Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

The Indian health care sector has made significant progress in the last few decades. The under-five child mortality rate dropped from 126 in 1990 to 34 in 2019, life expectancy rose from 58 years in 1990 to 69.4 years in 2018, and polio, guinea worm disease, maternal, and neonatal tetanus were successfully eradicated from the country.

Despite the progress, healthcare delivery in India remains largely focused on periodic treatment, with inadequate attention to preventive and primary care. With a predominantly family health and infectious disease focus, Indias health system is not well geared to deal with the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases. Lack of access, availability, affordability and quality care have resulted in suboptimal health outcomes for India, well below many of its peer countries, and a significant financial burden of health expenditure at the individual and household level.

In this paper, the authors analyse the political determinants of improved health outcomes, making a case for political attention to healthcare, through increased investments, health care reforms and improved capacity to deliver curative and public health. This paper builds on both theoretical frameworks and global and sub-national experience, to develop hypotheses for greater political priority to health in India.

The shortcomings of low public investment in health, a fragmented provider landscape across public and private providers as well as across levels of care, an equally fragmented health financing landscape, and challenges with quality care and accountability, have all combined to create challenges in access, quality, expenditure and contributed to poor health outcomes, impeding Indias move towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The challenge of reform and its effective implementation (where reform has indeed taken place) has its roots in the lack of political priority to healthcare. Health has rarely made it to be a key policy agenda, possibly because of the contestation in the policy and priority making process across competing priorities in the country. Budget 2021 underlines this, where despite the pandemic through 2020, the budget failed to see any significant priority to health, in allocations, or system reform. Health spending has not seen any significant increase over several years, either by the Union government (as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or an apercentage of its total budget), or Centre and states combined. Continued low investments in health; lack of investments in primary care; absence of reforms that can address fragmentation (in provision and financing), quality and accountability; all combine to suggest that political attention to health has continued to be weak. Health promotion in the country now needsto focus on the political barriers to health care priority.

Political leaders in other countries have been influenced by a combination of drivers, leading to healthcare reforms being a political priority; resulting in increased resources, efficient and effective use of existing resources, improved design of and outcomes from healthcare systems, increased responsiveness to citizens needs, and reduced financial risk. India remains an outlier to such processes (admittedly with cross-state variations), where despite continuing poor health outcomes and household level financial burden due to health expenditure, impairing social and economic progress at individual and national levels, this area has not witnessed adequate political attention.

We view political commitment as central to health policy, improving health outcomes and financial risk protection, through its ability to drive: resource allocation; capacity and accountability in public systems; reforms that can, in turn, strengthen preventive, promotive and curative health; improved budget utilisation through allocative and technical efficiencies. Political commitment is fundamental to each of these pillars, which in turn impact and enable other shifts, such as the combination of relevant reforms and increased public resources contributing to financial risk protection for individuals.

Based on existing theoretical frameworks for analysing the political economy of health and the specific context of India, we identify five related elements through which health policy and systems in India can gain greater priority. These include 1) recognition and acknowledgement of a problem by political leaders; 2) the presence of feasible and viable policy solutions; 3) interest groups that promote policy change; 4) institutions that sustain momentum around policy change; 5) a political opportunity for introducing the policy. While these would typically be sequential, given that actual policy processes are not an exact science, the starting point and trajectories for political attention could vary significantly by political context.

The landscape of national (or sub-national) problems is a contested one and issues compete with each other for public and political attention. In such a context, making healthcare a policy priority in India requires, as a first step, that it be recognised as a problem that impacts key stakeholders, and thus acknowledged as a key agenda. Studies point to the need for going beyond identifying a problem in its objective form, to categorising and promoting it as a problem that is worthy of attention by key stakeholders through a social construction that drives attention and prioritisation. It has to be viewed as an issue which leaders have a stake in. But the mere recognition of an issue as a problem worthy of attention is not enough; action requires a solution, and it is here that experts and others underline the need for a financially viable, politically and publicly acceptable and technically feasible solution. Despite the acknowledgement of a problem and its solution by some key leaders, there are likely to be a variety of stakeholders with different interests who exert different kinds of power and influence in promoting or obstructing issues. The interplay of these invariably has a strong bearing on the issues that get political priority, and therefore mobilising and engaging with different groups, with incentives to such prioritisation, is key to moving an agenda forward. These processes can take time, during which momentum around the issue needs to be sustained. Global experience has underlined the role of institutions in sustaining such momentum. Finally, the convergence of these factors and forces lead to converting an issue to a policy through a specific political moment or opportunity.

It is in this frame that understanding the political economy of healthcare and its political prioritisation in India becomes meaningful. Currently, the challenges of health care in India are known. The lack of political attention suggests that the political or economic incentives to improving health care are not clear to leaders. At a macro level, the role of health care (or human development more broadly) in Indias growth strategy has not been recognised or articulated, nor has the health-poverty link from a policy perspective. The problem of health care in India, therefore, is not adequately acknowledged as a problem for Indias development. Electoral demands often incentivise political priority, but India has not seen health as a citizen priority during elections. Post-poll surveys of the 2019 and 2014 national elections in India, carried out by Lokniti, revealed health as a key voting issue for a mere 0.3% and 0.4% of the sample respectively. The disproportionately higher use of private health facilities by Indias population (even the poor) suggests a lack of trust in the public delivery system, leading to low expectations; a trust which can only be built through adoption of reforms and demonstration of successfully delivered health services. The governance of health, in Indias federal structure, make unclear the political incentives and space to own health as an agenda across the centre and state governments. All of these lead us to suggest the following hypotheses for increasing political attention to and salience for health care in India.

*Political attention to health will increase with a positioning of health care that makes its political and economic incentives clear.

Improved healthcare builds human capital, which can contribute to increased growth;

Improved health systems can reduce out of pocket expenses on health, thereby reducing levels of poverty and inequality.

In a federal structure, space (fiscal and political) and ownership can be available to state leadership to own policy reform, demonstrate leadership and take political credit.

*Political priority for health in India will increase with increased demand from citizens, making health electorally salient.

Citizen demand for healthcare can be enhanced by mobilising citizens and creating greater awareness around an increased understanding of the role of the state in delivering healthcare, the role of health in citizens aspirational journey and the potential for reduction in out of pocket health expenditures, thereby impacting household economic status.

*Demonstrated solution pathways at different governance and administrative levels (sub national and sub state) will garner political interest from relevant leaders, both bureaucratic and political.

