digital LEARNING Magazine October Issue 2016

THE PREMIER PRINT MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION SINCE 2005 IN ASIA & THE MIDDLE EAST

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digitallearning.eletsonline.com VOLUME 12 ISSUE 08 OCTOBER 2016 ISSN 0973-4139

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JHARKHAND

ASPIRING TO BE A KNOWLEDGE HUB

Equipped with conducive policies and incentives, Jharkhand eyes top place in higher education and skill development sector

RAGHUBAR DAS Chief Minister, Jharkhand

Special Interviews

Raj Bala Verma

Chief Secretary, Govt of Jharkhand

Ajoy Kumar Singh

Secretary, Higher, Technical Education & Skill Development, Govt of Jharkhand

Aradhana Patnaik Secretary, School Education, Govt of Jharkhand

Bhuvnesh Kumar

Secretary, Vocational Education & Skill Development, Govt of UP

Dr A Ashok

Commissioner & Secretary, BIE, Govt of Telangana

Mrinalini Srivastava Additional Secretary, Skills cum Chief Administrator, Govt of Sikkim

Jayant Krishna

Chief Operating OfďŹ cer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

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Cover Story

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Rajesh Kumar Mission Director, UPSDM

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Jaikant Singh

Head, Partnership and State Alliance, NSDC

Jharkhand Moots Strategy for - Higher, Technical Education & Skill Development

ORS Rao

Interviews

Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University

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M N Raju

Jharkhand

Set to Emerge as Education Hub

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Jayant Krishna

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Dr. Rajat Kumar

Chief Secretary, Govt of Jharkhand

Principal Secretary, Labour, Employment

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Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary,

Higher, Technical Education & Skill, Govt of Jharkhand

Kamleshwar Prasad

Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education

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Secretary, School Education, Govt of Jharkhand

Joint Secretary, Dept. of Higher Education

Aradhana Patnaik

Kamleshwar Prasad

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Ranchi Municipal Commissioner

Addl. Secretary Sikkim

Prashant Kumar

OCTOBER 2016

Chairman, The MNR Group of Institutions

Chief Operating OfďŹ cer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

Raj Bala Verma

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Mrinalini Srivastava

Bhuvnesh Kumar

Secretary, Vocational Education & Skill Development, Govt of UP

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Dr A Ashok

Commissioner & Secretary, BIE, Govt of Telangana

Featured Article

36 - Augmented Reality 40 - e-learning 47 - Spotlight Haryana

ASIA’S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION Volume 12

Issue 08

October 2016

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Jharkhand -- The Next Big Stop for Education Investment Be it school, higher, technical education or skill development, Jharkhand is trying its best to restructure the infrastructure and attract investment. Under the leadership of new Chief Minister Raghubar Das, the state is leaving no stone unturned to overcome problems related to the education scenario and trying to move ahead in higher education and skill development.

Offering incentives to private university stakeholders, framing conducive policies for attracting investments, implementing tech enabled programs for imparting quality education—all these are steps to the right direction.

At this juncture, Elets Technomedia, in association with the State Government of Jharkhand is organising timely Education & Skill Summit 2016 in Ranchi on 21 October 2016. A special issue of digitalLearning magazine has been brought out during the conference. This issue carries the interview of Chief Minister of Jharkhand and key policy makers of the state, dealing with the education sector and it has tried to put forth their visionary thoughts to the readers of this magazine.

On the other hand, Education & Skill Summit Jharkhand 2016 special issue of digitalLearning has also tried to highlight the views of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for providing quality skill development programmes, opinion of the private university and educational organisation stakeholders and also highlighted case studies from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.

Hope you will enjoy reading the special issue!

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Cover Story

Jharkhand Moots Strategy for Higher, Technical Education & Skill Development With a new set of policies and incentives, the Jharkhand government is geared up to bring a drastic change in the higher, technical and skill development sector. Aware of its limitations, the government has started luring private players.

Apart from giving single window clearance to investors, the government has also decided to allocate 10 acres of land for single disciplinary university and provision of endowment fund of `2 crore. The government has also signed MoUs with a few prominent players to ensure a visible transformation, write Gautam Debroy and Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

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nspite of several challenges, the Jharkhand government is determined to bring a U-turn in its higher, technical education and skill development sector.

Inspite of several challenges, the Jharkhand government is determined to bring a U-turn in its higher, technical education and skill development sector.

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, the state, which is lagging far behind vis-à-vis national average, has taken several initiatives to boost up this promising sector of higher, technical education and skill development.

Admitting the fact, Jharkhand Chief Secretary Raj Bala Verma has said her government is trying to overcome the problems and take the state ahead in higher education and skill development sector.

“It’s true, higher education and skill are the two major sectors, we are really concerned about. But we are trying to overcome these problems. We are opening new colleges and universities in our state. In fact, in the last six months, we have opened three new private universities including Amity, Pragyan and ISEC. We have decided to give skill development training to over 20 lakh people in the state in five years,” said Verma.

Against the national average of 23 Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), Jharkhand register only 13 GER. In terms of higher education colleges, the state has college population index of 8 against the national average of 23.

“For us, at present, the biggest challenge is to increase the GER. It is 13 and we need to take it to 32 by 2022,” said Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Higher, Technical Education and Skill development.

To match the national average, Jharkhand requires 692 national colleges. Similarly, the state requires 80 polytechnic colleges and 26 engineering colleges to match the national average.

The state government, thus, has planned to construct and open over 100 new engineering, degree and polytechnic colleges in near future and set some notified model guidelines to lure private participation in the sector.

As a first step towards solving some of the serious problems in this sector, the government is giving opportunities and incentives to private universities to come and invest in Jharkhand.

In Jharkhand, there are several advantages in the higher education and skill development sectors. The state has been ranked as 5th Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination in India. It has also been ranked as No. 3 State, by DIPP, in terms of doing business is concerned. The state has recorded 10.5 per cent GSDP growth rate-second fastest in eastern India.

To have technology-enabled quality education, the departIncentIves for settIng up prIvate unIversItIes:

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Allocation of 10 Acres of land for single disciplinary University and provision of endowment fund of `2 cr.

Allocation of 25 acres of land for Multidisciplinary University and provision of endowment Fund of `4 cr.

Operation and Maintenance of Polytechnic and Engineering Colleges on PPP mode have also been notified.

ment of higher education and skill development, has already taken several initiatives for making the colleges and university campus Wi-Fi enabled.

In the first phase, as many as five university and 30 colleges will come under this project. “We are also planning to upload video and audio lectures on website. Further, we are also in the process of building e-library,” said Ajoy Kumar Singh.

Initiatives in Higher Education: 1. Opening New Universities 2. Setting up of Wi-Fi campuses and Digital library in all universities 3. Setting up of Industry promoted Centre of Excellences 4. Establishing campuses of foreign universities/technical institutions Initiatives in Technical Education: 1. Opening New Engineering / Polytechnic colleges 2. Management of colleges on PPP mode 3. Development of COEs and t-SDIs for Skill Development Initiatives in Skill Development: 1. Forging partnership for Skill Development Centers in existing institutions 2. Setting up of 50 Mega Skill Development Centres 3. Setting up of Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF) Industry-friendly education is also a big challenge in Jharkhand. “There is a huge gap between industry requirements and what we are teaching on colleges. Students who passed out are not getting jobs,” said Singh.

To overcome the problem, the department of higher, technical education and skill development has taken initiatives of changing the course curriculum.

“We have instructed varsities to change the curriculum so that we can bridge the gap between industry and academic. We

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Cover Story are also encouraging tie-ups between universities and industries,” said Secretary Singh.

Significantly, the state government has already signed MoU with some of the prominent private companies including Cisco, Oracle, Tata. These companies will be bringing new software, technology and solutions to provide better education in the state.

“It will enable students to get immediate jobs after completing their courses,” he added.

The department is also incorporating skill development certificate courses in the colleges. “These courses will get integrated in our education system s that students studying in regular courses can get relevant hands on experience to help them while working in industry,” he said.

In the last budget, the Jharkhand government announced to incorporate skill education in the syllabus of class 9th and 10th standards to ensure students are skilled from early age and don’t face problems to get a job.

To give an impetus to the several initiatives taken by the department of higher, technical and skill development, the present leadership has initiated a vigorous movement named Momentum Jharkhand--the investment destination.

The Jharkhand government is organising road shows in and across India and abroad to attract investors in this sector.

The government, according to the officials, has already received several proposals in the field of higher education and skill development. It has already given approval to eight private universities whereas three more are in the pipeline including Arka Jain University Capital University and JIS University.

Recently, these three universities have also written to the higher education department seeking necessary and required approvals.

By setting the ball rolling in the higher education and skill development sector, Raghubar Das government is all set to play forward and take the State at its peak. educatIon scenarIo In Jharkhand School Education Govt Schools Private Schools

40,603 2,354

Higher Education Central University State Public University State Private University

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Deemed University Government Private

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Institute of national Importance

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Professional Education Institutions General Agriculture Law Technical Others

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Jharkhand’s rise as Education-cum -Training Hub Jharkhand’s Skill Policy was formulated with a focus on the following key areas to meet the vision of the state: ♦ Assessment of Skill Gap ♦ Spread Awareness ♦ Organizational capacity building ♦ To strengthen the Policy Making bodies ♦ Empanelment of Skill Training Providers. ♦ National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) ♦ Additional Skill Acquisition Program & Introduction of Skill Management ♦ Information System Convergence of Skill programmes ♦ Encourage Industry Initiatives The State Government has signed Memorandum of Understanding with CISCO and Oracle as a step towards industry academia tie-up and course integration in Jharkhand. Jharkhand Government has also received proposals from Siemens, PTC and Samsung to setup Centre of Excellence (COEs) in the State.

Training Wing of Directorate of Employment & Training under Department of Labour, Employment & Training imparts vocational training in engineering & non-engineering trades to the youth through a network of 22 government and 148 private ITIs, spread across the state. Presently training is imparted in 42 engineering and non engineering trades. The installed capacity of government and private ITIs taken together is around 29,500. n (Source: DET, Jharkhand).

Special Interview

JHARKHAND Set to Emerge as Education Hub Jharkhand Chief Minister,

Raghubar Das

shared plans of his government to improve the quality of education through teachers’ training and by encouraging skilloriented education in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). He also shared plans for improving the standard of higher education in the state.

How would you describe Jharkhand as a fast growing State and what makes it a perfect destination for investment?

Jharkhand is a land of unlimited opportunities and one of the richest states in the country.

There is a huge opportunity for investment in all sectors including education, health, IT & Industries, agriculture, food processing, tourism etc. Our government has simplified all our acts and policies, and created an investor-friendly environment

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in last one-and-a-half year tenure. Our economy is fast growing and offering new vistas of opportunities. Therefore, we are inviting national and international companies in our State to work in an exceptionally congenial business climate.

So far, we have drafted around 10 new policies to respond to investors concerns in the last one year. For IT and Startup Policy, the efforts are on and recently an advisory board meeting was held in Mumbai. The policy will be ready over a period of one month. Our emphasis has been on creating policies, which considers benefits of investors at the top priority.

What are the top priorities of the Jharkhand Government?

Our top priority has been Gaon, Gareeb and Kisan (villages, poor and farmers).

We believe that economy of our State will grow only when we will be able to ensure basic amenities such as education, health, water, and roads for people of the State. We are making sincere efforts to ensure aforementioned facilities are available at every nook and corner of the State.

We want to digitally literate at least one member of each family in the State.

Therefore our government has rolled out e-Sakshar scheme. We are also planning to adopt e-Learning in the State. It will help students from far-flung areas connect with the professors of all subjects worldwide through internet.

Align with the vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are implementing the schemes like Digital India, Smart City Mission, Standup India, Startup India, Make in India, Swachh Bharat Mission etc. in our State.

What is the status of School and Higher Education in Jharkhand and how does your government seek to enhance the quality of education?

The use of latest technology has made education easier. In this techno-savvy era, the role of teachers has metamorphosed from guide to facilitator. Now the time has come to change the scenario and the roots of primary or secondary education should be strengthened.

SCHOOL EDUCATION We are doing capacity building of over one lakh teachers across schools in the State.

Our literacy rate is very close to the national average. Literacy rate of 7+ yrs

age-group students in the State is 67.6 per cent against the national average – 73 per cent while literacy rate of 15+ yrs age-group students in the State is 67.6 per cent against the national average – 69.3 per cent. Total Schools of Primary and Upper Primary education in the State are 43,219. However, as per national guidelines total number of schools should be 11,91,719.

We are trying to reduce the studentteacher ratio in primary and secondary education from 53:1 to 30:1. We are also establishing more Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools to reduce girl dropout. The Government has opened 57 Jharkhand Balika Awasiya Vidyalayas in remote blocks keeping in mind the Quality Education in low literacy and tribal dominated blocks.

