New Delhi, Aug 19 - The country's premier long distance education varsity, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has collaborated with nearly a dozen universities in as many countries to develop skills among 10 million rural people in the next six years.

'The aim is to make rural people skilled. We will try to bridge the digital divide among people and thus empower them,' IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai told IANS Wednesday.

The skill development would be region specific and will be facilitated through tele-centres across the countries, including Uganda, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Thailand and the Philippines.

The skill development would be done in local language and efforts are on to develop a global curriculum for this.

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian organisation, is collaborating with the IGNOU for the purpose.

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