A webinar on Promotion of Indian Languages organised by Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) under Shiksha Parv  on 16th September 2020. A series of Webinars is being organised by Ministry of Education to highlight the salient features of the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) Under Shiksha Parv.

Language is an important component of education policy and the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) works for the promotion of all Indian languages. As part of Ministry’s programme, CIIL organized this webinar on focusing the promotion of Indian languages from the perspective of NEP 2020. The objective of this webinar was to highlight the language components of NEP 2020.

Four eminent scholars delivered insights on NEP 2020 in the webinar presided by Prof. D. G. Rao, Director, CIIL. The expert speakers included Prof. Udaya Narayan Singh and Prof Awadesh Kumar Mishra (both former Directors of CIIL), Padma Shree Prof. Anvita Abbi and eminent Dravidian linguist Prof. G. Umamheshwara Rao. Dr. Narayan Kumar Choudhary the coordinator of this webinar.

The themes of their talk are mentioned below:

1. The Scope for the Promotion of Indian Languages in NEP 2020

2. Conservation of Language Ecology and Indigenous Cultures

3. Sustaining Mother Tongues and Medium of Instruction

4. Development of Technology for Indian Languages

 Prof. U. N. Singh emphasized the point that multilingualism has not been a burden to India and that each major language acts as a link to other languages. He also mentioned that there cannot be a standard strategy for the promotion of all as in some places home language will work while in some places mother tongue, local languages will work. He mentioned that the efforts and initiatives should be inclusive in nature and allow community participation. He emphasized the need to invest resources towards the preparation of textbooks for mother tongues and stated that linguists can play a very crucial role. He appreciated the efforts the Central Institute of Indian Languages and gave inputs on what the Institute and its schemes like NTM and NTS as well as the Regional Language Centres should do in order to achieve the stated goals of the New Education Policy.

Prof. Awadesh Kumar Mishra highlighted the fact that every language is a Mother Tongue even though every Mother Tongue may not have the status of a language. A language may have several varieties and only one variety enters the foray of language. He discussed the languages and mother tongues especially in the context of school education. He stated the need for the preparation of teachers who can offer education in mother tongues and gave emphasis on the fact that the language institutions of the Ministry of Education should work in coordination to achieve the stated goals of NEP 2020. Making use of the survey data Prof. Mishra portrayed the existing language scenario in schools and supported the continuation of three language formula in schools. He discussed that NEP provides the chance to include the excluded mother tongues and emphasized the need for higher coordination among the language institutions and higher education institutions, especially through the development of teaching-learning resources.

Prof. Anvita Abbi said that each language is unique and brings in the perception and cognition of the community and that many languages in India have survived over centuries. She further explained that according to the UN every fortnight a language dies and losing a language/mother tongue would cause loss of the knowledge and unique ways encapsulated in the concerned languages/mother tongues. She suggested that a core grammar of Indian languages can be prepared and a National commission of Indian Scripts can be established. She also highlighted that language; especially MT needs to be studied at an early stage of learning as they codify ecological/indigenous knowledge. Concerning Hindi, she mentioned that it is not imposed but suggestive in NEP. The acceptance level of Hindi is more. It gives mobility across the nation. Hindi, not as literary variety, but in some form could be taught. Concerning English, she mentioned that English is not a foreign language in India anymore. She also suggested that Interactive multilingual dictionaries could be prepared to complement the new pedagogical order emerging from the implementation of the NEP 2020.

 Prof. G. U Rao discussed the overall scenario of language technology in India. He showed a gradual increase in the web presence of Indian languages and estimated that the smaller languages are going to take over the bigger languages. He recounted the language technology works related to Indian languages accomplished by various Universities and Institutions in India and encouraged wider participation and greater investment in these areas. He discussed about the efforts on developing digital corpora of Indian languages and need for the development of mobile technologies in Indian languages. He also emphasized the need to build technology in and for Indian languages.

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India may soon manufacture its own super alloy steam turbine rotors for efficient coal based thermal power plants – thanks to a facility being set up by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) to assess Low Cycle Fatigue effects in rotors required for such power plants.

