India Canada signs 13 MoUs to bolster Skill Development 

With the objective of providing job related training for India’s rapidly growing youth population, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three day visit to Canada proved to be beneficial for the Indian education. Through international collaborations, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) signed 13 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with 12 Canadian institutions, including 9 colleges.

The objectives of these MoUs are for starting Academies of Excellence for training trainers and assessors, and to create Transnational Standards with Canadian Sector Skill Councils. Each Canadian college will be paired with an Indian partner that’s focused on a specific sector, such as aviation, healthcare or agriculture.

The Indian partners will pay the colleges for their services, which could include curriculum development, education for Indian trainers and assistance with accreditation systems. The colleges will work through centres of excellence overseas that have been established by India’s National Skill Development Corporation.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (I/C) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship recently launched the Human Resource and Skill Requirement reports across 24 sectors in India which will serve as the baseline for all skill development initiatives being planned across the country. According to the findings of the research reports, the incremental human resource requirement across these 24 sectors is nearly 109.73[1] million whereby the top 10 sectors account for about 80% of requirements.

He said, “India is a human resource rich country which needs to empower its youth with training and techniques to build a more powerful workforce. It is only when our youth are trained and skilled as per international best practices and standards that we can become the ‘Skill Capital’ of the world. The transfer of knowledge between India and Canada will enhance our capabilities and help us become ready for jobs across both the countries and still maintain quality standards for industries. We are honoured to be partnering Canada on the skills agenda.”

Dilip Chenoy, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation said, “This is another important milestone in our efforts to reap India’s demographic dividend. These MoUs are a part of the ongoing collaborations that we’ve been having with various developed and developing countries across the world such as Australia, Germany, Iran, U.S.A., UK, etc. adopting best practices from each. This will help us prepare a workforce that will be industry ready not only for India, but for the world.”

Education department includes Gender equality in Class V syllabus -

To impart value education to students and that teach them the gender equality at the very early stage of life to become a better citizen of the country, the Education department has updated class V syllabus. The new syllabus will focus on subjects like gender equality and will also impart education on e-learning, which is the need of the hour in today’s time.

The training of the teachers has started from April 15. According to the State Textbook Bureau Officials, the new syllabus has been designed keeping in mind the changing scenario and generation. The officials informed that sensatising students on gender equality, women empowerment are some of the most important issues that has been kept in mind while designing the new curriculum.

While speaking to media, C Borkar, Director of the State Textbook Bureau, Balbharati said, “The new syllabus will give importance to gender education. There are many issues in the country due to less awareness about gender equality. Hence, the department has decided to introduce such topics in the revised syllabus of all subjects in all classes. Last year we revised the syllabus of class III and IV.”

The teachers at the district level will be trained by experts across the state and these trained teachers will train the teachers in the city and taluka level to teach the new syllabus. Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, Balbharati, that makes textbooks for classes I to VIII has informed that science and maths book have enough content about value education.

The department has also emphasised on e-learning which is the need of the hour.

Scheme for minorities to study in foreign varsities underway -

Telegana government has said that a scheme which would enable students from minority communities to study in foreign varsities would be formalised by the end of the month.

The scheme, based on the Ambedkar Overseas Vidya Nidhi (AOVN) meant for students from the Scheduled Castes, seeks to provide a grant of Rs 10 lakh to applicants based on certain conditions. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao recently announced a budgetary allocation of Rs 25 crore for the scheme. Sources said that the guidelines would closely resemble those of the AOVN.

An official from the Minorities Welfare Department (MWD) told the media that the file seeking the CM’s approval has already been circulated. A cabinet note would be prepared if it is to be put up before the cabinet, the source added. Explaining the guidelines, the official said, “An income limit of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum has been fixed. The age limit is 35. The funds will be released in two installments as and when the students get admission in the university. The fee of the visa will be reimbursed to the applicant once the visa and valid receipts are shown. The student will have to submit utilisation certificates.”

Furthermore, a scheme is to be announced before the fall intake by MWD. “The scheme will help a lot of our students who want to but are unable to go abroad for post-graduate studies. We will make sure that the government order (GO) is released much before the fall intake. We are certain that the CM will look into the matter at the earliest,” said MWD special secretary Syed Omar Jaleel.

