08 Aug 2022: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Swadesh Darshan Scheme (SDS)
2. Igniting Young Minds, Rejuvenating Rivers
3. DIKSHA PLATFORM

1. Swadesh Darshan Scheme (SDS)

Syllabus -GS 2,  Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors, Tourism.

Prelims – Ministry of Tourism under its SDS has sanctioned 10 projects under the theme of Coastal Circuit.

Details –

• The Ministry of Tourism under its ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme provides financial assistance to State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations/Central Agencies etc. for the development of tourism infrastructure in the country. 
• The projects under this scheme are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable Detailed Project Reports (DPR), adherence to scheme guidelines and utilisation of funds released earlier, etc. The Ministry of Tourism under its Swadesh Darshan Scheme (SDS) has sanctioned 10 projects under the theme of Coastal Circuit.
• The Ministry of Tourism has now revamped its Swadesh Darshan scheme as Swadesh Darshan 2.0 (SD2.0) in order to develop sustainable and responsible destination centric approach with the following objectives:

(a)     To enhance the contribution of tourism to the local economies.

(b)    To create jobs including self-employment for local communities.

(c)    To enhance the skills of local youth in tourism and hospitality.

(d)   To increase private sector investment in tourism and hospitality.

(e)    To preserve and enhance the local cultural and natural resources.

• In order to harness the potential of Cruise Tourism in the country, a Task Force has been constituted. The 13th meeting of the Task Force on Cruise Tourism was held in April.
• This information was given by Minister of Tourism Shri G. Kishan Reddy in Lok Sabha.

2. Igniting Young Minds, Rejuvenating Rivers

Syllabus – GS 3, Environment Conservation.

Prelims – NMCG organised 9th edition of monthly webinar series, “Igniting Young Minds, Rejuvenating Rivers”, themed “Rainwater Harvesting”.

Details-

• National Mission for Clean Ganga in association with the APAC News Network organised the 9th edition of the monthly webinar series ‘Igniting Young Minds, Rejuvenating Rivers’. The theme of this edition was ‘Rainwater Harvesting’. The session was presided over by the Director General, NMCG, Shri G. Asok Kumar. He said that the tradition of respecting water should be revived in our consciousness.
• “Catch the Rain” campaign, with tagline “Catch the Rain, where it falls, when it falls” was implemented by Shri Asok Kumar and launched by the Prime Minister on the occasion of World Water Day, 22nd March 2021. This (perhaps) was the world’s biggest launch of any water conservation campaign.
• He mentioned the integrated concept of conserving rainwater and preserving heritage. He talked about the traditional water harvesting structures- Stepwells, in the country. He also emphasised that for the successful implementation of the Namami Gange Mission, there’s a need to make the Jal Andolan, a Jan Andolan. 
• Tamil Nadu is the first state in the country to make rainwater harvesting compulsory.

3. DIKSHA PLATFORM

Syllabus – Development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to  Education. 

Prelims – DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing)- one nation, one digital platform.

Details 

• DIKSHA is the platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs and QR- coded Energised Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform).
• DIKSHA complies with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 level AA. This enables people with visual impairments to access the website using assistive technologies, such as screen readers. Special e-content for the visually and hearing impaired is developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on the  NIOS website/ YouTube.
• NISHTHA 2.0 (Secondary Level) -online on DIKSHA for secondary/senior secondary level teachers (training programme) was launched on 29th July, 2021. NCERT has developed a package including 13 Online Courses with 12 Generic modules and 56 subject-specific modules for NISHTHA 2.0 and, 33 States and UTs have initiated this training programme in 10 languages.
• NISHTHA 3.0- Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) in online mode on the DIKSHA platform for teachers and school heads of pre-primary to class V were launched on 7th September,202l. A special package consisting of 12 online modules has been developed by NCERT for this purpose, as per objectives of NIPUN Bharat Mission. NISHTHA 3.0 Online on the DIKSHA portal has been developed with the aim to help teachers design experiences for the holistic development of each child.

The information was given by the Minister of State for Education, Smt. Annpurna Devi in the Lok Sabha today.

Read previous PIB here.

August 8th, 2022, PIB:- Download PDF Here