Improving technologies to increase the efficiency of coal based thermal power plants requires use of nickel based super alloy materials as against chrome based steels widely used now. The nickel based Alloy 617M has been selected by the Indian Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) consortium.The alloy is industrially available and the AUSC consortium has already expressed confidence in indigenous development of the alloy. However, lack of experimental data onperformance of Alloy 617M rotors hinders effective usage of this alloy in the Indian AUSC power plant.

To overcome this challenge, Department of Science & Technology under Clean Energy Research Initiative has supported a project to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited BHEL (R&D), Hyderabad for establishment of High Temperature Spin Test Rig (HTSTR).

It will be the first facility in India for experimental validation of the design of AUSC steam turbine rotor relating to creep – fatigue damage (deterioration of metals and alloys subjected to a cyclic thermo mechanical load at elevated temperature) and will also be the only one of its kind in India in terms of establishing a real size engineering experimental set-up. It will subject the turbine rotor segments of weight upto 9000 kilograms to various damage conditions similar to that in the plant operation, like high temperatures upto 800 degree Celsius, high speed upto 3600 Revolutions Per Minute(RPM), followed by long term steady state operation and controlled heating and cooling. The facility will pave the way towards Atmanirbhar Bharat in this sector. 

This facility will enable design validation of 800 Megawatts AUSC steam Turbine rotors for certifying the long term performance of Super alloy Monometallic and Bimetallic welded rotor with a total of 2000 startups (Hot+warm+cold) and 100000 hours of total steady state operation.  This is achieved through accelerated testing within 200 cycles and 10000 hours respectively. A unique test protocol for accelerated testing is formulated by the BHEL team with the guidelines of ASME standards. Two rotor segments – Monometallic (Alloy 617M) and Bimetallic welded portions (Alloy 617M and 10 Chrome) of actual steam turbine rotor will be subjected to equivalent operating conditions over its guaranteed time line by increasing the temperatures and achieving desired thermal gradients within the rotors, during the heating and cooling operations.

This unique test protocol and its visualization software are registered under Indian patents and copyrights act. Some of the technical highlights in the test methodology are published in National conferences.

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On the occasion of second World ‘Patient safety Day’, a webinar was organized by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare & National Health System Resource Centre, to give impetus to the endeavours directed towards improving the safety of patients as well as health care worker, since both are closely inter-linked.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled huge challenges and risks, which front-line health workers face while caring for the patients. The theme for Patient safety this year is “Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety” and the Slogan is “Safe health workers, Safe patients”

The Webinar was inaugurated by Sh. Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary MoHFW. In his address, the health secretary emphasised different steps, which the Government of India has taken for protection of hospital workers. Few of the such steps are ensuring availability of PPE and Masks, insurance coverage of Rs. 50.0 Lakhs, functional helpline, advisory on chemoprophylaxis, etc. The Health secretary also highlighted the importance of putting a transparent “Reporting and Learning System” in place.

Sh. Vikas Sheel, Joint Secretary (Policy) MoHFW provided an overview of different initiatives taken by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for promotion of the health quality and safety. Components of patient safety is deeply embedded in the National Quality Assurance Standards. Infection control is a major component, under the Kayakalp award scheme under the National Health Mission (NHM).

The webinar attracted a large audience with over 1200 participants including Mission Director (NHM) from the States, officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Nodal Officers and other officials working in the field of Quality Assurance and patient safety at States and UTs. Representatives from academic institutions, development partners, NGOs, International Agencies, National Health Authority, NITI Aayog, also attended the webinar.

Eminent speakers included Dr. Akhil Sangal who spoke on “Trust in Healthcare”. Dr. R.D. Ravindran shared his experiences of “Reporting and learning from errors” at Arvind Eye care. Dr. Nikhil Prakash, International Quality and Safety Expert described the mechanisms and approaches of implementing patient safety initiatives at health facility. Dr. Sangeeta Sharma spoke on importance and approaches towards improving Medication Safety that is key to patient safety. Priorities in the paradigm of patient were elucidated by Dr. Subhrojyoti Bhowmick. Dr. Peter Lachman, CEO International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) correlated the patient safety measures with enhanced and desired outcomes. Ergonomics and human factors in patient safety during Covid were vividly explained by Dr. Tommaso Bellandi, International expert of Ergonomics and Health Safety.

