INDIA

INDIA CELEBRATES 74TH INDEPENDENCE DAY’ 2020

India celebrated its 74th Independence Day on Saturday,15 August 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Rajghat and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as the celebrations started. The Prime Minister then proceeded to the Red Fort where he remembered those who laid their lives for India's Independence. External Affairs Minister,Dr. S Jaishankar on Saturday thanked the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Bhutan, the Maldives, Lithuania and Latvia for their wishes on India’s 74th Independence Day. Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid tweeted that India has aimed to be, and now become, an enduring example of democracy and development, for the region and the world. Jaishankar said their bilateral relationship is a shining example of ‘Neighbourhood First’. Israel Envoy wished in Hindi As India Celebrates 74th Independence Day. Ambassador Ron Malka, the Israeli envoy expressed greetings on Independence Day to all the Indian friends and wished for peace and prosperity. Swatantrata diwas ki hardik shubhkaamnaein," Recently, Israel shared "state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-based technologies and high-end equipment" with AIIMS, Delhi as part of Israel-India cooperation to fight ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is the most advanced medical equipment that they have developed especially for fighting COVID-19. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director of AIIMS Dr Randeep Guleria said that the India-Israel relations are strong. Earlier, India helped Israel with medicines and safety gear. Now Israel has sent equipment including robotic teleconsultation and telemonitoring equipment." India Independence Day 2020 ,Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on the occasion of India’s 74th Independence Day and applauded frontline workers fighting against novel coronavirus. He said India was going through a unique phase owing to the pandemic but would come out victorious and thanked to the resolve of the people. PM Modi highlighted the importance to make India self-reliant, saying it was not just a word but should be a “mantra” for all countrymen. PM Modi launched a National Digital Health Mission and said it will usher in a revolution in India’s health sector. Every Indian will now get a unique health ID and the country must not only ‘Make in India’ but also ‘Make for the World’.

The Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort was attended by over 4,000 people, including diplomats, officials and media personnel. Safety protocols were in place for the event, including social distancing and wearing masks.

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2020: 'MAKE FOR WORLD' IS PM MODI'S NEW CALL

The call for Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) by PM Modi to fight the Covid-19 pandemic has captured people’s imagination and should be the mantra for everyone, as he delivered his seventh consecutive Independence Day speech while addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort to mark the 74th Independence Day, PM Modi, in his nearly 90-minute speech, put forward the mantra of ‘Make for World’ alongside his pet initiative of ‘Make in India’ as he exhorted all Indians to be ‘vocal for local’.

In the mission for Atmanirbhar Bharat there are six popular ‘Made in India’ apps that has been tried in the last few months and have seen many Made in India apps take the center stage . Since the Government of India banned over 100 Chinese applications including the very popular TikTok ,the country have witnessed the introduction of many Made in India applications. Most of these app developers claim that it’s PM Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat that has boosted their platforms and people in India are now preferring apps that ate made by Indians and for Indians. In the last few months we have seen many Made in India apps take the center stage. There are some Indian apps that were there before PM Modi announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign and have attracted the attention of many consumers. After TikTok was banned many Indian developers introduced rivals for the Chinese app. Chingari app is one of them. The platform was built around two years ago but gained popularity only after PM Modi announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign soon after TikTok was blocked in the country over security reasons. Chingari, today has millions of users onboard and is available for download on both Google Play store and Apple App store. In the Atmanirbhar Bharat innovation app challenge Chingari secured the first position in the social category. He agreed that there are lakhs of challenges for Atmanirbhar Bharat and they increase if there is global competitiveness. However, if there are lakhs of challenges, then the country also has power which gives crores of solutions.

Citing an example, Modi said before the Covid-19 pandemic, the country was not making N-95 masks, PPE and ventilators, but now it was in a position to export such items. The mindset of free India should be ‘vocal for local’. The nation should appreciate the local products and if they din’t do this then the products will not get the opportunity to do better and will not get encouraged felt PM Modi .

