6 top research scholarships for Indian students

Research scholarship is a broad category of scholarships and fellowships that are given to students for the purpose of research at graduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels. Research plays a crucial role in a variety of fields including science, technology, engineering, medicine, etc.

There are various research institutions that offer scholarships for students to carry out research in specific fields. Furthermore, institutions such as IITs, IISc, IISERs, NITs, ICAR also offer fellowships and grants to support the research study of scholars in various fields. Here is the list of top six research scholarships for Indian students that one must keep track.

Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Scholarships: This scholarship is meant for postgraduate students who are registered or admitted in a PhD programme at a recognised university or institution in India. Applicable for two years, this scholarship supports research in specialisations including sociology, Indian history, economics, geography, ecology, and environment etc. The candidates who are below 35 years of age and have obtained at least 60 per cent marks in both graduation and postgraduation can apply for this scholarship.

Provider Details: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund
Eligibility: Students enrolled in PhD programmes
Awards: Up to Rs 18,000 per month and other benefits
Application Timeline: Between May and June (tentative)
Application Mode: By post (to Administrative Secretary of Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund)

Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowship – IIT Ropar: Introduced with an objective to encourage bright minds to carry out research programmes at IIT-Ropar, this fellowship offers financial support to students having a PhD degree. It is mandatory for students to apply within five years after the completion of PhD. The fellowship is also open for candidates who have completed their PhD thesis under the supervision or co-supervision of IIT-Ropar faculty members. In this case, students are allowed to apply after three years of completion of their PhD degree.

Provider Details: Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar
Eligibility: PhD degree holders
Awards: Rs 45,000 to Rs 55,000 and other benefits
Application Timeline: Round the year
Application Mode: By post or in-hand application submission to the department/center in which the candidate intends to join as a Post-Doctoral Fellow

SERB National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF): This fellowship aims to identify motivated young researchers and provide them with support to carry out research in frontier areas of science and engineering. Under this fellowship, the students below the age of 35 who have obtained a PhD/MD/MS degree from a recognised university can avail variable benefits to carry out research at postdoctoral level. The candidates who have submitted their PhD/MD/MS thesis and are awaiting award can also apply. However, they will receive a lower fellowship amount till they qualify the degree.

Provider Details: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Eligibility: PhD/MD/MS degree holders
Awards: Monthly stipend up to Rs 55,000 and other benefits
Application Timeline: Between April and May (tentative)
Application Mode: Online, through the official website of SERB

Teachers Associateship for Research Excellence (TARE): This initiative of SERB is meant for students having a PhD degree in Science or MD/MS in medicine or ME/MTech in engineering or technology. The key objective of the scheme is to facilitate mobility of faculty members working in state universities/colleges and private academic institutions to carry out research in renowned institutions such as IITs, IISc, IISERs, etc. The age of the candidates should be less than 45 years and they must not hold any ongoing research projects or fellowship at the time of application submission.

Provider Details: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Eligibility: PhD in Science or MD/MS in medicine or ME/MTech in engineering or technology degree
holders
Awards: Rs 60,000 per annum and research grant of Rs 5 lakh per annum
Application Timeline: Between March and April (tentative)
Application Mode: Online, through official website of SERB

ICMR Centenary-Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Scheme: This fellowship aims to support PhD/MD/MS degree holders to pursue research in the area of basic science, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and reproductive health including nutrition at ICMR institutions and centers. The candidates are required to apply for this fellowship within three years of completion of PhD/MD/MS. The age of the candidates should be below 32 years on the date of application.

Provider Details: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Eligibility: PhD/MD/MS degree holders
Awards: Rs 50,000 per month and other benefits
Application Timeline: Between July and December (tentative)
Application Mode: By post (to the Director General of ICMR)

Prime Minister Research Fellowship (PMRF): This fellowship aims to promote technical research studies and attract the meritorious students to pursue doctoral programmes at leading institutions in India. The students who have completed or pursuing BTech or MTech, MSc or integrated MTech or MSc degree can avail benefits under this scheme.

