The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the following initiatives on August 04, 2021.
- Continuation of Fast Track Special Court (FTSCs) for 2 years till March 2023.
- Extension of Samagra Shiksha Scheme for 5 years till 2026.
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IIST and TU Delft, the Netherlands for Research.
-Continuation of FTSCs for 2 years till March 2023
Cabinet has approved the continuation of 1023 FTSCs including 389 exclusive POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Courts as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for 2 years from April 2021 to March 2023. A Financial outlay of Rs 1572.86 crore (Rs 971.70 crore – Central Share and Rs 601.16 crore – State share) has been allocated.
- The Centre’s share will be funded from the Nirbhaya fund.
- The government intends to cover all the 31 states/Union Territories (UT) under the scheme. At present, only 28 states/UTs are covered now.
Background: The Union Government (govt) enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, it provides stringent punishments including the death penalty for perpetrators of rape. The enactment of the act also led to the establishment of Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs).
- FTSCs were formed to provide speedy access to justice to the victims of sexual crimes.
- This led to the establishment of 1023 FTSCs in January 2020 as a part of the National Mission for Safety of Women (NMSW), out of which 389 Courts were proposed for POCSO Act, 2012 related cases in Districts where the pendency of such cases is more than 100.
-Extension of Samagra Shiksha Scheme for 5 years till FY26
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the extension of the revised Samagra Shiksha Scheme for 5 years i.e., from FY22 to FY26 (2021-22 to 2025-26). A total of Rs 2,94,283.04 crore (Rs 1,85,398.32 crore as Central share) has been allocated for the scheme.
- The scheme covers 1.16 million schools, around 156 million students and 5.7 million Teachers of Government and Aided schools.
a.Revised Scheme with New Interventions:
Based on the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) & Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4), new interventions have been incorporated in Samagra Shiksha Scheme. They are
i.Plans to provide direct interventions to students through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) mode. It will provide in-service teacher training for Early childhood care and education (ECCE) teachers along with training Anganwadi workers.
ii.Launching of NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) Bharat Mission under the scheme to provide Rs 500 per child per annum for Teaching Learning Materials (TLM), Rs 150 per teacher, and Rs 10-20 lakh per district (for assessment). Click here to know more
iii.Providing Rs 2000 per child per grade for SC, ST, and disabled out of school children at the age of 16 to 19 years to complete their schooling through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)/State Open School (SOS).
v.Granting Rs 25000 for a school that has at least 2 students with Khelo India medals.
vi.The amount for self-defence skills training under ‘Rani Laxmibai Atma Raksha Prashikshan‘ for 3 months has been increased from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 per month.
vii.Training modules under NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) has been included under the scheme to train Secondary and Primary teachers.
viii.The scheme will also support the activities of a national assessment centre – PARAKH (Performance, Assessments, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development).
b.Background:
i.Samagra Shiksha, the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for School Education of students from pre-school to class XII, was launched in 2018. It subsumed Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
ii.It is implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.
iii.It aims to provide support for the implementation of the ‘Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education’ (RTE) Act, 2009.
-MoU between IIST and TU Delft for Research
Cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), the Netherlands for academic programmes and research in Science and Technology.
- The MoU includes – faculty and student exchange, joint research, Dual Degree/Double Degree programme, etc.
- The signed Agreement will provide impetus to explore newer research activities and application possibilities in the field of Science and Technology.
- Further, with the MoU, the students will be eligible for a Dual Degree/Double Degree programme in which adds to the initial degree that will be awarded by the home institute.
Recent Related News:
In July 2021, the Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of the 1st ‘Integrated Multi-purpose infrastructure Development Corporation’ for the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh.
The cabinet has approved a proposal to allow 100 percent FDI under automatic route in oil and gas public sector unit (PSU), which has received ‘in-principle’ approval for strategic disinvestment in its sector.
About Ministry of Education:
Union Minister – Dharmendra Pradhan (Constituency – Madhya Pradesh)
Minister of State – Annpurna Devi (Constituency – Kodarma, Jharkhand), Subhas Sarkar (Bankura, West Bengal), Rajkumar Ranjan Singh (Manipur)
About Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST):
Establishment – 2007
Headquarters – Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Director – S. Somanath
Chancellor – B. N. Suresh
