15-09-2017, 07:07 PM
18-09-2017, 12:33 PM
Indira Gandhi Open National University known as IGNOU is a national distance learning university located in Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. The university was founded in 1985 with a budget of ₹ 20 million, after the Parliament of India passed the 1985 Law of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU Act 1985). IGNOU is run by the central government of India, and with more than 4 million students, claims to be the largest university in the world.
IGNOU was founded to serve the indigenous population through distance and open education, providing higher education opportunities particularly to underprivileged segments of society. It also aims to foster, coordinate and establish standards for distance and open education in India, and to strengthen India's human resources through education. In addition to teaching and research, extension and training form the mainstay of their academic activities. It also acts as a national resource center, and serves to promote and maintain distance education standards in India. IGNOU is the headquarters of the Secretariats of the SAARC Consortium for Open and Distance Learning (SACODiL) and the World Network of Mega Universities (GMUNET), initially supported by UNESCO.
IGNOU has initiated a process of decentralization through the creation of five zones; north, south, east, west and northeast. The first of the regional headquarters, which supplies four southern states, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, is being established on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The Ministry of HRD has entrusted the responsibility of developing the Open and Distance Learning Policy Project and online courses to IGNOU.