They are required to apply for a PhD programme at one of the PMRF granting institutes either through direct entry channel or lateral entry channel.

Provider Details: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India
Eligibility: BTech graduate, final year BTech, integrated MTech, integrated MSc students from IISc/IITs/NITs/IISER/IIITs
Awards: Stipend up to Rs 80,000 per month and other benefits
Application Timeline: Round the year
Application Mode: Apply through the PMRF granting institutions

https://indianexpress.com/article/education/top-6-research-scholarships-for-indian-students-6566150/

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Education Minister calls exam reforms in National Institute Of Open Schooling

The National Institute of Open Schooling needs to introduce reforms in its examination process so that the integrity of the institution cannot be questioned, Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said on Monday. He made the comments at a review meeting with officials of the open school. The meeting was also attended by School Education Secretary Anita Karwal.

"During the meeting, the minister discussed strengthening the examination mechanism. He said if we found some irregularities within the institution, we should take tough action against the culprit. He directed the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) officials that if they received any complaint against NIOS examination centres, they should resolve the complaint as soon as possible," the Ministry of Education (MOE) said in a statement.

"The minister also directed the NIOS officials to reform the examination process so that no one can question the integrity of the prestigious institution. It was suggested that a dashboard must be created containing detailed information and contacts of all centres across the country.

It will have all the information and suggestions from stakeholders so that transparency will be increased in the system," it said.

During the meeting, suggestions were made about drafting NIOS syllabus on the lines of NCERT so that students can get a better understanding of the subject.

"The minister also reviewed the work of NIOS during COVID-19 crisis. NIOS officials briefed him that they are running four channels for their students, out of which, two are dedicated for secondary and higher secondary level.

The NIOS officials also informed that they are now providing six hours fresh content daily to their students, including weekends, which were only for two hours before the COVID-19 crisis," the statement added.

https://www.timesnownews.com/education/article/education-minister-calls-for-exam-reforms-in-national-institute-of-open-schooling-details/642144

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Unlock 4.0 guidelines: Will educational institutions reopen?

New Delhi, Aug 24: The Ministry of Home Affairs will soon announce the Unlock 4.0 guidelines. While announcing Unlock 3.0, the MHA had allowed Yoga institutes and gymnasiums to open. The MHA had however extended the lockdown until August 31 and had said that educational institutions would remain closed.

Educational institutions have remained shut for the past five months. A decision on whether or not to open educational institutions is likely to be taken on September 1. Guidelines on the same would be issued by the end of this month. There is however no confirmation on whether the schools would allowed to open or not. Guidelines are being prepared and a final decision is expected soon. There are reports which suggest that educational institutes may open in a staggered manner to ensure that there is maximum precaution taken. Further relaxations on public transport etc are also expected. Last week the MHA had instructed all states not to prevent any inter and intra-state transport for both persons as well as the movement of goods.

https://www.oneindia.com/india/unlock-4-0-guidelines-will-educational-institutions-open-3138385.html

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Online higher education sector to be worth $5 billion by FY25

 If the implementation of the latest National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 goes as planned, the move is set to open up several opportunities for online higher education. With the policy paving way for more formal education and skill development, an analysis by RedSeer Management Consulting has found that the online higher education and lifelong learning will be a $5-billion opportunity by financial year (FY) 2024-25. This will be a ten-fold growth from an industry size of $500 million in FY20.

The RedSeer Analysis juxtaposes growth of online higher education and lifelong learning on the potential growth in higher education among students and skill development among working professionals going forward. For instance, currently of the total addressable market (TAM) in FY20 for higher education stands at around 40 million students and 50 million working professional for lifelong learning. However, at present online paid users in FY20 is still 500,000 or 0.5 million each, which has a potential to grow on the back of the government's target of achieving 50 per cent gross enrolment ratio (GER) by 2035.

