27 February 2019: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam

Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

Context

The Minister for Human Resources Development launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS).

The program aims to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend

Objectives

Following are the objectives of SHREYAS:

  1. To improve employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning process of the higher education system
  2. To forge a close functional link  between education and industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis
  3. To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic manner
  4. To establish an ‘earn while you learn’ system into higher education
  5. To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower
  6. To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government

Three Tracks in Implementation in SHREYAS

1st TrackAdd-on apprenticeship (Degree apprenticeship):

The students who are currently completing the degree programme would be invited to choose a job role of their choice from a selected list of apprenticeship job roles given by the Sector Skill Councils of the MoSDE.   The apprenticeship programme is normally about (6) months and would be prefixed by basic training regarding the sector (theory).

During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry. At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be a test conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree certificate. 

2nd track: – Embedded Apprenticeship

Under this approach, the existing B.Voc programmes would be restructured into B.A (Professional), B.Sc (Professional) or B.Com (Professional) courses – which would include not only educational input, vocational input, but also a mandatory apprenticeship ranging from 6 to 10 months depending on the requirement of the skill.

During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry, 25% of which would be reimbursed under the NAPS programme.   At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be test conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree certificate.

3rd Track: Linking National Career Service with Colleges:

Under this, the National Career Service (NCS) portal of Ministry of Labour& Employment would be linked with the Higher Education institutions. 

Target

In all the tracks together, it is proposed to cover 50 lakh students by 2022. 


India’s first indigenous semiconductor chips 

Context

India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips by Bengaluru based semiconductor company “SIGNALCHIP” for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs was unveiled in New Delhi.

Details:

There four chips designed by SIGNALCHIP.

  1. SCBM3412: a single chip 4G/LTE modem including the baseband and transceiver sections in a single device
  2. SCBM3404: a single chip 4X4 LTE baseband modem
  3. SCRF3402: a 2X2 transceiver for LTE
  4. SCRF4502: a 2X2 transceiver for 5G NR standards

The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6GHz.  These chips also support positioning using India’s own satellite navigation system, NAVIC.


2nd Edition of ISL Dictionary

Context:

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment launched the “2nd Edition of Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary” brought out by ‘Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC)’ under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), M/o Social Justice & Empowerment.

Details

  • The second edition, dictionary includes total 6000 words under the categories of academic, legal, medical, technical and everyday terms.
  • The ISL Dictionary is also available on ISLRTC’s YouTube channel. 
  • It has been made with the involvement of the hearing impaired community, by giving due consideration to their suggestions and understanding. The videos contain the sign, the English term for the sign and pictures where relevant. A word list is also given with the English and Hindi equivalents of the signs.
  • The dictionary is intended to serve as a resource for ISL teachers, ISL learners, teachers of the hearing impaired, interpreters, parents of hearing impaired children, researchers, etc. Hearing impaired persons will benefit from this dictionary since they can look up information about a particular sign and its English/Hindi equivalents.

“South Coast Railway (SCoR)” 

Context

As per item 8 of Schedule 13 (Infrastructure) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Indian Railways was required to examine establishing a new railway zone in the successor State of Andhra Pradesh. The matter has been examined in detail in consultation with stakeholders and it has been decided to go ahead with creation of a new zone with headquarter at Visakhapatnam.

Details

  • The new zone named “South Coast Railway (SCoR)”, will comprise of existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions.
  • It will be the 18th zone in the country.
  • Waltair division shall be split into two parts. One part of Waltair division will be incorporated in the new zone i.e. in South Coast Railway and will be merged with the neighbouring Vijayawada division.
  • Remaining portion of Waltair division shall be converted into a new division with headquarter at Rayagada under East Coast Railway (ECoR).
  • South Central Railway will comprise of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Nanded divisions.

To ace UPSC current affairs section, read more PIB articles here.

Also see:

Gist of Yojana September 2018 Issue: Employment and Self Employment
Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion
Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)

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