Identification of clear pathways to health system reform and strengthening, through a combination of public and private provision, with the state as steward and regulator, can offer a coherent response to current constraints.

Demonstrated solutions can strengthen citizen confidence and trust in public delivery of health, leading to electoral expectations and incentives.

The study has been accessed by clicking here.

(Sandhya Venkateswaran is a senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress and fellow, Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining Indias Health System; Shruti Slaria is policy associate, Swaniti Initiative and fellow, Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining Indias Health System; Nachiket Mor is a visiting scientist, The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, Tamil Nadu.)

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The political pathway to health system improvements in India - Hindustan Times

Some call it the heart, others the brain, of modern gadgets. Either description serves to illustrate the central role semiconductor chips play in making life easier, driving economic activity and furthering innovations for the digital future. But for something that the entire world relies heavily on, the semiconductor production ecosystem is surprisingly, some will say, alarmingly, constricted, with only a handful of countries with capabilities to design or manufacture them. Amid the pandemic, a shortage of chips has seen production suffer across industries, underscoring the need to diversify the production of this essential item. Looking to emerge as a major semiconductors player, India has lined up a Rs 76,000 crore package to attract knowhow and investment in the sector. Heres all you need to know.

Never before has such a tiny item had so massive an influence on global business as semiconductor chips have come to exert in our digital age. Most electronic devices and new cars that are produced use it to execute their functions while everything from gym equipment to gaming consoles rely on it, not to mention most household appliances and personal devices.

In short, any device, gadget, item or product that features electronic displays, or needs to process data depends essentially on these chips. The industry, which saw total sales of USD 440.4 billion in 2020, is expected to see earnings grow by a fifth this year to touch USD 527.2 billion. This, amid a crippling shortage of chips that will see carmakers worldwide produce millions of fewer cars this year while electronics giant Apple said shortages will hurt the sales of iPads and iPhones this year.

It all boils down to electrical properties. Anything that conducts electricity is called a conductor, and one that doesnt is called an insulator. Semiconductors are substances with properties somewhere between them," says Japanese major Hitachi.

Such as they are, says US-based industry body Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), semiconductors are the brains of modern electronics and technologies of the future such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced wireless networks".

Semiconductors also known as integrated circuits (ICs), or microchips are most often made of silicon or germanium, or a compound like gallium arsenide. The process kicks off with the introduction, into these pure elements, of impurities with the goal of achieving crucial changes in the conductivity of the material. This step is known as doping.

As SIA says, most semiconductors start off as sand which, after being processed, is melted into solid cylinders called ingots. These ingots are thereafter sliced into extremely thin pieces disc, which in turn are polished to a flawless finish". This is a blank wafer. This blank wafer, in the next step, is printed with the intricate circuit design as they move to the stage where they become separate chips, which happens through cutting them up into tiny individual semiconductors called dies.

The dies are then built into finished semiconductors and take the familiar shape in which they are finally inserted into devices.

This was the mechanical part of producing a semiconductor chip and is accomplished in what is known as a foundry. But the true art in making semiconductor chips lies in devising and designing them, involving everything how the chip should operate, how the circuit needs to be laid out to achieve that objective and including testing and verification to check that the chip does what it was meant to be.

A single firm that performs all the above steps is called an integrated device manufacturer (IDM), but the bulk of the business operates via a system where what is known as a fabless firm designs the chip and then outsources its production to a foundry.

Fabless companies more often than not are located in the developed nations that can afford high investments in R&D while foundries are most likely to come up in countries where labour is abundant and cheap so as to keep production costs low, like Taiwan the worlds largest chipmaker and China.

Mainly Covid, as the pandemic it has wrought disrupted economic activity, shut down factories and businesses and froze global supply chains.

As tech major IBM pointed out, the sudden, remote work-induced increase in the sales of consumer-electronic products worked as a double whammy in combination with a slowdown in chip production. But as an article in Money Control notes, Covid-19 was not the only factor behind the shortage and the tense relationship between the US and China" also played a part. As the US blacklisted Chinese companies, American firms had to look elsewhere for chips, something that also served to trigger shortages.

The sudden chip crunch and the debilitating impact it had on all kinds of industries The Washington Post said that a company in Illinois in US that makes electronic dog-washing booths, too, was hit by the shortage sent a shudder down strategic and policy circles, sparking efforts to resolve supply chain issues and bottlenecks. The idea was to ensure that no one country played an outsize role in the semiconductor business.

With Chinas increasingly assertive stance vis-a-vis Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, there was an added push to diversify chip production. So much so that one of the stated goals of the Quad alliance of the US, Japan, Australia and India is to launch a joint initiative to map capacity, identify vulnerabilities, and bolster supply-chain security for semiconductors and their vital components".

According to a March 2021 article on indiaai.gov.in, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Nasscom, semiconductors are a 100 per cent import sector" in India. However, it noted that India has a distinct advantage in chip design" with several global IDMs having established design centres in India. It cites MeitY to add that India produces nearly 2,000 chips every year and more than 20,000 engineers in the country are involved in chip design".

But India is nowhere yet on the global semiconductor radar. As SIA notes, the US is the worldwide leader in semiconductors with about half of global market share and sales of USD 208 billion in 2020". As IEEE notes, the worlds leading semiconductor manufacturers are located in the US which has four of the five global leaders: Intel, NVIDIA, Broadcom, Texas Instruments Inc. (not in that order) and the Asia-Pacific region, where South Korea is home to a top-five player in Samsung.

The reason the semiconductor industry is dominated by global giants" is due in part to the enormous scale of the market and the costs of manufacturing integrated circuits and researching new technology", adds IEEE.

MeitY told Parliament in December this year that semiconductor FABs are highly capital intensive and resource intensive, and are at the cutting edge of manufacturing with rapidly changing technology cycles". It acknowledged further that the semiconductor fabrication capability for leading/cutting edge technology nodes is available with only few companies

globally".

On December 15, the government came up with a Rs 76,000-crore package for development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem in India", announcing incentives of Rs 2.3 lakh crore to position India as global hub for electronics manufacturing with semiconductors as the foundational building block".

Stating that the establishing domestic capabilities in semiconductor production will have a multiplier effect across different sectors of the economy [and] promote higher domestic value addition in electronics manufacturing", it said that the success in this area will contribute significantly to achieving a USD 1 trillion digital economy and a USD 5 trillion GDP by 2025".

