Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday introduces an all-inclusive web portal, U-Rise. The portal will help students gain knowledge, get vocational guidance and ultimately get employment opportunities in the state.
What the web portal U-Rise was built to do
The state government launched the web portal U-Rise on 24 September 2020, with a database of about 20 lakh students in engineering and vocational courses, eGov magazine’s Elets News Network reported. The system is meant to follow each student from enrolment until he or she finds a job, and to give students across the state access to an e-library wherever they live, so that study material reaches even the remotest districts. Adityanath said at the launch that uniform education for every student in the state was needed to build a more equitable society, the report said.
The portal was developed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University as a joint initiative of the technical education department, the training and employment department and the state’s skill development mission.
The study material, the online library and online educational programmes will be available to students in every region of the state, however remote. Almost 20 lakh students, as well as technologically adept professionals, will profit from the courses by receiving professional and technological training.
In his address during the launch, Yogi informed that the portal is one of the segments of the second stage of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Qualitative Reforms programme started in 2017 to enhance the condition of technical colleges and institutes.
The Chief Minister kickstarted many new plans while inaugurating the U-Rise web portal.
The portal’s own home page describes U-Rise as an online platform for students of skills, vocational and technical education, bringing student services online so that they can be used “anytime, anywhere”.
The portal, developed by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, is a shared project of the department for technical education, training and employment department and the expertise enhancement mission.
Following the National Education Policy 2020, according to Yogi, this project is the most significant improvement in the education industry. He lauded the project as a connecting point between students and professional and technical education. He also said that besides implementing the NEP, his state is the pioneer in launching an all-inclusive platform.
Where U-Rise fits in the National Education Policy
The policy Adityanath invoked had been approved by the Union Cabinet two months earlier, on 29 July 2020. It promised undergraduate education with flexible curricula, the integration of vocational education, and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification, so that a degree could take three or four years with exits along the way, according to the Press Information Bureau’s summary of the Cabinet decision. In schools, vocational education was to start from Class 6, with internships.
The policy also set a goal of raising the gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 50 per cent by 2035, with 3.5 crore seats to be added, the summary said. Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities, on a par with the IITs and IIMs, were to be set up as models of multidisciplinary education, and a National Research Foundation was to be created as an apex body to build research capacity.
The same summary said an Academic Bank of Credits would be set up to allow the transfer of credits between institutions, and that an autonomous National Educational Technology Forum would be created as a place to exchange ideas on using technology for learning, assessment, planning and administration. The educational reserve of credit that Adityanath announced at the launch of the web portal U-Rise was, he said, to work under the same policy.
He commented that if the technology were not so advanced, COVID-19 would have proven to be a considerable challenge. The UP government is utilising technology to pinpoint, follow and take necessary measures against fraudulent teachers with fake degree certificates.
The coming together of educators, patrons and scholars via U-Rise will prove to be profitable for the students. It will strengthen their knowledge by presenting with useful data on online examinations, online subject matter, online evaluation, online examination question papers, web conferences, internships, digital library, video and audio study material and job availability.
Yogi also provided 100 crores for the intermediate phase of the Deendayal Upadhyay Quality Improvement Programme. The disbursement of funds will enhance the online and offline framework of the education sector in UP. An educational reserve of credit will take into account all the academic credits from universities and colleges. The educational reserve will work under the NEP.
Since then: a national credit bank and the portal today
The national credit bank followed within a year. On 29 July 2021, the first anniversary of the policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a set of education schemes, the Free Press Journal reported, among them the Academic Bank of Credit, which his office said would provide multiple entry and exit options for students in higher education.
Other measures on his office’s list included first-year engineering programmes in regional languages, guidelines for the internationalisation of higher education, the National Digital Education Architecture and the National Educational Technology Forum. The list also included Vidya Pravesh, a three-month play-based preparation module for children entering Grade 1; Indian Sign Language as a subject at secondary level; NISHTHA 2.0, a teacher training programme designed by the NCERT; and SAFAL, a competency-based assessment framework for Grades 3, 5 and 8 in CBSE schools.
The web portal U-Rise is still running. As of October 2026, its home page says it serves government, aided and private affiliated institutions that offer skills, vocational and technical education, and offers e-content, a networking space where students across the state can share ideas and concerns, and notices on examinations, scholarships and contest results, with documents available through DigiLocker. It lists the Chief Minister, the Minister for Technical Education, the Principal Secretary and the Director General of Technical Education as its mentors. The page does not give current figures for students, courses or institutions.
