NEP par Charcha

The working landscape of India is being changed through transformational reforms and also according to how technology is shaping up in the third decade of the 21st century. While the first two decades of the century were driven by jobs being done by people falling in the age group of 25-35, since last couple of years, the world has rightly shifted its focus on nurturing young minds (age group 15-25) and on the endorsement of developing a skill-based and tech-oriented mindset among youth. As the work culture evolves rapidly around the globe and as more and more people switch to gathering domain knowledge and intellectual finesse, India’s implementation of NEP 2020 is going to be a key factor in its aim to equip manpower to lead unprecedented industry change.

National Education Policy 2020, one of the landmark and transformative ideas in higher education policy promoted by the Narendra Modi government, lays emphasis on inquiry-based, discovery-based, and analysis-based ways to help children learn. Under NEP 2020, a well designed framework is all set to bring deep educational reforms which focus on development of both technical and soft-skills among scholars. Employability is also in fact one of the parts of the policy. Indian students have for so long failed to get decent and appropriate employment opportunities on the basis of their earned professional degrees. The NEP fixes this as it envisions to empower students through encouragement of a set of vocational, employable & entrepreneurial skills provided to them at different stages of training & education. This will also inspire talented youth to become self-employed professionals.

In addition to this, engaging with them on a mass level through various educational and vocational training programmes has been a good thing to start with, bringing the kind of momentum students and seekers need to find their spots in the fast-evolving educational landscape, which is both practical and agile.

Efforts are also being made to further get the change rightly incorporated in the minds of the students on a very early stage, one of the initiative being the Pariksha Pe Charcha programme. There is a phenomenal response from the students, parents and teachers alike over the programme which is moderated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Lakhs of people have shared their valuable insights towards this year’s ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ too. PM Modi is going to interact with students, teachers, parents in a hybrid mode from Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on 1st of April.

This is the 5th edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha. Earlier, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called upon students, teachers and parents to make PPC 2022 a public movement. Underlining the importance of initiatives like PPC in building the knowledge-based economy of 21st century, Pradhan said that PPC is becoming a formal institution through which Prime Minister interacts directly with students. India has ushered in a new era of educating Indians as well as the international community through multi-modal ways and digital platforms to create One India, Excellent India. Indian students have been going abroad for pursuing higher education for so long. With new changes, the country now seeks to reverse the process by having a world-class flexible education system and is already on the task.

Today, India is well on its way to having a decisive decade of growth in the 2020s, backed by a reformist government that has consistently provided policy support to boost the economy. The country has emerged as a favoured investment destination, giving boost to industries, creating new jobs, attracting latest technology, and providing fillip to new and upcoming sectors. Core to all of these is reforms in the education process, being led from front by NEP.

Tourism in Military Establishments of past, present and future

Military Tourism, a not very widely used term so far, is gaining traction in more than one ways. It has historic, economic as well as strategic significance. Travel and tourism is not just a leisure activity anymore. With the advent of digital connectivity, many opportunities are opening up in the domain of tourism for employment too. Accoding to FY18-19 data, among the ten most popular monuments in India, in terms of number of visitors, stood the Agra Fort (2nd Rank with 5.2 lakh foreign visitors), Red fort (4th Rank with 1.26 lakh foreign visitors) and Shanirwada (Rank 7). All the three sites are enriched with India’s historical legends, showcasing especially its defence chronicles, mesmerising visitors with its militarical finesse and bringing tourism from both India and abroad.

War sites have always lured a section of tourists who find themselves drawn towards the thrill of understanding the past. For a history buff, these sites offer a great insight to events that have occurred in the past and have shaped the present & future of a country. Hence, various countries across the globe have leveraged on their past to attract tourists, which therefore contributes to the overall economy of the country. As defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently launched the BRO Tourism portal and also directed officials to devise a plan to promote ‘Defence Tourism’ in the country, India’s tourism growth is expected to rise exponentially.

The concept of Military Tourism was introduced by MESCO for the first time in India in 2016 as they starte ‘Veer Yatra’, offering civilians an opportunity to experience the brave and thrilling world of our heroic defence forces from up-close. MESCO provided tourists a chance to experience War Memorial, Army Workshop, Defence Academy, Naval Base, Warfare Centre, Military Management techniques, Art of War and Survival techniques. In 2019, the government decided to open the entire area from Siachen base camp to Kumar Post for tourism purposes. Other such fascinating defence sites include the Kohima War Cemetery, Nagaland, the Jallianwala Bagh in the National Capital, and the Wagah Border ceremony that is held daily for two hours, where the flag ceremony is conducted by both Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force (BSF).

