India launches an OA education portal

The President of India has launched Sakshat, an OA portal for education.  From today's story in the Hindustan Times: 

A pilot scheme to boost education through a 'one stop education portal' Sakshat, was launched by President APJ Abdul Kalam in New Delhi on Monday....

Sakshat  programme should think of extending the system for providing world class vocational skills to youth for making them internationally competitive, Kalam told the gathering of academics and students....

Terming Sakshat  an impressive engine, the President said, this was of a scale not witnessed so far in India's internet evolution and for this to succeed, the people should get free bandwidth.

"What we are starting today by the HRD Ministry is an impressive engine with great potential to change the country and change the way education is imparted," he said, adding it was a mission worthy of India and Indian capabilities and prowess in information and communication technology....

Singh said the portal would be one of the important pillars of the National Mission on Education during the 11th Five Year plan. Lauding the project, Singh reiterated UPA government's commitment to ensure that no person was deprived of education on economic or social reasons.