Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is transforming the living conditions in villages - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is transforming the living conditions in villages.

The main objectives of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) are as under:
i. To engage the faculty and students of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in identifying development issues in rural areas and finding sustainable solutions for the same.
ii. Identify & select existing innovative technologies, enable customisation of technologies, or devise implementation method for innovative solutions, as required by the people.
iii. To allow HEIs to contribute to devising systems for smooth implementation of various Government programmes.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 is the upgraded version of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 1.0.The scheme is extended to all educational institutes; however under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 Participating institutes are selected based on the fulfillment of certain criteria.
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an Inclusive India. Currently under the scheme UBA, 13072 villages have been adopted by 2474 Institutes. The technology interventions under the scheme Unnat Bharat Abhiyan has been able to transform the living conditions in villages. The technological interventions under the UBA cover different subjects broadly categorized like in the area of sustainable agriculture; water resource management; artisans, industries and livelihood; basic amenities (infrastructure & services) and rural energy system. With the interventions in the abovementioned areas, various new and old technologies has been developed which have transformed the living conditionsin villages and has been beneficial for rural India.
Some technological interventions done under scheme UBA are; i)Mushroom Cultivation done in Gendikata cluster by IIT Delhi; ii) Environment Controlled Automated Green House For High Valued Agro Produce by HVPM College of Engineering and Technology (Amravati); iii) Safe Drinking Water by NIT Manipur and IIT Jodhpur; iv)Paper bag making by BITS Mesra; v)Pattal crockery making by NIT Hamirpur; vi) Cloth Bag making by Fatima College, Madurai; vii) Revamping of Govt. schools in Vrindavan Cluster by IIT Delhi; viii) Improved Pottery Kiln in farrukhnagar cluster by IIT Delhi; ix)Thread winding machine for weavers by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Etcherla; x) Agriculture drone system by Santhiram Engineering College, Nandyal (A.P) etc।


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Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is transforming the living conditions in villages.

Govt. aims to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Govt. aims to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022.

The mission envisages stakeholder investment of $100 billion (₹7 lakh crore), including ₹70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund in coming years

The government on Tuesday announced a new ‘mission’ aimed at providing broadband access in all villages in the country by 2022, entailing investments of around ₹7 lakh crore from various stakeholders.
“The National Broadband Mission will facilitate universal and equitable access to broadband services across the country, especially in rural and remote areas,” Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, adding that it will also aim at significantly improving quality of services for mobile and internet.
Under the mission, the government plans to lay incremental 30 lakh route km of Optical Fiber Cable, while also increasing tower density from 0.42 to 1 tower per thousand of population by 2024.’
The mission envisages stakeholder investment of $100 billion (₹7 lakh crore), including ₹70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) in coming years and “address policy and regulatory changes required to accelerate the expansion and creation of digital infrastructure and services”.
“The vision of the national broadband mission is to fast-track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion, and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all,” an official statement said.
Under the mission, the Centre will work with States and UTs for having consistent policies pertaining to expansion of digital infrastructure including for Right of Way (RoW) approvals required for laying of optical fibre cable.
Additionally, a Broadband Readiness Index will be developed to measure the availability of digital communications infrastructure within a State/UT. (Source: The Hindu)


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Govt. aims to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022.

All Indian villages now have access to power supply - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

All Indian villages now have access to power supply.

HIGHLIGHTS
• All 597,464 inhabited villages in the country now have access to power
• Manipur's Leisang village became the last non-electrified inhabited village to join India's mainline supply network on Saturday
• A village is considered electrified if 10% of its households and public places such as schools etc have access to electricity

Manipur's Leisang village became the last non-electrified inhabited village to join India's mainline supply network at 5.30pm on Saturday, an important milestone in the country's journey towards universal electricity access.
This means that all 597,464 inhabited villages in the country now have access to power, fulfilling a promise the PM had made on August 15, 2015, when he announced that all unelectrified villages would get power over the next 1,000 days.
The last inhabited village to be powered through the off-grid system — isolated supply networks, mostly with solar power plants — was Pakol, also in Manipur.
While basic infrastructure such as distribution transformer and lines need to be set up in inhabited localities, including Dalit hamlets, a village is considered electrified if 10 per cent of its households and public places such as schools, panchayat office and health centre have access to electricity.
Having fulfilled that promise, the PM took to Twitter in a big way. "28th April 2018 will be remembered as a historic day in the development journey of India. Yesterday, we fulfilled a commitment due to which the lives of several Indians will be transformed forever. I am delighted that every single village of India now has access to electricity," he said in a series of tweets.
At the time of Modi's announcement in August 2015, data showed 18,452 villages without power. When work on village electrification started, another 1,275 villages were found to be without access to electricity. Some 1,200 villages are uninhabited and 35 were notified as grazing reserves.
"Village electrification means that the infrastructure to supply power has now reached certain parts of the village. The next step should be to focus on providing connection to all households and ensuring adequate power supply to these homes," former power secretary P Uma Shankar said.
While villages have the power infrastructure, it is now up to households to seek a connection and for state governments to ensure supply. "Village electrification and household electrification are different things. It is up to the people to seek a connection," added R V Shahi, another former power secretary.
After electrifying all villages, the real challenge now is to feed power to each household in those — indeed, all — villages, a task being undertaken through the Saubhagya scheme.
The seeds of 100 per cent village electrification were sowed with the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJUY), a scheme with a projected outlay of Rs 76,000 crore, that Modi had launched on July 25, 2015. This scheme drew from Modi's successful experiment as Gujarat chief minister to separate farm and household feeders in rural areas to ensure 24x7 power to households and assured supply to farmers.
One of the key objectives of the DDUGJUY was to achieve 100 per cent village electrification. It also envisaged separating feeders, strengthening distribution network, metering at all levels and setting up micro grid and off-grid distribution networks. (Source: The Times of India)


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All Indian villages now have access to power supply.