Government efforts for Education in Northeast India

University Grants Commission (UGC) is implementing schemes, awards, fellowships, chairs and programmes under which financial assistance is provided to institutions of higher education as well as faculty members working in the North Eastern States to undertake quality research covering areas of knowledge across disciplines. Some of the initiatives taken for improving quality of higher education are

• Choice Based Credit System (CBCS);
• Universities with Potential for Excellence;
• Centre with Potential for Excellence in particular area;
• Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics(CARE)
• Basic Science Research
• Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India's Developing Economy (STRIDE)
• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Kaushal Kendras
• Scholarship Scheme (ISHAN UDAY) for North-Eastern Region;
• New Methodology of Grading by NAAC
• UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for award of M.Phil/Ph.D Degree) Regulations, 2016;
• UGC (Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM) Regulation, 2016.

All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has taken several steps over the years for framing appropriate policies on technical education needed to design and implement various schemes for educational advancement and achieving the objective of creating favourable environment to ensure speedy socio-economic development in the North East States. This includes equipping all necessary infrastructure upgradation of colleges, special coaching, educational concessions, better teaching learning material and infrastructure for North East region students. Some of the Schemes are

• Research Promotion Scheme for North East Region;

• Short Term Training Programme for NER;
• Faculty Development Programme for NER;
• Scheme of Funds for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI);
• Post Graduate Scholarship Scheme;
• Doctoral Fellowship;
• Pragati Scholarship Scheme;
• Saksham Scholarship Scheme;
• Campus Accommodation & Facilities Enhancing Social Experience;
• Grant for Augmenting Infrastructure in NER;
• Scheme for Promoting Interests, Creativity and Ethics among Students;
• Grant for Organizing Conference;
• Establishment of Idea Development, Evaluation & Application Laboratory in Institutions; and
• E-Shodh Sindhu (Subscription to e-Journals).

Indian Institute of Heritage at Noida

• The government has decided to set up the ‘Indian Institute of Heritage’ at Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar.
• Indian Institute of Heritage will be a world-class university.
• IIH would offer master's and PhD courses in History of Arts, Conservation, Museology, Archival Studies, and Archaeology.
• This will impact higher education and research in the fields related to rich Indian heritage and its conservation. Indian Institute of Heritage would offer Masters and Ph.D courses in History of Arts, Conservation, Museology, Archival Studies, Archaeology, Preventives Conservation, Epigraphy and Numismatics, Manuscriptology etc. as well as conservation training facilities to in-service employees and the students of the Indian Institute of Heritage.
• The Institute is being set up as Deemed to be University by integrating the Institute of Archaeology (Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology), School of Archival Studies under National Archives of India, New Delhi, the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC), Lucknow, National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology (NMICHM) and Academic Wing of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. These shall become various schools of Institute.
• Indian Institute of Heritage will be a world-class university that would focus on the conservation and research in India’s rich tangible heritage while offering research, development and dissemination of knowledge, excellence in the education of its students and activities associated with a heritage that contributes to the cultural, scientific and economic life of India. This would be a standalone Institution of its type in the country.

Seekho aur Kamao Scheme

• Seekho Aur Kamao is a skill development scheme for the youth of the 14 - 35 years age group and aims at providing employment and employment opportunities, improving the employability of existing workers, school dropouts etc.
• In the last 7 years appx. 3.92 lakh persons have benefitted under this employment-oriented scheme.
• The scheme ensures 75% placement, out of which 50% should be in the organized sector.
• As per scheme guidelines, the implementing organizations will be required to establish linkages with placement services, and for the candidates interested in self-employment after availing the training, the organization shall arrange easy microfinance/ loans for them through financial institutions, National Minority Development Finance Corporation (NMDFC), banks etc.
• Post placement support of Rs. 2000/- per month is provided to placed trainees for two months as placement assistance.

'Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis' IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report

The Sixth Assessment Report has been finalised and approved by 234 authors and 195 governments and updates the scientific consensus on extreme weather, human attribution, the carbon budget, feedback cycles, and charts the future state of the climate since the Fifth Assessment Report of 2014. The 3,000-plus-page report said warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms.

• The Indian Ocean is warming at a higher rate than other oceans, said the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with scientists warning that India will witness increased heatwaves and flooding, which will be irreversible effects of climate change.
• The current overall global warming trends are likely to lead to an increase in annual mean precipitation over India, with more severe rain expected over southern India in the coming decades.
• The authors of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis”, said the warming of the ocean would lead to a rise in sea levels, leading to frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-level areas.
• With a 7,517-km coastline, India would face significant threats from the rising seas. Across the port cities of Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Surat and Visakhapatnam, 28.6 million people would be exposed to coastal flooding if sea levels rise by 50 cm.
• Monsoon extremes are likely to increase over India and South Asia, while the frequency of short intense rainy days is expected to rise. Models also indicate a lengthening of the monsoon over India by the end of the 21st century, with the South Asian monsoon precipitation projected to increase.
• Stating that human activities are causing climate change, the report said the planet was irrevocably headed towards warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times in the next two decades.
• Keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels by the turn of century and endeavouring to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius was at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
• Unless extremely deep emission cuts are undertaken by all countries immediately, these goals are unlikely to be met. The report recommended that countries strive to achieve net zero emissions — no additional greenhouse gases are emitted — by 2050.
• In the most ambitious emissions pathway, the projection is that the globe would reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius scenario in the 2030s, overshoot to 1.6 degrees Celsius, with temperatures dropping back down to 1.4 degrees Celsius at the end of the century. India has not yet committed to a net zero timeline.

