Initiatives for HRD: Overview

Initiatives for HRD: Overview

Question: Human resource development in India forms the essence of sustainable economic growth. Discuss.

- GoI has launched a list of fresh schemes and projects covering many aspects of HRD

- Key feature of the new initiative is the attempt to utilise modern tools of IT in best possible manner

- For example, a project has been established to set up a national digital library of ebooks and content from central universities, IITs and IIMs to offer free online education

- The mass scale online open course platform called Swayam will be hosting a virtual cloud and provide for beneficiaries to get certificates following tests at the close of courses

- Technology is also being used to identify geographical pockets which are not faring well for education among girls, especially those belonging to marginalised sections so corrective action can be taken

- Digital Atlas Project was developed in collaboration with UNICEF and launched on World Women’s Day

- A separate portal has also been developed by AICTE for enabling prospective students to make informed choices about colleges where admission can be pursued

- Know your College portal has been launched last year

- HRD Ministry has also mapped the entire country on Geographic Information System platform to identify habitations lacking elementary and secondary schools

- CBSE has also developed an innovative online self assessment tool for checking the performance of students at an aggregate level called Saransh

- Tool covers data for 2.02 crore students and 1.5 lakh teachers across 15,000 schools for 7 years

- New schemes and projects have also come up for making the education system sensitivity to requirements of differently abled children and those with special needs

- A new scheme called Saksham has been launched under which differently abled students will be provided scholarships of INR 30,000 per year for pursuing diploma and undergraduate level courses in AICTE approved institutions

- They will also be provided INR 2,000 per month as contingency allowance for 10 months

- Handbook has been created to guide teachers to care for children with special needs

- New scheme called “Udaan” for meritorious girl students is a mentoring and scholarship scheme for enabling the to transit to technical education with ease

- Focus of the project is addressing low enrolment ratio of girl students in well known engineering institutions and special incentives and support for them

- Another important project launched after well known educationist and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya is creating a strong cadre of teachers by addressing issues pertaining to teacher preparation, professional development and design and development of more effective pedagogy

- As part of the scheme, the first inter-University centre for teacher education has established up by University Grants Commission at BHU Varanasi.

- Another scheme launched by the Centre is the Unnat Bharat Abhiyaan for promoting transfer of technologies from lab to land

- Under this scheme, solutions are offered for water management, renewable energy, organic farming, infrastructure and livelihood.

- Delhi’s IIT is the coordinating institute and as per this scheme, 130 villages have been adopted by IITs, NITs and IISERs

- A new scheme called Gian or Global Initiative for Academic Network has been launched with Indian origin American mathematician Manjul Bhargava

- Gian taps the talent pool of entrepreneurs and scientists to encourage their engagement with higher educational institutions in India

- Centre has also launched a scheme called Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan to revive interest in science, mathematics and technology among the young; it focuses on learning outside the classroom

- Another campaign called “Pade Bharat Badhe Bharat” has also been launched for ensuring learning levels of Class I and II students in reading, writing, language, comprehension and numeracy are at par with the world

- Campaign also ensures every school provides teaching and learning for at least 200 days in a year with 800 instructional hours

Facts and Stats

Establishment of a national digital library is the key to human resource development in India