The scheme is aimed at providing a push to semiconductor and display manufacturing by enabling access to capital support and technological collaborations for companies engaged in production of everything from silicon semiconductor fabs, display fabs, validation, assembly and testing and design.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.

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EXPLAINED: Wafers, Chips And How India Is Eyeing A Slice Of The Semiconductor Pie - News18

MOSCOW, Idaho December 14, 2021 The impact of climate change in Idaho will present challenges and opportunities to all sectors of our economy from agriculture to recreation and tourism, energy, human health, infrastructure and land according to a series of reports prepared by Idaho researchers in an effort led by the James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research at the University of Idaho and just released to the public.

The reports are part of the Idaho Climate-Economy Impacts Assessment, a nonpartisan, science-based resource to help Idaho business leaders and policy makers plan for a resilient Idaho economy. All assessment content is available online at the website http://www.uidaho.edu/iceia.

Changes in temperature, precipitation, and snowpack will impact Idahos major economic sectors. For example, warmer temperatures and variation in precipitation likely will lead to agricultural stress for some crops and regions, but also may present opportunities to explore new crop varieties better suited to future climate conditions. Understanding the most current information and predictions can help Idahoans plan and adapt for the future.

Over the last two years, researchers from the University of Idaho, Boise State University and Idaho State University have synthesized available data on projected changes to Idahos climate and have assessed how these changes may impact Idahos economy, focusing on six major sectors: agriculture, energy, human health, infrastructure, land (forests and rangelands), and recreation and tourism. This research effort connects the latest science on Idahos changing climate with possible economic risks and with economic opportunities for innovation and economic development. The assessment also features data on climate, water and wildfire smoke.

As a global food and agriculture company, we know the impact that events like wildfires, hot, dry summers and a diminished water supply can have on our business, our state and our way of life, said President and CEO Garrett Lofto, J.R. Simplot Company. This important, science-based work will help us better understand the potential impact of climate change on Idaho and our economy and help us continue to drive technological advancements to solve large-scale problems and bring future opportunities that benefit us all.

Micron is proud to be one of many Idaho organizations funding this important research, which will help all Idaho businesses understand how to address climate change, said Micron Executive Vice President of Global Operations Manish Bhatia. Action is urgently needed, and Micron is committed to addressing climate-related risks. Adopting renewable energy; increasing waste recycling, water recycling and water conservation; and reducing water usage are just some of the steps we are taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to a sustainable future for all.

In addition to providing Idaho-specific research and information on economic impacts and opportunities, the assessment includes tools and resources for further exploration.

The Idaho Climate-Economy Impacts Assessment is unlike any other resource available in Idaho, said U of I President Scott Green. More than 50 researchers from the University of Idaho, Boise State University and Idaho State University collaborated with each other and other experts to reveal how the changing climate impacts Idahos financial health and provide resources that will help Idahos economy continue to thrive. The assessment is a strong example of Idahos higher education institutions dedication to working together to serve Idaho in long-lasting and impactful ways.

The assessment seeks to inspire new collaborations, commitments and ongoing forums to leverage resources, encourage innovations and spur investments in Idaho solutions. The assessments website is designed for broad use by business leaders, policy makers, nonprofit organizations and Idahoans to meet the economic challenges and recognize the economic opportunities connected to the changing climate.

The assessment was funded by a consortium of businesses, nonprofits, governments and foundations: J.R. Simplot Company, The Nature Conservancy, Idaho National Laboratory, HP Inc., Micron Technology, Micron Foundation, American Lung Association, Idaho STEM Action Center, Idaho Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Idaho Forest Group, Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, Idaho Conservation League, City of Boise, Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Manulife Investment Management Forest Management Inc., D.L. Evans Bank, Outdoor Industry Association and Molpus Woodlands Group. The work was supported by in-kind contributions from Idahos research universities and an advisory board with forty leaders from industry, nonprofit and government organizations. Details about financial support, the advisory board and research leads are available on the assessments website http://www.uidaho.edu/iceia.

Katherine HimesDirector, James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy ResearchUniversity of Idaho208-364-4549katherinehimes@uidaho.edu

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New Assessment Released by the McClure Center Highlights Climate Change Challenges and Opportunities for Idaho's Economy - University of Idaho

It now looks like the Creator was indeed correct saying in Genesis that Adam and Eve held dominion over "every living thing" over beasts as unmanageable as lions and whales, forces as terrifying as plague, famine and drought.

Now, thousands of years later, some of the world's most respected scientists are saying that this dominion is now complete. Human activities have had so much impact that we have become a "force of nature" as a species.

Humans are transforming the land, the water, and even the atmosphere of Earth more rapidly and at a greater scale than at any time in our history. We must take action to slow the pace of that change by using resources more sustainably. Hence my support for a global resource-based economy.

In a very real sense, the world is in our hands. Our dominance of Earth means that we cannot escape responsibility for managing this planet.

Every species modifies its environment. And when it comes to humanity's impact, most people think of "human-dominated ecosystems" in terms of plowed fields, harvested forests and urban landscapes. It is much more than those things. Now that term applies to the entirety of the planet. Most ecosystems are dominated directly by humankind, with no ecosystem on the planet being entirely free of our influence.

We tend to think of the forces of nature as being natural disasters like volcanoes, floods, or hurricanes only.

But, just by our sheer numbers and our technical capabilities, we humans have indeed become a force of nature as well. It has happened relatively quickly, and it already has resulted in unintended and major consequences.

We have exacerbated normal climate change by our actions, we are the dominant species, we must clean up our mess. The world's future is literally in our own hands.

If you are interested in helping, please Google: resource-based economy, Michael Corthell.

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Michael Corthell: Humans dominate the Earth and have responsibility to restore it - Conway Daily Sun

In this guest blog, Michigan Tech researchers Shan Zhou and Daisuke Minakata explain how changes at the household level can create a more sustainable water use system.

Human society has traditionally followed the development path of a linear economy, wherein raw materials, products and waste are clearly distinguished from each other. This take-make-dispose step-by-step plan has led to significant problems for a human society dependent on a planet with finite resources. Obvious examples are wasting valuable materials, environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, take-make-dispose encourages a culture of consumption focused on the possession of goods, instead of their use values or values satisfying human requirements. There is a growing awareness among policy makers, environmental advocates, and the research community that the current method of linear economic development occurs at the expense of the health and productivity of ecosystems.