The world is marching on the roads of an unprecedented transition into an entirely new dimension of advanced living. And every such high-end technology or product is experienced first by either the military of the country or its youth. Defence sector is always keen to use emerging technologies to adapt to evolution and enhance their training & combat readiness. Many unique and useful technologies like RADAR, jet engines, satellite navigation, and a computer networking system that we now know as the internet today, have in fact, been invented by militaries, which later got adapted for civilian use. Thus, envisioning the growth and popularity of ‘digital defence tourism’ is also setting a place for itself in a world where people, especially young folks are engaged in using and enjoying their time on things like VR products and services, e-learning, digital photography, navigation, cyber collaborations, digital marketing and entrepreneurship and what not! Events like the annual DEF EXPO and Aero India, India’s India’s military aviation expo, also not only inspire common folks but propel the economic growth for the country in more ways than imaginable.

Global Cultural Village and India

Towards the end of 18th century, Europe had experienced unprecedented economic growth, with a wealth that had rapidly surpassed figures of all other regions. Later, by the twentieth century, economists began to lose interest on studying impact of culture on economic growth and prowess internally and between regions, with the rise of ‘Asian tiger economies’ and the growing prevalence of data, which gave rise to more quantitative theories to study both markets as well as economic explanations of sociology. Culture signifies human emotions, which may not prevail over economic interests in today’s world, however there is little doubt that they make things easier even within two nations. When Britishers came to India around 275 years earlier, they just didn’t trade with the country, but established themselves by propagating their cultural elements like language and others, which without doubt helped them establish firmly here on the Indian soil.

The 21st century world however, embraces all theories. Economies around the world are exchanging cultural views and practices, now especially the digital way too and this is being done worldwide on personal, professional, religious, local, regional, inter-governmental and even International level. India, a land of diversity where people revere their cultural identities with utmost discipline and love, is gaining huge importance in modern global village.

Indian government gives more than 3500 scholarships annually to foreign students to study in India. ICCR sponsors various cultural programmes including dance, music, performing arts, fine arts, Yoga, seminars, exhibitions and study of languages like Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Bengal in foreign lands. The efforts have deep significance not just in cultural and intellectual terms between two or more nations, but they also invariably facilitate economic relations between them by keeping wrangling at bay when it comes to going ahead hand in hand.

Organization of the ten-day mega Red Fort Festival – ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ which was attended by foreign nationals, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is also something on this line. The event showcased the achievements of India and its rich culture. The government has also stepped up its efforts to bring back cultural artefacts from different countries. Where only 13 artefacts had returned to India in 46 years, now almost 228 artefacts have come to India in the last 7.5 years. During the inauguration of Biplobi Bharat Gallery at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, PM Modi had highlighted India’s nationwide campaign to increase heritage tourism, which is being given impetus through several schemes like Swadesh Darshan, which will directly generate huge economic output.

India’s varied arts, sweets, monuments, history, food, artistry, languages, dialects and dance forms have started becoming popular in the digital age and the country is rightly building on the opportunity as the government encourages people to step up, with growing popularity of entrepreneurship, global networking, growing smart-city ecosystems, digital literacy and new innovative ways of cultural exchanges in a post social-distancing era. This unprecedented global cultural engagement is bringing prosperity from all sides.

India’s Arctic Endeavours

Asking some of the basic questions is fundamental to human existence. Being fully aware of what kind of world we live in and using this knowledge to explore alternative possibilities for how the future may unfold, are key to ensuring both short term as well as long term security and prosperity. One major world region, least explored and yet most promising now, is the Antarctic region with the South Pole, which is being rightly explored by India through its scientific expeditions there. On the other side of the globe, India is also keeping up with the Arctic affairs, an equally important region but much more politically alight.

India very recently unveiled its Arctic policy, a 27-page document, that aims to deepen its partnership with the resource-rich Arctic region. The development marks the peak of India’s polar prowess. Yet, India’s every move regarding the Arctic must be well thought out as the policy has been released at a time when seven of the eight permanent members of the Arctic Council, namely the USA, Canada, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, have already boycotted any future talks with Russia (the 8th member) over the Ukraine crisis. However, this may be taken up as an opportunity by India to do what it is good at – Balancing, via “pursuing cooperation and partnership”, as rightly prescribed in its policy as one of the objectives.

The significant expertise in this area that India has been able to acquire due to its association with the Antarctic Treaty System, may come in handy now, which can empower it to play a constructive role in securing a stable Arctic. This also requires advocating for causes, which are more synergetic in nature like sustainable resource development and collaboration with regard to technology, funding, capacity-building, studies and R&D, etc.

India’s interests in the Arctic region are scientific, environmental, commercial as well as strategic. It is believed that the entire region, which is super-rich in natural resources, will become ice-free by the year 2050 and India is one among the many countries to have realised the meaning of this. A recent study based on NASA and ESA satellite data showed that the Arctic ice thinned approx. 1.5 metres between 2018-2021. This revelation itself points towards potential commercial ventures like tapping the oil & gas reserves, metals and minerals in the region, resource-tapping through better studies and exploration, working on possibilities to open Northern Sea Route as a new trade route, etc.

