Big Boost to Khadi; Indian Red Cross Society to Buy 1.80 lakh Face Masks from KVIC

As the popularity of the Khadi Face Masks grows across the country due to its fine quality and affordable price, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has received a prestigious purchase order from Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to supply 1.80 lakh face masks.

As per KVIC, the IRCS masks will be made of 100 per cent double-twisted handcrafted cotton fabric in brown colour with red piping. KVIC has especially designed these double-layered cotton masks for the Indian Red Cross Society as per the samples provided by them. The mask will have suitably printed IRCS logo on the left side and the Khadi India tag on the right side. The supply of masks will begin by next month.

The execution of this order will require over 20,000 meter of fabric which will generate 9000 additional man days for the Khadi artisans.

KVIC Chairman, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena welcomed the purchase order from the Indian Red Cross Society and said the massive demand of Khadi Face Masks is a major step in the direction of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. “This order will help our Khadi artisans to produce more yarn and fabric and will further add to their income in these difficult times,” Saxena said.

KVIC has added that so far it has sold over 10 lakh face masks which include double layered Cotton Masks and triple-layered Silk Masks. The biggest order for face masks that the KVIC received was from the Jammu & Kashmir government for 7 lakh masks that has been delivered on time.

Approximately 1 lakh meter of Cotton fabric worth over Rs one crore (US$ 0.14 million) and nearly 2000 meters of Silk fabric of different colours and prints has been used in making these masks till recently.

KVIC received repeat orders from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Prime Minister’s Office, Central Government ministries and orders from public through KVIC’s E-portal. KVIC has supplied over 20,000 face masks to the Indian Railways too. Apart from the sale, KVIC has free distributed nearly 10 lakh Khadi masks to the District Authorities though its Khadi Institutions across the country.

“Face Masks are the most critical tool to fight the Corona Pandemic. These masks prepared from Double Twisted Khadi fabric not only meet the quality and scale of demand but are cost effective, breathable, washable, reusable and bio-degradable” Saxena added.
 

Atal Innovation Mission launches 'AIM-iCREST', in partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation

In a major initiative to encourage and enable holistic progress in the incubator ecosystem across the country, NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), has launched AIM iCREST – an Incubator Capabilities enhancement program for a Robust Ecosystem focused on creating high performing Start-ups. This is a first of its kind initiative for advancing innovation at scale in India. 

AIM has joined hands with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation - organizations that can lend credible support and expertise in the entrepreneurship and innovation space. These partnerships will provide global expertise and showcase proven best practices to the AIM's incubator network. 

AIM iCREST, as the name suggests, has been designed to enable the incubation ecosystem and act as a growth hack for AIM’s Atal and Established incubators across the country.  Under the initiative, the AIM’s incubators are set to be upscaled and provided requisite support to foster the incubation enterprise economy, that will help them to significantly enhance their performance. This will be complemented by providing training to entrepreneurs, through technology driven processes and platforms. 

The program aims at going beyond incubator capacity building.  Given the current pandemic crisis, the effort will focus on supporting start-up entrepreneurs in knowledge creation and dissemination as well as in developing robust and active networks. 

Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, sharing his views said, “We firmly believe that the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved into truly world-class movement. NITI Aayog shall play the role of a catalyst in making it happen. India has a great opportunity in its inherent innovative mindset to capture global markets while creating disruptive solutions for the challenges within the country. In order to facilitate an AtmaNirbhar ecosystem that is capable of nurturing such disruptive start-ups, AIM, NITI Aayog is enabling this partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation. We are positive it will propel our portfolio to become #WorldClassIncubators and reach greater heights.” 

Sharing his views, Mr Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director, AIM said, “India needs world class incubators fostering world class startups leveraging the tremendous innovation talent of our country. For the first time in the Government, the Incubator capacity development program is being extended to the entire portfolio of supported Atal incubators. This programme is unique also in its design - it is a combination of interactive practices in the field of incubation; enabling the incubators to support sustainable and successful startups. We are pleased to announce the partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation supported by NEN.” 

