National Initiative for Innovation Centres in the Country

New Delhi: A new scheme on “National Initiative to establish 20 Design Innovation Centres, one Open Design School and National Design Innovation Network” has been launched during 2013-14. 

There is proposal under consideration of the Government to formulate National Innovation Policy in education sector at present. Research and innovation have also been the focal points during XII Plan.

Further, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), which seeks to support and reform the state higher education system, is providing funding for Research, Innovation and Quality Improvement.  The states have to prepare a Research and Innovation Plan which would include facilities that

(i)      support research hubs/parks etc.,

(ii)    adopt of meta-university concept that offer cross university education and credit transfer facility to students,

(iii)   procure high quality e-resources,

(iv)  upgrade library and laboratory facilities,

(v)    facilities like incubation centers, innovation hubs,

(vi)  initiatives to attract top-rated international faculty,

(vii) institutions that offer merit-based scholarships, fully-funded doctoral fellowships, post-doctoral fellowships,

(viii)           promotion of  research and entrepreneurial activities,

(ix)  support different types of research programs – Base Research, Key Technology (R&D), High end (R&D) etc., and

(x)    Special grants to faculty for conducting outstanding research.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Lok Sabha question.

UGC Begins Scheme to Introduce Courses on Social Thinkers of India 

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Report by India Education bureau, New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has started a scheme of “Epoch Making Social Thinkers of India” in various universities/colleges to introduce various courses on great thinkers and social leaders, their thoughts and philosophies including Gandhian studies. As reported by the UGC, under this scheme 85 Gandhian Studies Centres have been approved by the UGC for continuation in the XII Plan and 55 Centres have been approved for establishment during XII Plan w.e.f 2013-14.Details of the scheme are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/xiplanpdf/epochmakingsociathinkers1.pdf.   

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Lok Sabha question.   

HRD Ministry planning a new programme called Campus Connect

New Delhi: The Ministry of Human Resource Development is planning a new programme called Campus Connect. Under these programme 21,000 colleges, 20 classrooms will be made Wi-Fi enabled. Totally, 4.2 lakh classrooms will be made Wi-Fi enabled and this will help around 1.5 crore students. Students will be given access only to those websites which are academically relevant.

         All the buildings of 600 universities that have 1 Gbps bandwidth will be made by Wi-Fi enabled. This includes Government of India funded institutions, state government universities and also private universities. This will help around 20 lakh students. The whole campus of all the 140 centrally funded Institutions of Ministry of HRD will be made Wi-Fi enabled.

         The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) aims to leverage the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning process. The Mission also aims to provide 20 Broadband connections of 512 Kbps speed to over 25,000 colleges and 2000 polytechnics and  optical fiber connectivity one Gbps to 419 universities/ university level institutions in the country which includes internet facility.

       The NMEICT scheme has three major components viz. (i) content generation; (ii) providing connectivity to universities and colleges; and (iii)  Research and development of low cost access device.

      Under the NMEICT scheme, the activity of providing connectivity to 419 Universities/ University level Institutions and all colleges including polytechnics is in progress. So far connectivity to 403 Universities/ University level institutions and 21,026 colleges in the country has been provided. Under this scheme, no central assistance has been provided by the Central Government directly to States to implement the scheme/ project.  However, as provided in the Mission document, funds have been released to universities/university level institutions of the country for various projects. 

      For connectivity to universities and colleges, central share of 75% of the cost is directly released to the BSNL/ MTNL (implementing agency) with the stipulation that the balance 25% of the cost (10% in case of institution of North East Region) would be deposited by the concerned institution directly to BSNL/ MTNL.