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Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0 to make the cities garbage free and water secure in 2021-2026

 The major focus of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 [SBM (U) 2.0] and AMRUT 2.0 launched on 1st October, 2021 is to make the cities garbage free and water secure during the mission period of five years (2021-2026).

The highlights of SBM (U) 2.0 are as under:

  1. all households and premises segregate their waste into “wet waste” (from kitchen and gardens) and “dry waste” (including paper, glass, plastic, and domestic hazardous waste and sanitary waste wrapped separately);
  2. 100% door to door collection of segregated waste from each household/ premise;
  3. 100% scientific management of all fractions of waste, including safe disposal in scientific landfills;
  4. all legacy dumpsites remediated;
  5. all used water including faecal sludge, is safely contained, transported, processed and disposed so that no untreated faecal sludge and used water pollutes the ground or water bodies, in cities with less than one lakh population;
  6. phased reduction in use of single use plastic.

The highlights of AMRUT 2.0 are as under:

  1. Universal coverage of water supply from 500 cities to about 4,800 statutory towns.
  2. Focus on making the cities ‘self-reliant’ and ‘water secure’.
  3. Universal coverage of sewerage and septage management in 500 AMRUT cities.\
  4. Target to provide 2.68 crore drinking water tap connections and 2.64 crore sewer connections.
  5. Focus on financial sustainability of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) through enhanced credit worthiness and market borrowing.
  6. ‘Pey Jal Survekshan’ will be undertaken in cities to promote healthy competition among them and function as monitoring tool and Mission accelerator.
  7. Technology sub-Mission under AMRUT 2.0 will help in identifying proven and potential global technologies in water sector.
  8. Entrepreneurship/ start-ups involved in low-cost indigenous equipments and processes will be encouraged.

All the cities of Uttar Pradesh including Firozabad arecovered under SBM (U) 2.0 and are eligible to avail all components as per operational guidelines.

 

Out of 4,372 ULBs, 4,371 ULBs including Firozabad of the country except one in West Bengal (city of Purulia) have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under SBM (U).SBM (U) 2.0 & AMRUT 2.0 cover all the cities in the country and their aim is to make them garbage free and water secure during the Mission Period 2021-2026.


Maritime India Vision 2030 launched

 SAGARMALA PRAGRAMME

(i)   Maritime India Summit, 2021

The Prime Minister on March 02, 2021 inaugurated the ‘Maritime India Summit 2021’ through video conferencing. The summit was organized by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and conducted on a virtual platform from 2ndto 4thMarch, 2021. 486 MoUs were signed for Maritime India Summit 2021 by 22 Maritime Ports/Agencies/Authorities for INR 3.39 lakh crore or USD 47.02 Bn across different subsectors. A compendium of 400 Investible Projects for INR 2.24 lakh crore or USD 31.08 Bn for investment was released for the Summit. During the three days of the summit, a number of important announcements were made.

The Prime Minister launched the Maritime India Vision 2030, which contains the targets to be achieved by Maritime Sector over the next decade alongwith the strategies related to each of the stakeholders of MoPSW. Sagar-Manthan: Mercantile Marine Domain Awareness Centre (MM-DAC) which is an information system to enhance maritime safety, search, rescue capability and environment protection was also launched.

MIS 2021 highlights:-

  • About 1.90 lakh delegates registered for the summit.
  • 16 international ministers from 11 nations joined the summit for different sessions.
  • A total of six Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of three states and two State Ministers attended different sessions.
  • A total of 55 CEOs attended the CEO’s forum, which include 31 international CEOs and 24 Indian CEOs.
  • A total of 22 CEOs attended the CEO’s roundtable, which include 11 International and 11 Indian CEOs
  • A total of 185 speakers attended various thematic sessions during the summit, which included 124 Indian speakers and 61 International speakers
  • A total of 110 exhibitors participated in the summit, in 18 pavilions and 107 booths, which led to 7500+ B2B meetings
  • A total of 70500+ Visitors were recorded at the end of three days of the summit.

(ii)        Sea Plane Services

An Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ministry of Civil Aviation on 15.06.2021 to jointly facilitate the development of “Non-scheduled/Scheduled operation at sea plane services within territorial jurisdiction of India under RCS-UDAN scheme.

(iii)       Public Private Partnership:

In order to further improve the viability of Public Private Partnership projects the following initiatives have been taken:

  • The Model Concession Agreement (MCA) for Public Private Participation (PPP) projects in Major Ports to provide flexibility to cater to the dynamic business environment.
  • A new dispute redressal institutional mechanism in the form of SAROD-Ports has been constituted  jointly by Indian Private Ports & Terminals Association (IPPTA) and Indian Ports Association (IPA)

(iv)    Modal Concession Agreement

To attract more PPP projects and to give flexibility to PPP operators, revised MCA has been issued in November, 2021 with the approval of  Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. 

(v)    Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030

Maritime India Vision 2030 was formulated by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways with the objective of propelling India to the fore­front of the Global Maritime Sector in the next decade.Detailed discussions involving 350+ stakeholders from all parts of the maritime sector viz. ports, shipyards, inland waterways, trade bodies & associations, ministries, legal experts, national and international industry experts were undertaken. Substantial deliberations and ideations running over More than 250 different brainstorming sessions, study of 100+ global benchmarks & best-in-class examples, and anal­ysis of 50+ Acts and Laws (including state & envi­ronmental) have led to development of MIV 2030. Over 150 initiatives covering 515 key activities across 10 themes encompassing all the facets of maritime sector have been identified to form the building blocks for future of the Indian Maritime sector.

MIV 2030 envisions an overall investment of INR 3,00,000 – 3,50,000 Cr across ports, shipping, and in­land waterways categories. This Investment amount excludes projects already under implementation stage as part of Sagarmala project. This vision roadmap is estimated to help unlock INR 20,000+ Cr worth of potential annual revenue for Indian Ports. Further, it is expected to create an additional 20,00,000+ jobs (direct and non-direct) in the Indian maritime sector.

PORTS SECTOR

(i)    Digitization

Major strides have been taken at the major ports towards the digitization of key EXIM processes. The PCS 1x has digitized processes such as Electronic Invoice (e-Invoice), Electronic Payment (e-Payment) and Electronic Delivery Order (e-DO) for physical release of cargo by custodians. Further, the process of generation of electronic Bill of Lading (e-BL) and enabling the Letter of Credit (LC) process to be conducted digitally have already been implemented in the PCS 1x. There is also going to be complete integration between PCS 1x and Indian Customs EDI Gateway (ICEGATE). Partial integration has been completed (PCS 1x is integrated with ICEGATE via SFTP for existing messages, further for SCMTR messages PCS 1x-ICEGATE is getting integrated for API integration). Further, the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) solution has been implemented at all major ports to enable seamless movement of traffic across port gates, including substantial reductions in documentation checks. All Major ports have already implemented Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID). Up gradation and integration with recent technologies- IGoT, Block Chain to ease transaction and real time basis tracking has been envisaged in Maritime India Vision 2030. Further the process to bootstrap PCS 1x into National Logistics Portal-Marine (NLP-Marine) is already underway which will act as a Unified Digital Platform all maritime stakeholders. NLP Marine + PCS 1x platform is envisaged as the central hub for all interactions with various stakeholders viz. Port, Terminals Shipping Lines/ Agents, CFS and Customs Brokers, Importer / Exporter etc.

(ii)   Enterprise Business System

An Enterprise Business System (EBS) is being implemented at 5 Major Ports (Mumbai,  Chennai, Deendayal, Paradip, Kolkata (including HaldiaPort)) with project cost of approx. 320 crores) to provide a digital port ecosystem that will adopt leading International Practices without losing its alignment to existing local needs. A total of 2474 processes (ChPT – 671, DPT – 376, KoPT – 501, HDC – 374, MbPT – 278 and PPT – 274) were rationalized, harmonized, optimized and standardized to arrive at a final reengineered process count of 162 processes        

(iii)   Western Dock, Paradip Port

The Cabinet approved the project of Deepening and Optimizing of Inner Harbour Facilities of Western Dock at Paradip Port under PPP mode with total estimated cost of Rs. 3004.63 crore. The scope includes Western Dock berths, Capital dredging in the channel and in front of the berths and all other ancillary equipment and facilities. The proposed project envisages construction of Western Dock Basin to handle cape size vessels with an ultimate capacity of 25 MTPA in two phases of 12.50 MTPA each. The project will cater to the requirement of coal and limestone imports besides exports of granulated slag and finished steel products.

(iv)   Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 

The Major Port Authorities Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 23.9.2020 and subsequently by the Rajya Sabha on 10.2.2021 with amendments.  The Bill alongwith amendments passed by the Rajya Sabha was again passed by the Lok Sabha on 12.2.2021. After assent by the President the Major Port Authorities Act 2021 was notified by the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law & Justice on 18.2.2021. The Major Port Authorities Act 2021 (1 of 2021) has come into force with effect from 03.11.2021.  Five Rules under the Act have also been notified in the Gazette of India on 23rd November 2021.

(vi)  The Prime Minister dedicated the 8-laning of Korampallam Bridge and Rail over Bridge to the Nation and laid the foundation stone for 5 MW Ground-Based Solar Power Plant at VOC Port, Tuticorin, through video conferencing from Coimbatore.

