Streamcast Partners with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for Digital Education Platform

Streamcast Group, an international technology company today announced its partnership with BSNL Maharashtra  - India’s state-owned telecommunications company.

Using Streamcast’s proprietary technology, the partnership enables delivery at ultra low bandwidth of a spectrum of high end triple-play digital services via the BSNL network (wired & wireless) to every part of Maharashtra thus, providing digital inclusion for everyone.

In line with Streamcast’s business philosophy of enriching human lives, the first service being launched in this partnership is EDMISSION - Education with a Mission. The philosophy and vision of Edmission is to deliver education and learning for all age-groups to all sections of the society, especially the rural areas. Leveraging Streamcast’s high compute planned data centre investment of over INR 5,500 crore at the recently announced data centre in Banda, Sawantwadi, Edmission will deliver varied learning content in multiple vernacular languages as well as English.

While Edmission will be made available to anyone using a BSNL SIM Card, Streamcast has further mooted the partnership by committing to distribute 500,000 free set top boxes (STBs) across Maharashtra in the launch phase. Powered by the BSNL SIM in it, users/students will be able to access Edmission content at their homes using rich graphics and video as well as interact with educators with no other connectivity requirement other than the SIM card. The first 100,000 STBs will be distributed in the district of Sindhudurg and the process of selecting the homes for the STB will be designed and managed by the Maharashtra Government led by Hon. Minister Kesarkar, the Guardian Minister of Sindhudurg district and his office. As the ambit of the partnership expands to other geographies, the process will be replicated across other districts.

To announce this unique partnership, Udhav Thackeray graced the event as Chief Guest, along with Subhashji Desai, Minister of Industries, Vinodji Tawde, Minister of Education, Deepakji Sawant, Minister of Health, Deepakji Kesarkar, Minister of State for Home (Rural), Planning and Finance and Guardian Minister of Sindhudurg, Bhushanji Gagrani, Principle Secretary to Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with representation from senior members of BSNL and Streamcast including Peeyush Khare, CGM-BSNL, Maharashtra, Nimish Pandya, Chairperson of Streamcast Group and Ashima B Chhalill, Head of Education, Streamcast Group.

The event also saw Uddhavji Thackeray, Chief Guest unveil the name of the Sawantwadi Human Resource Development (HRD) Centre in Sawantwadi as ‘Bal Saheb Thackeray Gyaan Prabodhini’. The Centre marks the region’s first physical infrastructure supported and managed by Streamcast which will serve as a training centre for students to appear for various civil/ skilled exams thus, combining online content with offline facilities. 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Deepak Kesarkar, Minister of State for Home (rural) Planning, Finance and Guardian minister of Sindhudurg said, “India is a young nation with over 50% of the population being less than 25 years of age. It is important to provide this young populace with quality education and infrastructural facilities which will nurture their vocational skills as well as enhance their employability. With the first STBs being distributed in Sindhudurg, education and entertainment will be available to people in the comfort of their homes. Further, the HRD centre will offer a solid landmark centre for interested students to prepare and train for entrance exams of civil services, banking and insurance. In line with this, I would like to thank Streamcast for taking this initiative as well as investing heavily in technology to open doors for the youth of Sindhudurg.”

Commenting on the launch of Edmission, Ashima B Chhalill, Head for Education said, “At Streamcast, we are committed to delivering high quality digital services to low bandwidth regions to aid under-served populations across the world. With an investment of over INR 35 crores in only the STBS, we aim to reach every BSNL SIM holder in Maharashtra with quality education. We thank the Government of Maharashtra for their continued support and we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than BSNL that shares a common philosophy of serving the nation.

Commenting on the partnership, Peeyush Khare, CGM-BSNL said, ‘Éducation for All’ is a national priority as laid down by the Government to bridge the gap to quality education. With the power of digitization, quality education is not restricted just to the classrooms, but can also be delivered to people at the comfort of their homes. We are delighted to partner with Streamcast Technologies to take education to India’s rural markets backed with state of the art and low-cost Set Top Boxes/technologies.”

Earlier this year, Streamcast had launched its high compute date centre in Sawantwadi, Maharashtra, through its cloud computing business, Streamcloud. Spread across 12 acres of land, Streamcloud’s new Data Centre marked the company’s first data centre in India with an investment of over INR 2200+ crore over the next four-five years.