The entire region is vulnerable to unprecedented climatic changes which can be caused by loss of sea ice, ice caps and warming of the ocean and atmosphere. Through its Arctic programme India is working to increase its knowledge findings about the region through research and experimentation, thus making itself future-ready to be in a position to play a greater role when the right time comes and increasing the possibilities of acquiring larger stakes and better status.

Arctic research and R&D finding can also India’s scientific community to study melting rates of the third pole i.e the Himalayan glaciers, which are endowed with the largest freshwater reserves in the world outside the geographic poles. Indian researchers are even monitoring Arctic glaciers for their mass balance, in order to draw comparisons and understand glacial behaviour in the Himalayan region. This makes the Arctic research crucial to India, which has begun to experience hints of global warming, disturbed climatic changes, uneven rainfall pattern, temperature differences, etc.

WHO to what of Tradition of Ayurveda

Is Ayurveda going to be the next export item to the world after Yoga? Ayurvedic practices are known to almost every Indian, believer or not, and it is from ancient Vedas. There always have been ask of scientific proof, objective evidence gathering, for ‘accepting’ it as modern scientific enterprise. This challenge has been taken head on since setup of AYUSH Ministry. Towards this end, few years back an agreement was signed with the United States to collaborate in research to establish a role for Ayurveda and other ancient forms of medicine in the modern world. And, now comes WHO’s first Centre for traditional medicine in Gujarat, India.

Traditional medicine as what defined by WHO means, “the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices on the basis of the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses.”

The establishment of the first and global out-posted Centre for traditional medicine in India sufficiently reflects the fact that the traditional medicines and wellness practices of India are very popular globally and this WHO Centre bound to focus on greater dissemination of ancient wisdom with modern scientific and technological research perspective at a global platform will go a long way in enhancing wellness in the society. According to the WHO data, around 80% of the world’s population is estimated to use traditional medicine to cater the world’s health-care need.

As the part of WHO’s overall traditional medicines strategy, this center will position AYUSH systems across the globe and provide leadership on global health matters pertaining to traditional medicine. It will ensure quality, safety, efficacy, accessibility and rational use of traditional medicine. It will also develop norms, standards, and guidelines in relevant technical areas, tools and methodologies for collecting data undertaking analytics, and assess impact.

India has made significant progress in the traditional medicine sector both at organisational level and gaining large scale public acceptance. And with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ayurveda, Yoga and other systems became an invaluable resource for the entire world in dealing the Covid-19 difficulties due to its holistic approach towards health and disease.

What you monitor, gets delivered. Even in Exports!

Measuring Export Preparedness using an Index is a great effort in right direction for India, and timing couldn’t have been better. In spite of the shattering COVID-19 second wave, FY 2021-22 has proven to be a smashing hit for India as it has been tactfully upping its game to expand its global export footprint. In Dec 2021, India’s figures of exported goods stood at USD 37.29 billion USD, hitting an all-time high for monthly data, whereas its merchandise exports hit almost USD 300 billion in Apr-Dec, higher by 48.85% year-on-year.

NITI Ayog released The Export Preparedness Index 2021 which is going to assist states and UTs to carve ambitious policies to further ensure a conducive export ecosystem. The Index ranks the states majorly on four main parameters or pillars- policy, business ecosystem, export ecosystem and export performance. This edition of Index has shown that most of the ‘Coastal States’ are the best performers with Gujarat being on the top, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Among union territories, Delhi topped is on the top, followed by Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. In this way, EPI also promotes competitive federalism and a fair contest among States/UTs.

A plethora of new catalytic changes and initiatives have been rolled out like increasing the number of GI tagged items in the country, introduction of PLI scheme, EODB reforms, rationalisation of duties, clearing some pending tax refunds to exporters to improve their liquidity, and extension of interest subvention scheme to boost textile and engineering exports. Some other measures include tightening the Rules of Origin (RoO) norms, releasing of more than Rs. 56 crores against pending tax refunds of exporters, notifying Remissions of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) rates, Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL) Schemes, and launch of Common Platform for Issuance of Certificates of Origin to facilitate trade and to increase FTA utilization by exporters. Besides, enormous efforts have also gone into promoting districts as export hubs by identifying products with export potential in each district. India is also aggressively negotiating FTAs with the EU, Australia, the UAE, the UK, Canada, Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC.

Going forward, the strategies should also be on lines of how to emerge as an alternative to China as India is rightly placed to benefit from the vacuum that has been created by the US-China trade tussle aftermath, COVID-19 Pandemic, rising labour costs in China and other domestic and international factors. Thus, countries like India, which offer less complex business and investment framework and cheaper labour, are becoming an alternative to importing countries like Japan, South Korea and many other South-Asian nations, who are more than willing to strengthen the trade ties with India. Every step of India, thus must focus on expanding more and more business, domestic and overseas.