For imparting quality education, the State Government has given the responsibility of running 89 government schools to DAV group and 29 tribal schools under Welfare Department to Shishu Vidya Mandir.

HIGHER EDUCATION The Government is making all out efforts to improve Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education track.

Our top priority has been Gaon, Gareeb and Kisan (villages, poor and farmers).

We believe that economy of our State will grow only when we will be able to ensure basic amenities

It is currently 13.1 against the national average 23. The Government has set the target of 32 to achieve by 2022. The GER is low because there are very less number of educational institutes in the State. The population of 18-23 agegroup people is approx 37.9 lakh which is expected to touch 42.6 lakh by 2022.

We have total 13 Universities – 7 Private, and 6 State, and total institutions/colleges 442. Additional colleges will be required to meet the State’s GER vision and meet national density of 26 colleges per lakh population 692.

Presently, we have 16 Engineering Colleges and 32 Polytechnic Institutes digitalLEARNING

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Special Interview in the State. Additional 26 Engineering Colleges need to be opened to achieve national density of 1 per 7.7 lakh. Meanwhile, additional 80 polytechnic institutes will be required to achieve national density of one per three lakh.

We are opening new private universities as per the notified guidelines.

Recently, three private universities – Amity, AISECT and Pragyan have been given clearances to set up their institutions.

We have also initiated enabling Wi-Fi campuses for college/institutions to promote ICT-based education. In the era of global economy and education and technology, the world scenario is changing rapidly. Now students can connect worldwide with any university of repute through Internet.

What has been done for the Skill Development by the government and how will it contribute to the growth of State’s economy?

Skill Development is another focus of the Jharkhand Government and Government of India. This is for the first time after independence that a Prime Minister showed concern about providing employment to the unemployed youth of ‘under-rated’ State.

The Government of Jharkhand has decided to impart skills and train around 20 lakh youth over a period of five years in the sectors like Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Industry and MSME, Health, Paramedics, Infrastructure, Road and Transport, Tourism, Power and Utilities, Water and Environment and Banking and Financial services.

We are in the process of setting up of 50 Mega Skill Development Centres. We are inviting private players for partnership to build Skill Development Centres in existing academic institutions (Higher, Technical and ITI institutions).

Besides, we have taken significant steps for Skill Development and announced in the recent budget that skill education will be incorporated in the syllabus of class 9th and 10th. Our objective is to skill the students at a tender age so that they do not face hardship in getting jobs after their professional studies.

Industry – Academia tie-up Recently, the State Government has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CISCO and Oracle as

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Shri Raghubar Das’ Special Address during 7th World Education Summit “The economic reformation that occurred in 1991 led to global economy concept arriving in our country. It affected mainly two aspects more than the others – medical and education.

“In everyday life, we notice the rich enjoy the luxury of good hospitals and admission in good schools. But the have-nots have to study in government schools. A cursory glance on education sector after 1991 (economic reforms) reveals that the standard of education has witnessed a decline in government schools.

“The much-needed attention that such schools deserved from political leadership of that period was found missing. This is our failure. I feel the prevalence of vote-bank politics is to be blamed for the ills of education in government schools. Since the kids are not vote bank, the focus on primary or secondary education was not given.

“A tree cannot have a proper growth till it has strong roots. This is the reason why a big question mark exists on our education system.

“Various commissions suggested transforming the education system.

Still we haven’t achieved that stage of change. Any state or country having a good education system or dissemination of education will have a good economy as well.

“In this globalised world, there is cut throat competition in every field be it business or education.

“Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has repeatedly laid stress on importance of technology and encouraged its use to the hilt. This can ensure a transparent and accountable administration.

“With maximum use of technology, transformation is being ensured across the world. We also need to ensure it takes place in our country and universities.

“Today any individual can connect himself with other students or top class global universities in other part of the world. Through Internet students sitting in classrooms are enjoying high class education from different places. In such a developed educational environment, teachers have turned facilities in place of being trainers. We must use this technology as much as it is possible.

“I feel due to professional education or the private universities, there has been a lot of improvement in the education sector. It is also because private universities enjoy liberty to employ quality professors. They can have a faculty of present time which can enable our children capable of being employable after competing studies.

“Our government will fully support private universities to strengthen the education sector. Since education is the backbone of anybody’s personality, we need to ensure our children of Jharkhand are capable to face challenges of this global economy.

“Amity University is already working in Jharkhand’s higher education sector. I call upon educational institutes to come to Jharkhand in education sector as the state is full of possibilities. Apart from industry and Information Technology, field of education hold big latent potential.

“Ranchi is a place that already enjoys a recognition in education field.

I appeal to all educational institutes to open private universities in our Jharkhand. Our government will extend all support to you. I hope the central government will also focus on Jharkhand. If you, the educationists, provide education in Jharkhand, due to presence of other facilities, the youth will get employment there itself.” a step towards industry academia tie-up and course integration in Jharkhand.

We have signed MoUs with premier in-

stitutes and global companies to impart skills to youth and for expansion of IT sector. n

SUMMIT

eHEALTH Magazine

Special Interview

JHARKHAND EYES Top Spot as Education Hub

Jharkhand government is working progressively on higher education and skill development sector. Our government will give skill development training to more than 20 lakh people in the next five years, says Raj Bala Verma, Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand in an exclusive tete-a-tete with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN) What is your strategy for the development of Jharkhand?

We want to see Jharkhand amongst the top developed states in India. And I believe that industrial investment is a major necessity to bring such development. That is why we are trying to get more and more investors in our state.

Jharkhand is rich in minerals and human resources, I believe, it is one such state that will attract investors not only from India but across the globe.

Jharkhand has vast industrial and

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physical infrastructure.We are focused in providing a friendly business environment and necessary infrastructure for the industries to establish and expand.

You have initiated road shows called Momentum Jharkhand. How has been the response?

To attract investors in Jharkhand, we have done road shows in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

We are getting good responses from all

the road shows. We have received several proposals. We have already signed MoU with several private companies.

Through our road show in Mumbai, we have signed four MoUs in health sector and in IT sector we have signed three MoUs. The state government is also working in the right direction. With 40 percent mineral resources, I think, Jharkhand is prepared in the investment sectors.

In Mumbai, you have launched

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six policies on six different sectors.

What are the characteristics of these policies?

In Mumbai, we have launched policies on Information Technology and IT Enabled Services (IT/ITeS), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Startup (best start-up policy among seven leading states in terms of ecosystem incentives), Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), Automobile and Auto Components (best in class incentives for OEMs and ancillaries) and Textiles and Footwear.

We have given special incentives under all these six policies. In startups policy we have given opportunities to the young entrepreneurs. We have given special importance on the handholding and mentoring of the young entrepreneurs.

As far as Textiles and Footwear Policy is concerned, we have abundant raw materials and silk along with presence of a good number of quality handloom weavers and looms. We also have adequate skilled manpower at reasonable price. Several incentives under Jharkhand Industrial Park Policy 2015 are also applicable to textile sector.

Jharkhand is lagging behind many states in higher education and skill sector. What is your take on this?

It’s true, higher education and skill are the two major sectors, and we are really concerned with. It’s a fact that we are behind in these two sectors but under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister we are trying to overcome the problems and take the state ahead in higher education and skill development sector. I am happy to inform you that our state government will give skill development training to more than 20 lakh people in the next five years. We are opening new colleges and universities in our state. In the last six months, we have opened three new private universities which includes Amity and Pragyan.

In February, you are doing Investors Summit at Ranchi. What are your expectations from such Summit?

We are all prepared to attract investors in Jharkhand. As I have told you earlier, we are giving special opportunities as well as incentives for the investors. We have created land banks so that the investors don’t face any problem as far as land requirement is concerned. We

Jharkhand building strong relationship with private sector and experts…

J

harkhand government seeks to foster strong relationship with private sector and experts for transforming the state as knowledge power house of east India in the next five years, said Jharkhand Chief Secretary Raj Bala Verma at the 7th World Education Summit recently.

In a special address, she said the Indian higher education is going through a dramatic transformation driven by country’s economic and demographic change.

“This is very encouraging data. However, there are challenges also which we will need to address. These challenges mostly are the supply and demand gap,” she said.

Mentioning that the low quality of teaching and learning is another challenge pending to be addressed, the chief secretary said: “The system is beset with issues of quality. In many of its institution a chronic shortage of teachers, poor quality teaching, outdated and rigid curriculum, lack of accountability, quality assurance and there is no separation of teaching from research.”

Highlighting the challenge of uneven growth and access to opportunities, Verma said: “Socially, India remains highly divided. Access to higher education is uneven, with multi-dimensional inequalities, enrollment across population groups and geographies.

“In Jharkhand, we are trying to address the challenges. The government of Jharkhand is also working towards provisions of quality, education to all its residents. We are trying to build Jharkhand the knowledge hub for higher education.”

“We have passed the Private University Bill, formulated to attract private players in universities. To promote quality technical education in the state, the government has constructed engineering colleges, 14 polytechnique and all these are being run in the private public partnership. The state of Jharkhand is in the process of also setting up a medical city near Ranchi.”

Verma said the Jharkhand government is also committed to leverage the ICT to improve teaching, learning processes in classroom, online training modules, smart classes, teachers in service and before service training. “These are the areas where the private sector can step Jharkhand in a big way.”

“The Jharkhand government is open to suggestions and ideas to improve. We look forward to partnering with the private sector. The state has taken decisive and firm action to facilitate participation and engagement of private sector. There is a single window facilitation to fast track the time and approvals of the private investment in the state,” the chief secretary said. are expecting that investors from Indian and across the globe would definitely come and invest in the beautiful state of Jharkhand.

We have vast scope for mineral and mines based industries. In fact, we have already started getting good response in these two sectors. As far as Mumbai road show is concerned, we are expecting `60-70,000 crore investment opportunities including investment in power and cement plants.

What according to you at present is the biggest challenge for Jharkhand?

Getting investors in itself is a very big challenge. But we are prepared with proper strategy and planning.

We believe that with the support of everybody we can overcome this challenge.

To attract new investments, it is crucial for a state to communicate to the business fraternity. n digitalLEARNING

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Special Interview

Changing Higher Education Scenario in JHARKHAND Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary,

Department of Higher, Technical Education & Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand shares state government’s plans to improve the technical and higher education scenario of Jharkhand, in conversation with Harshal Yashwant Desai & Gautam Debroy of Elets News Networks (ENN) The Government of Jharkhand has taken several initiatives in the areas of skill development and higher & technical education. Kindly elaborate on this – especially the challenges?

The major challenge for the state, at this moment, is the access to higher and technical education. Against the national average of 23 Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), we have only 13 GER in the state. In terms of deficit of number of colleges in higher education, we have college population index of 8 viz-a- viz national average of 26. So, in order to match the national average, we require 692 national colleges. Similarly, we require 80 polytechnic colleges and 26 engineering colleges to match the national average. It clearly indicates that there is a large deficit of national colleges in the state and in order to address this crucial issue, the government has planned to construct and open about 100 new engineering, degree and polytechnic colleges

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in near future. We are also encouraging private institutions as government alone can’t fulfill this gap. So, we have notified model guidelines for setting private universities. Due to our effort, recently three new universities namely, Amity, Pragya and ISEC have opened their academic session this year. So, in the last 7 – 8 months, we have open three new private universities. We have also open Raksha Shakti University which is a government institution. We are also trying to increase the access of higher education by running second shift in several colleges.

What about the quality of education? What are the new changes the government will be bringing about in near future?

Technology is a greatest enabler. It provides e-learning platform in higher and technical education. We have taken initiative of making all our campuses Wi-Fi enabled. The project has already been initiated by the department of higher education and skill development.

In the first phase, we are going to enable about 5 varsity and 30 colleges in the state. We are also planning to upload video and audio lectures on websites.

Further, we are also in the process of building e-library.

There is a huge gap between industry requirements and what we are teaching in colleges. Students who have passed are not getting jobs. In order to address this issue, we are changing the course curriculum. We have instructed varsities to change the curriculum so that we can bridge the gap between industry and academic. We are also encouraging tie-ups between universities and industries.

We have already signed MoU with Cisco, Oracle and Tata and we are soon going to sign MoU with Siemens.

These companies will be bringing new software, technology and solutions to provide better education to our students.

It will enable students to get immediate jobs. We are also incorporating skill development certificate courses in our colleges for all. These courses will get integrated in our education systems so that students studying in regular courses can get relevant hands-on experience to help them while working in industry.

The role of private institutions is certainly important. What incentive the government is offering to these

institutions?

