‘Ashiana Annexe’ in Dehradun to be inaugurated by the President on July 10

• The Annexe of the Presidential Retreat ‘Ashiana’ at Dehradun comprises of twelve low cost dwelling units which have been constructed to accommodate officers and staff of Rashtrapati Bhavan during Presidential visits to ‘Ashiana’.
• The technology used for renovation is sustainable, cost effective, green and environment friendly with provision of disaster resilient features. Treated water is safely discharged for irrigation and non-drinking usage enabling mitigation of disease risk and thus ensuring good health and well – being of residents.

Speech of the President of India at the launch of Swayam and other digital initiatives 
for higher education

• Initiatives of the Govt. to increase the standard of Higher Educational Institutes :
• The Central Government has launched several new initiatives viz. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Impacting Research Innovation & Technology (IMPRINT), Uchchatar Avishkar Yojna (UAY), Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) & Global Research Interactive Network (GRIN) in the field of education for the qualitative development of education in the country.
• The project Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) is intended to provide massive open online courses (MOOCs) to the students across the country and thereby expanding the reach of best quality education to students using the ICT tools.
• An Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has also been established to give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions.

Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN)

• of India has approved a new program titled Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) in Higher Education aimed at tapping the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs, internationally to encourage their engagement with the institutes of Higher Education in India so as to augment the country’s existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate India’s scientific and technological capacity to global excellence.

IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology or IMPRINT

• Adopting engineering and technology as the vehicle to addressing the societal needs and achieving national prosperity, MHRD has drafted a new and catalytic scheme called IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology or IMPRINT. IMPRINT is a first-of-its-kind Pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a (a) New Education Policy, and (b) Roadmap for Research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in selected domains needed by the country.
• IMPRINT in its first phase is a policy developing initiative covering pedagogy, teaching, curriculum, technology-benchmarking and infrastructure readiness.
• IMPRINT is not meant only for IITs and IISc; it is a national movement providing an opportunity for the higher echelon institutes in India to integrate with all grass root level institutes, industry and organizations, mutually complement and deliver what the country demands and aspires.

National convention on Digital Initiatives 9th July 2017

• SWAYAM is the portal that takes high quality education to the doorstep of everyone.
• With the launch of SWAYAM, India has become one of the few countries in the World which has its own online interactive learning platform that provides, not only video lectures, reading material but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in securing credits after completing the assessment system.
• More than 400 Courses are available on SWAYAM covering all the engineering and non-engineering subjects at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

SWAYAM Prabha

• The SWAYAM Prabha channels are available for free for anyone who has a set top box to receive either DD Free Dish or DishTV.
• These channels transmit 4 hours of fresh content every day, and contain lectures from the best teachers in the Country.
• There is no monthly charge for viewing these channels.
• These channels include the IIT-PAL channels which were intended to help students taking the prestigious JEE examination, taught by the IIT faculty.

Programme 17 for 17

• A 17 point action plan for 2017 – for building digital campuses and high quality education.
• The action plan covers measures like universal adoption of digital education, digital financial transactions in the campuses from the current academic year.