Scholars, policy makers and activists alike have pointed out the need to transit toward a circular economy, which optimizes the use of raw materials and resources, maximizes economic values and minimizes environmental damages. The circular water economy is based on the idea that all water is a resource, rather than a waste product following its use. But, changes at the societal and household level are necessary to establish a more sustainable water use system.

The U.S. is faced with severe water hardships. On the one hand, many communities across the country struggle with challenges regarding aging water treatment and delivery infrastructure, growing populations, and reliable and safe water supplies. Forty states expect to have water shortages during the next few decades that are not related to drought. Millions of U.S. residents are affected by a lack of clean running water and proper plumbing.

On the other hand, the U.S. has one of the highest per capita water consumptions in the world. The average American household uses about 552 gallons of water per day.

A circular economy offers an opportunity to capture the full potential value of water. However, the systematic discussions of water reduction, reuse and recycling at different economic sectors and levels have just emerged.

A circular water economy can be realized through the reduction in consumption, non-potable/potable reuse and recycling of graywater and wastewater, recovery of nutrients from blackwater, and recycling of materials for retrofitting and remanufacturing appliances. A circular water economy has the potential to provide a transformative approach to delivering sustainable, efficient and equitable water supply and sanitation services.

And, while establishing the circular water economy requires both state and national approaches with a backbone of thoughtful policy making, decisions made at the household level build a foundation for societal change.

We are members of a group of environmental engineers and social scientists with training in system optimization, input-output analysis and policy analysis. In a recent study, we focus on the microscale household circular water economy. We estimate the net greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption of household appliances under various scenarios based on a combination of assumptions, including electric power projections, household energy sources, household appliance efficiency levels, and water efficiency and recycled graywater quantities.

Our analysis led to two main findings. First, using 100% renewable-based electricity and eliminating the use of natural gas for household energy would lead to the largest carbon emissions reduction in households. Second and relatedly, household water consumption does not vary by energy sources. The largest water savings potential is in lawn irrigation, which can be decreased from 119 cubic meters to four cubic meters annually through a combination of water-saving irrigation techniques and graywater reuse and recycling. Appliance efficiency upgrades can reduce water consumption from 146 to 228 cubic meters annually, and the water savings potential due to graywater recycling alone ranges from 20 to 70 cubic meters.

Based on our research, there are a few strategies that households can adopt to enhance their water and energy efficiency, reduce environmental impacts and save money:

An efficient electric coil space heater furnace, although the least efficient, can help reduce costs significantly and achieve the optimal water savings.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

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Guest Blog: Offset Emissions and Save Water by Creating a Circular Water Economy in Your Home - Michigan Technological University

India is a maritime nation, and the country sitsastride a large number of busy InternationalShippingLanes that crisscross the Indian Ocean. About 90% ofour trade by volume and70% by value is transportedover the seas. For a rapidly growing economy seekingnew markets worldwide, the volume of maritime tradewill only grow in times to come.Indias economic resurgence is directly linkedto her overseas trade and energy needs, most of whichare transported by sea. Mercantile trade constitutesa substantial portion of Indias GDP and is likely to increase in the future. Maintenance of a secure maritime environment which enables unhindered pursuit ofeconomic activities is, therefore, essential for the overalleconomic development and security of the country.

The Indian Navy is the maritime arm of the Indian armed forces; it protects and securesthe Indian maritime borders. It also protects Indian shipping in the Indian Ocean region.It is one of the worlds largest Navies in terms of both personnel and Naval vessels.India has a rich maritime heritage that dates back thousands of years. The beginning ofIndias maritime history dates to 3000 BC. During this time, the inhabitants ofIndus Valley Civilisation had maritime trade link with Mesopotamia.The discovery of a tidal dock at Lothal in Gujarat is proof of Indias ancient maritimetradition. The mention of the Department of Navadhyaksha or Superindent of Ships inKautilyas treatise Arthasastra highlights the development of maritime commerce. Theancient Tamil empire of the Cholas in the south, and the Marathas and the Zamorins ofKerala during the 16th and 17th centuries maintained Naval fleets. You have read aboutall this in the previous lesson on Ancient Armies.

The East India Company came under the British Crownon 01 May 1830 and acquired combatant status. It was named as Her MajestysIndian Navy in 1858. In 1863, it was reorganised into two branches; one atBombay and the other at Calcutta, as the Bombay Marine and the Bengal MarineThereafter, it was called The Royal Indian Navy (RIN), under the British rule. By the end of the war, its strength had risen to 117 combatvessels and 30,000 personnel who had seen action in various theatres ofoperations.On India attaining Independence, the Royal Indian Navy consisted of 32 ageingvessels suitable only for coastal patrol., with R Adm ITS Hall, CIE, being thefirst Post-independence Commander-in-Chief. After the independence of Indiaon 15 August 1947 and the ensuing partition, the RINs fleet of ships and remainingpersonnel were divided between the newly independent Union of India andDominion of Pakistan.The first engagement inaction of the Indian Navy was against the PortugueseNavy during the liberation of Goa in 1961. During the Goa liberations, OperationVijay, the Indian Navy supported troop landings and provided fire support. The 1962 Sino-Indian War was largely fought over the Himalayas and the Navy hadonly a limited role in the war. Indian Naval activity in the Indo-Pakistani War of1965 largely involved coastal patrols. During the war, the Pakistani Navy attackedthe Indian coastal city of Dwarka, although there were no military resources inthe area. India deployed Naval resources to patrol the coast and deter furtherbombardment.

The Indian Navies capabilities were best demonstrated during the Indo-PakistanWar of 1971.The navy successfully enforced a Naval blockade of West andEast Pakistan. Pakistans lone long-range submarine PNS Ghazi was sunk offthe coast of Visakhapatnam. On 4 December 1971, the Indian Navy successfullyexecuted Operation Trident, a devastating attack on the Pakistan NavalHeadquarters of Karachi that sank a mine sweeper; a destroyer and ammunitionsupply ship. The attack also damaged another destroyer and oil storage tanks atthe Karachi port. To commemorate this action, 4 December is celebrated as theNavy Day.

The full range of operations in which a nations Naval forces may be involved is vast,

ranging from high intensity war fighting to humanitarian assistance and disaster reliefoperations. This can be broken down into distinct roles. The four main roles of theIndian Navy are described in the following sections:

The Naval air-arm is an important component of the Indian Navy, and it consists ofMiG-29Kjets and helicopters that operate from aircraft carriers. The Kamov-31operates from theaircraft carriers and provides airborne early warning cover for thefleet. In the anti-submarinerole the Sea King, Ka-28 and the Indian Dhruv are used.The Boeing P-8, Poseidon and the Ilyushin 38 carry out maritime patrol andreconnaissance operations. The UAV arm consists of the Heron and Searcher-IIs thatare operated from both surface ships and shore establishments for surveillance missions.

INS Kursura was commissioned at Riga, erstwhile USSR, on 18 December 1969 under thecommand of Commander A Auditto. The submarine embarked on her maiden passage fromBalrisk on 20th February 1970. The induction of INS Kursura showcased the augmentation of the 3rd dimension of the Indian Navy. She was the corner stone of foundation of Indian Naval Submarine Arm. During her 31 glorious year of service the submarine traversed 73,500 nautical miles participating in almost all types of Naval operations. INS Kursura played a vital role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. She was the pioneer submarine extending goodwill and harmony through visits and flag-showing missions to other nations. In her vast life span, INS Kursura changed hands 13 times, the last Commanding Officer being Cdr KM Sreedharan. INS Kursura was decommissioned on 27th February 2001.After her decommissioning, Kursura has been converted into a submarine museum beached on RK Beach, Visakhapatnam.

List of active Indian Navy ships is a list of ships in active service with the Indian Navy. In service ships are taken from the official Indian Navy website.As of July 2021, the Indian Navy possesses 1 aircraft carrier, 1 amphibious transport dock, 8 Landing ship tanks, 10 destroyers, 13 frigates, 1 Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, 16 conventionally powered attack submarines, 23 corvettes, 8 Landing Craft Utility, 10 large offshore patrol vessels, 5 fleet tankers and various auxiliary vessels and small patrol boats.

India has a coastline of about 7500 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of over 2 million sq kms. In addition, we are endowed with abundant oceanic wealth comprising a large number of island territories and vast seabed area, over 97 % of our national trade is carried by sea routes! We must protect our natural wealth and keep our trade routes open in order to progress and per. It is therefore, imperative that India maintains a strong Navy which is always in a high state of preparedness.In times of distress and natural disaster such as floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes etc. The Navy is always called upon for rescue and relief operations. Little wonder then, the Indian Navy is so relevant to us all! And that also explains why the public hold a great deal of affections for the Navy and its officers and sailors.

Of all the diverse elements that go into the making of a strong and effective Navy, no single factor is as important as its men.

The potential to grow the blue economy is limited by a series of challenges.

A more systematic approach, based on a better understanding of nationally defined priorities, social context, and resource base, can guide sustainable and inclusive blue growth. Countries increasingly recognize that they need more knowledge about the biophysical characteristics, carrying capacity, synergies, or trade-offs between sectors to ensure an efficient and sustainable management of different activities.

Marine and coastal spatial planning and integrated maritime surveillance are needed to give authorities, businesses, and communities a better picture of what is happening in this unique space. Digital mapping of maritime and coastal space and natural assets can form the basis for cross-sector analysis and planning in order to prevent conflicts and avoid externalities.

Similarly, the growing science of data-limited stock assessments can provide critical information needed for improved fisheries management. In places such as South Africa and Indonesia, mobile technology is being tested to gather previously unavailable data, for example on fishery landings and fish stock health.

Coastal zones are among the areas most vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards. Risks include flooding, erosion, sea level rise as well as extreme weather events due to ad hoc development. The Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) seeks to coordinate the application of different policies affecting the coastal zone and maritime activities. ICZM is an iterative process which includes a variety of approaches, from mapping, delineation and demarcation of the hazard lines and coastal sediment cells, to building the capacity of agencies, institutions, and communities to make informed decisions about growing the blue economy within the carrying capacity of its living natural resource base.

Growing the blue economy requires assessing the value of marine resources. Not only are marine living resources poorly measured and understood, but they are also rarely valued properly.

Human Capital: Skilled labor is in high demand in all developing countries and highly relevant to the blue economy. Investment in the broader blue economy and in parallel skills training for fishers who can no longer make a decent living from the living aquatic resources can produce win-wins for economic development across sectors and make space for conservation.

Secured Governance presents a vision of rapid economic development based on natural resource utilization and urban expansion through next five years. It prioritizes immediate development needs and the interests of coastal developers and extractive industries over the proactive preservation of ecosystem services. As the scenario was developed over time, it came to represent possible construction and development that could occur with minimal government investment. Substantial benefits are to be derived through this type of secured governance functions via many interacting mechanisms which define and control them.

Apart from the obvious benefits of additional revenue through coastal development, one major advantage is tremendous improvement in export and import of weapons in India. While refining valuation methods is going to lead to more rational coastal land-use decisions, it will design sustain additional revenue to department of Indian Navy and improve our understanding on the ecologicaleconomic mechanisms that contribute to the value of our natural capital assets.

Viewing the marine environment as natural capital sets the framework for assessing how that environment contributes to human well-being and establishes that the marine environment is not just an amenity or an expendable aspect of coastal lives. A healthy marine ecosystem provides an irreplaceable foundation for fisheries, recreation, and tourism industries, as well as less recognized services such as waste processing, hydrological cycling, storm protection, and nutrient cycling all of which contribute to the habitability of a place, the region, and the planet as a whole. The innovative blue economy is driven by business-level innovation using locally sourced resources, with a focus on job creation, building social capital and generating multiple cash flows by stimulating entrepreneurship and business-model innovation. Historically there has been a close correlation between economic growth and environmental degradation: as communities grow, so the environment declines. So, the various policy tools that have encouraged more sustainable production and consumption patterns. On the production side, this owes much to the research and development of environmentally sound technologies, fostered by environmental regulation. In addition, frequent dialogue, knowledge management, technology transfer, education, training, and capacity building must be developed so that sustainable industrial practices can spread throughout the world. Coastal plains are a geologic feature found on both the eastern and western coasts of India. The coastal area of India has the potential to generate multiple revenue streams. The market turns around money; money is thus a medium of exchange. Innovations that generate more market applications have greater appeal and are thus most likely to be embraced by established businesses and entrepreneurs. The opportunity to generate multiple revenues is a very attractive phenomenon since it mobilizes parallel investments for several niche markets. Nonetheless, these are still high-risk investments. The terms may not be appealing for the inventors but the need for cash may be so urgent that they accept an investment agreement. The capacity to reduce risk by generating more cash flow makes products and services competitive. This is how millions of sustainable jobs will be created, fundamentally shifting old model products and by-gone production methods to innovations and processes based on the scientific understanding of already benchmarked solutions that encourage the next generation to become innovators.