We will be offering the land to such institutions on susidised government rate. For engineering and polytechnic colleges, government will construct the infrastructure and hand them over to private players to run the colleges.

There are plans for some other incentives for private institutions – these will be revealed in due time. Education and skill development is a major thrust area and it is certainly the major focus area for the government. Through our road shows, we have received several proposals – from big corporate sector to improve the education level in the state.

As mentioned earlier, we have already signed MoU with private technology players.

Would you like to comment on foreign investment in education in Jharkhand?

We know some local players are planning to bring foreign investment in education and skill development areas, but nothing concrete has come to us so far.

What are the major challenges for improving higher and technical education in the state?

Technology is a greatest enabler.

It provides e-learning platform in higher and technical education. We have taken initiative of making all our campuses Wi-Fi enabled.

Access, Equity and Excellence – are the three major features for higher and technical education. However, for us – at this point – the greatest challenge is to increase the GER. It is 13 and we need to take it to 32 by 2022. Further, improving the employability is another area which needs to be focused on. We need to produce students which can directly be deployed by the industries.n

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Special Interview

JHARKHAND Laying Strong Foundation of School Education

Government of Jharkhand is very much committed to the cause of quality education for tribal children.

The state has also developed textbooks for primary level other than textbooks for classes 1-2 in five tribal languages, says Aradhana Patnaik, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Government of Jharkhand, in a candid interview with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Networks (ENN).

Tell us about the school education scenario in Jharkhand.

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of Jharkhand, aims to provide education of equitable quality to all children to create an education system that provides access, equity and affordability while enabling every human being for a lifelong learning from early days of life.

Jharkhand has significantly improved its school education system since its inception, in terms of school access and enrolment of children. There are 40,174 government elementary schools, 2,637 secondary schools, and 522 higher secondary schools. Around 62 lakh students are enrolled in these schools. At the elementary level, the teacher-pupil ratio averages at 1:39. To improve the availability of teachers, 16,349 elementary teachers and 1719 secondary teachers have been recruited in 2015-16. We are in the process of recruiting nearly 18000 high school teachers this year.

Can you share some of the initiated programmes?

We have started certain innovative and dynamic programme interventions to improve quality of education. The statewide ‘Vidyalay Chalen Chalayen

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Abhiyan’ focuses on enrolment of all children in schools. Then through effective operationalisation of schools it attempts to ensure that all children attend schools regularly and learn continuously. For school operationalisation, we have certain dynamic activities such as Baal Samagam (all round student performance improvement), Kasturba Sangam (performance improvement of girls from vulnerable background), Baal Sansad (for student leadership and holistic development), Buniyad and Buniyad plus (for ensuring early grade learning skills of all children), Prayas (to enhance student attendance through integrated collaboration of students, teachers and community members), ‘Hamara vidyalaya Kaisa Ho’ (guidelines for school improvement), Pariwartan movement (active teachers and teacher educators support each other for school improvement), SESM (school education support mission for programme review and support in every district), etc. other than regular programme interventions under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meals Scheme, and teacher education.

Is school dropout in Jharkhand a major problem?

The dropout rate of children in schools has reduced over the years. As per our

records (U-DISE), the dropout rate at elementary level is 5.1% in the state compared to 4.1% at the national-level.

It was around 10% in 2010-11. We are trying to reduce dropout by focusing on quality education and thereby regular attendance of students and teachers.

What steps have been taken in this regard?

We have designed specific programmes to address the issue of dropout in the system. “Prayas” initiative aims in an integrated manner to bring back all children to school who remain absent for more than 3 days. We have a dedicated portfolio in the Baal Sansad (child cabinet) as Ministry for Attendance who continuously strive in partnership with their concerned teachers and SMC members to get each absentee child back to school. We also have initiated an SMSbased attendance monitoring system for teachers and students in all districts.

We are also working on strategies to improve quality of school education so that children like to come to schools regularly and take part in various learning activities. We are also in the process of enrolling all children under Aadhar to reduce duplicacy in children’s enrolment.

Also there are issues related to children’s home languages which are different from school language which

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causes learning disadvantages. Hence we are going to initiate a mother tongue based multilingual education system in multilingual areas to enable children learn smoothly.

What is the status of SSA mission in Jharkhand?

Over the years, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has significantly contributed in improvement of infrastructure in schools.

Our focus is on providing quality education and improving learning levels of every child. We have initiated various activities for improvement in quality education in schools. Some of our major initiatives include Khel Khel Mein – children’s school readiness programme in early parts of class 1, Buniyad and Buniyad Plus – an integrated approach to strengthen early grade reading skills of children in primary classes, early grade mathematics in primary classes, reading programme in blocks with worst educational indicators, CCE - Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation process for assessing and enhancing learning outcomes of students, special saturday classes focussing on personality development and moral values. JCERT has developed text books for classes 1-5 in 2015-16 and for 6-8 in 2016-17.

The State has also undertaken several measures to reduce drop out and to improve quality of education by providing free textbooks, school kits, uniforms and mid-day meals. To promote girls’ education, state is providing free tabs, gym for physical development and Wi-Fi in all Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalayas (KGBVs) of the state. Science centres have been developed in KGBVs and some schools in several districts. We are also promoting the Aavishkar programme in secondary schools to promote interest of students in science along with their innovations.

“Baal Samagam” is organised annually to promote leadership qualities, inculcate team spirit, discover hidden talent and enable children of government schools to participate in a wide range of scholastic and co-scholastic learning activities from their schools to block, district and state level. In a similar way “Kasturba Sangam” is organised for girls from Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalayas.

We are going to initiate Shikshak Samagam for all government school teachers to motivate and enhance their skills.

Any special measures to attract the

poor tribals into the education fold?

Our state is very much committed to the cause of quality education for tribal children. Recently, the state has developed textbooks for primary level other than textbooks for classes 1-2 in 5 tribal (Santhali, Ho, Mundari, Kurukh and Kharia) languages.

Out of these, textbooks have also been developed in Olchiki (Santhali) and WarangChiti (Ho) also. Using these, we are in the process of initiating a mother tongue based multilingual education programme in the state. This will enable the tribal children to learn in their mother tongue in the initial years so that they acquire basic language learning skills. Gradually they will be guided in a phased manner to bridge with Hindi and English in pedagogically appropriate ways so that they never face any language disadvantages. For this we have identified specific schools in different districts in multilingual pockets.

The state government has established 57 Jharkhand Balika Awasiya Vidyalayas for girls in remote blocks of the state and five residential schools for dropout children. Seven more residential schools are to be opened this year. The state has started Mukhyamantri Vidyalakshmi Yojana for SC/ST girls of Class 6 to address the problem of drop out amongst these girls. The state has also initiated

Aakansha Coaching and Career Counselling programme for senior secondary students with focus on SC/ST students.

The state government is also focussing on vocational education and skill development of high school children.

We believe strongly in the use of ICT in school education.

We are in the process of providing electricity to all schools in the state by 2017-18.

We have promoted certain innovative approaches for improving attendance and quality of education in schools by using ICT

What are the offers for private investors in school education in Jharkhand?

Our state is inviting private investors in school education with focus on support for quality improvement. We are striving to make Jharkhand an education hub. Our honourable Chief Minister is continuously organising road shows in different states and outside to invite private partners to invest in Jharkhand.

This is a very positive sign for the state.

We have a good number of development partners and private partners who are supporting us to improve quality of early grade reading, early grade mathematics, multilingual education, computer-aided learning, learning assessment, attendance enhancement, etc.

We will continue to invite private investors to come up with innovative and contextual solutions for Jharkhand so that our children, especially children in rural areas and vulnerable situations benefit in learning on a continuous mode.n

Are you getting any benefit from the use of ICT in education sector?

We believe strongly in the use of ICT in school education. We are in the process of providing electricity to all schools in the state by 2017-18. We have promoted certain innovative approaches for improving attendance and quality of education in schools by using ICT. We have set up SMART classes in all KGBVs and certain high schools.

Tablets and WiFi connectivity is being provided to all the KGBVs. We would soon be implementing ICT based learning in over 1,000 high schools and computer-aided learning in nearly 500 middle schools of the state. We have also introduced E- Shiksha (e-learning classes through satellite based video conferencing) in some of the high schools.

Our SMS-based approach of monitoring attendance and mid-day meals (e-madhyan) is doing well. We are using biometric system in all high schools to track teachers attendance. We are also in the process of developing a school based MIS system for tracking learning level of each child in the state.

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Special Interview

RANCHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION Felicitating Education Investments With big players from the corporate sectors coming to invest in Ranchi, the city is all set to implement the smart city projects and take this beautiful city at the top of Smart Cities in India. In an exclusive interview with Elets News Network’s Shivani Tyagi and Manish Arora, Ranchi Municipal Commissioner, Prashant Kumar revealed his strategy for achieving this goal. Excerpts:

What is your vision for Smart City Mission?

Jharkhand has a number of reputed institutions like BIT Mesra, Birsa Munda Agricultural University, Xavier’s Institute of Social Service (XISS) and many more.

These institutes attract a lot of students across the globe and therefore it is a challenge for us to make Ranchi into a Smart City. People would opt for Ranchi or Jharkhand as a whole if we can provide them with good infrastructure, transport, safety and health facilities.

Smart City Mission needs step by step intervention and we are making the advancements accordingly.

We realize that until and unless we bring public transportation at center stage, transport issues cannot be solved.

We are planning to widen the roads and bring in high technology solutions so that higher vehicle inflow will not create a ruckus on roads. For safety on roads, we are installing CCTV and PTZ cameras. We are also launching an app called Ranchi one app, which will be a one point solution to all traffic related queries. This will give information on chocked and the most polluted routes.

Ranchi is the only one among other smart cities to opt for green fields.

Ranchi has 7000 acres of unused land out of which 2000 acres of land has been taken by government of Jharkhand for developing the core capital area.

What are your plans for attracting IT companies, industries and amusement parks to Ranchi?

We are planning to develop the river front and transform it into continuous river park. We also have plans for setting up a huge amusement park in Jharkhand; this will boost the tourism. Three renowned universities are also planning to set up their campuses in Jharkhand.

We have already received the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the department of higher education & technical education JW Marriott Group had also approached us and showed their interest in Ranchi. They have sent us a Letter of Intent (LOI), saying that we want to put up a five star hotel and are striving for a land. Tata group has also requested us

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for a land for setting up their corporate office in Ranchi. We have a similar request from Reliance Jio as well.

Where do you see Ranchi in next two years and what are your plans for SPV? Two years is a short span, give me five years and we will resolve all the major issues concerning to traffic. We are going to make 7 acre of Eco Park with latest facilities. This will also act as a water harvesting source. We are taking sustainable measures in making waste water management.

SPV will complete soon and we also have cabinet’s approval. All the directors have signed the memorandum and it is going to be registered in RAC in a week’s time. It’s a joint venture between State and Municipal Corporation.

What is your plan for attracting IT companies?

We are planning to bring professionals from the IT sector on board. We are trying to hire one PMC or PMU. This

We are planning to develop the river front and transform it into continuous river park. We also have plans for setting up a huge amusement park in Jharkhand; this will boost the tourism.

Three renowned universities are also planning to set up their campuses in Jharkhand.

will further help us in hiring other consultants, domain consultants, contractors. We have one big PMU with one consultant as our strategy partner and we are developing the whole thing not as a project but as modules.

What are the major initiatives taken under Swachh Bharat Mission by your organisation?

We have sanctioned 30,000 individual toilets out of which 2000 have completed. We have 50 community and public toilets and orders for refurbishment of 280 community and public toilets have been given. Apart from the solid waste management we have assigned the work to Essel Infra and Hitache .These companies will start the work from 2nd October. We are investing around 77 crore rupees as capital investment to make a quantum improvement in the city. We will then go for 100 per cent door to door collection and processing of waste. Presently we are not dumping waste, we dump it in the plant, burn the waste and create energy. n

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Special Interview

NSDC Paving Way for SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

culating�; i.e. loan or equity rather than grant; create leverage for itself and build a strong corpus.

Keeping this in mind, the NSDC plays three key roles: Funding and incentivising: In the near term this is a key role. This involves providing financing either as loans or equity, providing grants and supporting financial incentives to select private sector initiatives to improve financial viability through tax breaks, etc. The exact nature of funding (equity, loan and grant) will depend on the viability or attractiveness of the segment and, to some extent, the type of player (for-profit private, nonprofit industry association or non-profit NGO). Over time, the NSDC aspires to create strong viable business models and

In an exclusive interview with Shivani Tyagi of Elets News Network (ENN),

Jayant Krishna,

Chief Operating Officer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), shared the vision, mission and role of NSDC in skill development across the country. He said the effort is to overcome all the challenges and establish India as the skill capital of the world.

