit), under the Ministry of Education; hosted on NIC infrastructure.
- Technology: its base is Sunbird, an open-source stack under the MIT licence with 100+ micro-services.
- Status: in May 2020, under Atmanirbhar Bharat, it was named the single national platform for schooling (“One Nation, One Digital Platform”) and made part of PM e-Vidya.
- Adoption: all States and UTs, CBSE, NIOS and Kendriya Vidyalayas; coverage runs from foundational literacy to senior secondary.
- Language and labs: 135 languages (128 Indian and 7 foreign); 614+ virtual labs.
- NEP 2020: clauses 2.60 and 23.60 treat it as the national store of foundational literacy, numeracy and teacher-training material.
| Feature | What it offers |
|---|---|
| QR-coded energised textbooks | NCERT books linked to videos, interactives and teacher guides |
| Rich media | 2D/3D animation, AR, simulations, virtual labs, sign language videos |
| Inclusion | DAISY format, text-to-speech, Indian Sign Language videos |
| Practice and assessment | Unlimited questions, adaptive tests, competency-based banks |
| Teacher training | NISHTHA and state modules, self-paced and certified |
| Offline use | Downloadable content; preloaded on Smart Class boards by States and UTs |
| Mobile app | Android and iOS for students, teachers and parents |
About PM e-Vidya
- Ministry of Education initiative for multimodal digital learning, announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package in May 2020.
- Components: DIKSHA; the One Class, One Channel scheme, with twelve DTH TV channels, one for each class from 1 to 12; radio, community radio and podcasts (Shiksha Vani); e-content for visually and hearing impaired learners; online courses from the top 100 universities.
Exam angle
- Launch date and launcher; parent body NCERT; ministry: Education.
- Open-source base: Sunbird.
- Slogan: One Nation, One Digital Platform.