Tropical cyclones

• Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic Sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All these trends will get worse, the report said.
• India is currently the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, but per capita emissions are much lower.
• The U.S. emitted nearly nine times more greenhouse gases per capita than India in 2018. Based on existing commitments by countries to curb their emission, the world is on track for global temperature warming by at least 2.7°C by 2100, predicts the report, calling it ‘Code red for humanity.
• The latest scientific assessment will influence discussions at the Conference of Parties meeting in Glasgow later this year where countries are expected to announce plans and steps they have taken to curb emissions. The report release follows a two-week long plenary session held virtually from July 26 to August 6, 2021, in which the report was scrutinized line-by-line for approval by government representatives in dialogue with the report authors.

Hot extremes

• Alok Sharma, COP26 President, said in a statement: “The science is clear. The impacts of the climate crisis can be seen around the world and if we don’t act now, we will continue to see the worst effects impact lives, livelihoods and natural habitats. Our message to every country, government, business and part of society is simple. The next decade is decisive, follow the science and embrace your responsibility to keep the goal of 1.5C alive. We can do this together, by coming forward with ambitious 2030 emission reduction targets and long-term strategies with a pathway to net zero.”
• “Developed Countries have usurped far more than their fair share of the global carbon budget. Reaching net zero alone is not enough, as it is the cumulative emissions up to net zero that determine the temperature that is reached. This has been amply borne out in the IPCC report. It vindicates India’s position that historical cumulative emissions are the source of the climate crisis that the World faces today,” Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said in a statement.

Glaciers will keep shrinking

• Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region will keep shrinking and the snow cover will retreat to higher altitudes, the latest IPCC report said on Monday.
• The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), approved by 195 member countries, warned that extreme precipitation is projected to increase in major mountainous regions with potential cascading consequences of floods, landslides and lake outbursts in all scenarios.
• One of the authors of the report, Krishna Achuta Rao, said that in the HKH region, the snow cover had reduced since the early 21st century and glaciers had thinned, retreated and lost mass since the 1970s. However, he said, the Karakoram glaciers (is an exception) had either slightly gained mass or were in an approximately balanced state.
• “Snow-covered areas and snow volumes will decrease during the 21st century, snowline elevations will rise and glacier mass is likely to decline with greater mass loss in higher greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Rising temperatures and precipitation can increase the occurrence of glacial lake outburst floods and landslides over moraine-dammed lakes,” Mr. Rao said.
• According to the report, mountain glaciers will continue to shrink and permafrost to thaw in all regions where they are present.
• Another author of the report, Swapna Panickal, who is a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said human influence was responsible for the retreat of glaciers since the 20th century and that was not only the case in the two poles, but also for mountain glaciers.

Tribals in Rajasthan seek more panchayats in scheduled areas

• The tribal outfits in Rajasthan have demanded the inclusion of over 165 village panchayats of seven districts in the scheduled areas under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) to facilitate the control of local communities over minor minerals and minor forest produce as well as development activities in the region. It will also ensure statutory protection of the tribal population.

• On the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9^th August, the tribal groups said the population of Scheduled Tribes in these panchayats had crossed 50%, making them eligible to be declared as scheduled areas.
• Consequently, the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, will apply to these areas.
• The scheduled areas at present comprise 5,697 villages in southern Rajasthan, having a tribal population of more than 50%, as notified in 2018. As per the 2011 Census, the total population of scheduled areas was 64.63 lakh, in which the tribals were 45.57 lakh, making up 70.43% of the population.
• The tribal groups have also been spearheading a movement for the creation of a separate State, Bhil Pradesh, to be carved out of the tribal-dominated areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The issue has gained strength after the victory of two Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) candidates in Dungarpur district in the 2018 State Assembly election.
• In addition to the BTP, the tribal groups also submitted memorandums addressed to the President on this subject in several districts in the four States last month. BTP State president Velaram Ghogra said the tribals were not getting full benefit of reservation in the TSP areas despite forming the majority. “The government should stop its drive to bring the tribals to the so-called mainstream, because they are living in harmony with nature and taking care of precious natural resources,” he said.
• The demand is also apparently linked with political developments last year when the BTP withdrew its support to the ruling Congress over the latter allegedly blocking the election of a BTP-backed independent candidate to the post of Zila Pramukh in Dungarpur during the panchayat elections.
• As an ally of the ruling party, the BTP had voted for the Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections held in June last year and backed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during the subsequent political turmoil. BTP MLAs Rajkumar Roat and Ram Prasad supported the Congress during the confidence vote on the floor of the State Assembly on August 14, 2020.