Ministry of Education
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan to launch Mandate Document of
National Curriculum Framework (NCF)
Union
Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan will be launching the Mandate
Document of National Curriculum Framework (NCF) on 29th April,
2022.
Why is it in news?
The
National Education Policy (NEP),
2020 recommends the development of National
Curriculum Frameworks (NCF) in four areas- School Education, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Teacher
Education and Adult Education.
Highlights
· Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N,
Minister for Higher Education, Government of Karnataka; Dr. B. C. Nagesh,
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Government of Karnataka; Dr. K.
Kasturirangan, Chairperson, National Steering Committee for the National
Curriculum Framework; Smt Anita Karwal, Secretary, Department of School
Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, and Professor D. P. Saklani,
Director, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will be
present on the occasion.
· For providing inputs for
the development of these, four curriculum frameworks, 25 themes based on the
perspectives of the NEP, 2020 are identified under the three categories, viz.,
1. Curriculum and Pedagogy 2. Cross-cutting Issues 3. Other important areas of
NEP, 2020 focussing on systemic changes and reforms.
· The Mandate Document
describes the development process of the NCF, its expected structure and
objectives, and some of the basic principles from the NEP 2020 that will inform
the development of the four NCFs. The NCF is being drafted through a
collaborative and consultative process, starting from district to state level
and then National level. The ‘Guidelines for Position Papers for the
Development of the National Curriculum Framework’ is an integral part of this Mandate
Document.
· The entire process of
curriculum framework is being done in a paperless manner with very wide
consultation at school/district/state level with the help of a Tech platform
and Mobile App.
NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog Holds Day-long
Conference on Aspirational Districts Programme
Stories of Change Report Released Detailing Best Practices across the
Aspirational Districts
As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, NITI Aayog held a day-long conference
on the Aspirational Districts Programme
(ADP).
Why is it in news?
The conference, ‘Sehbhagita se Samriddhi’, saw wide
participation from District Collectors
and Central Prabhari Officers of Aspirational Districts, officials from Union Ministries and NITI Aayog, and representatives from
development partners.
A report, titled ‘Stories of Change’, on 30 innovative
interventions by the Aspirational Districts was also released. These
interventions—selected on the basis of the usage of behavioural principles,
innovation, replicability and potential for impact—demonstrate how behavioural
insights can drive outcomes on the ground.
Highlights
·
Drawing attention to
the high expectations of the people for health service delivery, NITI Aayog Member Dr VK Paul said we
needed to strive towards the saturation of key maternal and child health
schemes and focus on last-mile service delivery.
·
Addressing the
participants, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh
Kant said, ‘ADP has emerged as a unique platform for development partners to
work with the government at the grassroots level. Their active engagement has
led to significant progress.’ He highlighted how the partnership between the
district teams and the development partners has been instrumental in improving
the impact of schemes while improving the understanding of critical
requirements of the districts.
·
Five sessions on ‘State Capacity’, ‘Education’,
‘Agriculture’, ‘Skill Development and Livelihood’, and ‘Health’ were
held. The ‘State Capacity’ session focused on challenges and emerging best practices for improving last-mile
service delivery through behaviour change communication and efficient data
management. Local initiatives led by
districts, such as that in Dumka in Jharkhand for strengthening block- and
panchayat-level functionaries, were discussed.
·
Efforts of the
government and development partners for addressing learning loss among children
during the pandemic were discussed in the session on ‘Education’. Special
initiatives led by districts such as Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, and Nuapada,
Odisha, for addressing learning gaps and bringing back out-of-school children
were presented.
·
The session on ‘Agriculture’ focused on challenges that directly affect
farmers such as dwindling water tables, small per capita land holdings, and
climate change. It also focused on developing targeted action plans,
infrastructure development for the value chain and ensuring access to market
and technology. Several initiatives such as water rejuvenation projects
undertaken in Aspirational Districts were shared.
·
The ‘Skill Development and Livelihood’ session focused on developing
demand-based and context-specific livelihoods in the Aspirational Districts, particularly in the context of SHGs and other
micro-enterprises. Special initiatives led by districts such as Dantewada in
Chhattisgarh in addressing challenges through Farmer Producer Organizations and effective methods of tracking livelihood opportunities and benefits accorded to the
households were discussed.
