Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | 28th Jan 19

Table of Contents

Year End Review MSDE : PART II

Skill India for farmers

In order to develop skills and increase productive of the rural youth, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) inked an agreement.
Both MSDE and MoA & FW recognize the importance of providing employable skills to the youth, to improve their livelihood.
Under the MoU signed, MSDE will identify job roles to attract rural youth towards agriculture sector in order to fulfill their needs and aspirations.
To begin with the Pilot at a few selected Krishi Vikas Kendras involving aspirational and technologically oriented job roles (Micro irrigation Technician, Green House Operators, Green House Fitter, Aquaculture technicians) under Agriculture / Allied Sector, Food Processing and related sectors can lay a very strong foundation for new Pan India Model.
The MoU has been signed for duration of five years and aims to encourage youth to undergo skill training on various vocations in agriculture for gainful wage or self-employment.
Inter-ministerial collaborations – Recognizing that skilling is not the sole mandate of MSDE, but a key requirement of several other ministries to implement their flagship program, MSDE is collaborating with several national missions, projects and ministries.
MSDE is providing bridge training to electrical lineman involved with Saubhagya scheme which is initiated by the Ministry of Power
Assisting in the upgradation of skills of railway staff under the Swarna Project under Ministry of Railway
Contributing to the Swacchh Bharat Mission by skilling quality masons who are key to our move to Open Defecation Free India – by constructing quality toilets speedily
Supporting the Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project and Namami Gange.
Supporting the “Transformation of Aspirational Districts” program of NITI Aayog, which was formally launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in January 2018, will cover 117 districts across India. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) commenced its “Aspirational Skilling Abhiyan 2018-19”.
Aspirational Skilling Abhiyan has been conceived to aid and complement the Transformation of Aspirational Districts program.
The campaign will support the skilling initiatives/component of the aspirational districts by addressing district level challenges.
Dedicated team of over 150 officers from MSDE, Directorate General of Training (DGT), National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) are being deputed to work with these districts in three phases. Through this program, MSDE endeavors to facilitate strengthening of governance and institutional infrastructure in the aspirational districts.

Skill India Portal

Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan announced the launch of Skill India Portal.
This improved skill development management system will provide an end-to-end solution to bring all the stakeholders in the skill ecosystem to a robust unified platform.
The Skill India portal aims to bring the entire candidate and training partner database on a single platform.
This would be a unified interface which would act as an integrated platform for all skilling initiatives and schemes run by various Central Ministries, state governments, NSDC and Corporates among others. This portal will help in empowering skill training by creating a repository of candidates, their skilling lifecycle, placement etc. and would be a rich data pool for better analytics, which would empower informed decision making for future development programs.
Agreements and partnerships have been struck with the private sector to boost the Skill India programme. Collaborations with corporates like NASSCOM, SAP, IBM, Adobe helped create curriculum aligned with jobs of the future.
The programme will help to facilitate development of skills, including in areas of new-generation technology like artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and block-chain technology

Skill Saathi

A Mega Counselling Program – Skill India has also created a platform to provide skill-based career counselling to potential candidates through initiatives like Skill Saathi. Guidance and counselling is an important aspect of developing skillful youth. It is an important part of a pupil’s support system and should be provided at all levels. It helps candidates develop their skills and learning abilities.
Initiatives like Skill Saathi also keep in mind the demand side of industry and business by providing the potential workforce with decision-making skills, pre-employment skills, increased worker maturity, reduction in the rate of attrition, increase in the rate of productivity and employment of candidates as per their areas of interest, aptitude and training.
Special Projects under PMKVY especially focused on tribal populations have been initiated in 2018.Below are few of them:

Bru Project: The project aims for skilling of BRU TRIBE of Mizoram, who were displaced and currently living in the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps in the districts of North Tripura. Under the project, 556 candidates have been benefited.
Katkari primitive tribe: Project aims to skill 1020 candidates from the Katkari tribe in Maharashtra.

(iii) Skill Development scheme for LWE districts: Government is taking many initiatives to bring back the Naxalites to the mainstream of our country.
We are implementing the scheme “Skill Development in 47 Districts Affected by Left Wing Extremism”,
The scheme is assisting State Governments to establish 1 new ITI in each of 47 affected Districts. Out of the 47 districts, 39 districts are Aspirational.
In 2018, DGT relaxed the entry qualification to ITIs for surrendered Naxalites, as per policy of Government, under which the beneficiary will undergo one-year pre-ITI Foundation course.
The foundation course will enable them to fill the gap of regular academic attainment and enable them to understand the ITI curriculum. On successful completion of the course, they will be admitted to ITI for one- or two-year duration regular trades.
These candidates will also be eligible for one year “National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)” after successful completion of ITI Program.
Every beneficiary will be eligible for a monthly stipend of Rs. 6000/- for a maximum period of 36 months under the scheme “Surrender-cum-Rehabilitation Scheme of Left Wing Extremists” being implemented by MHA.