Hence, growth in opportunity for online higher education can come on the back of expected growth in student enrolment in higher education, up from 40 million in FY20 to 53 million by FY25, to 70 million by FY30 and 92 million by FY35, with the GER climbing from current 26 per cent to 32 per cent, 40 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

Online higher education players like Great Learning too are bullish about the trends and agree with the RedSeer analysis.

"The concept of lifelong learning is the new normal now and this is being proven out by the interest we are witnessing among students and working professionals to upskill and power ahead in their careers. Despite the pandemic, we have seen a 5X growth in our learner base during the lockdown.

And we believe we have barely scratched the surface. Going ahead, we expect to grow at an even faster clip with the New Education Policy bringing several reforms to the higher education space. I am confident that over the next few years, this need for upskilling will spur ed-tech companies with massive scale and impact. The report by RedSeer further confirms this," said Hari Krishnan Nair, Co-founder of Great Learning.

The online higher education businesses can be broadly classified into two including full stack versus aggregators and niche versus mass segments. However, in terms of business models in online higher education and lifelong learning, the analysis pegs full stack models as best positioned to capture the growth though multiple models have emerged in recent times.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/online-higher-education-sector-to-be-worth-5-billion-by-fy25-report-120082101227_1.html

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NEET, JEE Exam 2020 Not to be postponed, NTA releases clarification - confirms the exam schedule

NEET, JEE Main 2020 Postponement: Secretary Education Ministry has clarified that the NEET and JEE Main 2020 exams scheduled for September cannot be postponed as per SC order.

NEET, JEE Main 2020 would not be postponed. Dashing the hopes of thousands of students, Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Education has confirmed that the entrance examinations cannot be postponed. Referring to the Supreme Court order, he has stated that the SC was very clear in its order and the examinations cannot be postponed. National Testing Agency, NTA has also release a clarification confirming the same, stating that the examination cannot be postponed.

In the letter tweeted by NTA, the agency has shared Supreme Court's order stating that that examination cannot be postponed any further. NTA has also clarified that the examination centres for students were changed as per request and further requests were also being catered to. Apart from this, elaborate precautions have also been taken for the safety of the students.

The plea for postponing JEE and NEET 2020 examinations was presented to the Supreme Court. 3 other petitions were also filed, asking the SC to ensure that the examinations were not postponed. Supreme Court had dismissed the petition to postpone the examinations, noting that the exams cannot be indefintely deferred. Pursuant to that, pleas were sent to the PMO for the same.

Earlier in the day. Dr. Subramaniam Swamy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to ask the Education ministry to postpone NEET, JEE Main 2020 examinations. In the letter, the Union Minister points out the Supreme Court''s decision is not binding to the government. He has earlier tweeted his intent of the same after students approached him and asked for assistance to get NEET, JEE Main 2020 postponed. He has urged that the exam be postponed till after Diwali.

Taking to the social media channel – Twitter, he tweeted that he has already reached out to the Education Minister and asked him to conduct the examination after Deepavali. He decided to intervene after he was approached by students after the Supreme Court dismissed the plea to postpone the examination. He tweeted to confirm that he mean NEET and JEE and other such entrance examinations. Later he shared the letter he has written and shared he is 'hopeful but also pointed out that the students had been 'very late' in approaching, since the case has already been to the Supreme Court.

Updates on the same, once available, would be provided on this page. Students and parents are however asked to please be patient and continue the efforts. Delaying the examination may not be possible. Whatever may be the decision, we request the parents to please counsel their wards and discuss the matter with them.
NEET, JEE 2020 Exam

Meanwhile, Supreme Court has dismissed the plea and NTA has released the admit card for JEE Main 2020 examination. NTA has also released a notice confirming that the admit cards for NEET 2020 would also be released on ntaneet.nic.in shortly. The students, however, continue to reach out to twitter and the various authorities with plea to postpone the examination.

