Budget’s ‘Digital India’ push: Digital library for students to digitalising ancient inscriptions

 

The government’s new proposals for digitisation in India include establishing centres of excellence for AI, rolling out the third phase of the E-Courts project and much more.

The Union Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday highlighted the government’s continuous efforts to push for digitisation in the country.

From building a digital library for children and adolescents to formulating a National Data Governance policy, the minister announced a wide range of schemes and proposals during her address. Here are the key highlights:

Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture: It will be an open source, open standard and interoperable public good. The platform will offer inclusive, farmer-centric solutions through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, help for crop estimation, market intelligence, and support for the growth of the agri-tech industry and start-ups.

National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents: This will be established for facilitating the availability of quality books in different languages, genres and at different levels. The government will also try to inculcate a culture of reading by collaborating with NGOs, which will provide age-appropriate reading material to everyone. The National Book Trust and Children’s Book Trust will also step in. Sitharaman said the library would be “device-agnostic”.

Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence: There is a proposal for setting up three centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence in top educational institutions. These centres, in partnership with leading players in the industry, will conduct interdisciplinary research and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities.

National Data Governance Policy: Government will formulate a data governance policy to enable access to anonymised data for innovation and research by start-ups and academia.

5G Services: A hundred labs will be established in engineering institutions for developing applications using 5G services to realise a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential.

E-Courts: Government will roll out phase three of the E-Courts project to ensure the efficient administration of justice.

Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions (Bharat SHRI): A digital epigraphy museum will be established and one lakh ancient inscriptions will be digitised in the first stage.

Skill India Digital Platform: The digital ecosystem for skilling will be further expanded by launching a unified Skill India Digital platform for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes.

Source: Indian Express, 2/02/23

Quote of the Day February 1, 2023

 

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate

“ऐसा वक़्त आ सकता है जब हम अन्याय को रोकने में असमर्थ हों, लेकिन ऐसा वक़्त कभी नहीं आना चाहिए जब हम विरोध करने में नाकाम रहें।”
एलि विसेल, लेखक, नोबल पुरस्कार विजेता

Getting future-ready: Here's how to prepare today for tomorrow’s jobs

 What would you do if you were told that the skillsets you possess today would become obsolete 10 years from now? And that the job you are doing would no longer exist? For most of us, it would mean taking a close look at our present capabilities, finding ways to augment them and adapting ourselves to a different sort of workplace so we still fit in. Whether you choose to augment your current skills (upskilling) or retrain in a totally different area (reskilling) you would be joining millions of people worldwide in getting ready for the future stages of your working life.

Emergence of emotional labour
The skills of the future may be ill-defined, but we know that they will employ cognitive and emotional labour. Workers originally contributed physical labour to employers, which consisted of the ability to move and manipulate objects and depended largely on muscular strength and dexterity. In the last few decades, we have seen the growth of cognitive labour, founded on the bedrock of cognitive capacity, memory, which is manifested as the ability to memorise and recall knowledge and information. This progresses to include analysis of information, optimisation and decision making, critical thinking, and ultimately creativity. Finally, we are seeing the emergence of emotional labour which is the deployment of skills and capabilities such as awareness, self-motivation, empathy and relationship-building, all coupled with a sense of purpose and meaning, and behaving ethically.

Demands of job market
The growth of cognitive and emotional labour, within a job market that is seeing the rise of some sectors and the shrinking of others, means that the demands of the job market are continually changing. In India, for example, the digital revolution that has taken place across all industrial sectors means that the jobs of today are radically different to those of just a few years ago, and the jobs of tomorrow will be different again. According to data analysed by Monster.com, the next five years will see half of the workforce in India needing to retrain and upskill.

Upskilling benefits
There are several advantages to upskilling. For employees, developing new skills can help you stay relevant and improve employability – an example could be an e-commerce company training its developers in the use of AI that can be used to track consumer buying patterns. Other advantages of upskilling include the potential discovery of new passions and interests which could lead to new career possibilities. It could give you the chance to meet people, expand your professional network, and offer a fresh perspective. Reskilling can sometimes be a good way to re-enter the workforce after a very long break, or even to switch careers. Personally, I used the pandemic, when I was stuck at home and could not travel, to qualify as a management accountant; I expect this to be useful in the non-executive roles that I expect to hold in the future when my career in education eventually comes to an end.

The advantages don’t stop with just employees though. Equally, for employers, investing in upskilling or reskilling your employees can benefit you in several ways. Talent acquisition is time-consuming, and as an employer, it is far simpler to retain existing employees by upskilling them for a changing environment than it is to hire new talent. Another reason is driving employee satisfaction – some studies have shown that 91% of Gen Z employees (born 1990-1999) factor in professional training opportunities when choosing an employer. With upskilling, some employees may be able to step up and play more leadership-oriented roles.