(vii)  The Mobile X-Ray Container Scanner system installed at Kamarajar Port was commissioned on 1stJuly, 2021. The Mobile X-Ray Container Scanner system is operated by the Container Scanner division of Chennai Customs. 

(viii)   The first Coal Export Movement from N. S. Dock, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata to Khulna, Bangladesh was flagged off on 02nd July, 2021, for Rampal Power Station set up by Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd., a JV between NTPC & Bangladesh Power Development Board. 

(ix)  Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), one of India’s premier container handling ports, flagged a trial operation at the newly constructed coastal berth on 09th July, 2021. 

(x)  The Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, virtually flagged-off the dwarf container train service from Jawaharlal Nehru Port on 20.09.2021.

(xi)  Shri V. Shantanu Thakur, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways visited Visakhapatnam Port on 23.9.2021. The Minister inaugurated “Grade Separator from H-7 to Convent Junction” and laid Foundation stone for “Development of Cruise Terminal”. 

 

INLAND WATER TRANSPORT

 

(i)         Inauguration of projects by Prime Minister

Prime Minister digitally launched Mahabahu Brahmaputra in Assam on 18.02.2021 and inaugurated the following initiatives of IWAI: –

  • Flagging off of 4 Ro-Pax vessels to be operated by Govt. of Assam.
  • MV JFR Jacob – for service between Guwahati and North Guwahati.
  • MV Bob Khathing – for service between Dhubri and Hatsingimari.
  • MV Rani Gaidinllu and MV Sachin Dev Burman – for service between Neamati and Kamalabari (Majuli).
  • Foundation stone for construction of 4 tourist jetties at Jogighopa, Pandu, Biswanathghat and Neamati.
  • Foundation Stone for construction of IWT terminal at Jogighopa.
  • Dedication of IWAI digital portals Card and PANI to the Nation

(ii)        Signing of MoUs

In presence of Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, IWAI signed MoUs on 26.08.2021 with:

  • Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) for development of Dhansiri River (NW-31) for movement of Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) and Project Cargo of Numaligarh Refinery using Inland Water Transport.
  • Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Limited (HSCL), a subsidiary of Cochin Shipyard Limited for construction of Ship Repair Facility Project at Pandu, Guwahati, Assam.

(iii)       Stakeholder Conclave 

A Stakeholder Conclave was organized on “Waterways as Engine of Growth” at Guwahati on 27th August, 2021. Minister of State for Ports Shipping & Waterways and stakeholders participated in the Conclave.

(iv)       Movement of cargo on National Waterways

The Cargo movement on National Waterways continued to be encouraging. This year so far 54.03 Million Ton has been achieved from April-October 2021 against 37.22 Million Ton last year for the same period recording 45.15% increase.

(v)        Inland Vessels Bill, 2021 

Parliament on 02.08.2021 passed the Inland Vessels Bill, 2021, which aims to replace over 100 years old Inland Vessels Act, 1917 (1 of 1917) and usher a new era in the inland water transport sector to make the Legislative framework user friendly and promote ease of doing business.

SHIPPING SECTOR

(i)         All Women Officers’ Sailing’ aboard SCI Tanker M.T. Swarna Krishna

As a part of its on-going Diamond Jubilee celebrations of SCI, and also to commemorate the International Women’s Day on March 08, 2021, SCI achieved a historical feat when Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, virtually flagged of the “All Women Officers’ Sailing” on MT Swarna Krishna – SCI’s crude oil carrier from JNPT Liquid Berth Jetty on March 06, 2021. 

(ii)        Delivery of Sindhu, 500 pax Passenger vessel to Andaman and Nicobar Administration

Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered the first 500 Pax cum 150 Tons Cargo vessel named “Sindhu” to Andaman and Nicobar Administration on March 27, 2021. This project is a part of a “Make In India” initiative of the Government.

(iii)       Awards and Accolades 

On the occasion of ‘Day of the Seafarer’, which was virtually celebrated on 25th June, 2021, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) was recognized and conferred with the prestigious National Maritime Day Celebration Award for the historic journey of M.T. Swarna Krishna, being the first Indian Flag vessel with all Women Officers on board.

(iv)       Marine Aids to Navigation Act, 2021 

The Marine Aids to Navigation Act, 2021 has been notified and published in the Gazette of India by Legislative Department, Ministry of Law & Justice on 2nd August, 2021 after getting the President’s assent on 31st July, 2021. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on 22ndMarch, 2021 and by the Rajya Sabha on 27thJuly, 2021. The Act aims to replace over 90-year-old Lighthouse Act, 1927, to incorporate the global best practices, technological developments and India’s International obligations in the field of Marine Aids to Navigation. The new Act will facilitate harmonized and effective functioning of aids to marine navigation and Vessel Traffic Services along the Indian coastline. 

