If you ever missed a lecture at school or college or wanted your instructor to teach a topic just one more time, you will find www.topchalks.com an invaluable asset. Problems like chasing friends to help you with the lecture notes, seeking private tutors to cope with the exams that are just around the corner, trying to remember the lessons that were taught months ago, desperately trying to understand complex problems that you once understood are all too familiar. Sounds strange though, but with a few mouse clicks, you may now reach out to an innovative educational resource portal – “TopChalks.com”. Once there, the site itself will play the role of your friend, your class teacher or any private tutor at the same point of time. You can attend the class lectures virtually, taught by some of the best instructors in the country – word by word, variable by variable, equation by equation, repeating as many times as you want to - going through all the chapters and sections that you may have missed.

All this and more, were demonstrated and announced through a press conference held here today, during the launch of TopChalks.com. The portal was launched as a part of a bigger vision of the promoting company, Catura Broadband Systems Pvt. Ltd, that envisions to ‘Democratize today’s education’ by making education – at all levels – accessible to one and all at the most affordable rate. As a first step to meet its commitment of making available course materials of almost any courses (at any academic level, starting from the board exams to SAT, GMAT, CAT, Engineering, Medical – practically anything), the company has on offer a comprehensive curriculum based and instructor led course for CBSE XII board exam for the science stream.

TopChalks.com is an initiative taken by Mr. Dinesh Mehta and Mr. Narender Oruganti, two US based NRI entrepreneurs, both sharing the same passion of bringing a revolution in the world of education. To support the social vision of the company, leading US based venture capital firm Draper, Fisher & Jurvetson (DFJ) has joined hands with the promoters to fuel its growth and be a part of a revolution in the making.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Dinesh Mehta, Founder, President said, “If you look at the bigger picture, you will realize that in today’s time, it is hard to come by quality faculty members across any stream, as many experts find other professions more lucrative than teaching. Hence, TopChalks.com, with the ability to bring the best of the breed faculty to masses, has the potential to become an instant success by offering everyone the best course content, in any field, from the very best academicians in their respective fields or expertise.”

Mr. Oruganti pointed out, “At TopChalks.com, students may study the subject of their choice at their own pace and in their own preferred environment. Be it in the morning or in the evening or at late night, students may study the same chapter repeatedly, without feeling the pressure of mugging up pages from their text book. Every step – mathematical or otherwise – is explained with animations, diagrams and detailed references at a pace and tone to make even a first timer understand the entire chapter without referring to class notes. TopChalks.com breaks all barriers of space and time and levels the playing field for every Indian, even at the remotest of locations, to be able to learn from the best.”

At TopChalks.com, a teacher’s class-room lessons are seamlessly captured without burdening the teacher to know or learn any technology. The true scalability in this model lies in the fact that knowledge is captured once, and then made available to millions over time to consume it as many times as needed. Each course has been designed and delivered by the best of the current and former teachers from highly reputed schools in Delhi (for the portal’s first offering – the CBSE Std XII courses) such as DPS R K Puram, Air Force Bal Bharti, DPS Maruti Kunj, DPS Faridabad and Salwan Public School.

The USP of TopChalks.com lies not only in its easy usability, but also in the price that a candidate needs to pay to access it. A candidate needs to pay just Rs. 99/- per chapter (for whatever course that the student is pursuing) with a month long unlimited access. Keeping pace with its innovative strategies, Catura has signed an MOU with chipmaker Intel Technologies India Private Ltd and has joined Intel Powered Classmate PC WW Alliance Partner Program to offer Catura’s e-learning solutions on Classmate PC which is a fully functional and affordable Notebook for Learning designed specifically to accelerate localized education for students. Both TopChalks.com, an Internet based e-learning platform for students and PowerChalks, an in-class content solution for the teachers, will be available for consumption on the Intel powered Classmate PC. Catura has also moved ahead to forge various strategic alliances with leading educational institutes – schools, colleges, higher learning tutorials and technology companies and ISPs, to ensure that the best academic content may reach out to millions of aspirants across the length and breadth of the country, who may not otherwise have access quality learning at the local educational establishments.

Its continuous effort to improve the quality, breadth and depth of content will surely transform the educational landscape and create a virtual education and training destination in TopChalks.com for the benefit of the country and the world.