Ms Anjani Bansal, Deputy Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said, “We are thrilled to support this initiative of Atal Innovation Mission and NITI Aayog to nurture an ecosystem that enables development and scale up of innovations to solve problems with far reaching impact. Such innovations in technologies and business models can contribute, both incrementally and radically, to the foundation's goals of improving maternal and child health, increasing productivity and income of small farmers, increasing access and usage of digital financial services, and improving livelihoods for women. The large network of incubators under AIM-iCREST program also enables us to deliver this program at scale which is particularly exciting.” 

Mr Ajay Kela, President, and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation, added, “The Wadhwani Foundation is honored to partner with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help accelerate and scale Startup success in India. The partnership brings decades of experience and global best practice integrated into a comprehensive platform delivered through AIM iCREST. The program will contribute to much needed economic and job growth in these challenging times”. 

Mr Dan Kranzler Senior Advisor to Wadhwani Foundation and lead trainer of iCREST program added, “Teams from AIM iCREST, Wadhwani Foundation, and the leading incubators of India are all excited to engage together to advance outcomes to create increased economic and job growth. The unique nature of the content, programs, toolkits, resources, and best practices from over 200 global incubators work seamlessly in a digital model to ensure continuity of the program in the midst of the COVID-19 restrictions”. 
 

Minister for Commerce & Industry inaugurated CII National Digital conference on Ease of Doing Business for Atmanirbhar Bharat

Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal today said that the Government is committed to policy simplification and asked for industry's feedback and cooperation. Inaugurating CII National Digital conference on Ease of Doing Business for Atmanirbhar Bharat today, the Minister emphasized that a single window system for industrial approvals will soon be in place. He urged both industry and government to work as partners and urged the industry to play a proactive role in helping the government identify the tax evaders and violators.

Speaking on the COVID-19 situation, the Minister said that economy is bouncing back in the country and restrictions were temporary and are now being eased. He highlighted that during COVID-19 crisis, the country's services sector continued to serve global clients. He said that India’s exports are almost 88 per cent of the last year’s level while imports are almost 75 per cent of the same period last year. “Business is bouncing back,” he said and added that the export restrictions on ventilators will soon be done away with. He said that Centre is working with States for easier labour law, soft launch of land bank portal, single window clearance for investments.

On the incentive scheme for exports- Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS), Shri Goyal said that the Government is looking for an early solution and the government will find a way that does not impact exports. “We are in dialogue with the requisite authorities. MEIS is not going anywhere. It is a cash flow issue. We are trying for an early solution which is a win-win for everyone” he added.

The minister also said the finance ministry is looking at ways to promote finance for investments in the country and the government has been assured by the banks that there is ample liquidity in the system. The Minister said that his Ministry has already identified 20 industrial sectors for giving focused push. The Minister said that the government is working on decriminalising laws and removing redundant laws.

On the need for flexible labour laws to help the industry, Shri Goyal said that the Centre is in touch with 16 States and UTs and had received proposals from them. “We are trying to commonalise their ideas. We are looking at how States can offer easy to implement the labour law ecosystem...,” he said.

The Minister said that the worries on availability of land for industry in India are unfounded, as thousands of hectares of land has already been identified. He said that the Centre is planning a soft launch of the land bank available with States and will create a land bank porta. Six States have already shared the data for this.

On the proposed single window system for investments, the Minister said that the government’s effort is to try and bring all good practices on one platform and the single window will be a genuine one. He said his team is in constant touch with State departments to ensure that the single window gets expedited.
 

India can be among top-5 agri goods exporters with effective policies: Report

According to a report by the World Trade Centre, India can be among the top five exporters of agro-commodities by shifting its focus on cultivation and effectively handholding farmers.

The Government has also introduced some reforms in the farm sector by permitting farmers to sell produce outside the regulated APMC markets, and relaxing the Essential Commodities Act, among others, which can help boost exports.

The country ranked eighth with an annual agro exports of US$ 39 billion in 2019, after the EU (US$ 181 billion), the US (US$ 172 billion), Brazil (US$ 93 billion), China (US$ 83 billion), Canada (US$ 69 billion), Indonesia (US$ 46 billion) and Thailand (US$ 44 billion), quoted the WTC report.