(v)        Promotion of flagging of merchant ships in India 

In order to achieve the objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Union Cabinet has approved a scheme to provide Rs.1624 crore over five years as subsidy to Indian Shipping companies in global tenders floated by Ministries and CPSEs for import of government cargo. 

(vi)       Strategic Disinvestment of Shipping Corporation of India 

On 10.11.2021, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary “Shipping Corporation of India Land and Assets Limited” pursuant to approval of Board of Directors based on the concurrence given by this Ministry and NITI Aayog for hiving off the Non-core Assets of the Company as a part of the Demerger under SCI’s strategic Disinvestment process.

(viii)    Agreement between India and Maldives 

Agreement for augmenting marine safety, security and environment protection in the region through cooperation in the LRIT system between India and Maldives was signed on 30.09.2021 at Male by Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Maldives and High Commissioner of India on behalf of the Government of India. 

(viii)     Inauguration of Lighthouse at Valiyazhikkal

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways inaugurated a new Lighthouse at Valiyazhikkal in Alappuzha district of Kerala in the presence of Alappuzha MP, on 30th October, 2021. Construction of the lighthouse will immensely benefit the mariners plying in this Kerala region and the local fishermen will benefit for Day mark in day time and Safe return in Night time from the sea. After obtaining the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) clearance and other statutory clearance, the 41.26 metre height pentagonal RCC tower with elevator and allied buildings have been constructed and the lighthouse is currently on trial run since 03rd June, 2021.

(ix)       Special Campaign from 2nd October, 2021 to 31st October, 2021

During the drive Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways took meetings with the officials of Ministry on the special campaign for disposal of pending matters and issued written instructions on the issues such as Clean India Drive directly to all officers/ Staffs to take necessary action in this regard. Main Secretariat of the Ministry Weeded out 5179 files, organized Swachhta Pakhwada, freed 561 Sq. Feet of floor area and Organizations of this Ministry weeded out 160700 files and 8294 obsolete equipment / furniture disposed of during the campaign. 

(x)        Reducing Compliance Burden (RCB)

The Sub-Nodal Agencies under this Ministry i.e., Directorate General of Shipping and Indian Port Association identified 124 compliances for reduction of same in Phase-I and Phase-II. The progress of RCB was reviewed regularly and the target of reducing the all 124 identified items was achieved before 15th August, 2021.

(xi)       Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Programme

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has prepared week wise programme for the celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav from March, 2021 to August, 2022 which include programmes for foundation stone laying and inauguration at Major Ports. 27 organizations under the Ministry have organized various activities like Essay Writing Competition, Singing Competition of Patriotic Songs/Inspirational songs, Quiz on National Freedom Movement and India’s rich Culture & Heritage. Programmes on Nutrition, Exercise and Yoga by organizing various competitions have also been done. Programmes for providing Assistance to Old Age Home, Health checkup camp, Eye camp and training programmes for employees and family have also been organized. As on date, around 124 programmes have been organized by various organizations under this Ministry and around 104 programmes details uploaded on Ministry of Culture website after the celebration. 

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MEASURES UNDERTAKEN TO BOOST MANUFACTURING SECTOR IN INDIA

 The Government has undertaken the following major reforms/measures to boost manufacturing sector in the country and to make India a favoured manufacturing and investment destination:

  1. Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in 14 key sectors, under the aegis of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat for enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities and exports;
  2. PM Gati Shakti- National Master Plan (NMP) was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 13th October, 2021.It is an integrated GIS based plan depicting the economic zones and the multimodal connectivity infrastructure with an objective to holistically integrate the interventions of various Ministries / Departments and address missing gaps to ensure seamless movement of people, goods & services.
  3. In order to facilitate and promote investment, Government has set up Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) in the Ministries/Departments.
  4. National Single Window System involving clearances by Ministries /Departments and States Governments to provide end-to-end facilitation support. This national portal integrates the existing clearance systems of the various Ministries/ Departments of Govt. of India and State Governments without disruption to the existing IT portals of Ministries/ Departments. 
  5. DPIIT is also working to reduce compliance burden on citizen and business and the aim of this exercise is to simplify, decriminalize & remove redundant laws. 
  6. For Creating world class infrastructure through developing nodes, Government of India is developing various Industrial Corridor Projects as part of National Industrial Corridor programme which is aimed at development of futuristic industrial cities in India which can compete with the best manufacturing and investment destinations in the world. The program is aimed at providing multi modal connectivity with complete “plug and play” infrastructure till the plot level along with building resilient and sustainable future ready cities. 
  7. Start-up India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. 
  8. DPIIT has developed an India Industrial Land Bank (earlier known as Industrial Information System) which provides a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas including clusters, parks, nodes, zones, etc. across the country to help investors identify their preferred location for investment.
  9. Implementation of Industrial development schemes for North-East States, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir to boost  industrialization in the industrially backward and hilly States.
  10. DPIIT is working closely on 24 Sub-sectors which have been chosen keeping in mind the Indian industries strengths and competitive edge, need for import substitution, potential for export and increased employability. These 24 subsectors are – furniture, air- conditioners, leather and footwear, ready to eat, fisheries, agri-produce, auto components, aluminium, electronics, agrochemicals, steel, textiles, EV components and integrated circuits, ethanol, ceramics, set top boxes, robotics, televisions, close circuit cameras, toys, drones, medical devices, sporting goods, gym equipment.  Efforts are on    to boost the growth of the sub-sectors in a holistic and coordinated manner.

Further, to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, wherein most sectors/activities are open for 100% FDI under the Automatic route. The policy on FDI is reviewed on an ongoing basis, to ensure that India remains attractive & investor friendly destination. Government has recently undertaken a number of reforms across sectors. In the last one year alone, reforms in the FDI Policy have been undertaken in sectors such as Insurance, Defence, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Telecom, etc. Subject to provisions of the FDI policy, foreign investment in ‘manufacturing’ sector is under automatic route. Manufacturing activities may be either self-manufacturing by the investee entity or contract manufacturing in India through a legally tenable contract, whether on Principal to Principal or Principal to Agent basis. Further, a manufacturer is permitted to sell its products manufactured in India through wholesale and/or retail, including through e-commerce, without Government approval.

LogiXtics – Unified Logistics Interface Platform’s (ULIP) Hackathon launched by Centre

 The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched the Unified Logistics Interface Platform’s (ULIP) Hackathon – ‘LogiXtics’ in order to crowdsource more ideas which will benefit the logistics industry.

ULIP is designed to enhance efficiency and reduce logistics cost in India by creating a transparent platform that can provide real time information to all stakeholders and remove all asymmetry information. The ULIP Hackathon – LogiXtics is organised by NITI Aayog and Atal Innovation Mission and supported by National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) and NICDC Logistics Data Bank Services Limited (NLDSL).

The ULIP Hackathon was launched by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog in the presence of Shri Amrit Lal Meena Special Secretary, Department of Logistics, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and CEO & MD, NICDC; Ms. Anna Roy, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog and Shri Abhishek Chaudhary, Vice President, NICDC.

“Today is a very important day for us because we are trying to solve the biggest problem of logistics in India. The cost of logistics in the India is about 14% which is higher than other countries in the world. ULIP’s objective has been to work with top Indian technology organizations from the private sector and identify solutions to reduce logistics cost,” said Shri Amitabh Kant, launching the Hackathon at a virtual event yesterday.

He further congratulated NICDC for integrating the existing logistics systems of various Ministries/Departments and for the successful launch of ULIP Hackathon – LogiXtics. NICDC was mandated by NITI Aayog in January 2021 to develop ULIP by leveraging the Logistics Data Bank Project.

NITI Aayog was entrusted by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in May, 2020 with the task of exploring the role of technology in various sectors. ULIP was conceptualised as one of the technology platforms in the logistics sector.

ULIP is being developed as technology platform in the logistics sector which will provide real time information to all stakeholders and will converge visibility of multi-modal transport across the existing systems of various Ministries/Departments working in silos. Once completed, one can see huge efficiencies in the logistics sector, and which will transform it by bringing down the logistics cost and enhancing India’s competitiveness in the global trade.

With the addressed challenges in the logistics sector, a competitive event like LogiXtics under the umbrella of ULIP, invites everyone to showcase their strategic, coding and domain skills on a national-level platform to solve the existing logistics industry issues. The Hackathon is very important to achieve the vision of the ULIP platform.

Speaking at the event, Shri Amrit Lal Meena, Special Secretary, Department of Logistics and CEO& MD, NICDC added, “ULIP is also in line with the overall objective of PM GatiShakti which aims at breaking of individual silos, promote integration among various Ministries/Departments and promote real single window. It will bring more transparency and visibility to the whole trade making India logistically more efficient and competitive.”

The real usability of ULIP will further get enhanced through this Hackathon as it aims to crowdsource more ideas which will benefit the logistics industry. 

Vice President, NICDC informed that the hackathon aims to promote the Startup community, individuals or anyone with the strategic skills and domain knowledge of the sector. The hackathon is open for all and is divided into two stages – ideation stage & prototype stage.

The Logistics sector is the backbone of economic growth in India and is one of the most important accelerators of trade, which is also critical for fulfilling the objective of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.

