PM says Jal-Shakti Campaign is taking rapid, successful strides with the aid of public participation

In Mann Ki Baat today Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said Jal Shakti Campaign is taking rapid, successful strides with the aid of public participation. He shared few extensive & innovative water conservation efforts under way, in every corner of the country.

Mentioning about Jalore district in Rajasthan He said, “There, two historical step wells had turned into storehouses of garbage & dirty water. But one fine day, hundreds of people from Bhadraayun & Thanawala Panchayats took a resolve to rejuvenate them, under the Jal Shakti Campaign. Much before the rains, people immersed themselves in the task of cleaning out the accumulated filthy water, garbage and morass. For this campaign, some donated money; others their labour & sweat. As a result, these step wells have turned into their lifelines now”.

Similarly Saraahi Lake in Barabanki Uttar Pradesh, was brought to life by the collective efforts of Villagers. Another example of Public participation is Village Suniyakot along the Almora-Haldwani Highway in Uttarakhand. Here villagers took it upon themselves to ensure that water reached their village. People raised money, donated labour. A pipe was laid upto the village and a pumping station was set up. Thus decade old problem of water crisis was solved.

Prime Minister urged everyone to share their stories of such endeavours of water conservation and water harvesting by using #Jalshakti4India.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan – a campaign for water conservation and water security commenced last monsoon in July, 2019. The campaign focussed on water stressed districts and blocks.

*****

PM congratulates Government and People of Assam for successful conclusion of Khelo India Games

In his Mann Ki Baat today Prime Minister congratulated the Government, the people of Assam and participants for successful conclusion of the ‘Khelo India Games’.

Prime Minister said, Khelo India games had around 6 thousand players from different states participating. 80 records were broken, and of these 80 records, 56 were broken by our daughters. He noted that in 2018, when ‘Khelo India Games’ were instituted, thirty-five hundred players took part, but in just three years the number of players has increased to more than 6 thousand, which translates to the fact that it has almost doubled.

Prime Minister in Mann Ki Baat today shared inspiring stories of the participant children and their parents. One among those was the story of Yogananthan of Tamil Nadu. Prime Minister said, “Yogananthan makes beedis in Tamil Nadu, but his daughter Purnashree won everyone’s heart by bagging the Gold Medal in Weight Lifting”.

He also mentioned about David who won a gold medal at the 200 meter Sprint event in cycling in Youth Games in Guwahati. David from Car-Nicobar had lost his parents while he was an infant. His uncle wanted him to become a footballer, and hence had named him after the famous footballer David Beckham. But young David was obsessed with cycling. He was selected under the ‘Khelo India’ scheme and today he has created a new record in cycling.

He also shared the inspiring story of Kareena Shankta of Mumbai. Kareena competed in the 100 metre breast-stroke event in swimming, won the gold medal in the Under-17 category and also set a new national record. However there was a time for Kareena, a 10th standard student when she had to forego her training due to a knee injury. But Kareena and her mother did not lose courage and the result of that fortitude is evident in front of all of us today.

Prime Minister said, “We all know that National Games is an arena, where players get a chance to display their passion besides becoming acquainted with the culture of other states. Therefore, we have decided to organize ‘Khelo India University Games’ every year on the pattern of ‘Khelo India Youth Games’” .

Next month the first edition of ‘Khelo India University Games’ is being organized in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Odisha from 22nd February to 1st March. And more than 3000 players have qualified for participating in these games.

Fit India

Prime Minister lauded the ‘Fit India School’ campaign for bringing positive results. He noted that more than 65,000 schools have obtained the ‘Fit India School’ certificates through online registration. He urged the rest of the schools in the country to integrate physical activity and sports with education and ensure that they become a ‘fit school’.

*****

Short Biography of \’Chaudhary Charan Singh\’ (193 Words)

\’Chaudhary Charan Singh\’ was born on 23rd December, 1902 in village Noorpur of Hapur District in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was born in a Jat family. He belonged to an extremely poor peasant family which descended from the kinsmen of a prominent freedom fighter of the 1857 revolt.

Chaudhary Charan Singh was the fifth Prime Minister of the India. He served country as Prime Minister from 28 July 1979 until 14 January 1980. He holds the record of being the only Prime Minister of India who did not face the Parliamentary floor for a single day after assuming the office. He is also remembered for the one and only budget he presented in 1979. His passionate appeal and magnetic persona united all the farmers against the moneylenders and landlords.

Chaudhary Charan Singh died on 29th May, 1987. His life was very simple and he contributed a lot to improvise the life of Indian farmers. In the memory of former Prime Minister, \’Farmer\’s Day\’ (Kisan Divas) is observed every year in India on the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh on 23rd December. Various agricultural events, seminars, poster competitions and debates are organized to mark this event.

Short Biography of \’Chaudhary Charan Singh\’ (193 Words)

Short Essay on \’Festival I Like Most\’ (188 Words)

Many festivals are celebrated all over the year in India but I like Holi festival the most. Holi is one of the greatest festival of Hindus. It is a festival of colours. This festival falls on a full moon day in Phalgun Month of Hindu Calender. I like it most because this festival brings lot of joy and happiness.

The story behind the Holi festival is that there was a king named Hiranya kashyap, he had a son, Prahlad, a holy spirit and highly devoted to God but Prahlad\’s devotion enraged Hiranya kashyap and he planned to kill his own son. He asked her sister Holika, who was immune to fire, to sit in fire taking Prahlad in her lap. Fortunately Prahlad, who was blessed by Lord, was saved and Holika was burnt to ashes.

