Information given by the Minister in the Parliament
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)


What's the NEWS

• The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is an international project which seeks to provide information on the entrepreneurial landscape of countries.
• GEM carries out survey-based research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world and is being led by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad.
• As per Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) India Report (21-22), India's entrepreneurial activity expanded in 2021, with its Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate(percentage of adults (aged 18-64) who are starting or running a new business) increased to 14.4% in 2021, up from 5.3% in 2020.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is implementing various programmes to encourage entrepreneurship in the country as mentioned below:-

• Pilot project, ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Startups by Women (WEE)' is being implemented in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany to pilot incubation and acceleration programmes for women micro entrepreneurs, enabling them to start new businesses and scale up existing enterprises in Maharashtra and other States, viz.Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and North Eastern region of the country.
• Pilot Project on Entrepreneurship Development (PM YUVA) has been launched in November, 2019 for creating an enabling ecosystem through entrepreneurship education, training, advocacy and easy access to entrepreneurship network, for students and alumni of skill training institutes viz. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) and Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS). The scheme covers 10 States including Maharashtra and 2 Union Territories.
• Entrepreneurship Promotion and Mentoring of Micro and Small Businesses in Six Holy Cities: The project seeks to catalyse local entrepreneurial activities through involvement of potential and existing entrepreneurs, through entrepreneurship awareness, education and mentoring in Pandharpur, Puri, Varanasi, Haridwar, Kollur and Bodh Gaya.

Protection of Great Indian Bustards

Important steps taken by the Government for protection of Great Indian Bustards in the country including details of captive breeding facilities are as given below:

• A site for establishment of a Conservation Breeding Centre for the Great Indian Bustard has been identified at Kota District, Rajasthan in consultations with State Forest Departments of Rajasthan and Gujarat, Wildlife Institute of India and international experts, under the project titled ‘Habitat Improvement and Conservation Breeding of Great Indian Bustard-an integrated approach'.
• A satellite conservation breeding facility with incubator, hatcher, chick rearing and housing for captive birds has been set up at Sam, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and is managed by WII Scientists, Rajasthan Forest Department with the technical assistance of the International Fund for Houbara Conservation and Reneco, Abu Dhabi.
• The Great Indian Bustard is listed in Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby, according it highest degree of legal protection from hunting.
• The species has been identified for conservation efforts under the component ‘Species Recovery Programme' of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS)-Development of Wildlife Habitat.
• Financial and technical assistance is provided to the State/Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Development of Wildlife Habitat for providing better protection to Great Indian Bustard and its habitat.
• Ministry has taken up an initiative on conservation breeding of the Great Indian Bustard in collaboration with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra Forest Departments and technical support from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
• The Ministry with financial support from National Authority for Compensatory Afforestation Funds has sanctioned an outlay of Rs. 33.85 crores for the duration of five years for the programme titled ‘Habitat Improvement and Conservation Breeding of Great Indian Bustard-an integrated approach'.
• The objective of this programme is to build up captive population of Great Indian Bustard and to release the chicks in the wild for increasing the population and also to promote in-situ conservation of the species.
• The Great Indian Bustard has been included in the Appendix I of Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) of the basis of proposal submitted by India.
• As per the studies conducted by Wildlife Institute of India, there are around 150 Great Indian Bustards left across the country which includes about 128 birds in Rajasthan and less than 10 birds each in the States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

National Education Policy, 2020

• The National Education Policy, 2020 has recommended a revamp of the higher education in the country to make education more student-centric and multi-disciplinary.
• It aims to pave way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country.
• The policy envisions a complete overhaul and re-energizing of the higher education system to overcome existing challenges and thereby deliver good quality higher education with equity and inclusion.

Some of the salient features of National Education Policy 2020 for higher education inter-alia includes the following:-

• Increasing GER in higher education to 50%;
• Holistic Multidisciplinary Education with multiple entry/exit options;
• NTA to offer Common Entrance Exam for Admission to HEIs;
• Establishment of Academic Bank of Credit;
• ‘Light but Tight' regulation;
• Equitable and inclusive education - Special emphasis given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups(SEDGs);
• Exposure of vocational education in school and higher education system;
• UGC has issued ‘UGC (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulation, 2021'.
• Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) has been set up and Guidelines on Multiple Entry/Exit have been issued to promote flexibility of curriculum framework and interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary academic mobility of students across the Higher Education Institutions in the country with appropriate ‘Credit Transfer' mechanism.
• The ABC portal (https://www.abc.gov.in/) is open for registration of both Students and Universities.