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Advisory to Parents and Teachers on Children’s Safe Online Gaming

 In the new era of technology, online gaming is very popular with children because of the challenges it brings to the players which excite them and making them play more which can lead to addiction. Online games can either be played on the internet itself or from another computer network. Online games can almost be found anywhere on any gaming platforms such as PC’s, consoles, and mobile devices. Online gaming can be accessed with the use of a phone or a tablet which is a common factor in online game addiction because children can easily play games anywhere anytime affecting their time for their school and social life. Furthermore, the closure of schools due to pandemic has increased use of mobile and internet by children.

However, online gaming has many downsides. Playing online games leads to a serious gaming addiction which has been considered as a gaming disorder. The game is designed in a way that each level is more complicated and complex than the previous one. This causes a player to push themselves to the limit in order to progress in the game. Therefore, playing online games with no restriction and self-limits leads many players to become addicted and are eventually diagnosed with gaming disorder. The gaming companies also emotionally compel the child to buy more levels and almost force in-app purchases.

In view of the same, advisory to parents and teachers has been recommended for wider circulation and educating them for necessary action ensuring effective use in overcoming all online gaming downsides with the associated mental and physical stress to children.

 

Don’ts:

 

  • Do not allow in-game purchases without parental consent. To avoid in app purchases; OTP based payment methods may be adopted as per RBI’s guidelines.
  • Avoid credit/debit cards registration on apps for subscriptions. Place an upper limit on expenditure per transaction.
  • Do not let children buy directly from the laptop or mobile they use for gaming.
  • Advise children not to download software and games from unknown websites.
  • Tell them to be beware of clicking links, images and pop-ups in the websites as they may contain a virus and harm the computer, and may contain age-inappropriate content.
  • Advise them not to give personal information over the Internet while downloading games.
  • They should never share personal information with people in games and on gaming profile.
  • Advise them not to communicate with strangers, including adults, through web cam, private messaging or online chat, as it increases the risk of contact from online abusers, or bullying from other players.
  • Advise them against engaging in game for long hours without taking a break considering health aspects and addiction.

 

Do’s:

 

  • While playing online games, if something wrong happened, stop immediately and take a screenshot (using the “print screen” button on the keyboard) and report it.
  • Help your child to protect their privacy online, get them to use a screen name (avatar) that does not reveal their real name.
  • Use antivirus/spyware programs and configure web browsers securely using firewall.
  • Activate parental controls and safety features on the device or in the app or browser as it helps restrict access to certain content and limit spending on in-game purchases.
  • Notifyif a stranger tries to start a conversation about something inappropriate or requests personal information.
  • Check the age rating of any games your child is playing.
  • In case of a bullying, encourage not to respond and keep a record of the harassing messages and report the behaviour to the game site administrator/block, mute or ‘unfriend’ that person from their players list, or turn off the in-game chat function.
  • Play alongside your child to get a better sense of how they are handling their personal information and whothey are communicating with.
  • Help your child understand that some features in online games are used to encourage more play and spending. Talk to them about gambling, what it is and its consequences both online and in the physical world.
  • Always ensure that your child accesses internet from a computer placed in the family

space.

  • Keep your eyes open for:
    • Unusually secretive behaviour, mostly related to their online activity
    • A sudden increase in the time they spend online, especially social media
    • They seem to change screens on their device when approached
    • They become withdrawn or angry, after using the internet or sending text messages
    • Their device suddenly has many new phone numbers ·and email contacts.
  • Install internet gateway at home which has features like monitoring, logging and controlling the types of content that the children can access.
  • Teachers need to keep an eye on falling grades and social behaviour of the students.
  • If teachers observe something that may seem suspicious or alarming, they should inform the school authorities immediately.
  • Teachers should ensure that children are sensitized about the pros and cons of the internet from time to time.
  • Teachers should train students for secure configuration of web browsers & web applications.

 

TO REPORT ANY UNTOWARD INCIDENT, USE THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

 

National Helpline- https://cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/Helpline.aspx

Statewise Nodal Officers- https://cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/Crime_NodalGrivanceList.aspx

Online Education in Backward Areas

 Covid-19 was an unprecedented crisis across the world and has affected all the countries. The pandemic has led to severe disruption in normal life, including closure of schools.

Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. However, in order to ensure that every student including those residing in rural and educationally backward districts of the country, gets continued access to education, a multi-pronged approach has been adopted. A comprehensive initiative called PM e-VIDYA has been initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes:

  • DIKSHA (one nation, one digital platform) is the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in states/UTs and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades are available on it. 35 of the 36 states and UTs have on boarded on DIKSHA platform and contextualised the content as per the local need.
  • One earmarked Swayam Prabha TV channel per class from Class 1 to 12 (one class, one channel).
  • Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani.
  • Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/YouTube.

