Prof Ananth said there was a “broad overlap” between courses developed by them and some of the 1,8000 courses now available on OCW at www.ocw.mit.edu.

“Our NPTEL courses were developed taking a cue from Anna University, Vishweshwaraya Technical University, and Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University in Andhra Pradesh. We took all the syllabuses together and modified and converted them into 120 courses after months of discussion and hard work. When MIT approached us, we decided not to mix up both, as it would only confuse our students. Our courses are for students across India, especially those in the rural areas, and they might not be similar to any course taught by MIT,” said Prof Ananth. The HRD Ministry invested Rs 20 crore for the first phase of the NPTEL project. In the second phase, the IITs plan to develop 500 more courses, including some at postgraduate level.