New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on Monday joined hands with technology firm Srei Sahaj e-village to make 100 million youths in rural India computer literate.

The courses were inaugurated by the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, A. Raja at IGNOU here.

These programmes will deliver international quality skill development vocational programmes at affordable costs to the rural population of India.

"An estimated 100 million rural youth population across the country stands to benefit through the Sahaj-IGNOU partnership," IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said.

By the end of 2010, the varsity promised to make this online skill education available at 27,255 common service centres already existing in states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Pillai said, "This is the first time in the country that online education through distance mode will reach the remotest corners of the country, empowering the rural poor. The IGNOU-Sahaj partnership will help bridge the educational divide within the rural landscape and make advanced computer education available to the villagers at their doorsteps."

Total five courses are currently available as part of the partnership. They are diploma in advanced computers, certificate programme in HTML, certificate programme in JAVA SCRIPT, certificate programme in SQL and certificate programme in FLASH.

The eligibility criteria for these programmes is matriculation. All programmes will be accredited to IGNOU for its use. Sahaj will administer the programmes, including enrollments, registration, fee collection, evaluation and do the certification by IGNOU. IANS