The report added, "Through focused intervention in capacity-building, we can enhance our agro exports to surpass Thailand and Indonesia and become the fifth-largest exporter in the world".

In order to achieve this, the first step is to re-orient the role of the government extension centres — the 715 krishi vigyan kendras across the country and to handhold farmers in growing those varieties of crops that have demand in the global markets, added report.

The study noted that Indian consignments get rejected many a time because of the presence of pesticides above the prescribed maximum residual limits, Thus, farmers should be guided through Krishi Vigyan Kendras on prudential use of pesticides and other chemicals so that they conform to the global quality standards.

"Having attained self-sufficiency in agriculture, we need to re-orient our extension services system, which was developed in the days of the green revolution that focused on attaining self-sufficiency in farm production," the report said.

It further added that it is time we move towards growing quality food for the global markets rather than quantity.

One of the major areas could be cultivating horticulture crops that abide to the quality, colour, shape, and chemical contents acceptable in foreign countries or which are fit for further processing.

India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables, but the share in global exports is under 1.8 per cent. It is the largest producer of papayas, lemons, and limes; however, we meet hardly 3.2 per cent of the world papaya demand, 0.5 per cent for lemons and limes, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization.

It was seen that India made remarkable progress in exports of niche items like capsicum chilly, castor oil, tobacco extracts, and sweet biscuits, apart from basmati rice, meat, and marine products in the past decade.

"These success stories should be and can be replicated in other potential food items," the report concluded.

Adani Ports SEZ raises US$ 750 million through an offshore bond issue

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Ltd, which is controlled by billionaire Mr Gautam Adani, launched an offshore bond offering, raising as much as US$ 750 million.

Since March 2020, when the coronavirus disrupted the global markets, this is the third and the largest offshore bond deal launched by an Indian company. State-owned REC Ltd and agrochemicals major UPL Ltd raised US$ 500 million each in May and June, respectively.

The Adani Ports bond sale comes after SoftBank-backed Indian renewable company SB Energy pulled back its US$ 600 million bond offering in July.

As part of the deal, Adani Ports is raising the capital through seven-year bonds, maturing in 2027, at a rate of 4.2 per cent. Advising partners of Adani ports on the bond sale are investment banks Barclays, Bank of America, and Citigroup, among others. It plans to use this capital raised to repay loans of Adani Ports and its subsidiaries, which could include the debt of Krishnapatnam Port Co. Ltd, which Adani agreed to acquire in January. The deal is yet to be closed.

Adani Ports’ board had approved earlier approved offshore bond capital raise of up to US$ 1.25 billion. Though, no statement was released by the company.

According to industry experts, offshore bond issuances from Indian corporates continue to be muted, especially for below-investment-grade issuers or so-called high-yield issuers.

“I think that while the hedging cost for issuers has gone down substantially due to Mifor collapse, the market isn’t there yet in terms of its evolution for non-IG (investment grade) issuers from India," said Mr Shantanu Sahai, managing director and head of debt at Nomura India.

“The markets had started to open up secularly since early June which had led to the hope that HY (high yield) issuers would be able to access it in July or August, but the opening has stalled while the market moves sideways in the past two-three weeks. The only HY issuance that has been seen has been from China," said Mr Sahai.

In June 2019, Adani Ports had raised US$ 750 million through a bond sale, and followed it up with a US$ 650-million buyback offer for bonds maturing in 2020 in the next month.
 

NTPC achieves highest daily gross generation of 977.07 MU

As per a statement by NTPC Ltd., a PSU under Ministry of Power and Country’s largest power generation company, it has achieved highest daily gross generation of 977.07 Million Unit (MU) on 28th July 2020. NTPC total generation includes power generated from its Subsidiary and JV companies.

NTPC stated that five of its power stations Korba, Sipat and Lara in Chhattisgarh, Talcher Kaniha in Odisha and Koldam hydro in Himachal Pradesh exhibited exceptional performance and achieved 100 per cent Plant Load Factor (PLF) on the day. NTPC’s previous best daily generation was 935.46 MU achieved on 12th March 2019.

