National
NIPUN Bharat
⇒ The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education launched the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) on 5th July, 2021. It was launched virtually by Union Minister of Education, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.
Implemented by:
NIPUN Bharat will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy. Under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha, under NIPUN Bharat a five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up at the National- State- District- Block- School level in all States and UTs.
Vision:
The vision of NIPUN Bharat Mission is to create an enabling environment to ensure universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy, so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
NIPUN Bharat aims to cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years.
This Mission will focus on the following:
- Providing access and retaining children in foundational years of schooling
- Teacher capacity building
- Development of high quality and diversified Student and Teacher Resources/Learning Materials
- Tracking the progress of each child in achieving learning outcomes
NIPUN Bharat is envisaged to support and encourage students, along with their schools, teachers, parents, and communities, in every way possible, to helprealise the true potential of our children and propel the country to new heights.
Five Important Portals on Ayush sector
⇒ The Union Minister of Ayush (IC) Shri Kiran Rijiju in an online event launched five Important Portals on Ayush sector and also four publications were released.
Five Important Portals on Ayush sector are:
i) Ayurveda Dataset on Clinical Trial Registry of India:
CTRI is a primary Register of Clinical Trials under the world health Organization’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.
ii) CCRAS-Research Management Information System:
A collaborative effort of ICMR and CCRAS, this portal will be a one stop solution for Research and Development in Ayurveda based studies.
iii) E-Medha (electronic Medical Heritage Accession) Portal:
The portal is online public access catalog for more than 12000 Indian medical heritage books through NIC’s e-granthalaya platform.
iv) AMAR (Ayush Manuscripts Advanced Repository) Portal:
This portal is of immense value and it has digitized information on rare and hard to find Manuscripts and catalogues of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa in libraries or in individual collections across India or in other parts of the world.
v) SHAI (Showcase of Ayurveda Historical Imprints) Portals:
This portal showcases inscriptions, Archeo-botanical Information, Sculptures, Philological sources and advanced Archeo Genetic studies.
Four publications released by the Ministry of Ayush:
- Proceedings of International workshop on “Preservation and Promotion of SOWA-RIGPA in Asia”
- Compendium of Important Cereals mentioned in Ayurveda-Series-1, volume-1
- Ayurveda Sangraha- Book of Ayurveda
- PathapathyaVinishcaya- Book of Ayurveda
52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India
⇒ Minister of Information and Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar on 05 July 2021 released the regulations and poster for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
Schedule:
The 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India will be held in Goa from 20 November to 28 November, 2021. The festival will be held in a hybrid format.
Organized by:
The Festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India in collaboration with the State Government of Goa and the Indian Film Industry.
The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is reckoned as one of Asia’s oldest and India’s biggest international film festivals.
'YSR Bima' scheme
⇒ Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on 01 July 2021 launched the ‘YSR Bima’ scheme. Under this scheme, the government will directly pay insurance amounts to families of the deceased to make the claim settlement easier.
In order to support 1.32 lakh families through the YSR Bima scheme, the government allocated ₹750 crore for the year 2021-22.
Under the scheme, insurance amount would be paid:
» Rs 1 lakh would be paid if the beneficiary aged between 18 and 50 years dies naturally.
» Rs 5 lakh would be paid in respect of accidental death of the beneficiary aged between 18 and 70 years
Laurus Labs gets licence to manufacture '2DG' drug
⇒ Drug firm Laurus Labs on 02 July 2021 said it has received the licence from Defence Research and Development Organisation to manufacture and market COVID-19 treatment drug 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2DG). 2DG has been given emergency approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for use on COVID-19 patients in India.
International
8th BRICS Education Ministers Meeting
⇒ Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Education, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology chaired the meeting of the 8th BRICS Education Ministers in virtual mode on 06 July 2021.
Host:
The meeting was held as part of the 13th BRICS Summit being hosted by India, for the year 2021.
Theme:
During the meeting, ministers deliberated on two themes – Leveraging digital and technological solutions for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, and enhancing research and academic collaboration.
Discussion during the meeting:
» In order to enhance their collaboration in academics and research, the ministers agreed on facilitating the mobility of students and faculty among BRICS partner states, besides encouraging joint and dual degrees between higher education institutions in BRICS countries.
» The ministers recognized Technical and Vocational Training and Education as a priority area for every BRICS country. They also expressed their commitment to promoting collaboration in this area.
» BRICS Education Ministers shared the policies and initiatives that each country launched to mitigate the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic on education.
» As the representative of India, Shri Dhotre informed about our initiatives under PM eVidya for providing access to quality education through multi-modal means. He also mentioned SWAYAM MOOCs platform, SWAYAM PRABHA TV Channels, DIKSHA, Virtual labs.
Joint Declaration:
Education Ministers from the five BRICS countries virtually signed a joint declaration with the resolve to further strengthen their academic and research collaboration in higher education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
Prior Meeting:
Prior to this meeting, the International Governing Board of the BRICS Network Universities had met on the 29th of June, to take a look at the progress made by member states under this initiative so far, and discuss ways to take it further.