UGC launched a course on Indic Knowledge System (IKS) as part of its updated National Education Policy (NEP). UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar announced that the online IKS course would start on July 31 and students can enrol.
Recently, guidelines were issued to all Higher Educational Institutions to assimilate the course into their curriculum. As per the guidelines prepared by the UGC, the IKS course will include subjects like Bharatiya Logic, Linguistics, Architecture, Metallurgy and Bharatiya Polity and Economy. In his tweet, the UGC Chairman highlighted that the course would be offered through the SWAYAM platform.
The course is divided into three sections science and technology, engineering, and humanities and social science. The SWAYAM website (swayam.gov.in) is open for candidates who wish to get admitted to the course. As per the guidelines issued by UGC, topics like unit measurement, number system, arithmetic, astronomy, knowledge framework, psychology, architecture and town planning will be taught in this course. In the online course, students will get the facilities of video lectures, reading materials, self-assessment exams, online discussion and doubt-clearing forums.
In the coming years, several premier institutions such as the IITs and Universities across Bharat are expected to play a crucial role in conducting IKS courses. IIT Kharagpur’s Center of Excellence for Indian Knowledge Systems (CoE-IKS) is already working in the direction of integrating Bharat’s traditional past and the modern scientific world.
The aim of introducing IKS is to ensure that Bharatiya students are familiarized with Bharat’s knowledge repository, in other words with Granthas like Itihasa-Purana, Naá¹yasastra, Tarkasastra, Yogasutra and Ashtadhyayi.
