Generic Drugs in Rural Areas

Public Health comes under State sujbect . Under the National Health Mission (NHM),  in order to strengthen  healthcare system including support for provision of free generic drugs to those who access public health facilities including in rural areas, based on the requirement posed by the States/UTs in their Programme Implementation Plans. Under NHM, an incentive of upto 5% additional funding is provided to those states that implement policy and systems to provide free essential drugs(in generic form) to all those who access public health facilities.

Special Grant for 100 yearsUniversities

The University Grants Commission (UGC) provide Heritage Grants to universities and colleges which are more than 100 years old and give the Special Heritage  The guidelines of the scheme of “Granting Special Heritage Status to Universities and Colleges” are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/4170650_ Guidelines-for-Heritage.pdf . The scheme guidelines have provision for grants for conservation work and offering short term certificate or diploma programme in any of the heritage branches. The Special status will be granted by UGC Exper Committee under specific institutional requirements and evaluation . As on date 19 Colleges have been recommended for funding under the scheme. The details of grants allocated to these colleges, college-wise, is at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8647293­­_Heritage-website.pdf .

e-Classes and e-Books

The Ministry of HRD planning  to impart education through e-Classes and e-books for the college students. Under National Mission on Education ,about 93,000 e-Books available  for the college students  through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) Programme. Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) is likely to begin around August, 2016 and it shall make available ‘On Line Courses’ called ‘MOOCs’ for students from class 9 to 12, Under Graduate and Post Graduate classes in all the disciplines.

Under the “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools”, component of the centrally sponsored scheme Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), ICT enabled teaching and learning is supported in Government and Government aided Secondary and Higher Secondary schools.

Keeping pace with the Digital India initiative, a web-site called “e-Pathshala”, has been developed by NCERT to disseminate all the NCERT textbooks, audio, video, images, interactive objects etc. The digital contents including e-books from Class I-XII are available on e-Pathshala, National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) and NCERT websites. The digital contents are available in English, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

Central Universities Status

Under the administrative control of the Ministry of Human Resource Development  there are 41 Central Universities  in India , . The total number of sanctioned teaching posts in various Central Universities is 16,600 (2371 Professor, 4708 Associate Professor, 9521 Assistant Professor).

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) start at Tirupati

The Union Cabinet, given its approval for operationalisation of new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh from the Academic Year of 2015-16 from a transit / temporary campus, at an estimated cost of Rs. 137.30 crore for the initial three years (2015-18).

 
  This is  as a sequel to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, bifurcating the then State of Andhra Pradesh to the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, the Government of India inter alia decided to establish an Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISER), an Institute of National Importance, in the residual State of Andhra Pradesh. Consequently, the State Government of Andhra Pradesh has earmarked 244 acres of land at Srinivasapuram, Pangur and Chindepalli villages of Yerpedu Mandal for construction of the permanent campus of IISER, Tirupati.

 it has been decided to commence its functioning from the academic session of 2015-16 from the transit / temporary campus at Sree Rama Engineering College, Tirupati.

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Rules, 2016 notified

Amendments done in the Principal Rules namely the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995 by the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Rules, 2016 have been notified yesterday.

    Consequent upon amendments done in the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) {PoA} Act, 1989 by the Scheduled Castes and the  Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 (No. 1 of 2016), certain amendments had been  necessitated in the subordinate legislation namely the Scheduled Castes and the  Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, made by the Central Government in exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (1) of  Section 23 of the PoA Act.

2.  Accordingly a Task Force was constituted under Chairpersonship of the Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, vide Order dated 22.01.2106, with members drawn from Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Home Affairs, Tribal Affairs, Law and Justice, National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The Task Force having held two meetings on 02.02.2016 and 22.02.2016, finalized its report.  Based on the recommendations contained in the said Report of the Task Force and the introspection done in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, amendments of following nature have been done in the PoA Rules:-

(i)  Amendments of consequential nature arising from amendments done in the PoA Act.

(ii) Rationalization of the phasing of payment of relief amount to victims for various offences of atrocities, and substitution of  Annexure-I of the Schedule to the PoA Rules, which specifies relief amount for various offences of atrocities. This includes prescribing relief for new offences of atrocities as well for rephrased/expanded offences and not linking payment of any part of relief amount with the requirement of medical examination for non-invasive kind of offences against women like sexual harassment, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty, assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe, voyeurism, stalking.