The scope of the ocean economy varies considerably among countries. For example, in the United States we see six sectors and 26 categories whereas in Japan we see only three sectors but 33 categories. This is a reflection of the many different classification sectors and categories in different countries. In other words, one industry in one country is divided into several industries in another country.

Despite this disparity, we can identify the main scope and characteristics of some common industries:

Fisheries generally consists of fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing;

Marine Mining all countries where marine mining exists include it in the ocean economy. Some countries include the salt industry while others separate it from marine mining.

Offshore Oil and Gas Many countries with an offshore oil and gas industry include it in the ocean economy.

Ship and boat-building all countries where ship and boat building exists include it in the ocean economy.

Marine Manufacturing though the scope of marine manufacturing differs according to country, most include it in the ocean economy.

Marine Construction all countries with a marine construction industry include it in the ocean economy.

Marine Transportation all countries include marine transportation in the ocean economy, but some countries categorize marine transport-related services as separate industries.

Port many countries integrate the port industry into marine transportation.

Marine Tourism although all countries include marine tourism in the ocean economy, the industry is very complex. This makes it difficult to innumerate the differences in scope in the marine and costal tourism industry.

Marine Commerce: Marine financial services, marine legal services, marine insurance, ship finance & related services, charterers, media & publishing.

Maine ICT: Marine engineering consultancy, meteorological consultancy, environmental consultancy, hydro-survey consultancy, project management consultancy, ICT solutions, geo-informatics services, yacht design, submarine telecom etc.

Public Sectors such as education, national defense, R&D, and public administration most countries include them in the ocean economy.

Ocean Renewable Energy:Offshore wind energy production, wave energy production, tidal energy production

India has navigable network length is 14,500 km, in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. There are 6 waterways in 15 states with 70 terminals all over India waterways. Various surveys show that water-based activities are among the most popular recreation activities. Sometimes restricted zones are set up so that certain activities, such as fishing, do not interfere with other activities, such as swimming. Even a medium-sized hydropower project can have recreational and tourism value to residents and visitors, provide jobs for thousands, and have a monetary benefit in the crores of Indian Rupees.

The water-based group was dominated by young males who were involved in a wide variety of recreational activities, especially those based on water adventures. The learning and-passive group contained a majority of highly educated, older women who were most interested in learning and viewing about activities, and in participating in popular outdoor activities such as family gathering, picnicking, and walking. In order to improve planning and management for these participants, the survey provided recommendations for appropriate services and facilities at the recreation areas, formulated policies, and encouraged proper use of natural resources.

Local government will get additional revenue through this various mini-HUBs to meet extra budget burden of river maintenance (includes deepening, cleaning etc.) expenditure.

India is blessed with 1,382 individual islands in that Smart City Scheme is an ambitious economic development programme aimed at consolidating the international business and financial HUB by creating ideal conditions for working, living, and spurring investment through the development of smart cities. It provides technology-driven facilities to the business community and creates a vibrant city lifestyle. Smart city concepts demand a change in lifestyle and can only be successful if the people are willing to adapt to this new lifestyle. The social and cultural settings in islands are known to be different; islanders often have a unique lifestyle shaped by various factors such as physical isolation, size etc. Therefore, if authorities want to create smart islands, they need the people to be among the most important stakeholders, that is, they need the people to want to live in a smart island.

Blue Economy is comparatively unexplored in terms of its economic potential and long-term developmental programme of the world. Island could be one of the major destinations in the journey of creating smart sustainable city. Islands could be allocated to develop tourism HUBs & Smart Cities for sustainable Economic development to meet financial obligation of India.

These smart city projects would require huge capital investment initially that could be brought about by public private partnerships for developing sustainable smart cities. The smart cities in Island will help the Indian Economy to provide long term funding and more employment opportunities in future.

Optimum and efficient utilization of water resources is at the core of blue economy. Singapore is a group of Islands without natural resources. Even it is to be a leader in implementing the smart city concept and moves to be a smart Nation. In India there are more than 1,200 Islands with abundant natural resources and beautiful scenery. Some of these islands are equal or even larger in size of Singapore. These islands could be leased out by the central government to state governments for smart city development and other economic activities, based on the population of the state. Every Island would be one of blue economy resources which facilitates greater use of untapped economic growth in a much bigger way, in turn, may raise the contribution of smart city development to the major portion of economy. Development of smart city projects with private capital through Public Private Participation (PPP) route has become one of the commonly acquired procurement strategies in developed and developing countries. The development of smart cities in Islands would be opening up a plethora of investment opportunities. The Smart City Scheme provides an enabling framework and a package of attractive fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to investors for the development of smart cities across the island. Even it would be new initiative to stimulate innovative scientific and technological activities, provide technology-driven facilities to the business community and create a vibrant city lifestyle.

The Smart City development would be an ambitious economic development programme aimed at consolidating the international business and financial HUB by creating ideal conditions for working, living and spurring investment across the island. Islands have great potentialities in smart city development; it will accelerate employment opportunities, promote local economic growth and create an effective roadmap that derogates the financial obligations of States and Union Territories of India.

Social Benefit: Conceptually, helps people in areas of HUBs, Mini HUBs & Micro HUBs, thus allowing greater access to employment and other productive opportunities. Increase output such as tourism and other allied services or facilities in the region, which reflects into an improvement in living standards.

Economic Benefit: Facilitate innovation and new ideas in the water-based region of India. Significantly increase the land values and economic growth. Stimulate investment from Private stakeholder and foreign investors for the next five years would be around INR. 1.5 lakh cr. and create 20 million new job opportunities and business opportunities for local. Around 3.6% of private investment would be additional revenue to Government of India.

The raising importance of the Blue Economy in global activities represents a great opportunity for innovation, be it in coastal management, navigation assistance or biodiversity protection. The Blue Economy represents an opportunity to boost the local economy and create jobs in knowledge intensive economic sectors. The creation of new services are really need in order to better tackle the challenges faced by coastal regions and inland water bodies to achieve their unleash business opportunities and boost the local economy. Both local and regional authorities should therefore not hesitate in investing even more into the adoption of innovative technologies. It is indispensable to promote and enhance collaboration between the various actors of the value-chain to develop strong and vibrant local economies.