Clamour for postponing NEET gained momentum after a student in Tamil Nadu committed suicide, soon after SC’s dismissal of the plea. All students are again urged to please be patient and prepared for the examination. All necessary steps shall be taken for the safety of the students.As of now, JEE Main 2020 is scheduled to begin from September 1 and NEET 2020 is scheduled for September 13.

https://www.timesnownews.com/education/article/neet-2020-likely-to-be-postponed-emergency-meeting-underway-tweets-subramaniam-swamy/640535

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Postpone JEE Main, NEET 2020: MPs, Students Ask Education Minister

JEE Main and NEET 2020: With less than a month to go, demands for postponement of the engineering and medical entrance exam are rising sky high.

New Delhi:With less than a month to go, demands for postponement of Joint Entrance Examination Main, or JEE Main 2020, and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate, or NEET 2020, are rising sky high. The National Testing Agency, or NTA, is all set to conduct the engineering and medical entrance exams in September.

Concerned about health and safety, students have been running social media campaigns for months. Several politicians from Bihar, which has been facing floods, have also argued for the postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020.

Member of Parliament, Chirag Paswan, also wrote to the education minister highlighting the health and safety concerns related to the conduct of JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020 in September.

“Wrote to the Education Minister highlighting concerns of parents about JEE and NEET,” Mr Paswan said on social media.
The opposition leader in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, too, has sought a postponement. He wrote on social media: “Central Govt, NTA, UGC and IIT Delhi must have a considerate and humane view of the plight of the students and youth of this country! This hurry to conduct exams amidst spiking COVID cases will prove to be costly! In Bihar floods+Govt apathy will compound problems!”

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, too, has asked for rescheduling. “I have just spoken to the Minister of Education suggesting that NEET and other exams be conducted after Deepavali, he said on social media.

Meanwhile, students have flooded all recent social media posts by the Education Minister with ‘Postpone JEE’ and ‘Postpone NEET’ demands.
Despite student protests, NTA or the education ministry has not decided to postpone JEE Main and NEET 2020.

NTA has recently released JEE Main admit card. According to government sources, 6,49,223 out of 8,58,273 candidates have downloaded their admit cards. Out of the total candidates, 99.07% candidates have been alloted the test centres of their preference and 120 candidates have requested for a change in centre cities allotted to them. The agency will release NEET 2020 admit card soon.

https://www.ndtv.com/education/postpone-jee-main-2020-postpone-neet-2020-students-mps-to-education-minister-latest-news

 

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Supreme Court's verdict on final year university exams will be announced soon

The Supreme Court verdict on the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines to the state universities on conducting final year exams by September end is expected to be out soon. The top court had reserved its order on August 18, 2020 on whether the central commission be allowed to conduct final year exams in state universities across the country.

The Supreme Court verdict on the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines to the state universities on conducting final year exams by September end is expected to be out soon. The top court had reserved its order on August 18, 2020 on whether the central commission be allowed to conduct final year exams in state universities across the country. Advocating on conducting final term exams, UGC during one of the hearings in Supreme Court had said that state universities final term exams shouldn't be cancelled as the future of students was at stake.

Supreme Court hearing status on UGC guidelines so far

 * The Supreme Court reserved judgement on whether the final year degree examinations in universities should be held before September 30, in accordance with UGC guidelines.
    The top court will also decide whether state governments have the power to take a decision against conducting final year examinations under the Disaster Management Act.
 * A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan has reserved the judgement on a batch of PILs along with some state governments - Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi - questioning the UGC direction to universities to conduct final year exams before September 30.
 * The state governments have argued that they have the power to promote students without exams in the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
 * Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UGC, contended before the top court that final year is the degree year and exams cannot be done away with.
 * Mehta cited examples of exams being conducted by some universities and added that many top-level universities have opted for online exams. Mehta insisted that foreign universities and further education require degrees.
 * Citing the UGC guidelines, Mehta contended before the bench that these guidelines are not merely for preaching and that they are mandatory.
 * The guidelines which have been challenged before the top court have a statutory mandate, Solicitor General added.

https://www.indiatvnews.com/education/news-ugc-exam-guidelines-supreme-court-verdict-will-be-announced-soon-final-year-university-exams-644060

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TS DOST admission 2020

 TS DOST admission 2020: The registration for Phase 1 of the admission process will be on from 24 August to 9 September, while Phase 2 will begin from 17 September.