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Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Education, Government of India participated in the meeting on behalf of India during the sixth BRICS Communication Ministers Meeting held on 17th September 2020 in virtual format. The meeting was hosted by Mr. Maxim Parshin, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia. Mr Fabio Salustino Mesquita De Faria, Minister of Communications, Federative Republic of Brazil, Mr Xiao Yaqing, Minister, Ministry of Industry and IT of People’s Republic of China and Ms. Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams, Minister of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services of Republic of South Africa represented their countries.

In the meeting a broad consensus was built to continue cooperation among BRICS Countries on important areas such as, the role of Information and Communication Technologies in the fight against COVID-19, building trust and security in the use of ICTs, children online protection, granting the access and connectivity of people living in rural areas, as well as groups of persons with disabilities and the role of the digital economy in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

Shri Sanjay Dhotre appreciated, the field force and the managers of telecom networks who worked as Covid-19 warriors. The Minister also highlighted various initiatives takem by Indian Government for Covid Management, such as, AarogyaSetu App, Covid Quarantine Alert System (CQAS), CovidSavdhan, ICT solutions to facilitate movement of migrant workers back to their homes, In-house development of affordable Video Conferencing Solutions to facilitate work from home and learn from home.

Shri Sanjay Dhotre also shared with the BRICS nations about the several steps taken by Government of India to boost the growth of telecom and ICT under “Digital India” – a flagship programme launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to transform India into a digitally inclusive and empowered society, where the benefits of digital connectivity are available to each and every citizen. He highlighted “Bharatnet” project to connect 250,000 Gram Panchayats involving local people through innovative PPP models, and other projects to connect Hilly regions of North East and remote islands of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Minister also touched upon initiatives of Indian Government on protection of personal data.

The BRICS Communications Ministers’ Meetings are held annually under the rotating Chairship of member countries, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. India will take over the Chairship of the next BRICS Communications Ministers’ Meeting to be hosted in 2021 by India.

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The Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi shall dedicate to the nation the historic Kosi Rail Mega bridge to the Nation through video-conference at 12 Noon on the 18th of September 2020.

Shri Phagu Chauhan, Governor of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Bihar, Central Ministers, Shri PiyushGoyal, Minister of Railways  and Commerce & Industry, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister of Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and information Technology, Shri Giriraj Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Shri NityanandRai, Hon’ble Minister of State for Home Affairsand   Shri SushilModi, Dy Chief Minister, Bihar are also slated to join this occasion.

Apart from Kosi Rail Mega Bridge, the Prime Minister shall also inaugurate other rail projects related to passenger facilities for the benefit of the Bihar State. These include a new railway bridge on the Kiul River, two new railway lines, 5 Electrification projects, one Electric Locomotive Shed at Barauni and 3rd Line Project between Barh-Bakhtiyarpur.

The dedication of the Kosi Rail Mahasetu is a watershed moment in the history of Bihar and the entire region connecting to the North East. In 1887, a meter gauge link was built in between Nirmali and Bhaptiahi (Saraigarh). During the heavy flood and severe Indo Nepal earthquake in 1934, the rail link was washed away and thereafter due to meandering nature of river Kosi no attempt was made to restore this Rail link for long period.

The Kosi Mega Bridge line project was sanctioned by Government of India during 2003-04. The Kosi Rail Mahasetu is 1.9 KM long and its construction cost is Rs. 516 Crore. This bridge is of strategic importance along the India-Nepal border. The project was completed during the COVID-Pandemic where the migrant labour also participated in its completion.

The dedication of this project will fulfil the 86 year old dream and the long wait of the people of the region.

Along with the dedication of the Mahasetu, the Prime Minister shall also be flagging off the Supaul- Raghopura DEMU train from the Supaul Station. Once the regular train service begins, this would prove to be highly beneficial to the Supaul, Arariya and Saharsa districts. It would also make it easy for long distance travel to Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai for the people of the region.

The Prime Minister shall also be inaugurating two New Line projects at Hajipur-Ghoswar-Vaishali and Islampur-Nateshar. Shri Modi shall also be inaugurating the Karnauti-Bakhtiyarpur link bypass and 3rd line between Barh-Bakhiyarpur.

The Prime Minister shall also be inaugurating the Railway Electrification projects of Muzaffarpur – Sitamarhi, Katihar–New Jalpaiguri, Samastipur-Darbhanga-Jaynagar, Samastipur-Khagaria, Bhagalpur-Shivnarayanpur Sections.

