Indira Gandhi National Open University was established in 1985 to democratise higher education. The aim was to provide cost-effective quality education to large sections of our population including those living in remote and far flung areas. IGNOU isa pioneer in Distance Education system. It is recipient of the Centre of Excellence award conferred by the Commonwealth of Learning. The University follows a learner-centric approach and has successfully adopted a policy of openness and flexibility in terms of relaxed entry qualifications, duration, pace and place of learning for successful completion of a programme. The University at present offers 183 programmes of study to a cumulative student strength of over 1.85 million making it the largest single University in the world. These programmes are offered in widely diverse areas and at different levels: Doctorate, Masters and Bachelors degrees, diplomas and certificates. The University has established a network of 61 Regional Centres (RC5), and more than 2053 Study Centres (SOs) all over the country and 52 overseas centres to provide easy access and effective support services to the learners. The University has particular focus on educationally backward regions. Educational and training initiatives in the North-East(NE) states and Sikkim are part of this initiative. The University has extended its outreach beyond the borders of the country also and as of now it offers programmes in 32 countries. The academic programmes of the University have multiple-media support. The University has state of art facilities for the production of audio/video programmes and their dissemination through radio and television. The University also uses interactive radio counselling as well as tele-conferencing to provide interactivity in the teaching-learning process. IGNOU has been identified as the nodal agency for running a 24 hour educational TV channel Gyan Darshan — in collaboration with other institutions of higher learning. Gyan Vani is emerging as a massive radio cooperative network of FM Radio Stations exclusively devoted to education with IGNOU as nodal agency. At present 26 Gyan Vani Stations are operational. The University has made a major breakthrough in distance education and training with the launch of an exclusive Educational Satellite, EDUSAT. The satellite has a wide reach to cover large sections of population and effective communication with its two way video conferencing facility. IGNOU has launched SMS Alert Service for its students which shall eventually lead to content delivery through mobile phones.