What was the drive behind establishing NSDC and what are its mandatory roles for skill development in India?

NSDC facilitates or catalyses skill initiatives that can potentially have a multiplier effect as opposed to being an actual operator in this space. In doing so, it strives to involve the industry in all aspects of skill development.

The approach is to develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders and build on current efforts, rather than undertaking too many initiatives directly, or duplicating efforts currently underway. To scale up efforts, necessary to achieve the objective of skilling/up-

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skilling 150 million people by 2022, the NSDC strives to develop ultra-low cost, high-quality, innovative business models; attract significant private investment; ensure that its funds are largely “re-cir-

reduce its grant-making role.

Enabling support services: A skills development institute requires a number of inputs or support services such as curriculum, faculty and their

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training, standards and quality assurance, technology platforms, student placement mechanisms and so on. The NSDC plays a significant enabling role in some of these support services, most importantly and in the near-term, setting up standards and accreditation systems in partnership with industry associations.

Shaping/creating: In the nearterm, the NSDC will proactively seed and provide momentum for large-scale participation by private players in skill development. NSDC will identify critical skill groups, develop models for skill development and attract potential private players and provide support to these efforts.

What is your vision for Skill India initiative?

Our vision is to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make India, the world’s skill capital. The idea is to reap India’s demographic dividend it currently enjoys making India the most powerful human resource nation across the world. A large part of India’s skilled work force is in unorganised sector, which needs to be formally recognised on transnational standard and industry scale. Henceforth the target is to skill 40.2 crore youth by 2022, in which 10.63 crore will be fresh entrants.

What are your plans for skill development in India and how much you have achieved so far?

We have set a target of skilling 6.06 million youth in 2016. To achieve our target, we have expanded our ecosystem by scaling up our Sector Skill Councils to 41 and to 269 training partners.

NSDC has further expanded its network with more than 30 universities, 3000 schools, various state governments, PSU’s and big corporates to help us providing the skill training to the youth and making them industry ready and thereby achieving the target.

What are the challenges to make Skill India a reality, what will be NSDC’s role?

The biggest challenge is the aspiration and respect for skills, among the youth.

The youth must understand the difference that a skill development training brings to their life that a degree alone cannot bring. Even today, the youth does not feel that skill training should be an essential part of their curriculum and they must acquire it to be job ready.

Another challenge that we have is vocationalisation of education and implementation of national skill qualification framework in collaboration with school’s education and higher education. We are actively ensuring delivery of standards across all initiatives and bridging the gap between the industry, the academia and the corporates to build and sustain a cohesive skill ecosystem for the youth of our country, make them employable and ensure jobs to them.

Enough awareness needs to be imparted on the courses available under vocational education and how they can help transform an individual’s life.

Industry needs to intensify funding part of the training cost as an investment for skilling/up-skilling its own manpower and adopt skill development as a significant component under their CSR efforts. I am confident that with adequate support from the industries and corporates, ‘India can surely become a skill capital of the world.

What are your plans of action for Jharkhand?

NSDC has been working closely with the states skill mission of Jharkhand to promote skill development in the region.

Till date NSDC has trained around 75,000 candidates in the state.

The idea is to reap India’s demographic dividend it currently enjoys making India the most powerful human resource nation across the world. A large part of India’s skilled work force is in the unorganised sector, which needs to be formally recognised on transnational standard and industry scale.

Our detailed skill gap study in the region to identify the industry requirement and the local aspirations of the youth clearly shows the current demographic and economic profile of Jharkhand, presents huge opportunity for manpower skilling. Working age population is estimated to grow from 203.72 lakhs in 2011 to 237.78 lakhs in 2017. Itis envisaged further to grow up to 271.70 lakhs in 2022, implying entry of about 46.07 lakh persons to the workforce during the period (2012 – 2022). About 75% of the supply of manpower will be in minimally skilled category and the rest about 25% of the supply will in skilled and semiskilled category. Incremental manpower demand in Jharkhand is estimated to be about 43.88 lakhs during the period 2012-22 including 32.52 lakhs in organized sectors and 11.35 lakhs in unorganized sectors. During the period 2012-22, the demand supply gap of the state is expected to be about (-) 2.19 lakhs.

There will be manpower deficit in skilled and minimally skilled category. The state needs to additionally skill about 5.8 lakh persons over the next 10 years to meet the demand of skilled manpower. If we examine the incremental manpower gap for the period 2012-17, the incremental demand supply gap is only about (-) 0.13 lakhs. The incremental deficit of manpower in skilled and semi-skilled category is about 3.24 lakhs, which can be met by skilling the excess manpower in the minimally skilled category.

Youth aspirations in the state suggest that vocational training is perceived to be suitable for economically poor students. The students opting for vocational training in the state have a preference for government jobs over private jobs.

Most of the youth preferred employment with government organisations like Railways and Public Sector Undertakings like SAIL, DVC etc.

The most important reason for such a preference is job security and stable career. In line with the same, recently an International Skill Center (IISC) has been launched in the state of Jharkhand, to address skill requirement of those who plan to migrate to foreign countries for jobs which will support the youth in getting foreign placement. The proposed IISC will be set up through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and implement the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PKVY).n

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Special Interview

EMPOWERING JHARKHAND Youth for a Better Tomorrow Jharkhand government is progressively working on skill development sector and targeting to hone skills of 20 lakh people in ďŹ ve years. Efforts are on to tackle all problems coming in the way of mission, says Ravi Ranjan, Mission Director, Jharkhand Skill Development Mission, in an exclusive tete-a-tete with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is your mandate as a mission director for students’ skill development in Jharkhand?

To skill as many people as possible, the target is to sharpen the skills of 20 lakh youth in next five years. We are doing it in two ways. One is the target assigned to the mission itself and secondly, there are different departments having their own training programmes. The mission will act as a guiding center for other departments and other departments can get details and latest guidelines from it.

We also are empaneling training providers so that the other departments need not to provide the training for same skill.

So, once we empanelled all the training providers, they can use the services of those trainers.

Skill India is the buzzword of today. What is the roadmap for Jharkhand?

Skill is not aspirational. Since the evolution of mankind, in case of India, skills are associated with the lower castes like barber, carpenter, blacksmith etc.

Nobody wants to touch this area. But slowly the education is improving and the people are getting exposure of happenings in other countries and other places. So the people are slowly taking interests in these things. Our idea is to make it aspirational. And we are involving the schools in designing the curriculum in such a manner that skills can be enhanced from the school itself, then in degree colleges, in polytechnics and engineering colleges. So, we are going to involve all institutions in our skilling programme. Every domain requires a separate kind of skill set and due to lack of these skills, even after completing the courses, people are not getting jobs. So our curriculum will be designed in keeping the above things in mind.

What initiatives have been undertaken in this pilot phase by the government under Jharkhand Skill Development Mission?

We are targeting various initiatives such as partnering with corporate houses, selecting training partners for centres in blocks, opening mega skill development centres at district headquarters, starting training components and bridge courses in schools, ITIs, polytechnics and engineering colleges and ensuring placements to achieve the aforementioned target.

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What sectors are you focussing on for skill development?

We are trying to cover as many sectors for skilling the youth of Jharkhand. To name a few, the focus is on the sectors like IT/ITES, Agriculture, mining, construction, banking, financial services, logistics, food processing, tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, retail, beauty, and wellness and healthcare.

Jharkhand Government has signed MoUs with many corporate. Tell us about the MoUs with Cisco and other companies.

The MoU signed between state government and Cisco is for e-learning software and to enhance the information technology skills of youth through the Cisco Networking Academy Programme.

Tie-ups with corporates like Siemens, Oracle, PTC and Tech Mahindra are also on the anvil.

How much target has been achieved so far under the mission?

Under Saksham Jharkhand Kaushal Vikas Yojana, as many as 1,078 people have been trained so far and 761 are undergoing training. Out of these trained people, 342 people have also been placed. All courses for skill development of youth are National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant.

What are main features of the mission?

We are the very first state in the country which started training of domestic help-

ers. To understand National Skills Qualification Framework, Jharkhand Government has enabled various departments for skilling the youth of the state.

Has there been any assessment of the best performing district or districts?

As this is the pilot phase of the skill development mission and the target numbers are low. No such assessments are being conducted. But these assess-

ments will be done in the main phase of the mission.

How are you identifying trainees and monitoring the overall progress of the scheme?

The training partners are having the backing of district administrations to provide counselling and training to the trainees. For monitoring the overall progress, we have a robust monitoring portal, “Hunar� that puts all the skill development activities of all the departments at one platform. Other than the monitoring portal, there are teams at district and state-levels to monitor the progress of scheme.

What challenges do you foresee and what significant role NGOs can play in that?

The biggest challenge is to motivate and mobilise people for joining the training sessions and then to choose the suitable ones for as per the course and people’s strengths. Another problem is that the people are unaware about it. After implementation of the mission completely, establishing training centers, managing those centers and managing the human resource will be another big challenge.

Various NGOs along with 42 training providers from government have also been empanelled with the mission to help with mobilisation too.n

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Special Interview

HIGHER EDUCATION Takes off in Jharkhand The government is ready to play a facilitator’s role in providing land if any private investor is keen to invest in Jharkhand, says Kamleshwar Prasad, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Technical and Skill Development, in an interview with Shivani Tyagi of Elets News Network (ENN).

What’s your vision for growth in Jharkhand’s education sector?

There are 73 colleges existing in technical and general education sector. The government wants to set up 100 more colleges in two-three years in the field of journalism and technical education. Earlier, adapting the PPP model was planned to establish such colleges or institutes, some of them are still operational on the same pattern. But the government wants to run all in the government sector so that on one side infrastructure gets built and on the other side more employment opportunities get generated.

How do you plan to work on Skill India programme in Jharkhand?

We have a plan and existing infrastructure and wherever there is scope for skill development, we are making it possible by signing memorandum of understandings (MoUs), be it while dealing with companies like Siemens or HP or TSS. The classes being run under the existing infrastructure will remain operational and skill development will be ensured among the student fraternity. Though we haven’t received any proposal on the issue, the moment we get it we will look

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into it.

What sort of investment are you looking forward to in Jharkhand?

We want to deliver quality education.

The government is ready to play a facilitator’s role in providing land if any private investor seeks it. If anyone wants good infrastructure, we will consider that request as well. For such things to take place, first we need to have a plan from investor’s side, stating they are interested to invest this much amount and require some change according to their needs.

What challenges are you confronting in Jharkhand in the education sector?

There is shortage of educational institutes in the state. As facilitator we are ready to provide everything, be it private or government sector which, we hope, will pave the way for such investors to think of coming here. Whatever is possible and within the reach of the state government, will be provided to ensure finest investors become part of Jharkhand’s success story in education field.

The biggest challenge is ensuring the

finest institutes to choose Jharkhand as their next destination. They should not just prepare young generation for skill India but provide employment as well.

There is huge brain-drain taking place in Jharkhand that needs to be prevented. A large number of people from Jharkhand are running to other states for employment. Our endeavor is to provide the infrastructure and all facilities here itself so that they feel discouraged to migrate to other states.

How much growth is emerging to be an important factor for Jharkhand?

The state government is working towards preventing migration to other states. Whatever skills they require and search for in other states should be available here in our Jharkhand itself. So we are determined to ensure all this.n

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Special Interview

SIKKIM Embracing Placement Linked Strategy For Skill Development Sikkim is the first fully organic state of India and wants to utilise this USP to its advantage, using the ‘organic state’ tag for its skill mission, says Mrinalini Srivastava, Additional Secretary, Skills cum Chief Administrator, State Institute of Capacity Building, in a candid conversation with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN)

What initiatives have you taken for the development of Sikkim’s skill sector?

The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Sikkim has started Skill Vision in 2003 and that’s when the idea of State Institute of capacity building came into being. But given the geographical and topographical location of Sikkim, it took some time to develop the infrastructure.

In 2008- 2009, the infrastructure got ready. And State Institute of Capacity Building, following a cabinet nod, started in 2009. Till date, we have trained over 11,000 students in our state. We have also received good response in traditional sector like agriculture.

What are your key focus areas?

Largely our focus areas are agriculture and traditional arts. When the Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Yojana scheme, the State was also looking at the placement opportunities. In August 2015, we started a combination strategy taking both placement linked initiatives and self employment linked initiatives.

We also started job fairs. First such job mela was held in November 2015.

We also started doing aspirations study, which was supported by North Eastern Development Finance Institution (NEDFI). At the same time, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has also been doing an aspirations study.

As a result, we got a big data of youth workforce population (around 1 lakh) projected until 2022.