TS DOST admission 2020: The Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) has announced that the state government will begin registration of admission to undergraduate courses via the Degree Online Services, Telangana (DOST) portal from 24 August.

To register online for DOST 2020, candidates can visit the official website — dost.cgg.gov.in and log in with their Intermediate roll numbers.

The official portal said that candidates seeking admission into various undergraduate (UG) courses such as BA, BSc, BCom (Voc), BCom (Hon), BBA, BCA, BBM, in the state universities including Osmania University, Kakatiya University, Telangana University, Palamuru University, Mahatma Gandhi University and Sathavahana University can register themselves on DOST.

Students will be allotted seats on the basis of merit.

Students will have to confirm seats by self reporting and paying the fees and if they don't confirm, the seat will be carried forward to the second phase of registrations.

Earlier, the Phase 1 registration was scheduled to begin from 1 July.

Candidates will have to pay one-time registration fees of Rs 200 for all colleges or courses of one or more universities.

The registration for Phase 1 will be available from 24 August to 9 September. Phase 1 web options will be open from 29 August to 8 September.

Registration for Phase 2 will require a fee of Rs 400 and will begin from 17 September. The registration fee for the third phase will also be Rs 400.

The candidates, who confirm their seats online (self-reporting) during the three phases must again report physically to their respective colleges from 8 to 12 October, reported Careers 360. The TSCHE will announce the date for commencement of classes at a later date.

Here’s the official notification of DOST.

Students can finalise the procedure by paying the required fees on the official DOST portal.

The council has taken steps to follow all COVID-19 protocols. A real-time digital face recognition system, or the T App Folio, has been created.

According to a report by The New Indian Express, this will facilitate the verification of a student’s identity without the invigilator actually having to sign on a sheet, thereby minimising human contact.

https://www.firstpost.com/india/ts-dost-admission-2020-telangana-board-to-begin-registration-for-admission-to-ug-courses-from-24-august-8739251.html

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Illusions of Education were created by NEP

The New Education Policy, one must distinguish platitudes from new provisions, including the dropping of old platitudes. Thus, phrases like “education is a public good”, “6 per cent of GDP should be earmarked for education” are just platitudes, unless some concrete suggestions are advanced to realise these.

In short, repeating old platitudes is inconsequential; it is only not repeating them that has some significance, but such inconsequential repetition of old platitudes in the New Education Policy has impressed many otherwise well-informed observers, which explains the strange phenomenon of their according some approval to a policy that is downright reactionary and represents an obvious retreat from the goal of laying the foundations for an egalitarian society.

This retreat takes the form, above all, of exclusion of the socially and economically deprived sections from the ambit of education. There is scarcely any mention of affirmative action in the form of reservation for the socially oppressed anywhere in the document. And given the way reservations are being given a quiet burial in universities, such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, directly under the nose of the Central government and hence undoubtedly with its tacit support, the trend towards the exclusion of students from Dalit and OBC (Other Backward Class) backgrounds is unmistakable.

There is in additional exclusion for economic reasons, through the privatisation of education, which the New Education Policy encourages. With “autonomy”, including financial autonomy, proposed to be granted to numerous colleges, they would obviously garner funds by charging higher fees, which would make them out of bounds for students from poor economic backgrounds, including those from the oppressed castes.

The proponents of the policy may contend that there will be scholarships for poor students, so that the better off students would in effect be cross-subsidising them. But, if at all such a scheme is implemented, given the investment required for making these institutions attractive enough for the well-to-do students, the fees charged to them, both for financing investments and for financing scholarships, will have to be very high.

This will create a social cleavage among students (“my fees are going to educate you”), destroying all collegiality. The obvious solution, of having publicly funded institutions with government scholarships, is precisely what the NEP, operating within the ambit of neo-liberalism, is moving away from.

Hence, the impecunious students will either be completely excluded, or remain in such institutions as second-class students, derided by the better-off students until they eventually drop out.