Ever since he assumed office in 2014, PM Modi’s Independence Day speeches have outlined a roadmap for the year ahead while listing the achievements of the government from the year gone by. This year was no different. Besides dwelling upon his pet theme of Atmanirbhar Bharat, PM Modi reinforced his government’s commitment to providing clean drinking water to every household while saying free gas cylinders

were given to seven crore poor families and 80 crore people provided free food grains. He also said the optical fibre network would be provided to 6 lakh villages in 1,000 days. For the infrastructure sector, PM Modi said about 7,000 projects of different sectors had been identified. National infrastructure pipeline project with the investment of 1.10 lakh crore should be given importance. The approach will be integrated, multi-model infrastructural projects. Announcing the National Digital Health Mission, PM Modi said it was the need of the hour and the ‘One Nation One Health Card’ scheme would help people get better healthcare facilities in the country. “National Digital Health Mission will bring a new revolution in India’s health sector. Under the mission, every Indian will get a unique health ID.

THE NATIONAL DIGITAL HEALTH MISSION

A person’s medical records, such as tests, diagnosis, and treatments will be digitized and saved as a database that can be accessed from anywhere in the country. With all eyes on an antidote to Covid-19, PM Modi said three probable vaccine candidates were at different stages of testing and the entire roadmap of its production and delivery were ready. Today three vaccines are in testing stages in India. As soon as the scientists are given a green signal, the country will begin their large scale production. As soon as tests are complete, the entire roadmap of its production and delivery to the public will be ready in the shortest time. Days after the first anniversary of the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and conversion of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories, PM Modi said the government was committed to hold assembly elections in J&K once delimitation exercise was complete. The one year was a year of the new journey of development for Jammu and Kashmir. This one year is the year of the rights received by the women and the Dalits in Jammu and Kashmir. This one year was also the year of a life of dignity for the refugees in Jammu and Kashmir. Without naming China, with whom India has been locked in a border standoff since May in eastern Ladakh, PM Modi said, “Those who challenge the country’s sovereignty, be it LOC or LAC, have been given a befitting reply in their own language.” In the same breath, PM Modi said neighbours were not only those with whom “we share our geographical boundaries” but also “those with whom our hearts meet”. Today neighbour is not just the one with whom we share border but also those with whom our heart stays connected, where there is harmony in relations. He was happy that in past some time India has further strengthened its relations with all countries in ‘extended neighbourhood.

Asserting that the government was determined to provide equal opportunities of self-employment and employment to women, PM Modi said a committee had been set up to reconsider the minimum age for marriage of women. A committee would be set up to reconsider the minimum age for marriage of the daughters. The Government will take appropriate decision after the committee submits its report.

INDIA ANNOUNCES NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY.

The National Education Policy was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. More than three decades had passed since previous Policy. During this period significant changes had taken place in the country, society economy, and the world at large. It is in this context that the education sector needed to gear itself towards the demands of the 21st Century and the needs of the people and the country. Quality, innovation and research will be the pillars on which India will become a knowledge super power. Clearly, a new Education Policy was needed. The Government had initiated the process of formulating a New Education Policy through the consultation process for an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach, which takes into consideration expert opinions, field experiences, empirical research, stakeholder feedback, as well as lessons learned from best practices. Education is fundamental for achieving full human potential, developing an equitable and just society, and promoting national development. Providing universal access to quality education is the key to India’s continued ascent, and leadership on the global stage in terms of economic growth, social justice and equality, scientific advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation. Universal high-quality education is the best way forward for developing and maximizing the country's rich talents and resources for the good of the individual, the society, the country, and the world. India will have the highest population of young people in the world over the next decade, and the ability to provide high-quality educational opportunities to them will determine the future of the country. The global education development agenda reflected in the Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by India in 2015 - seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030. Such a lofty goal will require the entire education system to be reconfigured to support and foster learning, so that all of the critical targets and goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be achieved. The world is undergoing rapid changes in the knowledge landscape. With various dramatic scientific and technological advances, such as the rise of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, many unskilled jobs worldwide may be taken over by machines, while the need for a skilled workforce, particularly involving mathematics, computer science, and data science, in conjunction with multidisciplinary abilities across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, will be increasingly in greater demand. With climate change, increasing pollution, and depleting natural resources, there will be a sizeable shift in how we meet the world’s energy, water, food, and sanitation needs, again resulting in the need for new skilled labour, particularly in biology, chemistry, physics, agriculture, climate science, and social science. The growing emergence of epidemics and pandemics will also call for collaborative research in infectious disease management and development of vaccines and the resultant social issues heightens the need for multidisciplinary learning. There will be a growing demand for humanities and art, as India moves towards becoming a developed country as well as among the three largest economies in the world.