Value and Valuation of the Blue Economy allied projects will make it a self-sustaining mechanism while bringing unprecedented growth and development for the region.

By,Commander Vijay Vadhera, (Veteran)President Navy Foundation, Mumbai Chapter

By,Dr. P. Sekhar, Chairman,Unleashing India, Global Smart City Panel & MTGF

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Post Covid devastation important role of Naval Personnel past and present for Reincarnation through Smart and Secured Governance

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Indias economic resurgence is the direct link to her overseas trade and energy needs, most of which are transported by sea. Mercantile trade constitutes a substantial portion of Indias GDP and is likely to increase in the future.

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TPT News BUreau

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THE POLICY TIMES

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Post Covid devastation important role of Naval Personnel past and present for Reincarnation through Smart and Secured Governance - thepolicytimes.com

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in India going into an unprecedented nationwide lockdown in the months of March and April 2020. The effect of the pandemic is being felt across all aspects of the economy with GDP growth falling to as low as 2.5% in the calendar year. The Indian government has responded to this by providing several guidelines including restricting the movement of people and social distancing.

University Grants Commission (UGC) and other apex education bodies also issued COVID-19 specific guidelines for Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) resulting in temporarily closing, students being asked to go home, and efforts being undertaken to move classes online. These measures will have varying degrees of impact on ~3.75 crore students enrolled in and ~14 lakh faculty employed by the system.

Higher education leaders are also concerned that an extended lockdown due to the pandemic could have a deeper impact on the sector, as COVID-19 has disrupted the admissions cycle and might have an effect on enrolments; creating a cash flow crunch, slowing down research and consulting activities.

This year, close to 1.44 crore students are appearing for their school-leaving exams, and close to 50 lakhs of these students will be looking to enroll in a higher education institution in this academic session.

Institutions planning for their admissions cycle will need to muster their limited resources, have an agile response plan to COVID-19, and build resilience to minimize the impact on their enrolments, diversity of students, and revenues.

Todays rapidly growing economies depend on the creation, acquisition, distribution, and use of knowledge and this requires a well-educated and highly skilled population. The various report says that India has the potential to become the second-largest economy in the world by 2050 in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms (third in Market Exchange Rate (MER) terms), although this requires a sustained developmental program in the existing educational system. Education plays a key articulating role between nation and economic growth. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital. Education enriches peoples understanding of themselves and the world. It improves the quality of their lives and leads to broad social benefits to individuals and society. Indeed, investing in education helps to achieve a sustainable economic growth of a nation.

Generally, funding of education mainly comes from the government, with a smaller role for non-educational private sources (including for example households, enterprises, non-profit organizations, and religious institutions) and generally an even smaller role for international organizations.

But education budgets are limited, especially in times of economic downswing. The government spends on education per student for top 10 countries are given in the table. In India, the total public expenditure per year on each student in a government school could range from INR12,000 (US$160, US$ = INR 75.00) per student at the elementary level to INR16,000 (US$213.33, US$ = INR 75.00) at the secondary and higher secondary level. Although the budgetary allocation to the education sector rises every year, it is still inadequate for ensuring quality education. It is because a large portion of the education budget is spent on non-developmental purposes. Besides, the ministry had to pay salaries, allowances, and pensions to its officials and carry out repair and maintenance works. This economic burden is widening the gap between innovative education and skills development to meet the skilled manpower demand in India.

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

(RE to BE)

Expenditure on education by the centre and the states as a proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been around 3% between 2014-15 to 2018-19. Out of this figure, roughly 1% is spent on higher education in India.

The COVID-19 scare is giving sleepless nights to students who were to appear in entrance exams like JEE for B. Tech. admissions and/ or to class 12 students appearing for Board exams. KCET, GUJCET & MHT CET (supposed to be conducted in April) were postponed by few months. CBSE has also postponed its exams. It is not incorrect to assume that we will soon see many other organisations follow suit and a whole lot of entrance exams in India be further postponed due to Coronavirus. Looking at the state of affairs, it is a matter of concern what the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will have on the higher education system in India.

The rate at which Coronavirus has spread to different regions in India has forced the central and state governments to shut down educational institutions and schools as a precautionary measure resulting in the disruption of studies. This problem is prevalent everywhere. In a well-thought-through move by almost 10 US organizations to the Federal Government, they said, While closing campuses or moving entirely to remote instruction have been necessary steps in slowing the spread of the virus among students and staff, these shifts have caused massive disruption to students, institutional operations and institutional finances. The substantial financial impacts on colleges and universities will ripple through local communities, the group said, given the wide economic role higher education plays in much of the country. Similarly, in India, unless contingency measures are undertaken, students looking for admissions could face hard times.

While academic experts are pushing for online models of education even beyond pandemic be it classroom teaching or tutorials, we are yet to see how effectively a nation that primarily relies on an offline mode of teaching can seamlessly transgress to an online medium of teaching and education. So, the question is, will the Coronavirus Pandemic result in a new solution for education and innovation?

Given the digital gap in India, how successful will the digital education model be in a country like ours? Will India be able to embrace learning anywhere, anytime? Will it lead to innovation in the field of education? Or will it fall flat on the face for the lack of a more agile infrastructural setup?

The conventional Indian education system follows face-to-face or physical teaching, even though the trend of audio-visual aids in classrooms was introduced a decade ago. Renowned universities in India such as the University of Delhi are offering online classes to their students already. But many higher education institutes in India are not equipped with such facilities. In the event of such a gap, some students might face the brunt brutally.

In a survey by Times Higher Education in 2018, the leaders of well-known global universities were of the opinion that online teaching could never match with physical room teaching. When we talk about how equipped Indian Higher Education System is to handle the change, we need to keep in mind that the digital shift in India is relatively new. This is not only true for India but for Asia as well. One may be amazed to know that the first Asian Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was developed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the year 2012 only.

Indian Colleges will need time to handle the change and be open to the new methods as the approach of the education system here is a lecture-based approach to teaching. Digital teaching is more evident in schools and the school students/ teachers/parents are more comfortable with this approach when compared to higher education set-up in India. In the event of COVID-19, online teaching has become a necessity, for not only colleges in India but worldwide to look for innovative solutions in a short period of time and to always have a Plan-B in place.