Subsequently, we approached Ministry Of Development Of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Ministry of Skill and NEC besides opening corporate social responsibility funding .

In December 2015, under the mandatory skill mission, we had started the skill department. We are fairly new in terms of skill department, but we have a significant experience in terms of skilling. In the last one year, we had trained 3,900 people and placed 3,500 youths in different organisations.

Tell us about hospitality and tourism sector?

Hospitality and Tourism are the key aspirations of our youths.

After we were declared as an organic state this year, we started focusing on

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revamping our entire outlook on farming. Earlier, it was just training on agriculture, but now it is end to end linkage (from procurement to selling and branding of the product) on farming.

We have created certain clusters, and we have taken the key crops by focusing on spices, keeping all the four districts of the state in loop.

Tell us about regional resource centre?

The regional resource centre concept has also worked very well. We have already worked with several skill societies including Nagaland skill initiative society, Manipur and Mizoram skill initiative society. The responses have been encouraging and we hope to mobilize the other adjoining states as well. We have a special web portal for the promotion of skill. It’s www.skillyoungindia.com and under this portal we have tied up with the NSDC. We are also coming with enewsletter called ‘enabled’, which literally helped our mission. Skill Young India provide base for trainees looking for opportunities and industry looking for skilled labour.

How do you find skill resources in Sikkim and other north eastern states in comparison to the rest of country?

For that I would like to give credit to the leadership of our Chief Minister. We are reaping the benefits from the projects we had started a decade back. He initiated the projects of ‘livelihood schools’ which was essentially focused on local resources and local requirements. And now with the skill India mission and skilled linked jobs coming up, the game has become bigger.

In that way, the concept of livelihood school has helped us a lot. It also helped our partners with the ready to use infrastructure.

What about the logistics for skill mission?

If you look at the logistical part, which are required for mobilisation, I think the entire northeast is suffering from lack of funds. I would strongly recommend that the Government of India must pool funds for the mobilisation to enter in some of the remote areas of the region.

Certain strategy which worked in rest of the country for example media, it may not work in a state like Arunachal Pradesh. So, there should be sufficient

We are doing this by building an end-to-end curriculum of educational games, which offer a deep gaming plus educational experience.

funds for the on ground mobilisation through local self governance.

Sikkim has been announced as the organic state of India. What is its relation with the Skill Sector?

When we talk of skilling, it should be for employability. With skill initiatives, everybody should be able to earn their livelihood. Announcement of Sikkim as the organic state is our USP. And we want to use that unique selling proposition for our advantage. Organic as such is a technical phenomena, and under that we should be able to get better advantage of our skill mission. n

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Special Interview

UPSDM SKILLING At Scale with Speed and Standards

Give an overview of Skill Development programme of UPSDM? According to Hon’ble Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav , the State of Uttar Pradesh is growing as an economic centre for the country faster than ever before. The compounded annual growth rate of UP in the last three years has been higher than the national growth rate. Technology and Skill Development are two major areas we would like to focus on to further accelerate the impact on the State’s economy.

The Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) is the brainchild of our CM. In an era of cut-throat competition, the idea behind setting up UPSDM was to impart professional training in different trades to the unskilled youth of State. Despite the larger population of youth, there is a huge amount of unemployment across the nation including Uttar Pradesh. The reasons may vary including school/college dropout, or lack of professional knowledge in them.

To bridge this gap and scale employability, the State Government has identified 52 sectors like motor vehicle, fashion designing etc. and is running 654 courses to impart training to youngsters to make their lives better by earning a livelihood.

The scheme was launched on February 20, 2014.

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The aim of the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) is to integrate efforts of various departments of the State and Central Government organisations engaged in providing skill development training and making available employment-oriented and placement-linked training in vocational skills to 45 lakh youngsters, aged group of 14 to 35 years, by 2016-17, says Rajesh Kumar, Mission Director, UPSDM, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) Our aim is not only to train the unemployed youth but also to help them get placement. Now, the Government is also focusing on introducing courses on traditional industries to promote them and generate employment in these sectors. We are encouraging training partners to adopt courses for uniqueness of Uttar Pradesh like Banarasi sarees, Lucknow chikan, Meerut sports industry, Bundelkhand chanderi, Saharanpur wood work, Kanpur leather etc.

How is the response of people from remote and far flung areas for Skill Development?

More than 46 lakh candidates have registered themselves on UPSDM portal www.upsmd.gov.in so far and are being trained in their preferred streams. Online registration is opened again for enrollment which is free for all youth.

There are 1,962 approved training centres in the State, and the total count of registrations done on the portal stands at 46,95,126.

The first and foremost priority of

the Government is to impart training to the registered candidates in particular trade of their interest, as it results into successful completion of training and early placement. Training programmes are being conducted in high class training institutes of private and government training colleges.

UPSDM aims to enhance pace by partnering with the Government and private training providers, while ensuring equitable access to the most disadvantaged, including women; and strive for placement of preferably at least 70 per cent of the trained youth in gainful wage and self-employment to enable them to contribute to the economic development of the State.

Since very inception of the launch of scheme, we have been creating awareness about it across the State. We have District Programme Management Unit (DPMU) in each district, training partners, Government ITI colleges, toll free number etc.

Interested candidate can approach any of these institutions to know about course details or any other information.

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What challenges did UPSDM face in convincing people and train them?

Identifying youth for Skill Development was one of the major challenges before UPSDM. Our team worked harder to explain people about Skill Development programme and how will it make them self dependent. With the feedback came from survey and keeping in mind the need of the State, we designed training courses and modules and got it registered for Skill Development. Later, we identified Private Training Partners accordingly and signed MoUs with them.

After Enrollment, quality check of training programmes was another challenge. We got third party evaluation done through Qualification Packs (QPs) and National Occupational Standards (NOS), and NSDC. Evaluation of all training is being done by assessor agenesis.

What is success rate of training and placement? How many private training partners are associated with UPSDM? Today, we have 149 private training partners, 209 Government ITIs and 13 flexi training partners – big industry groups for imparting skills in youth. We have been very much successful in training them and providing placement.

Private training partners working with UPSDM have trust in our association. Therefore, big corporates

More than 46 lakh candidates have registered themselves on UPSDM portal www.upsmd.gov.in so far and are being trained in their preferred streams. Online registration is opened again for enrollment which is free for all youth. including Raymond, Coffee Day Global Limited, Bangalore (Café Coffee Day), Lava International Limited, Karvy Data Management services Ltd., G4 securities, SLR, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Future Sharp Skills Limited (Big Bazar), Javed Habib Hair and Beauty Limited, Hand Design Private Ltd., Janak Healthcare Pvt Ltd. etc are our training partners.

They are skilling youth in collaboration with UPSDM and creating prospects of having better employees in future.

We have also tied up with Tech Mahindra, Mera Hunar, Skill Mart (Monster.

com) and select jobs placement agency.

UPSDM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ola in order to generate entrepreneurship opportunities along with skill development for 50,000 men and women across the next five years.

Where does Skill Development fit in the development agenda of the UP Government?

There is a deficit of skilled manpower in every industry and only skilled force can help boost industry of a state and its economy. This is a fact that youth are available in Uttar Pradesh in a large number and we can supply skilled force across the country. But skill development is very much required to make them perfectionist.

UPSDM is focusing on wage employment as well as promoting entrepreneurship depending on sector specific requirement. Free English speaking course, computer training and fundamental operation of computer application are included with base training of all programmes. After completing the training, the Government will help them provide a better job in government and private companies.

What are your future plans?

We are planning to double the targets in comparison to previous year and to achieve the vision of ‘Skilled India, Skilled Uttar Pradesh’. The UPSDM ensures that youth are skilled in whatever inherent quality they posses and get meaningful employment, which further accelerate the state’s and country’s economy.

The UP Government has an NRI Department, which has got licence to meet out the demand of skilled manpower abroad in the required trades. We are working in collaboration with them to make future NRIs from Uttar Pradesh by skilling them at scale with speed and standards.

We believe Flexi MoUs with big corporates will help candidates get job in reputed companies. Besides, Traditional industries and handicrafts will have plethora of job opportunities.

12 trainees who had undergone training in Fragrance & Flavour Development Centre, Kannauj, A Government of India Autonomous Body under Ministry of MSME and Bio-tech park, Lucknow had been to Graase, France for oneweek advance exposure.n

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Special Interview

India’s Skill Mission Fosters

PRIVATE INITIATIVES

We are working towards the establishment of one Model Skill Center in each district of the country, which would be operational in over 500 districts by March 2017. These will be high-quality centers which will help make skill development aspirational and accessible, says Jaikant Singh, Head, Partnership and State Alliance, National Skill Development Corporation, in an exclusive interview with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN) Tell us about your initiatives to develop skill sector in India.

Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) have been set up as an autonomous industry-led bodies for steering skill development and training. They are responsible for certification, training the trainers and accreditation.

They create National Occupation Standards for their respective sectors to standardise trades and courses. The SSCs also forecast any changes in the labour market and enable standardisation of affiliation and accreditation processes.

Some SSCs are also working on promoting academies of excellence and helping in executing train-the-trainer programmes.

Till date, the NSDC Board has approved 40 SSC which cater to the requirements of high growth sectors ranging across agriculture, construction, healthcare, BFSI, IT/ITeS and retail. Several SSCs are working closely with organisations such as the European Union, International Labour Organization, the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) among others, with the objective of introducing international best practices in India.

The SSCs are also responsible for engaging with the Central and State-level implementing agencies in developing the curriculum package, engagement and capacity building of vocational teachers and assessment and certification of the skills imparted.

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Do you have any time-frame in sight to turn the country into skilled India?

The launch of the Skill India Campaign is an important milestone towards achieving the objective of skilling with Speed, Scale and Standards across the country. By 2022 we aim to train over 40 crore (400 million) people and National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) target is to achieve skilling of 15 crore (150 million) by fostering private sector initiatives in the skill development space. For the financial year 2015-16 more than 1.04 Crore youth have been trained under the Skill India Mission. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY), also witnessed around 20 lakh enrolment of which 19, 73,813 candidates are being trained in their choice of skills. We are also working towards the establishment of one Model Skill Center in each district of the country, which would be operational in more than 500 districts by March 2017.

These will be high-quality centers which will help make skill development aspirational and accessible.

Do you have any state specific strategy?

Most State Governments have set up State Skill Development Missions (SSDM) as nodal bodies to anchor the skill development agenda in the State. To support their various initiatives, NSDC has partnered with different state governments and signed MoUs to improve Employability Skills of the youth. We are working in conjunction with the state government to expand the reach of government flagship scheme - Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY) to regions where there has been a lesser focus on skill development till now. We will also be working closely with the ITIs network in the country to ensure short term skill courses are being introduced and run across engineering colleges and polytechnics that are in distress currently and will add to capacity building for skill development for the youth in India. Also to accelerate the pace of skill development we have special state specific skill development program for J&K and Northeast states.

What response are you getting from states? Which states are doing well in skill sector?

NSDC operates through partnerships with multiple stakeholders including

State Governments and we are getting favorable responses from them. As stated above we have partnership with different state governments for skill mission to improve Employability Skills of the youth.

What challenges you are facing while implementing your projects?

India is one of the youngest nations and we have the potential to create skilled human resources who can be employed, based on industry standards, to not only companies in India but also overseas.

By 2022, India will have the maximum number of working age population in the world. The FICCI-KPMG Global Skills Report has noted that if properly skilled, they can contribute to economic growth. In India alone we have 109 million incremental human resources requirement across 24 key sectors by 2022. However, only 4.69 percent of the Indian population has undergone formal skills training as compared to 68 percent in UK, 75 percent in Germany, 52 percent in USA, 80 percent in Japan and 96 percent in South Korea. This presents a huge challenge to growth. Another challenge is vocational education and implementation of national skill qualification framework in collaboration with school education and higher education.

Are you looking for foreign investment in skill sector?

We already have been funding from World Bank of Rs 480 crore and is expected to provide skill training to over 50 lakh (5 million) people. Ministry of skill development is engaged actively with several countries for skill training, training of the trainers and setting up of model centers of excellence and creation of international mobility through mapping job roles and development of transnational standards. Several SSCs are working closely with organisations such as the European Union, International Labour Organization, the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) etc with the objective of introducing international best practices in India.

We have a larger mission and welcome support from bilateral and multilateral agencies.

How do you find Northeast as far as skill development is concerned?

Skill India initiative has a special focus to develop infrastructure in the NorthEastern states. In the union budget

By 2022 we aim to train over 40 crore (400 million) people and National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) target is to achieve skilling of 15 crore (150 million) by fostering private sector initiatives in the skill development space.

