NPTEL is the largest and most appreciated exercise in online learning in technical education in the world with more than 2300 courses in engineering, technology, arts and humanities published through the official website http://nptel.ac.in. Seven IITs (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee) and the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore are official partners and share the responsibility for creating electronic content in the form of video lectures or web based lecture materials or both. More than 2000 faculty members from across the country have created lectures since 2003 and have also made them available through YouTube also, which has led to many technical institutions adopting them. The main objective was to fulfil the need for supplementary lectures provided by some of the experienced teachers from renowned academic institutions. The lectures are usually in the form of modules and adequate for a one semester course of 40 hours on each topic; recently, NPTEL has also adopted the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) model with proctored examinations. YouTube alone has recorded more than 1 Billion visits since the project was launched in November 2007 and is the most visited education channel in the world.

This exercise of content creation has now been extended to include basic science subjects in medicine that are ideally suited to reinforce the prescribed didactic sessions in the curriculum. Padma Vibhushan Prof. (Dr) M. S. Valiathan of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Deemed University & Institution of Eminence) and Prof. Manoj Kumar Singh of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are co-ordinating the content development in the subjects of:

1. Anatomy
2. Biochemistry
3. Physiology
4. Microbiology
5. Pathology
6. Pharmacology

Professors from many institutions are partnering in recording lectures in one of the areas for each of the above subjects. National Co-ordinators have been identified in each subject as given below:

Anatomy:
1. Dr.(Lt Col) T. Vijaya Sagar, Symbiosis International University, Lavale, Pune
2. Dr. Kalpana Ramachandran, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai

Biochemistry:
1. Prof. Dr. Pragna Rao, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal - Till July, 2019
2. Prof. Dr. Ullas Kamath, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal - From August - Till Date

Physiology:
Prof. Dr. Sathya Subramani, Christian Medical College, Vellore

Microbiology:
Prof. Dr. Renu Bharadwaj, BJ Government Medical College, Pune

Pathology:
Prof. K. Ramnarayan, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal

Pharmacology:
Prof. Dr. Y. K. Gupta, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi

The content revolves around the undergraduate medical curriculum but other health professional students can certainly benefit from the expertise that has been made available. The lectures are useful not only for students in all areas of science either as core or elective courses, but are also helpful to faculty members and practising doctors as refresher learning material.

The videos are available for free and fair use by any citizen of India in India and overseas. They are also freely downloadable by interested learners throughout the world. The URL for accessing the website is: http://dth.ac.in/medical

Prof. Arun K Tangirala
Chief Coordinator, DTH SWAYAM Prabha and
Professor,Department of Chemical Engineering
IIT Madras.