Free of charge: Cooking, fitness channels on Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel; virtual classrooms for colleges

Chennai: You can now learn cooking from top chefs, pick up dance moves and watch documentaries on cars, history, space and other interesting topics for free. DTH service providers Tata Sky, Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV are offering their interactive channels for free until the end of the current lockdown, April 14.

Also, keep the kids entertained with channels dedicated to cartoons and rhymes, and find workouts for yourself on fitness channels.

Tata Sky is opening access to 10 such channels, while Airtel and Dish TV offer four channels each.

Tata Sky’s free channels are Dance Studio (channel number 1230, Fun Learn (664 and 668), Cooking (127), Fitness (110), Smart Manager (701), Vedic Maths (702), Classroom (653), English learning (660 for Hindi viewers and 1424 for Telugu), Beauty (119), and Javed Aktar (150).

In addition, Tata Sky also offering TV viewing on credit. Give a missed call on 080-61999922 from your registered mobile number, if you are unable to recharge your account and would like the DTH service to continue. This offer can be availed for seven days .

Airtel Digital TV viewers can check out Aapki Rasoi cooking channel on 407, Airtel CuriosityStream on 419 to watch documentaries and TV series, Airtel Senior TV for elderly family members on 323, and Let's Dance to take virtual dance lessons on both Indian classical styles Bharatanatyam and Kathak as well as Western dance forms Jazz, Hip Hop, and Salsa among others on 113.

Dish TV subscribers get Ayushmaan Active for senior citizens on 130, Fitness Active on 132, Kids Active Toons on 956, and Kids Active Rhymes on 957.

Apart from DTH services providing education services free, and learning apps such as Byjus, Toppr, and Extramarks offering free access to lessons, now Himachal Pradesh-based Shoolini University is offering its virtual classrooms free to institutions that are keen to teach students online.

AI-based Technology Company Aaddoo has been working with the university for the past six months to develop a system whereby students can attend live lectures through virtual classrooms. Students can use a laptop or even their smartphones to ask questions and get answers in real time, participate in real-time quizzes, polls, games and so on.

The platform also provides teachers with insights on individual students over a period of time.