PIB Analysis 15th July 2020

World Youth Skills Day

Context

The Prime Minister addressed the nation on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day.

World Youth Skills Day

On 18 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus, a resolution, spearheaded by Sri Lanka, declaring 15th July as the World Youth Skills Day.
Theme for 2020 : “Skills for a Resilient Youth”

It seeks to generate greater awareness of and discussion on the importance of technical, vocational education, and training and the development of other skills relevant to both local and global economies.

Highlights

The day also marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission.
A Digital Conclave is being organized by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to mark the occasion.
The World Youth Skills Day is an opportunity for young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, and public and private sector stakeholders to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

Skills for a Resilient Youth

According to the UN, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures have led to the worldwide closure of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, threatening the continuity of skills development.
It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of the world’s learners are affected by school closures across education levels.
In post-COVID-19 societies,young people will need to be equipped with the skills to successfully manage evolving challenges and the resilience to adapt to future disruptions.

Skill India

Skill India was launched to empower the youth of the country with skill sets which make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.
Skill India offers courses across several sectors which are aligned to the standards recognised by both, the industry and the government under the National Skill Qualification Framework.
The courses help a person focus on practical delivery of work and help him enhance his technical expertise so that he is ready for day one of his job and companies don’t have to invest into training him for his job profile.

Source:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1638635

To read more about World Youth Skills Day and Government Initiatives for skilling CLICK HERE

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Post COVID Coach

Context

Indian Railways has developed a Post Covid Coach to ensure safer journeys.

Details

Designed by : Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala
This Post Covid Coach has design improvements in the coach for Covid free passenger journey.

Features:

Handsfree amenities: like foot operated water tap & soap dispenser, foot operated lavatory door (outside), foot operated flush valve, foot operated latches in lavatory door, outside wash basin with foot operated water tap and soap dispenser and forearm operated handle on compartment door.

Copper-coated handrails & latches: equipped with copper-coated handrails & latches because copper degrades the virus landed on it within a few hours.Copper has antimicrobial properties. When the virus lands on copper, Ion blasts pathogens and destroys the DNA and RNA inside the virus.

Plasma air purification: Post Covid Coach is having provision of plasma air equipment in AC duct. This plasma air equipment will sterilize the air and surfaces inside the AC coach using ionised air to make the coach Covid-19 and particulate matter resistant.

Titanium Di-oxide coating: It is having Titanium Di-oxide coating in the coach. Nano structured Titanium Dioxide Coating functions as photoactive material. This is an eco-friendly water-based coating that kills viruses, bacteria, mould, and fungal growth and most importantly enhances indoor air quality. It is non-toxic and is harmless to humans. This Titanium Di-oxide coating is applied on washbasins, lavatory, seats & berths, snack table, glass window, floor, virtually every surface that comes in human contact.

Source:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1638516

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PRAGYATA Guidelines

Context

Union HRD Ministry has released PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education

Details

PRAGYATA guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online/blended/digital education for students who are presently at home due to lockdown.
These guidelines on Digital/ Online Education provide a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education.
The guidelines will be relevant and useful for a diverse set of stakeholders including school heads, teachers, parents, teacher educators and students.
The guidelines stress upon the use of an alternative academic calendar of NCERT, for both, learners having access to digital devices and learners having limited or no access.

The PRAGYATA guidelines include eight steps of online/ digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak(talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate. These steps guide the planning and implementation of digital education step by step with examples.

The guidelines outlines suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents and students on the following areas:

Need assessment
Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, balanced online and offline activities etc level wise
Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level wise delivery etc.
Physical, mental health and wellbeing during digital education
Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures for maintaining cyber safety
Collaboration and convergence with various initiatives

Benefits

These guidelines for school heads and teachers describe the need assessment, planning and steps to implement digital education while ensuring cyber safety and privacy measures.
It also outlines the support to be provided to students with special needs.
Main emphasis is on balanced online and offline activities keeping the screen time as an essential parameter in accordance with the level of students.
For parents, the guideline helps to understand the need for physical, mental health and wellbeing along with the cyber safety measures for children at home.
The Guidelines also emphasize the need to unify all efforts related to digital/ online/on-air education, benefitting school going children across the country like DIKSHA, SWAYAM Prabha,Shiksha Vaani etc.

In a country like India characterized by multifarious diversity, switching over to digital modes of education needs various States/ UTs level organizations and National level organizations to join hands for a change that will sustain post-COVID-19 too.

Source:

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1638541

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Supercapacitor

Context

Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) have developed a simple, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable supercapacitor electrode.

Highlights

It is derived from industrial waste cotton which can be used as an energy harvester storage device.

For the first time, natural seawater is explored as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective, scalable, and alternative aqueous electrolyte, which may replace the existing aqueous-based electrolytes for the economic fabrication of supercapacitors.
In search of a cost-effective material for making affordable supercapacitor devices, scientists at ARCI have converted industrial waste cotton (Trash) into highly porous carbon fibers (Treasure) by activation process.
These porous carbon fibers are then utilised to make high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.

Supercapacitor

It is a next-generation energy storage device.
Compared to conventional capacitors and lithium-ion batteries (LIB) it has advantages such as high power density, long durability, and ultrafast charging.
Among the four main components of supercapacitor electrode, electrolyte, separator, and the current collector, the first two are the pivotal components, which directly determine the electrochemical behaviour of the supercapacitors.
The fabrication cost of electrode materials, as well as electrolytes account for a major portion of the device manufacturing cost.

Benefits

The new supercapacitor device shows great potential for practical application, and perhaps most importantly, the integrated solar cell with seawater-based supercapacitor as a low cost, eco-friendly, efficient and self-powering device.
The successful demonstration of the device revealed that solar-powered supercapacitors can not only store the electrical energy but also overcome the drawbacks of the intermittent nature of the solar irradiation.
Hence, the integrated solar cell with supercapacitor can be used as an energy harvester storage device due to their long cycle life and maintenance-free power supply.