Holi is also a festival of love and unity and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The festival is celebrated with lot of pomp in north India. After a fun filled and exciting day, the evenings are spent in sobriety when people meet friends and relatives and exchange sweets and festive greetings.

Short Essay on \’Festival I Like Most\’ (188 Words)

“Twenty-first century education calls for knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge dissemination, knowledge application, and knowledge reinvention.” —Professor M.S. Rao

Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

“Hiking is casual, trekking is serious, and mountaineering is strenuous.” —Professor M.S. Rao

Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

innovation JISC online conference

Innovating eLearning 2006 JISC online conference
A couple of entries really caught my eye and very much match with some of the isssues our institution is currently facing. Peter Miller – University of Liverpool
pointed us to the idea of Shared Learning Contexts (SLCs) which are described in Scott Wilson\’s blog at The diagram of the SLC illustrates a learner-centred model using open source technologies.

Geoff Stead\’s statement summed it up really – \”VLE fervor has put shackles on a lot of creativity from people like ourselves who earn a living using technology to service learning. Five years ago we were creating learning tools that assisted low-literacy learners to find their voice and publish themselves online. We created project-based environments to share problems and strategies for dealing with low maths skills. But these things are impossible within SCORM (the standard VLE materials need to comply with) Almost 100% of the demand we get for resources to support learning need to fit into the lowest common denominator of VLEs … namely: a single thread of learning objects, each one insular, curriculum mapped, with no connection to the learning process, no inbuilt dialog / saving / thought origination for the student. So yes, they have provided an excuse for less adventurous staff to hide behind. But they have also imposed a set of standards on all purchasing that have ended out stamping out a lot of creativity that was previously embedded in the resources as well. And all with the best intent! \”

Some of the replies to this statement, referred to the usefulness of VLEs for staff new to eLearning. My thought on this is that we have basically trained people up to expect the VLE or Learning Management System approach whereas if the use of a variety of tools could have been \”sold\” to staff early on – through really good resourcing and support – we wouldn\’t all be caught up in using the corporate, expensive, proprietary tools. Tools which suit the company not the teachers and learners.

There was a very good article on one of the discussions – an evaluation of the use of blogging in a course related to technology.

Reflecting on professional practice by Annette Odell, University of East London. \”Applications of Learning Technologies\” is an accredited professional development course. Assessment is by means of a portfolio of work built up during the course and a key component within this is a reflective log, kept online using a blog.

This presentation describes the use of blogs on this context; briefly discusses different uses of blogs; reflects on personal experience with using blogs for different purposes and why the \’reflective blog\’ appears to be a consistently successful use; discusses factors that promote success and problems to be oversome; and summarises the participants\’ perspective on the value of keeping a reflective blog within this course and as part of their professional development record.

Online session flexible learning examples

The evening online session about examples of flexible learning provided some lively discussion. You might like to watch and listen to the Elluminate recording of the class discussion about some examples of flexible learning. Jennifer and I decided to structure the session around a four-pronged design approach – content, communication, activities and assessment. This concept is illustrated in the diagram. The Australian Flexible framework eLearning planning section in particular Designing e-learning was used to illustrate these concepts as well as our own examples. Under the Gallery of strategies there are four key tasks involved in designing and delivering courses:

organising the content – presenting or exploring information to engage learners
preparing learning activities – providing a variety of challenges and interactions for learners
providing support – building communication to motivate and enrich learning
arranging assessment – assessing progress and providing evidence of competence.

These are very similar to my four-pronged design approach. Often teachers tend to be content-centric whereas, in my opinion it is more important to focus on the interaction. I provided an example of using a project-based assessment I use in my teaching. There are several parts to the assessment including a project plan for evaluating an eLearning resource or course, conducting the evaluation and analysing the results, and writing the report. The assessment is all directly applicable to the context in which students are working and works well. They learn the principles of evaluation through doing the evaluation project.

The use of web-conferencing using Elluminate was an example in action of how effective synchronous online communication can be when participants are separated by geographical distances. I really liked Jennifer\’s description about the use of work-based assessments in vet nursing where techniques and skills are videoed when students are doing them in \”real vet clinics\”. Then they are sent to the lecturers for marking.

I also mentioned the use of concept-mapping activities to help students reflect and link their ideas. These can be quite engaging for students who prefer visual means of expressing themselves as opposed to writing blocks of text.

Short Essay on \’Rani Lakshmibai Jayanti: 19 November\’ (145 Words)

\’Rani Lakshmibai Jayanti\’ is celebrated on 19th November every year. It is the birth anniversary of Rani Lakshmibai. Rani Lakshmibai was born on 19th November, 1835 at Kashi. Her father\’s name was Moropant. Her mother\’s name was Bhagirathi Devi. Laxmi\’s childhood name was Manikarnika but affectionately she was called Manu in her childhood.

Rani Lakshmibai was the great heroine of the First War of Indian Freedom. She was the embodiment of patriotism, self-respect and heroism. Her life is a thrilling story of womanliness, courage, adventure, deathless patriotism and martyrdom. Rani Lakshmibai was the real meaning of the ideal heroine. She was proud of not just India but the world\’s women.

Rani Lakshmibai Jayanti is celebrated grandly in the whole country. On this occasion, cultural events, speeches and seminars are organized at many places. \’Deepdan\’ and \’Mashalyatra\’ are also held at number of places on this day.

Short Essay on \’Rani Lakshmibai Jayanti: 19 November\’ (145 Words)

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this: