Financial Inclusion for NSDC trainees

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), along with Central Bank of India and MasterCard, a leading global payments solutions provider, announced the launch of a customised payments solution for youth trainees who successfully complete specific skill development programmes run by NSDC.

Each trainee participating in the Standards Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) Scheme, run by NSDC, will be financially included through the opening a zero balance bank account and a MasterCard Debit Card. The monetary reward for the course will be directly deposited into these accounts upon the unique identification of the trainee and successful certification post completion of his/her course. In addition, trainees will have access to mobile banking, internet banking with e-commerce facilities, and accidental insurance of Rs 1,00,000.

This initiative is in line with the government’s vision of promoting financial inclusion and delivering comprehensive financial tools to the financially excluded low-income households.

So far, Central Bank ofIndia has issued MasterCard Debit Cards to over 2,00,000 trainees – the largest issue in this project – and has signed MOU’s with over 50 training partners across India to roll out this project.

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HRD ministry to draw new vision for higher education 

Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani will chair two-day brainstorming session in a Chandigarh retreat with Vice-Chancellors of 39 Central Universities on September 12 and 13, 2014, to discuss the new higher education vision plan. She has already had interactions with directors of IITs and IIMs in Goa last month.

Irani will take stock of university functions and then prepare a plan for greater synergy between school education and higher education. The A M Pathan Committee report, which had come up with a single legislation to govern all central universities, will be one of the key issues to be discussed. Currently, each central university is governed by its own Act passed by Parliament. The ministry will also impress VCs about the need to get accreditation from National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

High on priority list is the Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) programme, which is to be launched on September 25. Under SWAYAM scheme professors of IITs, IIMs and Central Universities will offer online courses for free.  However, a small fee will be charged from those who would be certificated for completion of the course.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/09/hrd-ministry-to-draw-new-vision-for-higher-education/#sthash.urQINCnN.dpuf

Sep 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)

How Many Minutes do You Work at Home?





Patriarchy shows up not only in the frequency of violent crimes such as rape, dowry-killing and acid attacks but also in more anaemic statistics, such as the gender-wise time spent on household chores. American men do a fair share of household work, while Indian men expect their wives to do it all.That is the key message from an OECD survey earlier this year. Domestic work is unpaid work. Indian men spend just about 19 minutes every day on domestic work compared to 161 minutes by their peers in the US, and a rich-country average of 139 minutes. Indian women spend about 352 minutes a day on household chores compared to 248 minutes by their counterparts in the US. True, the findings, based on National TimeUse Surveys, are not strictly comparable, given that the data for India is based on CSO’s survey way back in 1999, but are still useful in designing public policy.
Unpaid and invisible household work is often foisted on women in India, particularly for those at the lower income levels.
The CSO survey had a pointer. It showed that men in India dedicated themselves to “talking, gossiping and quarrelling”, surprisingly categorised under “personal care and self-maintenance”, spending almost eight hours in a week on this activity. Rural women also have tougher chores such as carrying water, collecting and carrying firewood or processing food stuff by hand. It raises the physical intensity of their work, not captured in the time-use surveys.
Fewer women do paid work today. Data show a decline in female workforce participation at an annual rate of 1.72% between 2004-05 and 2009-10. To bring more women into the workforce, we need to understand their problems in balancing their work-life responsibilities. Surely, men, and not just paid help, can take on a larger share of domestic chores.

Sep 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Social Impact Awards about sharing, inspiring





TOI Launches Third Edition Of Social Impact Awards

How did Puniya Baba, an 80-year old Bhil tribal from Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh, manage to get a title deed to cultivate a plot of land in the forest? How did villagers of Ahata village in Bahraich, UP, get drinking water even when surrounded by flood waters for two months? Why is Rafiqu Begum so happy about her daughters' school in Old Delhi? How did infant mortality fall dramatically in Jamkhed block in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra? These and many other heart-warming stories were the result of the untiring efforts of groups of remarkable men and women found in all corners of our country. An organization of tribals fought to get Puniya Baba’s title deed recognized under the Forest Act. A visionary district collector installed raised hand pumps in Bahraich.A government school with only minority students transformed itself at the initiative of the principal. A pair of doctors trained village women in deliveries and care of the newborn and the mother.
A large part of the system does not work, a fact obvious to everybody. Over half the students that join school in Class 1 drop out by Class 8. A person dies of TB every three minutes, although there is a cure available for free. A quarter of all infant deaths in the world take place in India.
Employment has been growing at just 2% per year for more than a decade. Rapes have been increasing at a phenomenal rate. Natural calamities claim thousands of lives, and survivors struggle to cope.These are the headline indicators, just the tip of the iceberg.
In this dismal state of affairs, the lives of many -though not most -have been changed by the intervention of voluntary organizations and government departments at the grassroots level, fired up by a band of committed individuals. Corporate bodies too have pioneered ways of delivering some recompense to disadvantaged sections, sharing their profits for the larger good.
The Times of India, which has always stood for a more humane and just society , decided in 2011 to recognize these individuals and organizations by initiating the Social Impact Awards. After two very successful editions, it is now time for the third edition of the Awards. This time, we have as our partner the Aditya Birla Group, which has long been associated with education and other social endeavours.
Today , a dedicated website has gone online for receiving applica tions from non-governmental organizations, corporate entities and even state or lower level government departments. After a nationwide search and evaluation by experts, the awards will be given for work in five key sectors: education, health, environment, livelihoods and advocacyempowerment.
There will be three awards in each sector -one each for an NGO, a corporate-backed organization, and a government body at the district or state level. There will also be an award each for Lifetime Achievement and Global Impact.
In the previous two rounds, we were flooded with applications from across the country . While only three Awards were given in each of the five sectors, 15 in all, the stories that emerged from the thousands of entries showed that the pain, distress and deprivation that exists in our society is matched in equal measure by compassion, humanity and the striving for change.
These Awards are not about winning or losing. They are about sharing, encouraging and inspiring. If you know about meaningful work being done in your area by an NGO, a corporate body , or a government organization, you can nominate them through our Awards website. We urge you to do so. Because the least they deserve is a recognition of their effort.