With a total installed capacity of 62910 MW, NTPC Group has 70 Power stations comprising of 24 Coal, 7 combined cycle Gas/Liquid Fuel, 1 Hydro, 13 Renewables along with 25 Subsidiary & JV Power Stations.

Union Power Minister dedicates 3 wind projects with 800 MW capacity to the nation

Shri Raj Kumar Singh, Honourable Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, today in a virtual ceremony, dedicated Sembcorp’s state of the art SECI 1, 2 and 3 projects to the nation. Shri Bhanu Pratap Yadav, Joint Secretary, MNRE, along with several other dignitaries joined Wong Kim Yin, Group President and CEO, Sembcorp Industries from Singapore and Vipul Tuli, Managing Director, Sembcorp Energy India Limited virtually, to commemorate this milestone.

Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, today announced completion of its latest 800 MW wind power projects, bringing its India renewable energy capacity to 1730 MW. With the full commissioning of its 300 MW SECI 3 wind project, Sembcorp becomes the first independent power producer to fully commission its projects awarded in the first three wind auctions held by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Together, these assets provide enough clean energy to power more than 600,000 homes and avoid over 2 million tonnes/annum of carbon dioxide emissions. This capacity is also the largest operational wind capacity with any developer to-date from SECI auctions.

Mr Singh congratulated SEIL and Singapore Government for their work and commitment in their work in field of renewable energy sector. He said that we are determined to achieve energy transition for which we will ensure transparency, fairness and level playing field to our partners in the sector. He further added that we are committed for achieving target of 175 GW Renewable Energy capacity by 2020 and Prime Minister’s vision of 450 GW Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.

Mr Wong Kim Yin, Group President and CEO, Sembcorp Industries, said from Singapore: "India is a key market for Sembcorp’s Energy business. We thank the Indian government for their trust in and partnership with us to continue to provide sustainable energy solutions to support urbanisation, electrification and decarbonisation in India.”

Since entering the India market in 2011, SEIL has established itself as a reliable independent power producer in the country. With a presence across nine states, SEIL owns and operates 35 assets, adding up to a total power capacity of 4,370 MW including 1,730 MW of renewable energy.

Mr Vipul Tuli, Managing Director, Sembcorp Energy India Limited said: "This is a collective achievement of India’s power sector. The successful completion of the SECI 1, 2 and 3 projects were made possible with the support and guidance of MNRE and Ministry of Power, as well as close partnerships with many central, state and local authorities. Delivery of this 800 MW capacity is a testament to collaboration between industry and government.”

Cabinet Approves National Education Policy 2020, paving way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the National Education Policy 2020 today, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors. This is the first education policy of the 21st century and replaces the thirty-four-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. Built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, this policy is  aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making both school and college education more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, suited to 21st century needs and aimed at bringing out the unique capabilities of each student.

Important Highlights

School Education

Ensuring Universal Access at all levels of school education

NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school education at all levels- preschool to secondary. Infrastructure support, innovative education centres to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking of students and their learning levels, facilitating multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes, association of counsellors or well-trained social workers with schools, open learning for classes 3,5 and 8 through NIOS and State Open Schools, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and 12, vocational courses, adult literacy and life-enrichment programs are some of the proposed ways for achieving this. About 2 crore out of school children will be brought back into main stream under NEP 2020.

Early Childhood Care & Education with new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure

With emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education, the 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 year respectively.  This will bring the hitherto uncovered age group of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognized globally as the crucial stage for development of mental faculties of a child. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.

NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8. ECCE will be delivered through a significantly expanded and strengthened system of institutions including Anganwadis and pre-schools that will have teachers and Anganwadi workers trained in the ECCE pedagogy and curriculum. The planning and implementation of ECCE will be carried out jointly by the Ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development (WCD), Health and Family Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Affairs.

Attaining Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Recognizing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy as an urgent and prerequisite to learning, NEP 2020 calls for setting up of a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by MHRD. States will prepare an implementation plan for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025. A National Book Promotion Policy is to be formulated.

Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy

The school curricula and pedagogy will aim for holistic development of learners by equipping them with the key 21st century skills, reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and greater focus on experiential learning. Students will have increased flexibility and choice of subjects. There will be no rigid separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams.

Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade and will include internships.

A new and comprehensive National Curricular Framework for School Education, NCFSE 2020-21, will be developed by the NCERT.

Multilingualism and the power of language

The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond. Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula. Other classical languages and literatures of India also to be available as options. No language will be imposed on any student. Students to participate in a fun project/activity on ‘The Languages of India’, sometime in Grades 6-8, such as, under the ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ initiative. Several foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level. Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardized across the country, and National and State curriculum materials developed, for use by students with hearing impairment.

Assessment Reforms

NEP 2020 envisages a shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment, which is more competency-based, promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity. All students will take school examinations in Grades 3, 5, and 8 which will be conducted by the appropriate authority. Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued but redesigned with holistic development as the aim.  A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body.

Equitable and Inclusive Education

NEP 2020 aims to ensure that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of the circumstances of birth or background. Special emphasis will be given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities, and disabilities.  This includes setting up of   Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups. Children with disabilities will be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process from the foundational stage to higher education, with support of educators with cross disability training, resource centres, accommodations, assistive devices, appropriate technology-based tools and other support mechanisms tailored to suit their needs. Every state/district will be encouraged to establish “Bal Bhavans” as a special daytime boarding school, to participate in art-related, career-related, and play-related activities. Free school infrastructure can be used as Samajik Chetna Kendras

Robust Teacher Recruitment and Career Path

Teachers will be recruited through robust, transparent processes. Promotions will be merit-based, with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths to become educational administrators or teacher educators. A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across levels and regions.

School Governance

Schools can be organized into complexes or clusters which will be the basic unit of governance and ensure availability of all resources including infrastructure, academic libraries, and a strong professional teacher community.

Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education

NEP 2020 envisages clear, separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations, and academic matters. States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA). Transparent public self-disclosure of all the basic regulatory information, as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for public oversight and accountability. The SCERT will develop a School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) through consultations with all stakeholders.

Higher Education

Increase GER to 50 per cent by 2035

NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education

The policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Undergraduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, Certificate after 1-year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and bachelor’s with Research after 4 years.

An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.

Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs), at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.

The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

Regulation

Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education. HECI to have four independent verticals- National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation, General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding, and National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation. HECI will function through faceless intervention through technology & will have powers to penalise HEIs not conforming to norms and standards. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation, and academic standards.

Rationalised Institutional Architecture

Higher education institutions will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions providing high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. The definition of university will allow a spectrum of institutions that range from Research-intensive Universities to Teaching-intensive Universities and Autonomous degree-granting Colleges.

Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university.

Motivated, Energized, and Capable Faculty

NEP makes recommendations for motivating, energizing, and building capacity of faculty through clearly defined, independent, transparent recruitment, freedom to design curricula/pedagogy, incentivising excellence, movement into institutional leadership. Faculty not delivering on basic norms will be held accountable.

Teacher Education

A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree. Stringent action will be taken against substandard stand-alone Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs).

Mentoring Mission

A National Mission for Mentoring will be established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty – including those with the ability to teach in Indian languages – who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers.

Financial support for students

Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs. The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships. Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer larger numbers of free ships and scholarships to their students.

Open and Distance Learning

This will be expanded to play a significant role in increasing GER. Measures such as online courses and digital repositories, funding for research, improved student services, credit-based recognition of MOOCs, etc., will be taken to ensure it is at par with the highest quality in-class programmes.

Online Education and Digital Education:

A comprehensive set of recommendations for promoting online education consequent to the recent rise in epidemics and pandemics in order to ensure preparedness with alternative modes of quality education whenever and wherever traditional and in-person modes of education are not possible, has been covered. A dedicated unit for the purpose of orchestrating the building of digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building will be created in the MHRD to look after the e-education needs of both school and higher education.