Further, an Alternate Academic Calendar has been prepared for providing learning solutions for grade 1 to 12 and ‘Students’ Learning Enhancement Guidelines’ prepared by NCERT suggest models for the following three types of scenarios to ensure that no child is deprived of reach of education:

a)         Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students without digital devices;

b)         Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with limited accessibility to digital devices &

c)         Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with digital devices.

Also, PRAGYATA guidelines issued to States/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia includes situations where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less bandwidth where resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio etc that do not depend on internet.

Besides, the Ministry has undertaken a proactive initiative, named, ‘MANODARPAN’ covering a wide range of activities to provide psychosocial support to students, teachers and families for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing during the COVID outbreak and beyond.

The Ministry had conducted a survey in the month of July, 2020 with the help of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to understand the scenario of Online Learning of school students in COVID-19 pandemic situation. The details of the survey and findings are given in Chapter – 3 of the Learning Enhancement guidelines, which may be accessed at the following links:

1.  https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Learning_Enhancement_0.pdf

2. https://seshagun.gov.in/sites/default/files/update/Learning_Enhancement.pdf

3. https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/announcement/Learning_%20Enhancement_Guidelines.pdf

National Achievement Survey (NAS) is conducted to enable States/UTs to identify gaps in learning outcomes, and take remedial steps. NAS 2021 has been conducted on 12th November 2021.

 The Central Government is constantly advising States/UTs through guidelines and meetings with respect to interventions for reducing impact of pandemic on education. The guidelines issued so far are given below:

Sl.

Intervention

Links of Guideline

1.

Guidelines for Children of Migrant Labourers

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Migrant%20labour%20guideline.pdf

2.

Guidelines for Out of School Children and Mitigation of Loss of Learning

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/guidelines_oosc.pdf

3.

PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/pragyata-guidelines_0.pdf

4.

Learning Enhancement Guidelines for Continuous Learning

https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/announcement/Learning_%20Enhancement_Guidelines.pdf

5.

Covid-19 Related Health and Safety Sop/Guidelines for School Re-Opening

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SOP_Guidelines_for_reopening_schools.pdf

6.

Covid Action Plan for School Education

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Covid_Action_Plan.pdf

7.

Alternate Academic Calendar

Secondary- https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Academic%20Calender%20-%20Secondary%20-%20Eng.pdf Primary- – https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Eight_Weeks_AAC_Primary_%28English%29%5B1%5D_0.pdf

8.

Guidelines for JNV –Residential Schools

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LAc4iKQTqTJkNVDGc5glEDsrDGdAXwC8/view

9.

Guidelines for parents on Home Based Education

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/MoE_Home_Learning_Guidelines.pdf

10.

Guidelines for orphaned Children

In this regard, a joint DO letter No. 13-10/2021-IS-11 dated 16.06.2021 from Secretary DoSEL, MoE and Secretary, MWCD has been issued to all States and UTs.

11.

Guidelines for developing E-content for CWSN

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/CWSN_E-Content_guidelines.pdf

12.

CBSE competency-based assessment framework

http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/Manuals/Safal_handbook.pdf

13.

NCTE Guidelines for TEIs

https://ncte.gov.in/WebAdminFiles/RecentAnnouncement/0_20_08_2020_637335320672297662.pdf

Education for poor

 The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, mandates the appropriate Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighbourhood school.Education is a subject in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the control of the respective State Governments. Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education is implementing SamagraShiksha to support States and UTs in implementation of the RTE Act, 2009. Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education is one of the major objectives of SamagraShiksha. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) shows equitable participation of children belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) in education, which is as under:

 

GER

All Children

SC Children

ST Children

Primary

102.74

113.11

107.11

Upper Primary

89.67

97.07

93.48

Secondary

77.90

83.02

76.72

(Source :- UDISE+ 2019-2020)

SamagraShiksha attempts to reach  out  to  girls,  and  children  belonging  to  SC,  ST, Minority  communities, etc.  SC, ST and minority Special Focus Districts (SFDs) have been identified on the basis of adverse performance on various indicators of enrolment, retention, and gender parity, as well as concentration of SC, ST and minority communities. To ensure equitable education to the most deprived sections of the society,SamagraShiksha has various provisions like free textbooks, uniform, Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalayasfor girls, NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose AwasiyaVidyalayas/Hostels for areas which are sparsely populated with low density of population (mostly tribal areas). These efforts have resulted in increase in transition rate of SC and ST students across all levels of education. The details for last three years are as under:

Transition Rate

(Source :- UDISE)

SC

ST

  

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

  

Primary to Upper Primary

88.56

88.54

90.64

91.64

90.77

92.38

  
 
 

Elementary to Secondary

86.40

87.08

88.92

85.89

87.52

87.49

  
 
 

Secondary to Higher Secondary

62.99

64.61

68.11

61.74

62.80

62.78

  
 