For the financial year 2015-16 more than 1.04 crore youth have been trained under the Skill India Mission. northeast has got prime focus in the overall development plan for the country. There has been a special allocation of 150 crores for North east states for skill development under MSDE’s flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY), which is a monetary reward scheme to encourage the youth to opt for skill development.

Also, Ministry of Skill Development has planned to set up skill development centres in all blocks of Assam and the other north-eastern states to increase employability of the younger generation. Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi Ji had announced for the setting up of a Centre of Excellence in the region for the skill training to facilitate overseas employment.

Also, government of these states have started their respective skill development missions to meet the aspirations of skilling the youth and employability.

We have identified several training partners, signed MoU with private companies and are further exploring the public private partnership (PPP) route for establishing ITIs and skill centers in the region. NSDC also conducted several Kaushal Mela to mobilise youth in north eastern state.n digitalLEARNING

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Featured Article

AUGMENTED REALITY For Expanding Horizon of Learning

Viewed as one of the most happening things till a few years ago outside India, Augmented Reality is set to play a significant role now in our country.

The technology offers an experience of the world with the help of computer generated sensor inputs before actually living in it, writes Sandeep Datta of Elets News Network (ENN).

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I

n the Indian education sector, with the right hardware assistance through devices, AR is something that can ultimately prove to be a game changer, as it empowers the classroom with an immersive lab like facility within the classroom.

For primary education, augmented reality can help kids resolve various unknown things immediately, without waiting to experience the theory in practice in the days to come. It can also help in undergraduate and postgraduate training in engineering, architecture and medical fields.

Various companies are using it as a great promotional tool.

Understanding Augmented Reality Since many of us may not be familiar with the term Augmented Reality, there is need to understand what it means, how it functions, what are its possibilities in real world and much more.

AR is actually a technology that enhances the experience of reality. It functions on computer vision-based recognition algorithms to augment sound, video, graphics and other sensorbased inputs on real world objects, using your device’s camera.

It is described as a good way to render real world information and present it in an interactive manner so that virtual elements become part of the real world.

It displays superimpose information in your field of view. It can take you into a new world where the real and virtual worlds are tightly coupled. It is not just limited to desktop or mobile devices.

A simple augmented reality use case is, a user captures the image of a real-world object, and the underlying platform detects a marker, which triggers it to add a virtual object on top of the real-world image and displays on your camera screen.

It Isn’t Virtual Reality It’s actually different from virtual reality. Virtual reality means computer-generated environments for you to interact with, and being immersed in. Augmented Reality adds to the reality you would ordinarily see rather than replacing it.

Though Augmented Reality is often presented as a sort of futuristic technology, but it’s been around in some form for years in some ways. For instance, the heads-up displays in many fighter aircraft as far back as the 1990s would show information about the altitude, direction and speed of the plane, and only a few years later they could show which objects in the field of view were targets.

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AR is actually a technology that enhances the experience of reality. It functions on computer vision-based recognition algorithms to augment sound, video, graphics and other sensorbased inputs on real world objects, using your device’s camera.

looking game. Lego use it as a way to visualise what their products will appear once you are done building them.

Location based AR apps are major forms of AR apps. Users can access information about nearest places relative to current location. They can get information about places and choose based on user reviews.

AR can bring a big convenience to travellers as well, as with its help they can access real-time information of historical places by pointing their camera viewfinder to subjects. AR is helpful in development of translation apps that can interpret text in other languages for you.

With the help of Unity 3d Engine, AR is being used to develop real-time 3D Games.

AR in Real World Augmented reality benefits industrial applications where there is a requirement for enhancing the user’s visual perception.

Creating Buzz AR, which has been creating a buzz around software development circles for years, is drawing a renewed focus and attention since the release of products like Google Glass, an optical head-mounted display designed in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses.

Google Glass was developed by Google X, the facility within Google devoted to technological advancements such as driverless cars, led by Jaque Aldrich and his team.

Scope in Various Fields It is believed AR applications hold the potential to be the backbone of the education industry. Apps are being developed which embed text, images, videos, as well as real– world curriculums. Not just that even printing and advertising industries are developing apps to display digital content on top of real world magazines.

Various companies have used AR as a great promotional tool. Adidas put them on their shoes and made a very cool

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Featured Article Augmented 3D information helps workers on assembly lines, or during maintenance work and repair to carry out required tasks. It also enables visualisation of new building projects on real construction sites offering viewer a better understanding of relations with the existing environment.

Augmented reality (AR) combines real world and digital data.

At present, most AR research uses live images, which the system processes digitally to add computer-generated graphics. In other words, the system augments the image with digital data.

Challenges Though going forward AR seems to have a huge potential market, there are some factors which could slow down mass adoption of Augmented Reality. Some of such factors include technological limitations, public awareness and reach of Mobile AR, addressing privacy issues, mobile Internet Connectivity in emerging markets.

Developing AR Apps It begins with selection of development tools. There are two major forms of augmented reality, marker-based AR and

marker-less AR. A marker-based AR works on concept of target recognition. The target can be 3D object, text, image, QR Code or human-face called markers. After detection of the target by AR engine, you can embed the virtual object on it and display it on your camera screen.

Marker-less AR, also known as location-based AR, uses GPS of mobile devices to record the device position and displays information relative to that location.

In Near Future As it happens, phones and tablets might be the way Augmented Reality gets into most people’s lives, at least at first.

We need to understand that the ultimate objective of Augmented Reality is to create a convenient and natural immersion.

There is a sense that phones and tablets will get replaced. But it isn’t clear what those replacements might be. Even glasses might take on a new form, as “smart glasses” are developed for visually challenged people.

In a country like India, which is only second to China in terms of largest number of smartphones, the time appears ripe to explore the immense potential of using augmented reality in education sector for a better tomorrow.n

Industry’s take “augmented reality can be understood as something that is basically augmenting the real world elements through computer generated sensory inputs like sound, video, graphics or GPS, to make it realistic in view and hence bringing interactivity,” says Yogendra Pratap Singh, Co-Founder, Creatiosoft.

“It is bringing boom in different sectors and its popularity is rising at a constant rate... AR changes current perception of reality and thus bringing more attention to the thing we see. It is well said, Tell me, I’ll forget and Show me, I’ll remember.” shailesh kumar, Vice President, research & development, smartVizX, a leading Virtual Reality solutions company, feels Virtual Reality allows one to experience a ‘created’ form of reality. “VR takes you to a completely distinct environment than your current surroundings. Augmented Reality is not as immersive an experience, simply because it still allows you to experience your current surroundings but adds further layers of information to the same.”

According to Hemanth Satyanarayana, Founder and CEO, Imaginate Software Labs Pvt Ltd, a Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality company offering innovative visualization products and services, “for primary education, augmented reality helps the kids resolve any unknowns immediately” without waiting to experience the theory in practice later.

“On the other hand, we see a huge need in undergraduate and postgraduate training in engineering, architecture and medical fields. Wherever there is a need for practical training, the gap can be bridged through augmented reality,” he added.

Parth Choksi, COO, Meraki, the end to end VR solution providers for businesses, says: “Virtual Reality ‘teleports’ the user to a completely different environment. It is completely immersive and the user is unaware of its ‘actual’ surroundings. AR enhances the existing environment of the user and is not immersive in nature.”

“From the effectiveness standpoint, Augmented Reality is an efficient tool to bring in interactivity in learning experience. But we need immersion too, to build up a context around a particular theme. Immersion brings involvement and this makes Virtual Reality more important for learning. There are other limitations as well with Augmented Reality based learning, subjects like History, Geography or Industrial Science could only be taught using Virtual Reality since it becomes more efficient to teach one while making him virtually travel (teleported) to the location,” says Abhishek Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, GreyKernel, a leading Virtual Reality & Advance Visualization company.

“Following a human-oriented-design and leveraging on the ability of smartphones to perform AR functions through simple apps, any country can drive a mass adoption. In our experience with AR marketing, we notice early adoption in the Tier 1 cities where technology is a race and people live high function digital lifestyles,” says Vishal reddy, Founder & CEO, Wowsome, a leading AR solutions provider across industries.

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IS AuGmEntEd REALItY A BLESSInG In dISGuISE? The September month has been ablaze with news of Pokemon-Go and its addiction, with people needing therapy, going through fatal accidents and possible long-term psychological impacts.

It is an augmented-reality game that lays a sort of semi-transparent PokĂŠ-world over your actual, geographical location, which you can explore by physically walking around while staring like a zombie at your screen (The Washington Post , 2016).

Augmented reality and virtual reality investment reached $1.1 billion in the first two months of 2016. This is the first time that AR/VR investment has topped a billion dollars in any year (let alone two months), and shows incredible growth compared to the $700 million invested during 2015.

Virtual reality can serve as an incredible medium to transform a classic structure of a classroom where a teacher, standing in front serves knowledge and students are expected to soak in the same, to one where students are not compelled to learn the same thing at the same time in the same order and progress at the same pace.

Certain subjects are more challenging to be present in an exciting and engaging way. The hard sciences --physics, chemistry and biology are often presented without context in the classroom.

As virtual reality continues to break new grounds, the following are already possible with existing tools: anatOMy 4d: Through this free app and a simple printed image, it transports students into an interactive 4D experience of human anatomy.

FIELd tRIPS: It is a location-aware augmented reality app that functions like your own mobile tour guide to places such as historical landmarks and museums and notifies you if you are near that location, complete with a pop-up card with information about the place.

QuIVer: This app brings your drawing (on colouring pages provided on the website) to life. Once the kids (or you) colour one in, you capture it with the app, and it’s instantly a 3D figure that you can control. tItans OF sPaCe 2.0: It is a deep-dive tour through our Solar System and then takes you beyond that. The primary aim is to gain new perspective on what our universe actually looks like by taking advantage of the increased spatial awareness made possible by modern VR (DrashVR LLC, 2016).

For a country of the size of India with a population of 1.27 billion, this most recent digital reality which still appears to be futuristic to many, may just be the hope for understanding and the bridge between aspiration and achievement for millions of students who currently find themselves bereft from inspirational teachers who would bring these concepts to life.

The author, Arunabh Singh, is an educationist, innovator, technology enthusiast and Director of Nehru World School, Ghaziabad

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Featured Article

The Growing Market for e-LEARNING

T

he country is witnessing a revolution in education sector like never before. Powered by the growing demand for quality education by families and for skilled development by working professionals, educational organisations are introducing better learning options -- e learning or online education.

Though the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is aiming to increase digital literacy to at least 50 percent among Indians from the present 15 percent in next three years, private organisations including multinational companies (MNCs) are coming out with innovative solutions for a better learning and 24x7 education options, with the help of technology and Internet.

Traditional classrooms are being replaced by interactive whiteboards with projectors and speakers all over the country.

The computer-based and Internet-based method of learning means that new technology is being introduced to enhance the learning process.

“India is a growing market for education,” said Tim Barton, Managing Director, Global Academic Publishing Division, Oxford University Press (OUP), while launching online courses in India recently. The OUP has launched online courses in India to help the academia in research activities. “Through Epigeum, high-quality online content assembled globally by experts will reach more Indian universities through online and blended learning,” he said.

According to Barton, India has an ever growing ambition to operate in the global arena and that authors care about making an impact within and beyond India.

Education and Training India holds an important place in the global education industry and has become the second largest market for e-learning after the US. Some Central Government Initiatives are: The Union budget 2016-17 has made the following provisions for the education sector: ♦ 10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made

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India is a growing market for education where traditional classrooms are being steadily replaced by interactive whiteboards with projectors and speakers all over the country. Various government initiatives are being adapted to boost the growth of distance education market, besides focusing on new education techniques, such as E-learning and M-learning, observes T Radhakrishan of Elets News Network (ENN). world-class ♦ Scheme to get `500 crore ($ 73.36 million) for promoting entrepreneurship among Schedule Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ ST) ♦ Digital Repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas ♦ `1,000 crore ($ 146.72 million) allocated for higher education financing ♦ `1,700 crore ($ 250 million) allocated for 1500 multi-skill development centres ♦ 62 new Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) to provide quality education ♦ Digital literacy scheme to be launched for covering six crore additional rural households ♦ Objective to skill one crore youth in the next three years under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) The Government of India has signed a financing agreement with The World Bank, for International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$ 300 million, for the Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project, which aims to improve student outcomes, especially of disadvantaged groups in selected Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and increase the effectiveness of the higher education system in Madhya Pradesh.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has entered into a partnership with private companies, including Tata Motors Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and real-estate firm Hubtown Ltd, to open three Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), through Public-Private Partnership (PPP), at Nagpur, Ranchi, and Pune.

Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi launched the Skill India initiative – ‘Kaushal Bharat, Kushal Bharat’. Under this initiative, the government has set itself a target of training 400 million

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citizens by 2022 that would enable them to find jobs. The initiatives launched include various programmes like: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, Skill Loan scheme, and the National Skill Development Mission.

PMKVY is the flagship program under the Skill India Initiative and it includes incentivising skill training by providing financial rewards on completion of training to the participants. Over the next year 2.4 million Indians are believed to be benefitted from this scheme.

Skill Loan Scheme has been designed to disburse loans of `5,000 (about $75) to Rs 150,000 (about $2,260) to 3.4 million Indians planning to develop their skills in next five years.

The National Skill Development Mission is developed to expedite the implementation of skilling activities in India by providing robust institutional framework at the centre and the state.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will train bureaucrats from the HRD ministry, experts from schools boards and primary school teachers in Mathematics and Science Subjects to enable them to learn skills to formulate lesson plans that stimulate students’ learning and thus contribute to improving the quality of Mathematics and science education.

The Government of India has launched a digital employment exchange that will enable industrial enterprises to find suitable workers and job-seekers to find employment.

The Government of India has launched the National Web Portal for promotion of National Apprenticeship Scheme for Graduates, Diploma holders and 10+2 pass-outs vocational certificate holders.

India and Australia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost partnerships between the two countries in the fields of higher education and research, including technical and professional education, schools, vocational education and training.

The National Skill Development Corporation of India

India has become the second largest market for e-learning after the US. (NSDC) under a Public Private Partnership promoted by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Center for Research and Industrial Staff Performance (CRISP), India to explore national and international opportunities for strengthening skills development in India.

“We have several plans for online education in India,” says Narendra Ranade, Marketing Director, School Education & ELT, Oxford University Press India.

“The higher education market is the key driver for the elearning market in India,” says Paras Bansal, Business Head, Higher Education, Oxford University Press India.

Road Ahead Various government initiatives are being adopted to boost the growth of distance education market, besides focusing on new education techniques, such as E-learning and M-learning.

With human resource increasingly gaining significance in the overall development of the country, development of education infrastructure is expected to remain the key focus in the current decade. In this scenario, infrastructure investment in the education sector is likely to see a considerable increase in the current decade. Hopefully, its influence on the Indian education system and quality will reflect prominently among generations to come.n

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Interview

ICFAI

Pioneering Quality Higher Education in Jharkhand The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India University( ICFAI), Jharkhand, is the State’s first private University. Professor ORS Rao, Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN) tells us how the university is empowering and increasing the employability of the students. post graduate and undergraduate programmes through technology –enabled pedagogies to equip students with the requisite professional and life skills as well as social sensitivity and high sense of ethics.

What is the overview of ICFAI ?

ICFAI group pioneered quality higher education in India for over 30 years, with its motto - Meritum Ethicus ( Merit with Ethics). It has a pan-India presence in 16 states, with three strategic institutional units, which include 11 ICFAI universities, six IBS business schools and flexible learning programmes ( Distance Mode) .

What is your university’s vision?

What standard of quality does your university follow ?

ICFAI University, Jharkhand‘s vision is be a top ranking private university for students, staff and corporates and is recognised for excellence in higher education and research, especially relevant to social needs of Jharkhand. The mission of the university is to offer world class, innovative, career-oriented professional,

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What made you to set up an university in Jharkhand ? What are the opportunities you see in Jharkhand ?

In 2008, when we studied the status of higher education in Jharkhand, we noticed that there was dearth of higher educational institutions that offer quality education. We saw an opportunity to make quality education, accessible to the students of Jharkhand so that skilled manpower is developed for the socioeconomic growth of the State.

So, we set up our university in Jharkhand, which is the State’s first private university.

How is ICFAI different from its competitors?

ICFAI University, Jharkhand introduces programmes that are relevant to the State of Jharkhand, so that the graduating students are employable. The University is committed to groom its students into competent and successful professionals with values. In order to make it happen, we focus on imparting requisite knowledge and hands-on professional skills to our students, besides inculcating sound character. We

revise our curriculum every year, in line with the changing requirements of the industry and developments in science and technology. We deploy technology in Teaching-Learning-Assessment processes, using a learning management system. In collaboration with Rama Krishna Mission Ashram, we designed a course on Values and Ethics, which is compulsory for all of our programs .

In order to enhance our interface with industry, we constituted an Industry Council , consisting of Senior Managers from diverse industries in Jharkhand .

The Council advises us on a continuous basis , how to bridge the industryacademia gap. All of our students go through a course on Entrepreneurship and such of the students , aspiring to become entrepreneurs are groomed appropriately.

What are you doing towards upgrading the quality of the faculty, as the university has to be at par with the industry standards ?

How is the faculty trained by university?

Our faculty members go through Faculty Development Programs in areas like use of Technology in Pedagogy, latest developments in specific disciplines etc.

They also take up Consultancy Projects and Research Studies in association with Industry Associations. They also organize industry-oriented seminars and workshops in association with industry.n

Interview

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Building Knowledge -

BASED SOCIETY The endeavour has been to create a knowledgebased society in the country by imparting quality education and research, says M N Raju, Chairman, The MNR Group of Institutions, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN)

How would you like to build on the success of your group legacy?

With the successful running of academic and professional institutions for decades, we are now going for NAAC accreditation as per norms. We have already submitted proposals to UGC for Deemed University status to our Medical College at Sangareddy, Greater Hyderabad.

We are also spreading our educational activities to Dubai and Sharjah. We have already started MNR Talent and Skill Development Institute in Dubai.

In our schools we have been implementing about 28 types of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities which are properly recorded and evaluated from time to time.

What innovations have been brought about by your institutions in education space?

Various innovative practices brought about in our educational institutions to make learning more meaningful such as using technological devices to add a more meaningful audio-visual component to ensure effective learning in the classroom, Active Learning Projects (ALPs) devised to make the students thinking, talking and sharing information in the classroom.

Instead of Computer-supported

Learning, new forums of Socio-Digital Participation are resorted to, including media literacy such as using social media and search engine.

For measuring the student learning outcomes, common formats are developed class-wise and course-wise.

They are used so that the similarities and differences are transparent to students, parents and the teachers.

Opportunities are provided in every institution and students are encouraged to develop their creative abilities.

Social Service camps are organised institution-wise so as to develop in students the right attitude of working for social welfare.

What is your view about the new Education Policy being formulated?

The 1969 National Policy on Education had stipulated a review of progress in every five years. But such periodical reviews did not take place as stipulated.

Afterwards the Review of National Policy on Education (NPE), National Curriculum Frame Work for School Education 2000 and National Curriculum Framework 2005 have been formulated.

Now, once again discussions are on for revising the National Policy on Education suitable to the present day scenario.

While the various aspects relating to School Education in National Policy are a little bit better, the aspects relating to collegiate and University Education are very disheartening. Some of the suggestions that may help may include considerations like: Doing away with the affiliated college

system, need for consolidation by merging and clustering of Universities and colleges to achieve effective intellectual exchange, concept of cluster of colleges envisaged by the National Knowledge Commission be given a shape, a new way of regulating Higher Education that promotes both autonomy and accountability and fosters private investment is required.

What was the vision behind opening MNR Group?

The vision was to create a knowledgedriven Indian society through quality education and research.

What opportunities are there for your institutions to operate on the global stage?

MNR Talent and Skill Development Institute (MNR TSDI) has been functioning in Dubai catering to the Talent and Skill Development of clients (Students) from several countries. It is run in collaboration with various agencies like IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, ISBHyderabad, AAOIFL- Bahrain, CIBAFIBahrain, TAFE- UK guild and so on.

What are the main strengths of the collegiate system?

Strengths of the collegiate system of education include transitioning from teenage to adulthood, offering an opportunity for every student who joins the college course to take charge of the direction in which the individual shapes his / her life and it makes the individual students learn the ways of effective Time Management.n

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Featured Article

Telangana Zeroing-In On Employment Generation Telangana is one of the rapidly growing states in the country and its capital city of Hyderabad has emerged as a major IT hub. The state government is focusing on employment generation by zeroing-in on speciďŹ c sectors.

Dr. Rajat Kumar,

Principal Secretary, Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department, gives insight on the state’s potential areas in an exclusive interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN).

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Tell us about the growth story of Telangana state through skill development and employment training?

Besides IT and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services), health and construction sector have seen major growth in the state as a result of intensive skill training initiatives taken up by the Telangana government. Many of the ministries have taken up skill development programmes simultaneously on their own.

For instance, Rural Development Department identifies capable youth and trains them in skills that suit the rural sector. At the apex level, a body, the Telangana Skill Development Mission has been created with Hon’ble Chief Minister as its Chairman, that works with partner training institutions. Also, Telangana Academy for Skill & Knowledge (TASK) and T-Hub has been established for IT skill development and IT entrepreneurship.

Under state labour department we have modular employability skills training that continued till recently and also in the Prime Minister’s programme on entrepreneurship number of schemes have been launched through which we are fulfilling domestic demand and also becoming international feeder, given the quality and on-job training given here.

Telangana holds great potential of supplying skills as we are already delivering human force with good skills in places like Middle East countries and Singapore. We want to extend it further.

Did the state government give any mandate to the labour department in particular for generating employment, as it was one of the primary promises of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party’s poll manifesto?

Yes, one of the TRS’s major promises was employment creation and skill development. It was this need which led to the forma-

tion of Telangana state that rooted from decades old exploitation under several external forces. However, not just the labour department or the ministry in particular, other ministries were given mandates for employment creation and skill development programmes which are specific. Skill development covers a whole gamut of sectors. To avoid duplication of training, track the status of the individuals after training and improve on other parameters, Skill Development Ministry was created by Government of India. Labour Department as the state nodal agency for these programmes liaisons with Center to get convergence of various programmes regionally.

What are the other areas in focus of the state government for job creation?

Hyderabad has the advantage of having near 100 national and international training and research institutes including ICRISAT, CCMB, NIN, DRDO, National Academy of Construction and many other private institutes. The Government is taking full advantage of these institutions. Potential areas like construction sector that covers a wide-range of skilled workers including construction, plumbing, carpentry, glass, electrical work and others that need specialised skills; health sector with great demand of skilled nurses, paramedics and doctors in the backdrop of rapidly growing health sector for economic healthcare; manufacturing sector- besides IT, ITEs, electronics, pharmaceuticals, aeronautical, automobile among others that require skilled workers are in focus of the state government. In the process, we are encouraging the employers through tie ups to come and participate in the skill training of individuals. Major thrust is on on-job-training as every employer has their own requirements. Fortunately, many of the employers are in and around Hyderabad only. ■ digitalLEARNING

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Special Interview

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY,

Monitoring Progress Understanding the importance of critical and analytical thinking for a student’s career, the Telangana education department takes a step beyond monitoring attendance, punctuality of students and teachers using technology. CCE, Government of Telangana is coming up with a disruptive initiative that keeps a regular check on teaching and learning between teachers and students. T Vijay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of Telangana, tells more in an interaction with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN)

ing of attendance, regularity through biometric system, a mobile app will be introduced for the students (As most of the students have mobile phone and other gadgets with them). Periodically, based on the subject and classes covered, the app will automatically generate set of questions every fortnight for the students to answer. We will encourage students to attempt answering the questions that are in objective type format.

This will help us update on learning that has happened in the classes. Every fortnight the assessment will be done by a dedicated team that will check for the gaps between the teaching and learning.

If learning by students is poor, then we would ensure that staff is trained accordingly for effective teaching and other necessary steps. This will also help in engaging students in establishing and tracking personalized learning goals and objectives. Our team would help in setting objectives and providing feedback.

How are the questions generated in the progress monitoring app please explain?

Question bank is uploaded in the server and based on the subject that is covered in class, the system will generate questions that will be available on the Mobile App. Every student, with the mobile app, will get a different set of questions from others in the class.

What is the current status of this initiative?

To begin with, the project will be taken up as a pilot in the government degree colleges to capture the level of learning among the students of a class. It will also help in assessing the workload to the teaching and non-teaching staff and get feedback from the stake holders. There are a total of 1131 government, private, private-aided and university degree colleges in Telangana state. Of the total, 130 are government degree colleges.

Tell us about the initiative that has been taken by the Telangana Commissionerate of Collegiate Education to check on the learning and teaching in the higher education.

How the idea was envisaged?

High order thinking and problem solv-

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ing skills are crucial to a student’s career that will help students to go places. In order to bridge the gap between effective learning and teaching in the existing ecosystem of higher education, our team came up with the progress-monitoring tool. Besides the existing monitor-

Will you make this progress monitoring tool a mandate in the private colleges too?

We have created the tool that will be developed further and shared with the universities, which will ultimately take the call. We will engage the universities for hands on training to use the tool.

