Topics covered- Prelims Specific
SAFED SAGAR
Context
- The Chief of Air Staff (CAS) visits AF STN Bhisiana and Sarsawa to pay homage to the air warriors who made supreme sacrifice during operation Safed Sagar.
About
- Operation Safed Sagar was the code name assigned to the Indian Air Force’s role in acting jointly with Ground troops during the Kargil war.
- It was aimed at flushing out Regular and Irregular troops of the Pakistani Army from vacated Indian Positions in the Kargil sector along the Line of Control.
- Indian Army declared the Kargil mission successful on July 26, 1999. Since then the day has been celebrated annually as Kargil Vijay Diwas.
Background
- The war took place between May and July of 1999 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kargil district. It began with the infiltration of both Pakistani troops and terrorists into Indian Territory.
- The infiltrators positioned themselves in key locations that gave them a strategic advantage during the start of the conflict.
Topics covered- Governments Schemes and Initiatives
SWAYAM
About
- It stands for “Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds.”
- SWAYAM is an online platform of the Ministry of HRD through which online programmes and courses will be offered to students in India.
- President of India launched the SWAYAM, the portal that takes high quality education to the doorstep of everyone.
- It is the Indian electronic e-education platform which proposes to offer courses from the high school stage to Post-Graduate stage in an interactive electronic platform.
- The SWAYAM Prabha – the 32 DTH channels operationalised for telecasting high quality educational content free of charge using the GSAT-15 satellite transponders.
- US government is cooperating in this project.
- With the launch of SWAYAM, India has become one of the few countries in the World which has its own online interactive learning platform that provides, not only video lectures, reading material but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in securing credits after completing the assessment system.
- More than 400 Courses are available on SWAYAM covering all the engineering and non-engineering subjects at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
- The UGC has already issued Regulation that allows transfer of credits earned through the courses done through SWAYAM into the academic record of the students.
Padhe Bharat- Badhe Bharat
About
- Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has announced ‘Padhe Bharat- Badhe Bharat’an initiative to promote reading culture among students.
- The initiative has been launched under ‘Samagra Shiksha’.
- Under this initiative, government will give an annual library grant to schools to allow students widen their ambit of learning.
- The grant will be given to Primary to Senior Secondary levels and will vary between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 20000.
Samagra Shiksha scheme
About
- ‘Samagra Shiksha’ is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12th and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.
- The programme was introduced in the Union Budget 2018-19 with the aim to treat school education holistically without segmentation of primary and secondary education.
- This programme subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
Objectives of scheme
- Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention.
- Enhancing learning outcomes of students.
- Bridging social and gender gaps in school education
- Gender and Equity, Inclusive Education.
- Entitlements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 including uniforms, textbooks etc.
- Promoting vocationalisation of education.
- Strengthening teacher education institutions like SCERTs and Diets to improve quality of teachers.
- Providing annual grant of Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per school for strengthening of libraries.
Topic: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population
National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education (NSIGSE)
About
- It is Centrally Sponsored Scheme aims to promote enrollment of girl child in the age group of 14-18 at secondary stage.
- State/ UT Governments, Schools controlled and managed by State Governments, Local Bodies and Aided Private Schools and Panchayati Raj Institutions will be the implementing partners.
Aim of NSIGSE
- The aim of this scheme is to establish an enabling environment to reduce the drop outs and to promote the enrolment of girl child belonging to SC/ST communities in secondary schools and ensure their retention up to the 18 years of age.
Eligible to NSIGSE
- All girls belonging to SC/ST communities who pass class VIII.
- All girls who pass class VIII examination from Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalayas and enroll in class IX in State/ UT Government, Government-aided and Local Body schools.
Features of the scheme
- An amount of Rs.3000/- is deposited in the name of eligible unmarried girls as fixed deposit on enrolment in class IX.
- The beneficiaries are entitled to withdraw it along with interest thereon reaching on 18 years of age and passing class 10th class examination.
- The scheme is covered under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme.
- The scheme is on-boarded on National Scholarship Portal (NSP) since 2015-16.