 

 

A comprehensive initiative called PMeVidya has been started which aims to unify all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes all forms of digital modes to provide wide access – DIKSHA (online), SWAYAM (online), SWAYAM PRABHA (TV), other TV Channels including use of Doordarshan and AIR Networks. Further, PRAGYATA guidelines were issued to States/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia include situations where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less bandwidth, these resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio etc that do not depend on internet. An Alternate Academic Calendar has been prepared for learning solutions for grade 1 to 12 for both children with and without device. Besides these, community radio, worksheets & textbooks supplied to residence of learners, home visits by teachers, community classes, toll free numbers, SMS based requests for audio content, localised radio content for edutainment etc. have been used. The steps taken by all the states and UTs are shown in the India Report Digital Education, June 2020, which is available at the following link:https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/India_Report_Digital_Education_0.pdf

Providing education to all children

 The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, mandates the appropriate Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighbourhood school.

In pursuance of Section 6 of the Act, the States which are the appropriate Government for schools falling under their jurisdiction, have notified area or limits of their neighbourhood norms in their state RTE Rules, factoring in their State specific condition, for opening of schools.

As reported by States/UTs in their respective Annual Work Plan and Budget, 2021-22, 97.49% and 97.01% of habitations in the country are covered by primary schools and upper primary schools respectively. The habitations that remain uncovered are mostly small or sparsely populated in difficult areas where opening of school is not feasible for which there is a provision of giving transport and escort facility and opening of residential schools and hostels.

Under the centrally sponsored scheme- Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided to States and UTs for undertaking various activities to reduce number of Out of School Children (OoSC) including opening/strengthening of new schools upto senior secondary level, construction of school buildings & additional classrooms, setting up, up-gradation and running of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, setting up and running of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Avasiya Vidyalayas, provision of free uniforms, free text books to the eligible students at elementary level, transport allowance and undertaking enrolment & retention drives. Further, special training for age appropriate admission of out of school children and residential as well as non-residential training for older children, seasonal hostels / residential camps, special training centres at worksites, are also supported to bring out of school children to the formal schooling system. Further, under the student oriented component for the children with special needs, financial assistance is provided for identification and assessment of children with special needs, aids and appliances, braille kits and books, appropriate teaching learning material and stipend to girl students with disability etc.

Also, under ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman’ (PM POSHAN) one hot cooked meal in Government and Government aided schools is provided to students at the elementary level of education. Also, Section 10 of the RTE Act states that it shall be the duty of every parent or guardian to admit or cause to be admitted his or her child or ward, as the case may be, for elementary education in the neighbourhood school.

Under Samagra Shiksha, for the first time in 2021-22, financial assistance upto Rs. 2000 per annum per child has been provided for supporting Out of School Children of age group of 16-19 years, belonging to socio economically disadvantaged groups, for completing their education through NIOS/SIOS, for accessing course materials and certification. Also, under National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme, scholarship is awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.

The information was given by the Minister of State for Education, Smt. Annpurna Devi in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

What is SWAYAM

SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

This is done through a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to any learner. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.
The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants – (1) video lecture, (2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and (4) an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology.
In order to ensure that best quality content is produced and delivered, nine National Coordinators have been appointed. They are:
AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) for self-paced and international courses
NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) for Engineering
UGC (University Grants Commission) for non technical post-graduation education
CEC (Consortium for Educational Communication) for under-graduate education
NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for school education
NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) for school education
IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) for out-of-school students
IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) for management studies
NITTTR (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research) for Teacher Training programme
Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however learners wanting a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come at a fee and attend in-person at designated centres on specified dates. Eligibility for the certificate will be announced on the course page and learners will get certificates only if this criteria is matched. Universities/colleges approving credit transfer for these courses can use the marks/certificate obtained in these courses for the same.
School
Education
NIOS
NCERT
Out-of-School
Education
IGNOU
NITTTR
Under-Graduate
Education
NPTEL
AICTE
CEC
IIMB
Post-Graduate
Education
NPTEL
AICTE
IIMB
UGC
Credit Transfer
UGC has already issued the UGC (Credit Framework for online learning courses through SWAYAM) Regulation 2016 advising the Universities to identify courses where credits can be transferred on to the academic record of the students for courses done on SWAYAM. AICTE has also put out gazette notification in 2016 and subsequently for adoption of these courses for credit transfer.
The current SWAYAM platform is developed by Ministry of Education and NPTEL, IIT Madras with the help of Google Inc. and Persistent Systems Ltd.
Guideline for Developing Online
Courses for SWAYAM
University Grants Commission Gazette: Credit Framework
for Online Learning Courses
through SWAYAM
All India Council for
Technical Education Gazette:
Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses
through SWAYAM