·
The session on ‘Health’
focused on the role of development partners in supporting existing government
staff to build capacity, particularly in initiatives to reduce malnutrition,
and anaemia among women through rice fortification, millet-based recipes under
the Integrated Child Development Scheme, and NITI’s pilot project to streamline
the Government of India’s Anaemia Mukt
Bharat interventions in five districts in Jharkhand.
CERT
CERT-In issues directions relating to
information security practices, procedure, prevention, response and reporting
of cyber incidents for Safe & Trusted Internet
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
(CERT-In) serves as the national
agency for performing various functions in the area of cyber security in the
country as per provisions of section 70B
of the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
Why is it in news?
CERT-In continuously analyses cyber threats and handles cyber incidents
tracked and reported to it. CERT-In
regularly issues advisories to organisations and users to enable them to
protect their data/information and ICT
infrastructure. In order to coordinate response activities as well as
emergency measures with respect to cyber security incidents, CERT-In calls for information from
service providers, intermediaries, data centres and body corporate.
Highlights
·
During the course of
handling cyber incidents and interactions with the constituency, CERT-In has
identified certain gaps causing hindrance in incident analysis. To address the
identified gaps and issues so as to facilitate incident response measures,
CERT-In has issued directions relating to information security practices,
procedure, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents under the
provisions of sub-section (6) of section 70B of the Information Technology Act,
2000. These directions will become effective after 60 days.
·
The directions cover
aspects relating to synchronization of ICT system clocks; mandatory reporting
of cyber incidents to CERT-In; maintenance of logs of ICT systems;
subscriber/customer registrations details by Data centers, Virtual Private
Server (VPS) providers, VPN Service providers, Cloud service providers; KYC
norms and practices by virtual asset service providers, virtual asset exchange
providers and custodian wallet providers. These directions shall enhance
overall cyber security posture and ensure safe & trusted Internet in the
country.
The directions issued by
CERT-In are available at https://www.cert-in.org.in/Directions70B.jsp
Ministry of Tribal Affairs organises 2 days
Ministry of Tribal Affairs organises 2 days’ workshop in
Jharkhand on ADIGRAMS
Training programs held for state officials and agencies for data uploading on
Monitoring Portal of Tribal schemes
Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) as part its ‘Outreach Initiative’ is connecting with key stakeholders
associated with execution of government schemes at ground level.
Why is it in news?
In continuation with
this, MoTA organised two-day’s
hands-on training of key functionaries from across the Jharkhand state on ADIGRAMS (Adivasi Grants Management System)
on 27th and 28th April 2022.
The program was held at Jharkhand State Ministry’ ‘Project Bhawan’
Ranchi. 66 key officials like District Welfare Officers, Officials from
ITDAs along with Project Management Unit (PMU) from all 24 districts across the
state, associated with tribal scheme implementation actively participated in
the training program. They were given hands on training in uploading the
data.
Highlights
·
Dr Naval Jit Kapoor,
Joint Secretary Ministry of Tribal Affairs informed that ADIGRAM is a unique
portal which monitors physical and financial progress of the grants given by
the Ministry to States and can track the actual utilization of funds. The
details of beneficiaries are also uploaded on portal and the infrastructure
projects are geotagged. Once the data from 2017-18 to 2021-22 is
uploaded, the information will be placed in public domain which will bring
transparency and accountability. Similar programs have been
conducted by the Ministry in Maharashtra, Himachal, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya,
where in training is as conducted by team of technical experts from MoTA and
UNDP.
·
The program was
organised in coordination with Sh. K.K. Son, Pr Secretary Department of ST SC Minorities
and BC Welfare, Jharkhand and Ajay Nath Jha, Commissioner along with senior
officials from state level implementing bodies were also part of it. Sh Jayant
Kumar from UNDP and team of Dhanush Infotech who have developed this portal are
conducting regular training programs online and offline as per requirement of
the states.
INDO JAPAN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
PM expresses happiness over
70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra
Modi has expressed happiness over 70 years of establishment of diplomatic
relations between India and Japan today.
Why is it in news?
Shri Modi said that our ties have
deepened in every sphere, whether strategic, economic or people-to-people
contacts.
Highlights
In a series of tweets, the Prime
Minister said;
"As we celebrate 70 years of
establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan today, I am happy
to see that our ties have deepened in every sphere, whether strategic, economic
or people-to-people contacts."
"The recent visit of my friend
PM Kishida @kishida230 to India for the Annual Summit laid out a roadmap for
deepening our Special Strategic and Global Partnership in a post-COVID world. I
look forward to continue working with PM Kishida to realize that
objective."