Two bills aimed at transforming agriculture in the country and raising farmers’ income were passed by Lok Sabha today. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 were introduced in Lok Sabha on 14th September 2020 by Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, to replace ordinances promulgated on 5th June 2020.

Replying to the discussion on the Bills before they were passed by the Lok Sabha today, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Government under Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is fully committed to the welfare of Gaon-Garib-Kisan. He reassured emphatically that while farmers will now be freed from the restrictions of having to sell their produce at designated places only, the procurement at Minimum Support Price will continue and mandis established under State laws will also continue to operate. The Union Agriculture Minister said that these legislations will bring about revolutionary transformation and transparency in the agriculture sector, electronic trading will increase, there will be accelerated agricultural growth as private investment will be attracted in building supply chains and agricultural infrastructure, new employment opportunities will be created and rural economy will get a boost, which will in turn help to strengthen the national economy.

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers’ produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels to promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers’ produce outside physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations; to provide a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Background

Farmers in India suffered from various restrictions in marketing their produce. There were restrictions for farmers in selling agri-produce outside the notified APMC market yards. The farmers were also restricted to sell the produce only to registered licensees of the State Governments. Further, barriers existed in free flow of agriculture produce between various States owing to the prevalence of various APMC legislations enacted by the State Governments.

Benefits

The new legislation will create an ecosystem where the farmers and traders will enjoy freedom of choice of sale and purchase of agri-produce. It will also promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under State Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations. This is a historic-step in unlocking the vastly regulated agriculture markets in the country.

It will open more choices for the farmer, reduce marketing costs for the farmers and help them in getting better prices. It will also help farmers of regions with surplus produce to get better prices and consumers of regions with shortages, lower prices. The Bill also proposes an electronic trading in transaction platform for ensuring a seamless trade electronically.

The farmers will not be charged any cess or levy for sale of their produce under this Act. Further there will be a separate dispute resolution mechanism for the farmers.

One India, One Agriculture Market

The Bill basically aims at creating additional trading opportunities outside the APMC market yards to help farmers get remunerative prices due to additional competition. This will supplement the existing MSP procurement system which is providing stable income to farmers.

It will certainly pave the way for creating One India, One Agriculture Market and will lay the foundation for ensuring golden harvests for our hard working farmers.

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Background

Indian Agriculture is characterized by fragmentation due to small holding sizes and has certain weaknesses such as weather dependence, production uncertainties and market unpredictability. This makes agriculture risky and inefficient in respect of both input & output management.

Benefits

The new legislation will empower farmers for engaging with processors, wholesalers, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers, exporters etc., on a level playing field without any fear of exploitation. It will transfer the risk of market unpredictability from the farmer to the sponsor and also enable the farmer to access modern technology and better inputs. It will reduce cost of marketing and improve income of farmers.

This legislation will act as a catalyst to attract private sector investment for building supply chains for supply of Indian farm produce to national and global markets, and in agricultural infrastructure. Farmers will get access to technology and advice for high value agriculture and get ready market for such produce.

Farmers will engage in direct marketing thereby eliminating intermediaries resulting in full realization of price. Farmers have been provided adequate protection. Sale, lease or mortgage of farmers’ land is totally prohibited and farmers’ land is also protected against any recovery. Effective dispute resolution mechanism has been provided for with clear time lines for redressal.

Meena Gurung of Nirjuli, a small town in Arunachal Pradesh has started a ‘street library’ for readers. Not only this, she has also arranged for the readers to sit and read there. Meena Gurung is professionally a teacher in a government school. She says that “this street library has been started for only 10 days and is getting very positive response from the readers”. Apart from this, Meena has also expressed happiness that books have not been stolen from here for ten days without any locks. They also do not worry that books can be stolen from this library. She said that “Even if these books get stolen, I will be happy because whoever steals he or she will only use it for reading”.

