Education
National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)

Relevance IN - Prelims (about NIPUN Bharat + Samagra Shiksha abhiyaan) )+ Mains ( GS II Education)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Education Minister will launch National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)
• As a part of the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, the NIPUN Bharat programme will be introduced.

NIPUN Bharat

• It will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy and a five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up at the national- state- district- block- school level in all states and Union Territories, under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
• The vision of NIPUN Bharat is to create an environment that ensures the universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy and every child achieve the learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by Class 3, by 2026-27.

Samagra Shiksha

• It is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12.
• The scheme has been prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• It subsumes the three Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).

The major objectives of the Scheme are

• Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students;
• Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education;
• Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education;
• Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions;
• Promoting Vocationalisation of education;
• Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; and
• Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as a nodal agencies for teacher training.

Defence
Short Span Bridging System (SSBS)

Relevance IN - Prelims (about SSBS)
What's the NEWS

• The first production lot of 12 Short Span Bridging System (SSBS)-10 m, designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been inducted into Indian Army.

Know! about SSBS

• The SSBS-10 m plays a crucial role of bridging the gaps up to 9.5 m as a single span providing a 4 m wide, fully decked roadway, ensuring faster movement of the troops.
• Research & Development Establishment (Engrs) Pune, a premier engineering laboratory of DRDO, has designed and developed the system in association with M/s L&T Ltd.
• The 12 bridges are part of 102 SSBS-10 m from M/s L&T Ltd, which is the production agency.
• The Project Short Span Bridging System involved the development of two prototypes of 5 m SSBS on Tatra 6x6 chassis and another two prototypes of 10 m SSBS on Tatra 8x8 re-engineered chassis.
• Both the systems have undergone rigorous Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA), MET and User trials and after successful completion of all the trials, the systems were recommended for induction into the services.
• This bridging system is compatible with Sarvatra Bridging System (75 m), where the last span requires covering gaps less than 9.5 m. The deployed bridge is of the load classification of MLC 70.
• The system will help in quick movement of troops and enhance the mobilization of resources.
• The DRDO has vast experience in developing critical Combat Engineering Systems like Military Bridging Systems.
• Number of mechanised mobility solutions for the Indian Army like Single Span 5 m and 10 m, Short Span Bridging System, 46 m Modular Bridge, 20 m BLT-T72 and multi span 75 m Sarvatra Bridging System etc. have been developed.
• Manually launched 34.5 m Mountain Foot Bridge was also developed by DRDO earlier. These bridges have been widely accepted by the Indian Army.

Infrastructure Development
Freight Smart Cities

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Freight Smart Cities initiative) + Mains ( GS III Infrastructure development)
What's the NEWS

• With growing urbanisation, requirements of rapid economic growth including e-commerce and associated first and last mile freight movements; increasing congestion, noise and sound pollution in the Indian cities is a menace affecting both public health and local economies.
• The Logistics Division under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has decided to work in a planned manner to improve the city freight movement.
• This is all the more relevant as the demand for urban freight is expected to grow by 140 per cent over the next 10 years.

Freight Smart Cities initiative

• Under the Freight Smart Cities initiative, city-level logistics committees would be formed.
• These committees would have related government departments and agencies at the local level, state and from the reacted central ministries and agencies.
• These would also include private sector from the logistics services and also users of logistics services.
• These committees would co-create City Logistics Plans to implement performance improvement measures locally.
• On the Freight smart city initiatives, the Logistics Division is working closely with GIZ (Germany) under Indo-German Development Cooperation, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India.
• A challenge is expected to be announced to encourage the participation of cities in this initiative.
• From the ten cities to be identified on immediate basis, it is planned to expand the list to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country including all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population.
• The list of cities to be taken up would however be finalised in consultation with the State governments.

Social Justice
Unique ID for Persons with Disabilities
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about UDID Scheme + ADIP Scheme + about ALIMCO) + Mains ( GS II and III Social issues and social justice - government initiatives)
What's the NEWS

• Unique ID for Persons with Disabilities project is being implemented with a view of creating a National Database for PwDs, and to issue a Unique Disability Identity Card to each person with disabilities
• The UDID scheme has been implemented in all the states across the country, Persons with disabilities will not need to make multiple copies of documents as the card will capture all the necessary details and is valid throughout the country
• The UDID card will be the single document of identification, verification of the disabled for availing various benefits in future, about 57 Lakh 95 Thousand UDID cards have already been issued.

ADIP Scheme

• Scheme of Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP Scheme)
• The main objective of the Assistance to Disabled persons for purchasing / fitting of aids / appliances (ADIP) scheme is to assist the needy disabled persons in procuring durable, sophisticated and scientifically manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances that can promote their physical, social and psychological rehabilitation, by reducing the effects of disabilities and enhance their economic potential.
• The aids and appliances supplied under the Scheme shall conform to BIS specifications to the extent possible.
• The scheme is implemented through implementing agencies such as the NGOs, National Institutes under this Ministry and ALIMCO (a PSU).

The following agencies would be eligible to implement the Scheme on behalf of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, subject to fulfillment of laid down terms and conditions:

• Societies, registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and their branches, if any, separately.
• Registered charitable trusts
• District Rural Development Agencies, Indian Red Cross Societies and other Autonomous Bodies headed by District Collector/Chief Executive Officer/District Development Officer of Zilla Parishad.
• National/Apex Institutes including ALIMCO functioning under administrative control of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment/Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• State Handicapped Development Corporations.
• Local Bodies- Zilla Parishad, Municipalities, District Autonomous Development Councils and Panchayats.
• Hospitals registered as separate entity, as recommended by state/central government
• Nehru Yuvak Kendras.

Eligibility of the Beneficiaries
A person with disabilities fulfilling following conditions would be eligible for assistance under ADIP Scheme through authorized agencies:

• He/she should be an Indian citizen of any age.
• Should be certified by a Registered Medical Practitioner that he/she is disabled and fit to use prescribed aid/appliance. Holds a 40% Disablement Certificate.
• Person who is employed/self-employed or getting pension and whose monthly income from all sources does not exceed Rs. 20,000/- per month.
• In case of dependents, the income of parents/guardians should not exceed Rs. 20,000/- per month.
• Persons who have not received assistance from the Government, local bodies and Non-Official Organisations during the last 3 years for the same purpose. However, for children below 12 years of age this limit would be 1 year.

ALIMCO

• Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) is a Schedule ‘C' Miniratna Category II Central Public Sector Enterprises, registered under Section 8 (Not for Profit motive) of the Companies Act 2013
• It is functioning under the Administrative Control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
• It is 100% owned Govt. of India Central Public Sector Enterprises with an objective of benefiting the persons with disability to the maximum extent possible by manufacturing Rehabilitation Aids for persons with disabilities and by promoting, encouraging and developing the availability, use, supply and distribution of Artificial Limbs and other Rehabilitation Aids to the disabled persons of the country.
• Profitability is not the motive of the operations of the Corporation and its main thrust is in providing better quality of Aids & Appliances to larger number of disabled persons at reasonable price.
• The Corporation started manufacturing artificial aids in 1976.
• It has four Auxiliary Production Centres (AAPCs) situated at Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jabalpur (M.P.), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Chanalon (Punjab) and Ujjain.
• The Corporation is the only manufacturing company producing various types of assistive devices under one roof to serve all types of disabilities across the country.

Social
India responsible for largest drop in open defecation since 2015: WASH report
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about WASH report and about WASH institute) + Mains ( GS II Social issues - government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• India was responsible for the largest drop in open defecation since 2015, in terms of absolute numbers, according to a new report by the Wash Institute, a global non-profit organisation July 1, 2021.
• Besides open defecation, the Joint Monitoring Report also emphasised universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to achieve the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 in achieving universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services.

WASH Report (highlights)

• In 2006, the third round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) found open defecation to be practiced by less than 10 per cent of the population in four states and the Union Territory of Delhi, but by more than half the population in 11 states.
• By 2016, when the fourth round of the NFHS was conducted, open defecation had decreased in all states, with the largest drops seen in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana

Progress on SDG 6

• The report also noted some progress towards the achieving SDG 6. Between 2016 and 2020, the global population with access to safely managed drinking water at home increased to 74 per cent, from 70 per cent.
• SDG 6 states that ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 entails that water must be accessible at source, available when needed and free from any contamination.
• The report has shown an improvement in at-source water resources including piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, rainwater and packaged or delivered water.
• Water sources are considered ‘accessible on premises' if the point of water collection is within the dwelling, compound, yard or plot, or is supplied to the household through piped supply or tanks.
• Water is counted as ‘available when needed' if households report having ‘sufficient' water.
• For the purposes of global monitoring, drinking water is considered ‘free from contamination' if the water is free and safe from contamination of bacteria like E coli.
• There was an increase in safely managed sanitation services to 54 per cent, from 47 per cent between 2016 and 2020
• Onsite sanitation system, a system in which excreta and wastewater are collected, stored and / or treated on the plot where they are generated had shown a significant global increase
• Globally, access to safely managed sanitation services increased over the 2000-2020 period by an average of 1.27 percentage points per year.

Hand Hygiene for All' initiative

• In June 2020, the World Health Organization and Unicef jointly launched the ‘Hand Hygiene for All' initiative, which aims to improve access to handwashing infrastructure as well as stimulating changes in handwashing practices where facilities are available.
• Handwashing facilities with soap and water increased to 71 per cent, from 67 per cent
• However, 3 in 10 people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water at home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of water resources.

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Institute (WASH Institute)

• It is a national level Non-Governmental organization dedicated to strengthening the capacity, skills and knowledge of everyone involved in the sector across India.
• WASH Institute provides Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India (GoI) to implement the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), GoI to implement the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
• As a Key Resource Centre (KRC), WASH Institute organises short and long-term trainings on WASH for the government, NGOs and INGOs.
• WASH Institute runs a Postgraduate Diploma in Sanitary Science.
• The organization is involved in action research to develop innovative products on the sanitation value chain and is also engaged in providing comprehensive WASH programs to the communities and schools across rural and urban areas of the country.
• WASH Institute is known for its innovative IEC design materials.
• The organization is a part of various networks, advisory committees on WASH and houses the Secretariat of National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance.

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