What is the cost that involves in implementing the initiative in each college?

It is a cloud-based initiative which doesn’t involve much cost for colleges.n

Featured Article

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SPOTLIGHT HARYANA

Innovation in Government Schools Haryana shows the way. With the help of technology, state government has taken initiative to change the game of imparting education to the government school students, writes Priya Yadav of Elets News Network ( ENN).

I

nnovative ways of learning are no longer a reality just for the students of private schools. In a leap, which is expected to vastly benefit thousands of students in government schools in Haryana, the Department of Education has collaborated with the American India Foundation Trust to introduce technology led curriculum in Science and Mathematics.

“Haryana has introduced technologyled curriculum in Science and Mathematics for Grade-9 students in collaboration with the American India Foundation Trust (AIFT),” said P K Das, Additional Chief Secretary, School Education Department, Government of Haryana.

The initiative, which will be implemented in educationally backward blocks of Haryana, is expected to improve both

teaching and learning of the two critical subjects. Part of the state wide Quality Improvement Programme, the initiative will be introduced in a phased manner, covering 10 Aarohi Model Schools.

The Principal Secretary said that the Trust will work with teachers in the school and collaborate with Avanti Learning Centres to provide classroom learning materials and teaching practices in Maths and Science.

“The aim is to ensure that students in the Aarohi schools are benefited from “the world’s best teaching methods,” said PK Das. The government is also working towards creating a core of trained teachers who could ensure that the initiative remains sustainable and more teachers can be trained for the same.

The project which gets its donation

from AIFT and places no financial burden on the state government is designed in a way that facilitates teachers to focus on improving student’s concepts by using computer-enabled content and advanced pedagogical techniques. It ensures increased participation of both students and teachers.

It is not just this initiative that is promising better learning among government school students in Haryana.

Officials claims that the school department is in the process of preparing a framework that will see introduction of activity based learning in government schools. Saturdays will be set aside exclusively for extracurricular activities of the students.

“The idea is to break the tradition of learning by rote,” said PK Das. Children must understand the concepts which are basic and for this experts will be invited to facilitate children in doing so.

This will be done through a variety of activities.

Children should be happy in coming to school and not scared. They should enjoy themselves, feels the principal secretary. For this to happen, teachers are being made to attend workshops to introduce better ways of teaching so that children develop an interest in learning rather than learning by rote.

The government is preparing to introduce an activity based learning programme in primary schools in the state as a pilot project. Minimum learning levels for school students have been prepared and the activity based learning targets the children to achieve those levels.

For example, students will be asked to clean the school premises and pick up plastic waste in their village which will inculcate the message that cleanliness needs to be adopted and that plastic is hazardous for the environment. On Saturdays a range of activities will be arranged like music, drills, sports, theatre and talent of children will be polished through these activities.

“There are students who might not be good in academics, but are good in other activities. When grading the personality of the student, these activities should be accounted for. Around 20 different kinds of activities will be started in the schools. Even students who are physically challenged would be involved with sporting activities. The aim is to ensure that all students are involved in activities that they enjoy,” Das said.n

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Special Interview

UTTAR PRADESH Empowering Youth With Skills That Matter

Uttar Pradesh was the first state in India which came up with skill development policy way back in 2013. Since then, the state has undertaken various initiatives in the vocational education and skill development sector. Bhuvnesh Kumar, Secretary, Department of Vocational Education and Skill Development highlights the success story of Uttar Pradesh to Arpit Gupta of the Elets News Network (ENN).

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What are the policies and strategies for Vocational Education and Skill Development being followed in Uttar Pradesh?

The UP Government was the first state government to have announced a policy on Skill Development in July 2013. The government visualised the importance of vocational education as well as the skill development long ago and decided to transform existing skill ecosystem so as to enable youth to choose and acquire skills of his choice and to provide industry skilled manpower as per their requirement. We brought all skill development training programmes running earlier under various ministries of the Government of India and the State Government onto a standard platform under the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission with an objective to synergise efforts and resources.

Uttar Pradesh was first state to formulate “Common Norms� for all schemes by filling gaps existing in different scheme through creating a State Skill Development Fund which was quite a visionary idea. Earlier most of the schemes were being implemented by different departments and they were not in a position to run them in a uniform manner, as required by the industry.

Since the training programmes being run under various government schemes were not synchronised with the needs of the industry, it was important to bridge that gap and synchronise them.

We have been able to enroll more than four lakh candidates till now across the state at 2000 training centres established by more than 300 training partners offering more than 634 courses in 52 sectors. Over 3 lakh candidates have been trained and almost one lakh have been placed in various industries. It has been a big achievement towards empowerment of youth.

Which is the target group for the Skill Development Programme?

The state government stated in the policy that youth of age group of 14-35 will be the target group for skill development.

Various schemes of the Government of India had their own target beneficiaries. So we have ensured that the target beneficiaries required by the Government of India under various schemes come together in a common batch and candidates from different sections of

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the society join training programme without any hassle. Candidates enrolled in DDUGKY are rural poor, in MSDP from minority communities, in BADP youth of 7 district along Indo-Nepal border in UP, beneficiaries of SDI can be from any section of society while SC/ ST beneficiary are trained in SCA to SCSP. Candidates to be funded by SSDF sit in the same classroom and trained at the same level. Training partners have been given mandate of placing these trained candidates in industry. So this convergence has really helped in forming good quality batches. If you try to form batches from one particular scheme in a limited area, the success rate becomes limited which in turn hamper placement opportunities too.

How the Government is giving a boost to private partners in Vocational Education and Skill Development?

The whole focus was that the training will be done by people who are experts in these fields. Earlier, in the old schemes it was being done by small institutes or NGOs or the small companies. But the focus in UP has been to engage large companies who have the expertise to work in these fields and that is how we started. The focus has been on quality of training which has been ensured by keeping high standards of training infrastructure, trainers, independent assessment and third party monitoring. GPS-enabled biometric devices ensures that students are coming to the classes. The focus also has been on actual hands on training and we have allowed On Job Training (OJTs) also.

How strong is the resource system of the UP government?

As far as money is concerned, there is no shortage of funds because lot of money is coming from various schemes so that is not the limiting factor at all. We have taken help of the erstwhile all the departments. We have formed DPMU at district level headed by the Collectors/ DM and assisted by Chief Development Officers. All those departments which were running their schemes earlier, their district level officers are also part of this DMPU. They are the ones who are able to mobilise the beneficiaries. We have given two people in every district known as MIS manager cum Counsellor. Their job is not only to manage things but also counsel and bring the candidate for right

kind of training. With the kind of targets we are achieving I feel we have sufficient resources and manpower available. There is full support of the Government for strengthening and promoting skill development in the state.

Where does ITI play role in skill development? What is the current situation of ITIs in the state?

Apart from the UPSDM, the department has great focus on the existing ITIs. We have spent almost 2,000 crores in last four years in the ITI system. As soon as we use the word skill development, many a time people talk about only short term courses but if you look at the ITI system, which is formal training system of one year and two years courses, is actually a skill development programme which has been going on since long. We can’t lose sight of it. We had a very strong focus and commitment of the state government again to enhance the ITIs. In a span of less than three years, we have been able to increase capacity of ITIs by 2.5 times. Two and a half years back, the seats which were available in the ITIs were 46,000. This year, admission has taken place in one 1,00,500 seats. Such a huge investment has gone into upgrading existing ITIs and opening of new ITIs. We used to have roughly 200 ITIs and opened 80 new ITIs in the span of four years. Earlier, we used to have ITIs of two, three or four trades but we have standardised them up to minimum 12 trades. So whatever new ITIs we are now opening now have minimum 12 trades.

We have introduced smart classrooms in almost all ITIs. We are upgrading the existing classrooms into smart classrooms. We have been able to give two smart classrooms in all the ITIs across the state. Now the number of ITIs has gone up to 267. We have upgraded the old ITIs and given them new buildings.

The money has also come from other schemes of the Government of India.

We have recruited roughly 2,500 new instructors. The result is almost ready and should be out anytime. We will be able to place so many new instructors in the ITI system to strengthen it. We have converted SCVT courses into NCVT courses in a large number and this process is still on. The upgradation of ITIs have also taken place. We have been able to give more than 100 IT labs and 150 new workshops to these ITIs. This has actually created a huge impetus in the system. We have introduced book

bank facility in ITIs. Now we are giving free books to all the students. The moment they get admission into the ITI, they are given free books. We have introduced uniform in all institutes called Dangri. Now every student who enters in machine trades, he gets his uniform on day one. So these endeavours have improved the ITI system and actually benefitted the industry in a big way especially the manufacturing industry.

Industry was always looking for good quality trained people and we not only assured but delivered same. We have also given new tools, equipments across these ITIs. So, Vocational Education and Skill Development has been focus area of the state government.

Empowering youth is the whole idea of skill development. UP has a large young population. How do you see it?

I would say that population is a demographic dividend of the state. One can look large population as the negative thing but for me it is large human resource available in the state for skilling point of view if I can give them right kind of skills. Not only I can give them employment in the state but they can go outside the state or country after acquiring skills, knowledge and attitude.

There is a huge demand of trained manpower across the sectors. Even now we are sending a lot of people outside the State. They are getting employment, good jobs. UPNRI Department has got the license for the overseas recruitment agency and they are in the process of sending these trained people to countries overseas for technical employment. We will be providing them trained candidates required abroad. A lot of private agencies are also taking candidates trained by us. We have been organising the employment fairs (Rojgar Melas) at the division-level. We have been able to conduct roughly 200 fairs till now in various parts of the states. Hon’ble Chief Minister and departmental Minister have participated in a few of them. These are huge success. We are able to rope in all the local companies and sometimes companies from outside also. In every fair, almost thousand candidates are getting placed in different sectors. Thus, creating employment opportunities for the youth has been prime objective of all skilling activities taking place in UP Skill Development Mission and in ITI system of the State..n

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Special Interview

How and when was the idea of introducing Biometric Machines conceived? What are your expectations from initiative?

The BIE has recently introduced – Biometric Machines -- at all Government-run Junior Colleges in Telangana. Its primary objective is to ensure the attendance of principals, teaching and non-teaching staff and students.This will enhance the overall performance of the education system.

Biometric Machines, which will hold the key in bringing discipline in attendance, will act as an effective tool for monitoring. We are getting reports regularly based on the biometric system.

We have found that many students join college for availing scholarships and other benefits being offered by the Government but they show little interest in attending classes, which is sacrosanct of the students. The new system is also used for monitoring mid-day meal scheme which is extended to Junior Colleges in the State. Today, education in junior colleges is free. The Government will provide resources such as admission, free text books and food at the colleges.

Our expectations from introduction of the Biometric Machines is to enhance the attendance. This will help in accountability and self-discipline among the principals, teaching and non-teaching staff and students. In this way, biometrics is extremely useful both in helping college management feel secure and in eliminating user time theft, as it relies on personal characteristics that vary between individuals. The wide variety of easy to use terminals ensures that biometrics is a smart (and cool) solution when deciding what kind of time and attendance system.

There are 3000 junior colleges in Telangana.

What is the status of the project?

All Government Junior Colleges are equipped with Biometric Machines. At least 60% of Private Junior Colleges are also covered so far. Plans are on to make the use of Biometric Machines as mandatory. We are getting good reports from these colleges. These reports will help the BIE in improving the efficiency in all aspects of functions of these colleges. We found IT is a great enabler and facilitator in bringing efficiency in education.

The BIE has used CCTV surveillance for examina-

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TELANGANA Enhancing Students’ Performance through mGovernance After introducing Biometric Machines, CCTV Surveillance and Online Services, the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) is planning to introduce Mobile Governance for Junior College students in Telangana. Dr A Ashok, Commissioner and Secretary, BIE, Government of Telangana, shares more details about the initiative, in an interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: tions. How was the experience?

The usage of CCTV surveillance for examinations was very useful. It has helped in managing the examinations and its conduct smoothly. We have tested the CCTV surveillance on pilot basis. We shall continue to use the same in the future examinations as well.

What is your take on online services? Where do you stand in this?

Under Digital Telangana’s initiative, we introduced 15 online services and 7 college services for benefit of the students. I am happy to inform you that the Board of Intermediate Education has received Best Government Initiative Award for its online services.

What are your plans for Mobile Governance?

We are planning to introduce Mobile Governance for Students, making them as Smart Students.

All our services – 15 online and 7 college services – will be soon available through Mobile. Students can able to download their resources, including certificates and mark sheets without visiting their colleges. This Mobile Governance will enhance the standards and excellence in services.n

SUMMIT

SUMMIT

RNI NO.UPENG/2008/25311

UP/GZB/70/2015-17