Sep 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Hanuman, 'son of Pawan', gets Aadhaar card

Sikar (Rajasthan): PTI





Lord Hanuman has an Aadhaar card but nobody to collect it.The unique identification card with registration number 2094705195411 bears a picture of Lord Hanuman, addresses him as ‘son of Pawan’ and gives a mobile number and thumbprint.
A postman from Dantaramgarh in Sikar received the card from Bangalore on September 6 but no recipients were mentioned. “Postman Heera Lal brought it to the notice of senior officials.
When they tried calling the number, it was switched off,” said postmaster Gobraj. A preliminary probe suggested the card was applied for by someone called Vikas.
The card will now be sent back to Bangalore.

Sep 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

TOI EXCLUSIVE - Women, look at math & science: GM CEO

Pankaj Doval





Mary Barra didn’t just break the glass ceiling, she drove a truck through it when she took over as global CEO of General Motors in January 2014, making her the first woman to head a major company in the notoriously testosterone-driven automobile industry.Unsurprisingly, the media went berserk over the electrical engineer and Stanford MBA, who joined GM as an intern in 1980 (following her father into the company) and has never worked anywhere else.
But Barra’s honeymoon didn’t last too long, and she found herself appearing before the US Congress in April to answer for faulty ignition switches linked to 13 deaths — a problem that led to the recall of millions of vehicles.
Barra’s contrite apology was widely appreciated but she remains aware that she has a lot to do if she has to deliver on her avowed promise of bringing about a “new GM“ and regaining customer trust Barra,52, is now on her first visit to India after taking over as CEO. GM has had its share of problems here too. It is yet to make a profit despite being in the country for almost two decades, and has faced allegations of corporate fraud over issues related to the recall of multi-purpose vehicle Tavera. Still, the first question that Barra is inevitably asked is about being a trendsetter and whether this heralds a new trend of women in corner rooms.
“I have never looked at it that way. I work in an industry that is incredibly exciting. It’s challenging, competitive, global and ever changing. It’s an industry that I love and I am the second generation of my family in it. I have had big opportunities being presented to me by GM throughout my career and have been able to work in many different parts of the business,” she told TOI in an exclusive interview.
However, she added, “I think that something that is very strong about GM and also true about GM India is that it provides great opportunity to women.” What advice does she have for young women, especially those studying in a developing economy like India? “Anytime I get an opportunity to talk, I encourage women to look into the math and science arena,” she said. As an engineer herself, she’s certainly walked the talk. Ask GM CEO Mary Barra about the automaker's problems and she is quick to spring to her beloved company's defence.
“How I look at it is that we are a five-year-old company with 100 years of lessons learnt,“ she said, in an apparent reference to GM's announcement of bankruptcy in 2009, following which it was saved after the intervention of the US government.“We will be foolish not to look at the lessons learnt in the past to build on the future. We are 100% forward looking.“
Speaking about GM's operations in India, she said the company is going through a transformation and restructuring to build on the future.“All I can say is that the past is past. We will focus on the future which would mean having the right products; keeping the customers at the centre of what we do; and being a leader in safety and quality .“ Barra made a visit to the company's plant in Maharashtra and also met GM's suppliers and dealers. “We have a huge focus on improving the quality . Our teams have visited the plants and made assessments to improve the quality of manufacturing.“
Speaking about the massive recall announcements made by GM, she said the company has “substantially completed“ the exercise.“We're working hard to make sure that as new vehicles come out, they achieve even higher levels of quality and safety . We are very focused on being industry leaders,“ she said, but added that the company would not hesitate to call back more vehicles if the need arises.
“We've really benchmarked with the aerospace industry , the nuclear industry, industries that require a true zero-defect mentality ,“ Barra said. “But if at any point of time, we learn there's an issue, we're going to put the customer in the centre, and we're going to take care of the issue and if that means a recall, we'll do a recall.“

Scholarships worth $ US 1mn for Indian students

In a huge stimulus to Indian students, scholarships worth US $1 million will be provided by US based Global Financial Education (GFS), a digital platform that provides financial education solutions to universities, schools, corporations, libraries and individuals.

The Global Financial Education Program is the first large-scale program targeted at those just above and below the poverty line in developing countries

The company is also offering discounts of 50 to 70 per cent on all its courses between September 15 and November 15, 2014. Students have to fill up an online form to be eligible for the scholarships. The first 200 students with a score of over 95 will get a scholarship of $500 each for a GFS package of courses. Forms will be available between mid-September and mid-November.

Dan Farhi, VP Business Development at GFS said, “The educational landscape of the country has been witnessing major technological advancements, and our mission is to provide superlative digital education at competitive rates to all aspiring students and educational institutions. GFS has entered the Indian market with offerings tailored to suit the specific educational eco-system of the country. Within the next three years it aspires to become one of the leading e-learning companies in India.”

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/09/scholarships-worth-us-1mn-for-indian-students/#sthash.rbzErJFr.dpuf