NEP aims at delinking degree from education, livelihood opportunities: Union minister Jitendra Singh
Moradabad (PTI): Union minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the National Education Policy is aimed at delinking degree from education and livelihood opportunities.
Addressing students and the youth at Krishna Mahavidyalaya at Thakurdwar here, he said the policy also supplements start-up ecosystem with the promise to open new career and entrepreneurship opportunities for youngsters in India.
Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said the NEP-2020 introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reorient India's education policy as per global benchmarks.
Describing it as the biggest path-breaking reform in India since independence, the minister said the new policy is not only progressive and visionary, but is also in keeping with the emerging needs and requirements of 21st century India.
He said it gives due priorities to the inherent talent, knowledge, skill and aptitude of the students, rather than focusing only on degrees.
National Education Policy (NEP-2020) aims at de-linking degree from education and livelihood opportunities, Singh was quoted as having said in a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.
He said linking degrees with education has taken a heavy toll on our education system and society as well and one of the fallouts has been an increasing number of educated unemployed.
The minister said NEP-2020 is having the provision of multiple entry/exit option thus providing academic flexibility to the students.
He said this will have a positive impact on the students related to availing of different career opportunities at different times, depending upon their intrinsic learning and inherent aptitude.
Singh also urged the students and the youth to explore livelihood opportunities in the booming start-up sector in the country.
He informed the gathering that only in August this year, the Uttar Pradesh government injected Rs 4,000 crore into the state's start-up corpus for employment generation and economic activity.
The fresh infusion of capital has been made to constitute the maiden UP Innovation Fund' that will be mandated to provide seed capital to start-ups, the minister said.
Singh noted with satisfaction that the Uttar Pradesh government plans to have at least one incubator in every district by 2023.
As of now, there are 47 incubators in 20 districts, the statement said.
He told the youth of Moradabad that Uttar Pradesh is catching up fast in start-up race and there are more than 6,500 start-ups already registered in the state.
The government has also decided to set up two centres of excellence in the state, with one coming up in the Indian Institute of technology (IIT)-Kanpur for promotion of drone technology, the minister said.
Singh said Noida has turned to be the most preferred destination for start-ups followed by Ghaziabad, Agra, Lucknow and Gorakhpur in Purvanchal region, and now is the time for the innovative minds of the western UP to take a lead in start-up movement.
He said the green and farm rich belt of western region can be a fertile ground for agri-tech and dairy start-ups.
The minister promised all support from the Ministry of Science and Technology to support the start-up ecosystem.
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Doctor, his teenage daughter test positive for Zika virus infection in Pune
Pune, Jun 26: A 46-year-old doctor and his teenage daughter have tested positive for Zika virus infection in Pune city of Maharashtra, but their health condition is stable, an official said on Wednesday.
The man recently developed symptoms like fever and rashes, following which he was admitted to a private hospital. The medical facility sent his blood samples to the city-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) for analysis. On June 21, his reports confirmed that he tested positive for Zika virus infection, a health official of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said.
The doctor is a resident of Erandwane area of the city, he said.
"After he tested positive, the blood samples of his five family members were collected and sent for analysis, and it was found that his 15-year-old daughter was also positive for the infection," the official added.
The Zika virus disease is transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, which is also known to transmit infections like dengue and chikungunya. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947.
After these two cases were reported in the city, the PMC's health department has started conducting surveillance, the official said.
Although no other suspected cases have been found in the area, the authorities have started taking precautionary steps like fogging and fumigation to curb the breeding of mosquitoes, he said.
"The mosquito samples have been collected by the state health department. We have started the general public awareness in the area and given instructions to monitor the health of pregnant women in the area. Zika does not lead to serious complications in general, but in case a pregnant woman gets infected, it may cause microcephaly in the foetus," he said.
