IGNOU: Indira Gandhi National Open University
The acronym IGNOU stands for “Indira Gandhi National Open University.” IGNOU is an open university run by the central government of India, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1985 through an act of Parliament, in honor of the former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offers high-quality education through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. It was founded to serve the Indian population through open and distance education, offering quality higher education opportunities for all segments of society. The public university currently has 67 regional centers, 21 schools, 29 international partner institutions, around 2,665 student support centers and a total active enrollment of over 4 million students, it claims to be the largest university in the world. It offers around 228 ccertificate, degree, diploma and doctoral programs in various fields of education. The Ministry of HRD has entrusted the responsibility of developing Draft Policy on Open and Distance Learning and Online Courses to IGNOU.