Common Facility Centre for Filigree Craftsman

Odisha has a rich heritage of art and crafts that has been made popular by the work of local artisans, work that dates back over 1000 years.
In an endeavor to further upgrade the skills of these talented artisans, and make them self-reliant, the Skillcum-Common Facility Centre for Filigree Craftsman at Cuttack was launche din April 2018.
The centre carries the aim to train future goldsmiths, while also serve as the cornerstone of revival of Filigree handicraft. The vision of the program is to have an international-level Filigree exhibition-cum-workshop in Cuttack to provide wider opportunities to Filigree Craftsmen living in rural areas.

MoC with Government of Japan

A Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) was signed between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Government of Japan at Tokyo.
The first batch of 17 students has completed pre–departure training at CII’s Chennai facility and have received their Internship Offer Letters form a leading Automotive manufacturer in Japan.
They have been trained by native Japanese Trainers, engaged specifically for the programme to ensure high quality training in varied divisions like production, quality department, technical department etc.
These interns mostly hail from rural villages of Southern Tamil Nadu. They belong to economically weaker sections of the society with average family income ranging from INR 40,000 – INR 80,000 per annum.
India Skills Finals: Team India is all set for 45th World Skills International competition to be held in Kazan in Russia.
IndiaSkills 2018, the biggest skills competition of the country, designed to encourage and prepare the youth for the global stage, ended on a grand note in New Delhi in October 2018.
More than 400 competitors from 27 states displayed their skills in 46 skills, 7 traditional skills and 4 demo skills, before experts and jury members.
Maharashtra topped the medals tally with 23 medals, followed by Odisha, which had 21 winners. Karnataka and Delhi came third with 16 medals each, while Chandigarh finished in the fifth position with 12 medals.
The finalists will represent India at the 45thWorldSkills Competition to be held in 2019.
Team India is led by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the guidance of the MSDE at the event.
2017 saw one of the most successful year for Team India, which won 1 Silver, 1 Bronze and 9 Medallions for Excellence at the World Skill competition held in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
This is the best medal tally that India had since it started participating at these competitions in 2007.

Euro Skills 2018

EuroSkills is the European Championship of young professionals, a promotion of latest skill development around Europe.
EuroSkills was held at Budapest, Hungary, from 26th to 28th September 2018. It has more than 28 countries participating in the competition out of which India was one of the guest countries, along with other countries like Japan, UAE and Korea.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Two Day International Stock Taking Conference on Tiger Conservation inaugurated in New Delhi
The 3rd Stock Taking Conference on Tiger Conservation was inaugurated in New Delhi today. Third in a series of Stock Taking Conferences, this is the second to be held in India after 2012 and is expected to have wide ranging discussions on the status of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) by the 13 tiger range countries besides deliberations on combating wildlife trafficking

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who is also the Chairman of the National Tiger Conservation Authority said on the inauguration that conservation of tigers is a duty which has to be meticulously pursued and more innovative ways needs to be devised so that we can better the targets adopted by tiger range countries in 2010 at St. Petersburg, Russia. “The New India that we envisage is not only for humans but for every aspect including wildlife”, said Dr. Vardhan.
During the St. Petersburg declaration in 2010, tiger range countries had resolved to double tiger numbers across their range by 2022.
At the time of deliberations at St. Petersburg, India’s tiger estimate stood at 1411, which after the third cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation, 2014 has nearly been doubled to 2226. This has largely been possible because of strides made against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), predominant among them being legislation to ensure protection of tiger habitat and enhancement of penalties, besides providing a statutory basis for inviolate space.
The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation, 2018 is currently under way.

Tiger Range Countries, namely

Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand, Vietnam, besides Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan, having ranges of Snow Leopard.

History of the GTI

The Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) was launched in 2008 as a global alliance of governments, international organizations, civil society, the conservation and scientific communities and the private sector, with the aim of working together to save wild tigers from extinction. In 2013, the scope was broadened to include Snow Leopards.
The GTI’s founding partners included the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Smithsonian Institution, Save the Tiger Fund, and International Tiger Coalition (representing more than 40 non-government organizations). The initiative is led by the 13 tiger range countries (TRCs).
In November 2010, leaders of the tiger range countries (TRCs) assembled at an International Tiger Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia to adopt the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation and endorsed its implementation mechanism, called the Global Tiger Recovery Program. Their overarching goal was to double the number of wild tigers across their geographical area from about 3,200 to more than 7,000 by 2022.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launches National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to attract talent and strengthen higher agricultural education in the country
The second Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) of the country established in Barahi, Jharkhand
Shri Singh informed that the ICAR has recently launched Rs 1100 crore ambitious National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to attract talent and strengthen higher agricultural education in the country. This project will be funded by the World Bank and the Indian Government on a 50:50 basis.
In addition, a four year degree in Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries and Forestry has been declared a professional degree.
He said that Rajendra Agriculture University has been upgraded as Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University to strengthen the government’s effort to bring green revolution in Eastern India including North East.
At the same time, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has been set up in Barhi, Jharkhand on the lines of IARI, Pusa New Delhi, and
Another IARI is being set up in Assam.
In order to promote the participation of students in agricultural business, Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) scheme is being run, under which practical experience of agriculture and entrepreneurship is provided to undergraduate students.