17 December 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

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

Two new AIIMS at Tamil Nadu & Telangana

About: The Union Cabinet has approved establishment of two new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Madurai, Tamil Nadu and Bibinagar, Telangana.  The AIIMS will be set up under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Benefits:

• Each new AIIMS will add 100 UG (MBBS) seats and 60 B.Sc. (Nursing) seats.
• Each new AIIMS will have 15-20 Super Specialty Departments.
• Each new AIIMS will add around 750 hospital beds.

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)

• The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) was announced in 2003 with objectives of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/ reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country.

PMSSY has two components:

• Setting up new AIIMS.
• Upgradation of government medical colleges.

IMPRESS

Context: “IMPRESS” scheme has been launched to promote Social Science Research in the country by ministry of human resource development.

 About:

• Under the Scheme, 1500 research projects will be awarded for 2 years to support the social science research in the higher educational institutions and to enable research to guide policy making.
• Research in social science is essential for progress of the society and the research carried out under IMPRESS scheme will be used to understand and solve problems facing the society.
• Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) will be the project implementing agency.

The broad objectives of the scheme are:

1. To identify and fund research proposals in social sciences with maximum impact on the governance and society.
2. To focus research on (11) broad thematic areas such as : State and Democracy, Urban transformation, Media, Culture and Society, Employment, Skills and Rural transformation , Governance, Innovation and Public Policy, Growth, Macro-trade and Economic Policy, Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and Environment, Science and Education, Social Media and Technology, Politics, Law and Economics. The sub- theme areas will be decided on the basis of Expert Groups’ advice before notifying the scheme and calling for applications.
3. To ensure selection of projects through a transparent, competitive process on online mode.
4. To provide opportunity for social science researchers in any institution in the country, including all Universities (Central and State), private institutions with 12(B) status conferred by UGC.
5. ICSSR funded/ recognized research institutes will also be eligible to submit research proposals on the given themes and sub-themes.

e-Education in the country

The key e-Learning Projects being run by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) are as follows:

• e-pathshala

 e-pathshala has been developed by NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) for showcasing and disseminating all educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of other print and non-print materials.

• Shagun portal

 A web portal called ShaGun (from the words Shaala and Gunvatta) which has two parts, one of which is a Repository of good practices, photographs, videos, studies, newspaper articles etc on school education, State /UT wise has been developed which is in public domain. Its purpose is to showcase success stories and also to provide a platform for all stakeholders to learn from each other. This also instills a positive competitive spirit among all the States and UTs.

• National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER)

The National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) is an initiative to bring together all digital and digitisable resources across all stages of school education and teacher education.

• SWAYAM

The ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM) an integrated platform for online courses, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and covering school (9^th to 12^th) to Post Graduate Level.

• SWAYAM PRABHA

A programme for utilization of satellite communication technologies for transmission of educational e-contents through 32 National Channels i.e. SWAYAM  PRABHA DTH-TV has been launched

• National Digital Library (NDL)

The National Digital Library of India (NDL) is a project to develop a framework of virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. 

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