Technology in education

An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration. Appropriate integration of technology into all levels of education will be done to improve classroom processes, support teacher professional development, enhance educational access for disadvantaged groups and streamline educational planning, administration, and management

Promotion of Indian languages

To ensure the preservation, growth, and vibrancy of all Indian languages, NEP recommends setting an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI), National Institute (or Institutes) for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, strengthening of Sanskrit and all language departments in HEIs,  and use mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction in more HEI  programmes .

Internationalization of education will be facilitated through both institutional collaborations, and student and faculty mobility and allowing entry of top world ranked Universities to open campuses in our country.

Professional Education

All professional education will be an integral part of the higher education system. Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities etc will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions.

Adult Education

Policy aims to achieve 100 per cent youth and adult literacy.

Financing Education

The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6 per cent of GDP at the earliest.

Unprecedented Consultations

NEP 2020 has been formulated after an unprecedented process of consultation that involved nearly over 2 lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6600 Blocks, 6000 ULBs, 676 Districts. The MHRD initiated an unprecedented collaborative, inclusive, and highly participatory consultation process from January 2015. In May 2016, ‘Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Late Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary, submitted its report.   Based on this, the Ministry prepared ‘Some Inputs for the Draft National Education Policy, 2016’.  In June 2017 a ‘Committee for the Draft National Education Policy’  was constituted under the Chairmanship of eminent scientist Padma Vibhushan, Dr K. Kasturirangan, which submitted the Draft National Education Policy, 2019 to the Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister on 31st May, 2019.  The Draft National Education Policy 2019 was uploaded on MHRD’s website and at ‘MyGov Innovate’ portal eliciting views/suggestions/comments of stakeholders, including public.
 

AI expected to boost India's annual growth by 1.3 pc, says Niti paper

The government plans to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the university curriculum as the new-age technology and funds research specific projects working in AI. This move is expected to boost India's annual growth rate by 1.3 per cent by 2035, according to a discussion paper by NITI Aayog.

According to the draft paper titled 'Towards Responsible #AIForAll', there is potential of large-scale adoption of AI in a variety of social sectors. "AI expected to boost India's annual growth rate by 1.3 per cent by 2035. The government may fund specific research projects in responsible AI and introduce ethics of AI into the university curriculum," the draft document said.

The effect caused by AI are not new, the document said adding that the existing legislations cover most of the consequences raised under 'Systems Consideration'. AI has seen growth in recent years and has attracted both private sector and government agencies in developing tools to manage the risks. According to the draft document, the rapid rise of AI has led to automation of several routine jobs.
 

Hughes to invest US$ 50 million in Bharti-UK consortium for OneWeb

US-based satellite broadband player, Hughes Network Systems, plans to invest US$ 50 million to join a consortium of India’s Bharti Enterprises and the UK government that recently won a bid to take over OneWeb – the British firm that went bankrupt while trying to build a constellation of satellites to deliver wireless broadband globally.

It is estimated that this in-principle investment by Hughes will translate in a minority stake of around 5 per cent in OneWeb. Though, actual stake size is still under discussion and no statement was released by either of the companies.

“Hughes’ investment underlines OneWeb’s exciting commercial prospects, reflected in ongoing discussions with some of the world’s leading strategic and financial investors,” said Bharti Enterprises chairman Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal.

Hughes plans to continue the association with OneWeb as a technology and distribution partner. It was amongst the original hold of investors in OneWeb before the latter collapsed into bankruptcy in March.

Hughes president Mr Pradman Kaul said, “The company’s strengthened involvement with OneWeb stems from its position as a leading geo-stationary satellite operator and ground network innovator along with its partnership with Bharti and its longstanding relationship with the UK through its business operations in both countries.”

The company received investment of US$ 500 million from Bharti and the UK government separately earlier this month. It aims to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband services, especially in rural areas, and take on the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon-linked Project Kuiper. Bharti and UK government are each likely to reportedly hold 45 per cent each in OneWeb, with Hughes and other existing investors retaining the balance 10 per cent.

Hughes Communications India (HCIL), the majority-owned Indian arm of Hughes Network Systems, and Bharti Airtel are also in the process of combining their satellite broadband operations in India. Though, the merger is awaiting regulatory approvals.