(iii) Provision of relief for offences of rape and gang rape.

(iv) Increase in the existing quantum of relief amount i.e. between Rs. 75,000/- to Rs. 7, 50,000/-, depending upon the nature of the offence, by around 10%, as rounded of i.e. between Rs. 85,000/- to Rs. 8, 25,000/-, depending upon the nature of the offence, while linking it with the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers for the month of January, 2016.

3. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Rules, 2016, have been accordingly notified in the Gazette of India Extraordinary on 14^th April, 2016.

NCERT BOOKS- FREE OF COST

All the schools affiliated to CBSE follow syllabi prescribed by the NCERT. NCERT is running its own sales counters at Bhopal, Shillong, Ajmer, Mysore, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and New Delhi for catering to the needs of individuals and schools. Any school affiliated to CBSE can procure their requirement of NCERT textbooks in bulk from any of these centers.

NCERT has given copyright to eight states and the states have to print books to meet their demand. The NCERT books from classes I to XII are available free of cost at epathshala.nic.in and the publications by CBSE are available free of cost at e-CBSE Portal at www.cbse.nic.in, students and parents can avail this facility.

New IIT Fees structure

The report of the Committee on funding of IITs and the recommendations of SCIC for revision of annual fee in IITs to Rs.3 lakhs per year from the current Rs.90000 has been examined. The rationale for the SCIC recommendation arises from the fact that the cost of maintenance of the IITs is to be met largely from the student fee. On an average, the Government is spending about Rs 6 lakh per year on each student in the IITs.

Keeping in view the interests of the students, proposed hike is denied. Instead, it has been proposed that the increase is capped at Rs.2 lakh per annum. This increase in fee is subject to the following safeguards for protecting the interests of the socially and economically backward students:

A) The SC/ST/Differently abled students shall get complete fee waiver.

B) The most economically backward students (whose family income is less than Rs.1 lakh per annum) shall get full remission of the fee.

C) The other economically backward students (whose family income is between Rs.1 lakh to Rs.5 lakh per annum) shall get remission of 2/3rd of the fee.

D) All students shall have access to interest free loan under the ‘Vidya Lakshmi Scheme’ for the total portion of the tuition fee payable.

Further, all IITs are asked to use the increased student fee for infrastructure development with the assistance of funds from the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) so that the increased fee directly translates into better infrastructure for the students. As per orders issued, the matter will be placed in next meeting of the IIT Council for ratification.

India’s First Semi-High Speed Train

Gatimaan Express Capable of Running at a Maximum Speed of 160 Kmph

India’s first semi-high speed train christened as Gatimaan Express capable of running at a maximum speed of 160 KMPH is introduced on the Indian Railway system from 5^th April, 2016 (Tuesday) onwards. The train will run between H. Nizammuddin station and Agra Cantt. Station. 

 The  unique feature of this train is free entertainment facility provided by an agency MyFreeTv.in .  Under this facility, passengers can view various entertaining videos during travel on their smart phone, tablets or laptops even without internet connection through WiFi.  

The coaches to be used in Gatiman Express are new LHB coaches turned out by Rail Coach Factory(RCF), Kapurthala. The exteriors of these coaches have also been given a new look by different colour scheme.  The flooring of the coaches has been given marathon Shine treatment for cleaning and also given flooring a bright and shiny look. The train will be hauled by an electrical engine WAP 5 with horse power of 5500 HP.

In conjunction with this train, IRCTC has also arranged two different Agra Guided Tour Packages to coincide with the Time Table of this Gatimaan Express. One package is for the full day whereas the other package is for two days, the details of which could be seen at IRCTC website. 

This Gatimaan Express will run six days a week except Friday and will carry the numbers 12050/12049 in its regular trips.  

The regular run of train no. 12050 H. Nizamuddin-Agra Cantt Gatimaan will start from H.Nizamuddin station at 08.10 a.m. from 06.04.2016 to reach Agra Cantt.  at 09.50 a.m. the same day.

‘Gatiman’ Express train will comprise of TWO Executive AC Chair Car & EIGHT AC Chair Car coaches. The fare for AC Chair Car is Rs.750/- whereas it is Rs.1500/- for Executive AC Chair Car. No concessions are admissible in this train.