Tag Archives: focus

5 Takeaways from New Education policy 2017

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Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh has said that the new education policy is in final stages and it would be announced in December.

Inaugurating a ‘National Academic meet’ in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, Satyapal Singh said the policy envisages to ‘correct’ the course of education system in the country, that has followed a colonial mindset. The Minister said it will be the first education policy that was discussed layer by layer and threadbare.

He pointed out that unfortunately after independence, most of the academicians followed the footsteps of British and Western scholars and deliberately denigrating Indian culture. Stating that the biggest challenge being faced by the education system and the government is ‘how to de-colonise the Indian mind’ and the government is working on the policy in this regard.

Dr. Singh said improving the quality of education from the primary level, making higher education affordable to people and accessing higher education to more are some of the major issues faced by the education system. He said skill development is one of the major areas the government has given thrust upon.

To prevent the exodus of students to foreign countries seeking education, Dr. Singh said the higher education institutions should be developed to the standard of Centres of International Excellence. He said accessibility to higher education in the country is only 25.6 per cent while in USA 86 per cent Germany 80 and in China 60 per cent.

The Minister pointed out that the aim of the government is to improve the higher education system in the country to make available to more students. Stating that higher education is very expensive, Dr. Singh said it has to be made more affordable to all sections in the society.

Indicating that changes are necessary in the Right to Education Act, Dr. Singh said the Act lacks teeth. The Act provides right to compulsory primary education. But what is the remedy if parents do not send their children to school. So many things have to be done in improving the primary education in the country’, he added.

The meet was organised by Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram as part of the navathi celebration of P Parameswarn, Director of Vichara Kendram.

Minister Reveals App-Driven Highlights of New Telecom Policy in Pipeline

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India’s Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha the new Telecom Policy will be application driven as compared to National Telecom Policy, 2012 that was mainly connectivity driven.

Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi, the minister said the new policy will focus on the end users and the newer opportunities for expanding the availability of Telecom services, in view of high speed data services and enhanced expectations of the users to get real time live applications.

The ministry will involv a large pool of experts from outside the department to prepare the new policy, he said. As of April 2017, the country has close to 1.2 billion telephone connections, including 1.17 billion wireless telephone connections and similarly witnessed the rapid growth of the broadband connections that now stands at 276.52 million.

The minister said there was a six-fold increase in Data traffic in India from 561 million GB in the first quarter of 2016-17 to 2,988 million GB in the third quarter of 2016-17, which is a whopping 400 per cent jump.

While service providers are rapidly deploying the 4G technology, the ministry is focusing on the need to expand the connectivity to all parts including the north-eastern and Left Wing Extremism affected areas, with an eye on future generation applications with the 5G technology roll out, he said.

The FDI equity inflow in telecom sector from April, 2016 to March, 2017 was US$5,564 million, which is more than four times the average inflow of about $1.3 billion every year since 2013-14, he noted.

The Minister said similar to road infrastructure that was seen as a pre-requisite for development in 19th and 20th century, the information superhighways are a must for growth in the 21st century.

He said that the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 was notified to ease the cable laying approval process and making it integral part of the “Ease of Doing Business” for Telecom Service Providers.

Telecom Secretary Ms Aruna Sundararajan urged the officials to achieve the target of 700 to 800 million internet penetration in the next five years.

Bangalore Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017 to Focus on Diaspora Achievements

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The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017 or the annual global convention for the Indian diaspora, to be held in Bangalore from January 7 to 9, 2017 will focus on what the Indian origin NRIs and PIOs achieved in the last few years and an awards function at the end of it will felicitate some of them.

The event, to be attended by over 4,000 delegates from across the world will be opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee will present the awards on the last day. The Bangalore event will be the first full-fledged festival of diaspora Indians under a new format adopted by the government last year.

Dhyaneshwar Mulay, Secretary, Overseas Indian Affairs, said, “Highlight of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017 is social innovations by Indians, 20 social innovations will be highlighted and there will also be a contest of innovators and the winner will get an award of Rs.1 lakh.”

Muley said all sessions will be held in plenary format to allow more interaction with delegates from overseas to convey their suggestions to the government directly. “The sessions will focus on immigration and the role of diaspora organisations,” he said.

The event initially raised several eye-brows over the rumour that participation from the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan would make it different this year but no confirmation has been made so far about it.

The theme this year is ‘Redefining engagement with Indian diaspora’ and the event exhibition would showcase the achievements of the government in various sectors, and the delegates can also explore business opportunities in India and connect with government officials, business owners and entrepreneurs.

Heart of Asia Conference Tomorrow: What’s the Focus?

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and other 12 represntatives from Asian countries at the much coveted Heart of Asia Conference being held in Amritsar tomorrow to highlight terrorism, trade and cooperation takes place.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will address the conference as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is ill. Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and other representatives will meet on the sidelines of the inaugural conference symbolic to bring in stakeholders of Asia for more trade. The 14-member conference is likely to bring forth a loose alliance of like-minded actors to take the regional cooperation to the next level.

Pakistan is being represented by Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz while other ministers from Iran, Russia and China will make it broader in terms of trade-centric talks and India may raise the issue of terrorism since the venue near the border owing to infiltrations is visibly to offset Islamabad’s mindset.

India is likely to announce military aid to Afghanistan including 7 helicopters and receive assurance from Russia on supplying spares and conducting repairs on other aircraft in Afghanistan.

India is keen to focus on the Chabahar port in Iran for trade to Afghanistan, the overall agenda will centre around developing trade routes to Afghanistan, as China and Pakistan are focusing on the development of the Gwadar Port.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javed Zarif is expected to make a presentation on the benefits of Chabahar to Afghanistan, while India will try to rope in others to develop the port project.

“We are already working with the governments of Afghanistan and Iran to do an event in Chabahar itself, sometime in the near future which involves not merely the governments and experts but also brings together industry and also showcases Chabahar for other countries which can benefit from the enhanced connectivity through Chabahar,” MEA official Gopal Baglay said.

Recently, Russia, Turkmenistan and Qatar have indicated an interest in the port, while Iran, that refers to Gwadar and Chabahar as “sister ports,” is keen to use the port for trade and gas supplies. China has already inaugurated its Yiwu-Mazar e Sharief rail line, under the One Belt One Road (OBOR) plan through Afghanistan to the CPEC route to Gwadar.

The Heart of Asia conference is the 7th in the series after the Istanbul Process was established in 2011 to provide a platform to discuss regional issues, particularly encouraging security, political, and economic cooperation among Afghanistan and its neighbors. The United States and over 20 other nations and organizations are “supporting nations” in the dialogue.

Past Ministerial Conferences of Heart of Asia Dialogue:
1st: 2 November 2011,
Istanbul, Turkey
2nd: 14 June 2012,
Kabul, Afghanistan
3rd: 26 April 2013,
Almaty, Kazakhstan
4th: 31 October 2014,
Beijing, China
5th: 9 December 2015,
Islamabad, Pakistan
6th: 26 April 2016,
New Delhi, India
7th: 4th December 2016,
Amritsar, India

MEMBER Countries:
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
China
India
Iran
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Tajikistan
Turkey
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates

SUPPORTING COUNTRIES

Australia
Canada
Denmark
Egypt
European Union
France
Finland
Germany
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Norway
Poland
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States