CBSE has told every affiliated school to point students towards a free bank of 845+ virtual labs that now sits on the DIKSHA platform. The circular, No. TRG-16/2026 dated 13 August 2026, says the labs were built by CIET-NCERT for the Ministry of Education and MeitY, and that each one is mapped to an NCERT class, subject and chapter. Most of them are Science and Mathematics.
In plain terms: if you are in Class 6 to 12 and following NCERT books, you can now run an experiment on a phone or laptop — free, with no coaching fee and no registration cost — for a large share of the chapters you are already studying. The quickest way in is the QR code printed at the start of your NCERT chapter.
| Circular | No. TRG-16/2026, dated 13 August 2026, CBSE Training Unit |
| What is available | 845+ curriculum-aligned virtual labs and related digital resources |
| Mainly which subjects | Science and Mathematics |
| Built by | CIET-NCERT, under the Ministry of Education and MeitY |
| Mapped to | NCERT curriculum, learning outcomes, class, subject and chapter |
| Where to find them | DIKSHA portal and the DIKSHA mobile app |
| Cost to a student | Free |
| Signed by | Manoj K. Srivastava, Director (Training), CBSE |
Five ways to open a virtual lab
The circular lists five separate routes. They lead to the same repository, so use whichever is fastest for you.
- DIKSHA portal or app. Browse grade-wise, subject-wise and chapter-wise on the official DIKSHA platform.
- QR codes inside NCERT textbooks. The code at the start of a chapter opens the virtual labs and digital resources for that chapter. This is the shortest route while you are revising.
- Grade-wise QR codes. Dedicated codes that open everything mapped to a whole class, subject by subject and chapter by chapter.
- Ask DIKSHA. An AI-powered search inside DIKSHA — type what you want, such as a chapter name, instead of browsing menus.
- DIKSHA PAL courses. The Personalised Adaptive Learning courses also carry the virtual labs inside them.
Which classes and subjects the 845+ virtual labs cover
CBSE describes the repository as mapped to NCERT curricula, learning outcomes, classes, subjects and chapters, and says it is mostly Science and Mathematics. The circular does not publish a class-wise count, so treat coverage as chapter-dependent rather than assuming every chapter has a lab. Open your own chapter and check before you plan a revision session around it. If you are working through a chapter such as Light: Reflection and Refraction in Class 10 Science, a ray-diagram simulation is exactly the kind of thing this repository is built for.
How to use a virtual lab without wasting an evening
A simulation is easy to click through and hard to learn from. Three habits make the difference. First, predict before you run — write down what you expect to happen, then run the experiment and compare. Second, change one variable at a time, the way the observation table in your practical file expects. Third, close the tab and reproduce the observation table on paper from memory. If you cannot, you watched a video rather than doing an experiment.
This is a supplement, not a substitute. Board practical marks come from work done at your own school, so keep following the practical exam preparation checklist and your school schedule. The virtual lab is most useful when the school lab is closed, when apparatus is short, or when you want a second run before your practical exam.
Free and official — how to be sure you are on the right site
DIKSHA is a government platform and these resources are free. Anyone charging you for “DIKSHA virtual lab access” is not selling you anything official. Use only the addresses printed in the CBSE circular, and apply the same caution you would when checking whether an NCERT textbook PDF is genuine. No genuine education portal will ever ask you for a password, an OTP, an Aadhaar number or bank details to open a study resource.
If free official study support is what you are after, this sits alongside SATHEE, the Ministry of Education and IIT Kanpur free JEE, NEET and CUET platform — different purpose, same idea: material the government has already paid for on your behalf.
Where to verify this yourself
Read the source rather than a summary of it. The official CBSE circular No. TRG-16/2026 (13 August 2026) is a two-page PDF on the board’s own site, and it is listed among the latest notices on cbse.gov.in. Always confirm on the official website before acting.