If you wish to take charge of your own development to stay employable, there are several ways to do this.

Enhancing employability
The most common is to take on an additional project at work, something that is completely outside of your regular job. These stretch opportunities are a great way to learn more about a different line of work and are a very effective way to upskill (provided, of course, that you are not neglecting your main role). Another way is by allocating some time each week to follow industry leaders and experts. There is a rich repository of professional literature available online on LinkedIn, TED Talks, podcasts and more. Joining an industry or professional association could also help, as they often have workshops and discussions that can offer insights. Volunteering for a charity can help to gain experience that you may not get at work – charities and not-for-profits need much more than fundraising – you could be helping with finance, for example, or people, or operations.

Finally, an additional degree or a specialist course can build on your current skills to boost your job role or position you as a knowledge leader in your existing industry. Several higher education institutes today have degrees that offer flexible study and are ideal for working professionals. At Heriot-Watt University Dubai for example, we have significant experience in delivering postgraduate education and many of our students are from India. We find they choose our courses for the flexibility and pace of study they offer, the accreditations, the world-class faculty who teach them and the work placements they get in the Middle East once they graduate. Our programmes allow them to focus on building a specific need or skillset – professionals can enrol in any of the vast numbers of subjects that we offer across our programmes whilst learning through real-life experiences and local as well as global best practices. UAE student visas also now permit employment.

We offer all our students and all our staff members the chance to develop a statement describing their purpose, and the impact that they want to have on the world. That’s a useful starting place if you don’t know how to plan your future career or what skills to try and develop next. Purpose-led people – and companies – are shown to have greater resilience and flexibility, useful in today’s ever-changing employment marketplace. Whatever the jobs of tomorrow look like.

Source: educationtimes.com, 10/01/23

Current Affairs- January 29, 2023.

 

INDIA

• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launches Ladli Bahina Scheme.
• President Droupadi Murmu to grace opening of Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan in Udyan Utsav 2023.
• Indian Air Force orders inquiry to find the cause of accident of two fighter planes at Morena
• Two-day inception meeting of Startup-20 begins in Hyderabad.
• Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) signs MoU to make Rolls-Royce marine engines
• Delhi government to introduce 1,500 e-scooters at 250 locations in the next one year.

ECONOMY

• Aadhaar e-KYC transactions jump 18.53 percent to 84.8 crores between October to December 2022.
• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) starts exports of aviation gasoline, which is used to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and small planes.

WORLD

• President of 77th Session of UN General Assembly, Csaba Korosi to be on a visit to India.
• Flood emergency continues in New Zealand’s north island
• WHO releases latest assessment of omicron variant

SPORTS

• World Boxing Champion Nikhat Zareen to represent mining PSU NMDC as its brand ambassador.
• Khelo India Youth Games to commence on 30th January in Madhya Pradesh.
• Australian Open 2023: Aryna Sabalenka beats Elena Rybakina to secure title

Current Affairs-January 30, 2023

 

INDIA

• Odisha’s Health Minister Naba Kishore Das died after being shot by a policeman.
• Patiala Military Literature Festival concludes
• New plateau found by ARI team in Thane, Maharashtra could hold clues to plant survival.
• First G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group meeting begins in Chandigarh.
• Nation observes Mahatma Gandhi’s 74th death anniversary on January 30.

ECONOMY

• Google blocked 50,000 pieces of content shared by pro-China accounts last year across various platforms.
• Tata Trusts are setting up endowment funding entities on the lines of the US-based Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
• NSE emerges as the World’s Largest Derivatives Bourse for 4^th year in a row.
• High Street Rentals in Top 8 Cities rise up to 50% in 2022.

WORLD

• Google researchers create AI that can generate minutes-long musical pieces from text.
• British PM sacks Conservative Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi from government over his tax affairs
• Pakistan federal government announces an increase in prices of petrol and diesel by 35 rupees.

SPORTS

• India claimed its maiden ICC title in women’s cricket as it lifted the inaugural U-19 World Cup.
• Germany beat Belgium 5-4 in penalty shootout to win FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar.
• Tech-driven sports company SFA signs a five-year sponsorship deal with Sports Authority of India (SAI) for Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG)

India@75, Looking at 100: Women must be empowered to take charge of their lives

 

In the country of the future, every woman from a disadvantaged background must have the same access and information as a woman coming from privilege does

India at 100, for me, will be progressively occupied by the spirit of women. It is the expanse where we’ve transcended from the on-paper legal and constitutional utopia envisioned for women to a space where every woman’s enterprise and individuality are recognised and she is free from the shackles of hackneyed traditions, distorted social perceptions, and contradictory standards of morality.

There are no two opinions on the fact that women have progressed since Independence. We now understand and acknowledge that the nation cannot progress if half of it is held back. From laws enabling women to own property and safeguard their interests, to being economically independent and leaving their mark in the business space, Indian women have seized the reins and developed a vision in tune with global developments.