Interestingly, in the Draft NEP of 2019, on which the current NEP is based, there were sentences expressing disapproval of private non-philanthropic educational institutions. But, in this final version, those sentences have been removed. Likewise, in the initial document released by the government as the final NEP, there were references to the Right to Education, but these, too, were removed in the version put out on the government website.

In fact, the NEP plans explicitly for the dropping out of students, which would inevitably occur according to us, though it camouflages such dropping out as an exercise in “flexibility”.

The policy provides for a four-year undergraduate programme, though the reasons for having such a programme are wholly unclear. Such a programme was introduced in Delhi University by the then HRD minister Kapil Sibal, under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-II government, and had aroused much opposition.

It was withdrawn by human resource development minister Smriti Irani during the tenure of the first Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, but has now been inexplicably reintroduced for the entire country!

Within this programme, however, students can drop out after the first year with a certificate and after the second year, with a diploma. There are, however, no one-year or two-year programmes as such that are being offered. So, anyone dropping out would be doing so in the middle of a four-year programme after having done just a few courses.

What the NEP does is thus to legitimise dropping out, except that it promises a piece of paper as a sort of consolation, called a certificate or a diploma, to students who are dropping out. These pieces of paper will not enable their holders to lay claims to any worthwhile jobs; and one or two years in college, which is all they would have spent, will not provide them any worthwhile education, not even any worthwhile experience of “college life”.

In effect, therefore, the idea of NEP is to produce a whole army of barely-educated persons, who would only be given the illusion of being “educated”. And these persons would typically belong to the socially and economically deprived categories.

This is a travesty of the social vision that independent India had set itself, of making education accessible to all as part of the country’s new awakening. Likewise, the policy of pushing people into career-oriented courses, into vocational training even before they have had a minimum number of years of general education, is typical of a government that wishes to wash its hands of its responsibility towards young persons.

It offers them neither a proper education so that they can become citizens of the republic, nor a proper job. It just wants to dump them on the market with a modicum of training, and then let them fend for themselves.

This exclusion also makes a mockery of the NEP’s provision that school students, for the first few years, should be educated in their mother tongue, which may be a local language different from the language of the state to which they belong.

This idea, which might otherwise have been a welcome one, requires as a complementary measure some assurance, through an appropriate policy of reservation for instance, that those receiving such education will not be at a disadvantage in going further in their educational careers. But in the absence of any such reservation, learning in one’s mother tongue may well turn out simply to be a ghetto to which the non-elite students would get consigned, without much chance of progressing further.

But it is not just the de facto dichotomy that the NEP introduces among the elite and non-elite students that is reprehensible. Its very philosophy is to make people accept such dichotomies.

One of its explicit objectives is to make students take pride in being Indian. Since none can possibly take pride in being part of a civilisation characterised by inhuman practices like “untouchability”, the syllabus will naturally play down such practices and present a “prettified” picture of Indian civilisation.

Likewise Niskama Karma may inform one’s personal philosophy of living; but if it is taught as part of a curriculum to every student, then that inevitably amounts to playing down exploitation; if a factory worker’s child is taught that Niskama Karma is an ideal, then that child will have little sympathy for his or her father’s going on a strike for higher wages.

The purpose of education must be to create a better world. To do so, one must be dissatisfied with the existing world. Making one adjust to the existing world, or, worse still, to a world that had existed earlier but which the people are engaged in transcending through their praxis, is a reactionary project in the realm of education. The NEP promotes such a reactionary project.

This is also reflected in the fact that students are not going to be taught anything about their fundamental rights but only about their fundamental duties. The accent everywhere in the document is to produce conformism.

The children of the elite will become conformist servitors of international finance capital in executive positions; the children of the excluded, the socially and economically under-privileged, will become conformist members of the working classes, among whom a shrinking number of jobs will be rationed out, but who will lack the intellectual wherewithal to fight against their predicament effectively. This is an inappropriate philosophy of education in any country, especially in a country like ours.

