IGNOU Launches MBA Courses in Hindi and Odia for Multilingual Education

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) recently launched Master of Business Administration (MBA) courses in Hindi and Odia, with the programme being offered in both languages.

The project is a part of the larger scheme in collaboration with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) under the E-Kumbh project, an all-India project to convert important learning content into twelve Indian languages. IGNOU's MBA curriculum has been localized using the powerful machine translation tool "Anuvadini" of AICTE to benefit the students who prefer to study in their mother tongue more effectively.

IGNOU is also setting up MBA courses in ten more Indian languages, one step towards bridging language gaps in the field of management studies. It was opened on June 2 and reaffirmed 'IGNOU's commitment to making higher education open and inclusive across India's multilingual landscape,' said IGNOU.

"Today's launch is a turning point in our quest for educational equity," said Shri Mrutyunjay Behera, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Chief Guest on the occasion. "By introducing MBA courses in regional languages, IGNOU is bringing professional education to the grassroots level, entirely in line with NEP 2020's emphasis on multilingual and inclusive education. This is not policy implementation—it's an education cultural transformation."

Dr Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman AICTE, underlined the paradigm-changing potential of artificial intelligence in education. "We are entering a new era when AI is enabling real-time translation and localisation of content on a scale that previously was not possible. Anuvadini tool is a paradigm leap in making education borderless. AICTE feels honored to partner with IGNOU to build an inclusive scholar future," he added further. He advocated a subscription economy model of post-secondary education for life-long learning.

Prof. Uma Kanjilal, Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, thanked the dignitaries and stakeholders, further stating, "We are deeply thankful to Shri Mrutnajay Behra and Dr. Abhay Jere for facilitating this vision-oriented initiative. Technology is the real facilitator in this project, enabling us to provide quality learning experiences without respect to languages. Our dream is to make sure no learner feels left behind, irrespective of their linguistic legacy."