Where did the inspiration came from?
Meena got inspiration from her street library from Mizoram’s ‘Mini Way Side Library’. A friend of her, Dewang Hosai graduated from English Hons, got the idea to start a street library with this friend.
Women and teenagers are the most people reading books from this library of Meena. Gurung has realized that teenagers like to sit in an open space and read books, so they will now lend these books to take home. She wants to cultivate a passion for studies in teenagers through her efforts. Meena dreams that a similar library should be opened in every small and big city of Arunachal Pradesh. In view of their efforts, many people have given books kept in their house to keep here so that more and more people can read them.
Financial assistance was also received.

Some people of the village also helped Meena financially so that she could buy good books to keep in this library. Meena says, “I hope that in view of my efforts, people from other states will also start a similar street library”.
Meena said that she is keen to work for the welfare of women and widows. Apart from this, she also wants to raise her voice against child marriage.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a nationalist Indian, an instructor, an activist for freedom, born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak. He was a third of the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal. Tilak was the Indian Movement’s first chief. He was also appointed the father of Indian unrest by the British colonial authorities and granted the title of Lokmanya, which means that it is ‘accepted by the people.’ “The New India Builder” Mahatma Gandhi called him.

Tilak was one of Swaraj’s first and greatest backers and a true Indian radical. He is famous in Marathi for his quotes: Swaraj, “I will have my birthright!” He has formed a close partnership with a number of Indian National Congressmen, Bipin, Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat, Rai, V. O. Chidambaram, Aurobindo Ghose and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Keshav Gangadhar Tilak was born in Ratnagiri, the headquarters of Ratnagiri district in present-day Maharashtra, on 23 July 1856 to the Indian Marathi Hindu Chitpavan Brahmin family. Chikhali was his ancient village. His dad, Gangadhar Tilak, was a Sanskrit teacher who died at the time of Tilak’s seventeen years of age. At sixteen years old, a few months before his father’s death, Tilak was married in 1871 to Tapibai. He graduated from Deccan College of Pune in 1877 with a first-class Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. Leaving his M.A. Instead, he graduated halfway through the study of LL.B in 1879 and from Government Law College in his LL.B. Tilak began to teach math at a private Pune school after graduation. Later he withdrew and became a journalist due to theological disagreements with the new school colleagues. Tilak was interested in public relations actively. The true spirit is that the nation is made your family, not just you. It’s to serve mankind and the next step is to service God. “He says:” Religion and practical life are no different.

In 1890, Tilak joined the Congress of the Indians. He was against his moderate position and in particular the fight for autonomy. At the time, he was one of the most outstanding leftists. Indeed, in the Indian National Congress the Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 divided into the Moderates and Radicals.

At the end of 1896 there was a bubonic plague from Bombay to Pune, hitting epidemic levels by January 1897. British troops were brought to deal with emergencies and drastic action was taken, including forcing entry into private homes, inspection of the residents, removal of personal belongings, removal and damage of hospitals and segregated camps and the avoidance of the entry or departure of patients from the area. The outbreak was managed by the end of May. Their acts of tyranny and corruption were widely perceived. Tilak took up this question by publishing in his Kesari article inflammatory, invoking the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, to suggest that someone couldn’t be convicted, without a thought for reward, of having killed an oppressor. On 22 June 1897, the brothers Chapekar and its other members were shot and killed by Commissioner Rand and another British officer, Lt. Ayerst. Subsequently. Tilak “almost definitely hid the identity of the perpetrators” according to Barbara and Thomas R. Metcalf. Tilak was convicted of murder incitement and sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

Tilak sponsored the Swadeshi and the boycott movement in the aftermath of the Bengal Group, a tactic that Lord Curzon described to undermine the nationalist movement. The move was to boycott foreign goods and to boycott socially all Indians who were using foreign commodities. The Swadeshi movement included the use of native products. After foreign products had been boycotted, the output of such goods in India itself had to fill the void. Tilak said both sides of the same coin are Swadeshi and boycott.

In 1916-18, Tilak and G. S. Khaparde along with Annie Besant helped create the All India Home Rule League. He gave up and concentrated on the Home Rule League, which pursued self-governance, after years of attempting to reunite moderate and radicals. In order to aid the farmers and the locals, Tilak travelled from village to village to join the self-rule movement. The Russian Revolution impressed Tilak and shared his appreciation for Vladimir Lenin. In April 1916 the League had 1,400 members and by 1917 it had risen to around 32,000. In Maharashtra, the provinces of Central and Karnataka, and Berar, Tilak began his Home Rule League.