Linking of Vocational and Higher Education

• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has advocated integration of vocational education with main stream education in a phased manner.
• Accordingly, University Grants Commission (UGC) has facilitated Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to offer skill-based programmes under National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).
• The objective of NSQF is, inter alia, to integrate relevant skills into the higher education system in order to make higher education relevant to the learners and the community.
• In addition, UGC has also notified guidelines on Internship/Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme in the year 2020.
• As per the UGC Guidelines, any Under Graduate (UG) degree programme is eligible to embed Internship/Apprenticeship into the degree programme.
• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has also brought out flexibility in the eligibility criteria for admission in Engineering courses in order to integrate skilling courses.
• It allows candidates having one of the vocational subjects as recognised by CBSE/ State Education Boards / or having B. Voc in specialised domain, for admission through lateral entry into 2^nd year of B. Tech Programme in AICTE-approved Institutions.
• AICTE has launched Kaushal Augmentation and Restructuring Mission of AICTE (KARMA) Scheme for AICTE approved Institutions and Centrally funded Technical Institutions.
• Under this scheme Institutions are approved for providing Skill training as per NSQ Framework to School Drop Outs, Students Perusing their degree/Diploma and to willing School students of CBSE, State Boards in the vicinity of Institutions.

Economy/GSIII
Credit Guarantee Scheme For Subordinate Debt (CGSSD)

What's the NEWS

• The MSME Ministry announced the extension of the Rs 20,000-crore Credit Guarantee Scheme for Subordinate Debt (CGSSD) by another year.

Know! about CGSSD

• Launched in June 2020, the scheme was initially valid till March 31, 2021, but was later extended till March 31, 2022, in order to "keep the avenues of assistance to stressed MSME units open
• The latest extension was "on the basis of the requests received from the stakeholders of the scheme.
• The Government has decided to further extend this scheme till 31.03.2023.
• The scheme provides credit facility via banks to the promoters of stressed MSMEs including special mention accounts (SMA)-2 and non-perform asset (NPA) accounts that are eligible for restructuring as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on the books of the Lending institutions.
• Government announced creation of ‘Distressed Assets Fund- - Subordinate Debt for Stressed MSMEs' on 13th May, 2020, under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package.

Social Issues/Health/GSII
MATERNAL MORTALITY RATIO (MMR)
What's the NEWS

• India is all set to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 70 maternal deaths per lakh live births by 2030

Special Bulletin on MMR (Highlights )

• Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India has declined by 10 points as per the Special Bulletin on MMR released by the Registrar General of India
• A remarkable fall of more than 15 percent has been observed in Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
• It has declined from 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19, an 8.8% decline.
• The country has been witnessing a progressive reduction in the MMR from 130 in 2014-16, 122 in 2015-17 and 113 in 2016-18 to 103 in 2017-19, said the release issued on Monday.
• With this persistent decline, India is on the verge of achieving the National Health Policy (NHP) target of 100 per lakh live births by 2020 and certainly on the track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 70 per lakh live births by 2030.
• The number of States that have achieved the Sustainable Development Goal target has now risen from five to seven - Kerala (30), Maharashtra (38), Telangana (56), Tamil Nadu (58), Andhra Pradesh (58), Jharkhand (61), and Gujarat (70).
• There are now nine States that have achieved the MMR target set by the National Health Policy, which includes the above seven States and Karnataka (83) and Haryana (96).
• Uttarakhand (101), West Bengal (109), Punjab (114), Bihar (130), Odisha (136) and Rajasthan (141) have MMR between 100 and 150, while Chhattisgarh (160), Madhya Pradesh (163), Uttar Pradesh (167) and Assam (205) have the ratio above 150.
  Encouraging achievement has been reported by Uttar Pradesh, which has shown the highest decline of 30 points, Rajasthan (23), Bihar (19), Punjab (15) and Odisha (14).

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