As we march towards the 100th year of our Independence, the increasing recognition being given to a comprehensive system of growth must be marked by two factors — not just how and how many women perform, but also how gender-inclusive and representative institutions are and can become. Only 15 and 14 per cent of MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively, are women; 11 women feature in the council of ministers; just 26 per cent of the selected candidates for Civil Services were women; only 23.3 per cent are in the labour force; only 20.37 per cent are MSME owners; only 10 per cent of start-ups in India have women founders; and women only contribute 18 per cent to the nation’s GDP. The discussion now needs to evolve to understand the “whys” along with the “whats” embedded in percentages or numbers. The debate around women’s participation must progress beyond the currently used metric of assessing the availability of opportunities, solutions, and avenues, which is, in my opinion, a unidirectional approach. A more holistic approach would entail an assessment of the comprehensiveness, feasibility, applicability, and accessibility of resolutions — whether in the form of a law, policy or directive — to propel women towards a promising future. At the same time, every step in this direction must have social justice, equality, and inclusivity at its heart. We need to strive to ensure that every woman from a disadvantaged background has the same access to empowering measures as a woman coming from privilege does. We need more regional voices in strategic policy-making decisions, more rural women taking control of their economic decisions, and more women overcoming impediments and climbing the leadership ladder. We need to keep reiterating the same question: What is being done for the women in the country, and is it adequate? A policy is only good as the number of lives it impacts.

Tamil Nadu and its history are laced with the impactful legacies of leaders like Thanthai Periyar, C N Annadurai, and Kalaignar M Karunanidhi, who were not only proponents of equality and social justice for women but also set up practical examples for India and the world to emulate. Not only did Kalaignar discuss issues affecting Indian widows in his screenplays, but he also announced financial assistance schemes for them. He instituted the Women Entrepreneurs Scheme, the Women’s Small Trade Loan with Savings Scheme, reservations for women in government jobs and panchayat elections, marriage and maternity benefits, and other policies that have catapulted Tamil Nadu onto the path of development. His vision is what Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has been furthering.

In the next 25 years, I hope for egalitarianism and justice to be the light of the nation. I fervently hope that we catapult more women forward, not only by empowering them to take charge of their lives, but also to impact the lives of thousands of other women, thereby initiating a cycle that creates space for inclusivity, empowerment, and development.

Written by T Sumathy

Source: Indian Express, 1/02/23

Economic Survey: What is it and what to expect in 2023

 

Economic Survey 2023: Though the assessment and recommendations of the survey are not binding on the Budget, it remains the most authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the economy that is conducted from within the Union government.

On Tuesday, the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) will release the Economic Survey for the current financial year (2022-23). The survey is always presented a day before – typically January 31 since Union Budgets are scheduled for February 1 – the Finance Minister unveils the Union Budget for the next financial year (2023-24 in the present case).

What is the Economic Survey?

As the name suggests, the Economic Survey is a detailed report of the state of the national economy in the financial year that is coming to a close.

It is prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the guidance of the CEA. Once prepared, the Survey is approved by the Finance Minister. The first Economic Survey was presented for 1950-51 and until 1964, it was presented along with the Budget. Similarly, for the longest time, the survey was presented in just one volume, with specific chapters dedicated to different key sectors of the economy – such as services, agriculture, and manufacturing – as well as key policy areas – such as fiscal developments, state of employment and inflation etc. This volume carries a detailed statistical abstract as well.

However, between 2010-11 and 2020-21, the survey was presented in two volumes. The additional volume carried the intellectual imprint of the CEA and often dealt with some of the major issues and debates facing the economy.

Last year’s survey reverted back to a single volume format, possibly because it was prepared and presented while there was a change in guard in the CEA’s office and the current CEA – V Anantha Nageswaran – took charge when the survey was released.

What is the Economic Survey’s significance?

Even though it comes just a day before the Budget, the assessment and recommendations carried in the survey are not binding on the Budget.

Still, the survey remains the most authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the economy that is conducted from within the Union government.

As such, its observations and details provide an official framework for analysing the Indian economy.

What should one look for in this year’s survey?

The Indian economy has been struggling to grow at a fast pace since the start of 2017-18. The years immediately after Covid may have registered fast growth rates but that was just a statistical illusion. Many outside economists have argued that India’s potential growth itself has fallen from 8% to 6%.

Along with a deceleration in growth, the economy has also witnessed historically high unemployment and a sharp rise in poverty and inequality during the Covid pandemic. The survey is expected to diagnose the true extent of economic recovery in the Indian economy and whether India’s growth potential has lost a step or not.

The survey can be expected to paint future scenarios and also suggest policy solutions. For instance, what can be done to boost manufacturing growth in the country? How can India continue to grow fast at a time when both global growth and world trade is likely to remain muted.

Source: Indian Express, 31/01/23