In the name of flexibility, inclusion, reduction of burden on students, and such like, what is being attempted is the very opposite: exclusion and reconciliation to the state of being excluded. In fact, one would understand NEP better if one approached it differently.

The introduction of a homogeneous mass education is a requirement of capitalism, which entailed substantial mobility of personnel in contrast to the feudal era, when people scarcely went out of their villages or local areas. Capitalism still needs such an educational system that would impart a homogeneous education to equip a person to serve the needs of capital, no matter where s/he is.

But education on a much larger scale would be entailed in the programme of “universal education” that independent India had promised, compared with what the operation of capitalism per se needs today.

The objective of an education policy under neoliberal capitalism, therefore, is to educate people merely on the scale required by capital, and to renege, through various subterfuges, on the promise of universal education. One would understand the NEP better if one approached it by looking for such subterfuges, namely how it reneges rather than what it says.

https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/4/19238/NEP-Creates-Illusions-of-Education

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IBM partners with NSDC to offer free digital education to students

Under the partnership, IBM will catalogue its 30-plus Open P-TECH courses on eSkill India portal, with more than 60 hours of learning, as a knowledge partner.

Technology major IBM on Friday (August 21) announced its collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer ‘Open P-TECH’, a free digital education platform, focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills.

As a part of the collaboration, IBM will curate online courses from Open P-TECH platform and offer it to users via NSDC’s eSkill India portal to ensure that Indian youth have relevant skills.

The open P-TECH (Pathways to Technology Early College High School) platform was launched in India in March 2020 to equip young learners and educators with foundational technology competencies and emerging areas of technology.

Manoj Balachandran, Leader, CSR, IBM India/South Asia said that there are 9,000 learners and worldwide there are 44,000 learners under open P-Tech.

As a concept, P-Tech was first launched by IBM in 2011 in Brooklyn as a brick-and-mortar model. Balachandran said that the open P-Tech was to ensure that these learning modules have a wider reach.

Sandip Patel, MD, IBM India/South Asia said that skill gap is a reality in India. He added that data shows that there will be a 29 million skill deficit by 2030.

“The future is new collar jobs where individuals don’t have formal degrees but have the skills that are enabling them to be relevant to the job role. I am of the view that emerging technologies must be a part of student curriculum,” added Patel.

Patel also said that the content is currently available in English and will be further expanded into Hindi and 10 other Indian languages including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali. Soft skills will also be included and also gamified assessment, he added.

Under the partnership, IBM will catalogue its 30 plus Open P-TECH courses on eSkill India portal, with more than 60 hours of learning, as a knowledge partner. eSkill India is a digital skilling initiative from NSDC that aggregates digital learning resources through various Indian and global knowledge partnerships, to enable access to best-in-class learning resources for the India youth. Currently, over 1.6 million minutes of digital courses and content is available across various sectors in multiple languages.

IBM will provide online courses in emerging technologies like cyber security, blockchain, AI and machine learning, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), along with professional skills, like design thinking to learners between 18 to 22 years for free.

Manish Kumar, MD and CEO, National Skill Development Corporation said that technology is relevant to India’s future.

“Online trainings through digital platforms like Open P-TECH and eSkill India need to be accelerated to overcome geographical and socio-economic barriers. Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labour workforce as the scope for employability will increase.,” he added.

Kumar added that IT was among the sectors with lowest wage gap between men and women at 12 percent. This was in contrast to almost 30-35 percent in other sectors.

Under the partnership, Open P-TECH platform will offer courses to  develop soft skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving which is amongst a set of 11 key skills which are generally not available in a college curriculum, but are  high in demand and are valued in the job market.
In India, previously, IBM had partnered with Directorate General of Training at the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Central Board of Secondary Education, Niti Aayog and State Department of Education, and State Skills Missions to impact more than 400,000 lakh learners and students across 22+ states through its education and skilling initiatives.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/ibm-partners-with-nsdc-to-offer-free-digital-education-platform-to-students-5737481.html

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