Flexibility of Funds Earmarked for SCs/STs/Physically Disabled /Minorities

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has stated that it will not let the money earmarked for SCs/STs/physically disabled/Minorities education and North-East Institutions lapse. On the occasion of the release of UGC brochures by the HRM, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju and UGC Chairman here today, the Ministry has asked the UGC to device new schemes so that the money meant for the purpose is 100 percent utilized. These will be student-friendly schemes which will help in the purpose of not letting the money go unutilized. It will come into force in the current financial year itself.

The UGC on this occasion also brought forth its decision to launch an inspirational intervention through the establishment of Chairs in honour of Nobel Laureates who have done our country proud. The Chairs will be associated with the names of Rabindranath Tagore, C.V. Raman, Hargobind Khorana, Mother Teresa, Subramanyam Chandrasekhar, Amartya Sen and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. It is a unique scheme which seeks to inspire the youth to take up research under the guidance of the best minds in the world.

Railways to carry relief material for Uttarakhand free of cost

The Ministry of Railways has decided that relief material, viz. food, medicines, clothes, building materials, utensils etc, will be carried to Uttarakhand free of cost by coaching trains, from any station in India, for a period of 15 days, i.e. from 25.06.2013 to 09.07.2013.

The relief material will be consigned to the District Magistrate of the concerned district on production of a certificate from the consignor that the consignment is a gift in kind or has been purchased with the funds donated by public for flood victims and has not been paid for by the Government or any of its agencies.

No claim for any loss or damage to consignment carried under this arrangement will be entertained unless it is clearly proved that the loss or damage took place due to willful negligence on the part of the Railways.

India-US Higher Education Dialogue – 2013

The HRD Minister Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju and visiting US Secretary of State Mr. John F. Kerry are to co-chair India-US Higher Education Dialogue on 25th June, 2013 in New Delhi. During the dialogue, the two sides will take up Research and Innovation Partnership under Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative, Institutional Partnership and Skill Development as well as Promotion of Community Colleges in India and Technology Enabled Education including massive Open Online Courses. IIT – Bombay is entering into an MoU with edx. The intended outcome also includes two-way students’ mobility from India to USA and vice-versa. India and US will also take up linkage between industry and academia and faculty development. They are also expected to take up issues like post Doctoral Research and co-operation in training for the school teachers.

The HRD Minister had visited USA last month for forging linkages and collaborations in the field of Higher Education. The educational relations have intensified between India and USA after the visit of the Prime Minister of India to USA in 2009 and reciprocal visit of the President of USA Mr. Barack Obama to India in 2010. The first India-US Higher Education summit was convened at Washington DC in October, 2011.

During the dialogue, major announcements are expected. This includes Second Round of Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative Awards which have 8 joint research programmes under it, first batch of 126 Raman Fellows, who are being sponsored by UGC to take up Post-Doctoral research in US institutions and “Connect India” Programme for US students to come to India.

To promote community colleges in India, a framework has been developed by the HRD Ministry after the first India-US Higher Education Summit and International Conference on Community Colleges. It was organized in February this year in the Indian capital. Following un-precedented response from both academia and the industry, five community college principals/leaders will be sponsored for a visit to community colleges in US for the leadership development. The two sides may also agree to promote cyber networks through IIT Delhi and University of Nebraska.

The Plenary session will be followed by three working session on students mobilities and research collaborations, community colleges and technology enabled education. The working sessions would be co-chaired by Secretary (HE) Mr. Ashok Thakur and US Under Secretary of State Ms. Tara Sonenshine.

Expansion of Dealership Network

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Steel, operates two schemes for dealers under its network:

(i) SAIL Dealership Scheme

(ii) SAIL Rural Dealership Scheme

With a view to widen the reach of its products, SAIL has been expanding its dealer network extensively to cover all the districts in the country. Expansion of SAIL dealer network over last few years is as given below:-

As on à	1.4.06	1.4.07	1.4.08	1.4.09	1.4.10	1.4.11	1.4.12	1.4.2013
Number of Dealers	200	653	1897	2406	2508	2649	2662	2896

After establishing a strong network of dealers spread over 629 districts of the country, SAIL launched a new “SAIL Rural Dealership Scheme” to expand its scope of business in rural areas (block/taluka) of the country with the primary objective of meeting the steel demands of the small rural consumers at block and taluka levels. As on 1^st April, 2013, SAIL has a dealer network of 2896 dealers which includes 562 Rural Dealers. SAIL plans to increase the number of rural dealers to 1000 in a phased manner. The details of the existing Dealers network, state-wise category-wise are at Annexure-I and II.

          Under the Scheme, for appointment as a Rural Dealer, as a minimum qualifying criterion, the applicant should possess an Office / Retail Outlet beside a storage space of suitable capacity.  Applications are evaluated generally on the basis of the following parameters:-

          i)       Infrastructure facilities

          ii)      Financial Standing

          iii)     Market reputation

iv)     Any other criteria which the company considers necessary to take into account while evaluating the application.

While evaluating applicants for appointment as SAIL Rural Dealer, suitable weightage may be given by SAIL to such applicants who intend to deal exclusively with SAIL products. SAIL has taken steps to expand the Dealer Network both at the District level as well as the Block and Taluka levels through its SAIL Dealership Scheme and SAIL Rural Dealership Scheme.

Scholarship Awards for Students with Disabilities Increased

Laptop to be Provided to All Students with Disabilities

The Board of Trustees of the Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities increased the fresh scholarships from 1000 to 1500 per year under the Scholarship Scheme (Trust Fund) here today. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India chaired the meeting of the Board.

Laptop will be provided to all the Students with Disabilities now. The Board of Trustees decided that Laptop shall be provided to Orthopedically Handicapped (OH) students as an aids and appliances once in life time upto estimated cost of Rs.40,000/-(Rupees Forty Thousand only). Till now, this facility was available to Hearing Handicapped and Visually Handicapped students only.

It was also decided in the meeting that the advance funds for the year will be made available to NHFDC in the beginning of financial year for award of scholarships to students with disabilities without any delay.

The Scholarship Scheme for the Students with the Disabilities is being implemented by NHFDC, Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India.

The Secretary, Law & Justice and Secretary, Ministry of Finance are other members of the Trust. The Joint Secretary, Department of Disability Affairs is the Member Secretary.

CMD, National Handicapped Finance & Development Corporation (NHFDC) along with senior officials were also present in the meeting.

Pension to Aged Artists

Under the Scheme of “Financial Assistance to Persons Distinguished in Letters, Arts and such other walks of life who may be in Indigent Circumstances and their Dependents”, applications are received by the Ministry of Culture throughout the year.

The above Scheme is being implemented since 1961 and there is a continuous flow of the applications throughout the year. As on 23rd April 2013, 3410 individuals are getting financial assistance under this scheme.

Applications received under the Scheme are scrutinized and the applications found complete are forwarded to the Zonal Cultural Centers (ZCCs) for their recommendations. The reports received from ZCCs are placed before the Expert Committee for their recommendations. As on 23rd April 2013, there are 2442 applications under scrutiny in ZCCs. 148 applications received from ZCCs are pending for placing them before the Expert Committee.

The applications are received throughout the year, and the consideration of application depends upon various factors like completeness of applications, fulfillment of eligibility criteria under the Scheme, recommendation from ZCCs, availability of funds and consideration by the Expert Committee. The time frame for taking a final decision in each case varies accordingly. Efforts are made to dispose them of expeditiously.