Reliance Infocomm Inks Online Education Pact

[Arun 795]

Mumbai, May 4 :

Reliance Infocomm, the tech services arm of diversified Reliance Industries, Wednesday signed a pact with a leading management education institute to offer online courses through its chain of retail stores.

Under the agreement, Reliance Infocomm and Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB), would conduct post-graduate programmes through virtual classrooms in over 100 cities in the country.

The online classrooms will be conducted through 240 outlets of Reliance WebWorld, the retail chain of Reliance Infocomm that also offers high-speed Internet connectivity.

"We offer the best proposition for content providers and institutions running programmes through distance learning," Reliance WebWorld chief executive officer Sarup Chowdhary told a press conference here.

"Besides aggregating and partnering with the best of the content providers world-wide, we will also partner universities and institutes of repute for long-term certificate or degree courses," he added.

In the initial phase, XIMB will offer one-year postgraduate certificate programme in business management using Reliance's platform.

Management development and customised training programmes for enterprises will be added to the product suite in a phased manner.

The course will begin with an online registration and examination process initially across 12 cities through which students will be short-listed.

The selected students will be able to see and hear the professor live, view slides, audio-visuals, and participate in interactive sessions with the professor and other students sitting in Reliance WebWorld stores.

"We have designed the course and chosen a mode of teaching that will revolutionize the way education is imparted in India," said XIMB director E. Abraham.

[Chirag 5]

Rel knows how to leverage its capacities! Its getting more n more un-predictable of wat they have lined-up for the country, in their biz plans!

[Arun 795]

Times News Network

The virtual classroom is ready to reach into the furthermost pockets of the country, bringing education to students and executives no matter where they live. Last week, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB) announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind programme in business management through virtual classrooms along with Reliance Infocomm and software and services provider Blueshift.

The classrooms will be spread across over 100 cities, via 240 Reliance WebWorld outlets. “The second best to classroom teaching is video conferencing,” said E Abraham, XIMB director. “This is the first time in the world an entire programme is being taken through video conferencing to the entire country.”

The alliance will kick off its virtual drive with a one-year PG certificate programme in business management (PCPBM), and plans to follow this up the launch of a rural management course in October. Fr Abraham hopes to have an initial batch size of about 150 students. With 300 hours of teaching, the programme will include one week of on-campus interaction. The entire course will cost Rs 1.8 lakh.

This tie-up is the first of a number of similar partnerships for Reliance Infocomm. “Reliance WebWorld will partner with universities and institutes of repute for long-term certificate and degree courses,” said Sarup Chowdhary, CEO, Reliance WebWorld.

The virtual classrooms will offer real-time, multi-way audio and visual connect between professor and students. Students can see and hear the professor live, view slides and audio-visuals and participate in interactive sessions.

Each session will be recorded and available on demand at the WebWorlds. In addition, said Sankaran Raghunathan, chairman Blueshift, “mid-career executives and professors can take classes in any of the other cities if they are travelling, as long as it is worked out before hand.