Develop Through Consent, Not Coercion





Media reports say that the environment ministry , under orders from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), wants to dilute rules that require the consent of tribals, to take away their land for industry or mining. Existing forest laws require tribal gram sabhas -the village-level unit of Indian democracy -to agree to the takeover of their land for private or state-sponsored operations. These include so-called `linear' projects: railway lines, roads, digital or power cables, as well as operations like mining. The environment ministry wants to scrap these consent clauses, presumably to make it easier for industry to expand into these areas, with some grudging safeguards for so-called Schedule V tribes: those who reside in a contigu ous area, including parts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bengal's Santhal pargan as, Orissa and Telangana.The ministry of tribal affairs is not amused. It has written to the environme nt and law ministries that the dilution to consent clauses would be extralegal, in vite censure from the judiciary as well as legal challenges. We agree. One of the main reasons why the UPA regime enacted the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was to protect the vulnerable indigenous tribes, who are marginalised by mainstream society as well as state administrations. Training and skilling tribal people into mainstream occupations is the way to go, to make change voluntary .
Heavy-handed intervention could also escalate Naxalite activity, undermining the powers of state and central governments further. Probably because of their marginalisation from the mainstream, India's tribal areas, whether in central or northeastern India, have been epicentres of movements directed against the state. Progress must happen, but only by consent, not by sneakily chipping away at tribal rights.

Vedanta - Good Health and Cheer

KIRAN BEDI





I experienced the visible language of life recently when I was down with viral fever and severe chest congestion. I was completely dependent upon others to even get up on my feet. Because of the intensive care I received at home, I bounced back to good health within a reasonable period of time.I went through a number of check-ups concerning my vital organs. When each one turned out to be in good shape, I felt I was relearning and revising the lessons of life. I'd like to share some of the lessons I relearned with those who are taking certain gifts of life for granted, like perhaps I was.
Good physical health is a val uable gift of nature. Posi tion, power, status and acquisitions tend to lose their mean ing if we are not blessed with energetic health.
Once we recognise that energetic physical health is the greatest possession we have, we will not go about abusing it deliberately . But by using this gift carefully and rightly , we can heighten our awareness of all that we do and find different ways of using our energy .With this heightened awareness, we will not readily consume anything that might hurt the system.
The mind is that part of the body that makes physical energy intelligible and gives it its worth. One of the noblest and purest ways of expressing our gratitude for good health is to serve humankind with whatever resources we have.And what better way to begin than by serving the sick?

India 5th biggest generator of e-waste in 2014: UN report

United Nations: PTI





India is the fifth biggest producer of ewaste in the world, discarding 1.7 million tonnes (Mt) of electronic and electrical equipment in 2014, a UN report has said warning that the volume of global e-waste is likely to rise sharply by 21% in next three years.The `Global E-Waste Monitor 2014', compiled by UN think tank United Nations University (UNU), said at 32%, the US and China produced the most e-waste overall in 2014. India came in fifth, behind the US, China, Japan and Germany , the report said. Most e-waste in the world in 2014 was generated in Asia at 16 Mt or 3.7kg per inhabitant. The top three Asian nations with the highest e-waste generation in absolute quantities are China (6.0Mt), Japan (2.2Mt) and India (1.7Mt).
The top per capita producers by far are the wealthy nations of northern and western Europe, the top five being Norway , Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, and the UK. The lowest amount of ewaste per inhabitant was generated in Africa (1.7kg inhabitant). The continent generated 1.9Mt of e-waste in total. In 2014, people worldwide discarded all but a small fraction of an estimated 41.8Mt of electrical and electronic equipment -mostly end-of-life kitchen, laundry and bathroom equipment like microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers.
The volume of e-waste is expected to rise by 21% to 50Mt in 2018, said the report, which details the location and composition of the world's fast-growing ewaste problem.
The 41.8 Mt weight of last year's e-waste is comparable to the distance from New York to Tokyo and back.

Number of women tobacco users rising'

Sushmi Dey

New Delhi:





Commercials, Films To Blame: Study

The number of women consuming tobacco products has doubled over 15 years, according to a report by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).While only 10% of women consumed tobacco products during the midand late-1990s, the number has increased to 20% in recent years, the re port said. Tobacco consumption among men has re mained in the range of 45-57% between 1995-96 and 2009-10. The increase in tobacco consumption among women was largely fueled by the rise in smokeless tobacco use, the PHFI report said. Promotional tactics linking tobacco consumption to empowerment is a significant factor, experts say .
Various surveys and studies show that India is at the second stage of tobacco epidemic where women tend to follow male pattern. “This is an expected rise. India is a developing nation witnessing tremendous socio-economic development coupled with financial independence of women. The tobacco industry sees women as lucrative consumers,“ Monika Arora, di rector-health promotion division at PHFI, said.
Women, in both urban and rural settings, see tobacco consumption as a sign of empowerment and hence they follow men, Arora added.This has been further enhanced due to Bollywood films containing tobacco imagery , resulting in large level exposure in India, relative to other countries, she said.
Trends in western countries show men are the first ones to start smoking with a gradual increase in the trend.In the second stage, women follow them.
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