With board exams, university exams, college exams, the entrance test being postponed, it is a big challenge for colleges to complete their syllabus on time without compromising on the education quality. From delay in board exams to college being shutdown to delay in national level entrance tests, it is the academic year of the students that is compromised. As already discussed, JEE Main which is the ticket to engineering education in India has already been postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak &willhad led to a delay in the start of academic sessions for most of the engineering colleges, and most of the other colleges have witnessed a delay as well.

A large chunk of Indias admission system is fractured and most of the students in India rely on the offline process for admissions. It is a known fact that most people in the country do not have access to high-speed Wi-Fi and most of the students in small cities/towns/ villages prefer the offline admission process.

While it is a still grey area, platforms like ours have provisions to facilitate remote applications to colleges in India for their UG & PG. A platform called the Common Application Form or CAF, wherein students can fill up a single application form to apply to more than 250+ colleges in India at one go!

In a country like China that practices a much more centralized education system, a switch to digital learning could be easier. Whereas, even in a country like the U.S.A, where there are many low-income students who do not have access to broadband and laptops, digital learning might not be the ideal solution. The same is the case with India. Not every student here is tech-savvy or has access to the high-speed internet and will therefore suffer. When classes commenced online, many students suffered because of their inability to bear the cost. Unless India makes internet available to all, there are chances that the gap in education quality may widen.

Given that the traditional focus has been on offline centers of education, we believe a mix of online and offline is what will work in the coming years, which then hopefully be converted into a permanent mode of education. COVID-19 has impacted higher education in India but what it has taught us is to build resilience to face such threats in the future. The outbreak of Coronavirus has reminded us that one should be prepared to handle unexpected situations.

In the wake of the lockdown to prevent COVID-19 pandemic from community spread, everything including schools are closed. In fact, they closed a week before the lockdown. Adopting novel ways to continue with the learning process, schools are using technology to the optimum to keep the students engaged at home so they may learn constructive things.

The task of providing better educational facilities to support the goal of providing universal access to education is very great. The approaches required to make sustainable progress are increasingly clear, but implementation challenges remain considerable. The government needs to develop a holistic and long-term strategy for operating and maintaining their physical assets that may represent as a tool to meet maximum operational cost, increase utility and increase lifetime value.

The Secured Governance Strategic Infrastructure design has been providing a roadmap to steer governments and private operators to comprehensive framework and actionable best practice that help to reduce the maintenance cost of physical assets. Mostly educational institutes are situated in the affluent and ideal areas of the nation. As we know the development of social and economic infrastructures like schools and hospitals are all essential to create places where people want to live and can reach their full potential. One may observe that certain type of public infrastructure such as schools, colleges and universities are capturing some of the additional value as it heightens the adjacent property value. Those who operate a business near the educational institutes, potentially benefit from the flow of people approaching or leaving the schools and institutes. The concept suggests that if government provides additional FSI to those institutes it can generate enough revenue through the school-based commercial activities in their premises. But it is important that these activities should be relevant and add educational value to teaching and learning. They should not interfere with the educational system at any cost. Given that the concept of school based commercial involvement in education, particularly in non-vocational ways, is a relatively new area of policy making for governments, the evidence base is still being developed. It is gradually being built up as education, commercial activities, community groups and governments increasingly recognise the benefits that can come from collaborative approaches to improving educational outcomes.

Secured governance for Education has major characteristics like participation, rule of law, transparency, and responsiveness, at each stage of its operations and in developing a robust education system in the country with improved resource allocation and enhanced governance.

Education HUB planned to use Secured Governance growth model will benefit students, attract foreign investment, retain local students, build a regional reputation by providing access to high-quality education and training for both international and domestic student, and create a knowledge-based economy. An education hub can include different combinations of domestic/international institutions, branch campuses, and foreign partnerships, within the hub. When education thrives, higher productivity and faster economic growth become a norm. Investment in education under Secured Governance methodology will give a big boost to the Indian economy.

Secured governance for Education has major characteristics like participation, rule of law, transparency, and responsiveness at each stage of its operations and in developing a robust education system in the country. With improved resource allocation, enhanced governance, interdependency among sectors, and transparency in the system going hand in hand with development and effective use of Information Technology and Innovation can deliver a safer, cleaner, and more accountable delivery of self-sustaining Education infrastructure and services. A secured governance will establish a vibrant institutional framework in the educational system. India could capture a greater global opportunity in technology and other knowledge-intensive fields.

By,Dr. P. Sekhar, Chairman,Unleashing India Global Smart City Panel & MTGF

By,Prof Raghunath Shevgaonkar,Eminent Educationist, Former VC,Pune University,Ex-Director IIT D,Prof Emirates IIT B.

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Post covid devastation strategic role for Higher Education for Techno-Economic Growth for Global Reincarnation through Smart and Secured Governance

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University Grants Commission (UGC) and other apex education bodies also issued COVID-19 specific guidelines for Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) resulting in temporarily closing, students being asked to go home, and efforts being undertaken to move classes online.

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TPT News Bureau

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THE POLICY TIMES

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Post covid devastation strategic role for Higher Education for Techno-Economic Growth for Global Reincarnation through Smart and Secured Governance -...

It is said the only thing more beautiful than mountains is more mountains. But mountains provide more than beauty.

They nourish ecosystems, nurture biodiversity, bestow food and livelihoods for local populations, and bolster national economies. Mountains are crucial for economic growth, and preserving mountain landscapes is among the key objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals for a green and just future.

Yet, in Europe and Central Asia, mountains are at the epicenter of climate change impacts and climate-driven weather events, like droughts, floods, mudflows, and landslides. Coupled with unsustainable land use practices, overgrazing, or deforestation, such impacts threaten more than just landscapes. They destroy agricultural lands, homes, roads, and bridges, while rising temperatures and melting mountain glaciers jeopardize water supply for millions of people in valleys across Europe and Central Asia.

Preservation and restoration of mountain landscapes represents a key component in protecting against such losses and advancing countries' ambitions for a greener economy. Increasingly, landscape restoration and afforestation - together with improved agricultural productivity, rural development, and nature-based tourism - are at the core of national strategies for green growth, yielding nature-based solutions to strengthen countries' resilience to natural disasters and climate change.

That's why we at the World Bank are proud to work with the countries of Europe and Central Asia to preserve landscapes and restore ecosystems in mountainous regions, like we are doing in Albania, Turkey, and the Aral Sea Basin.

Albania is endowed with mountain ranges covering more than half its territory. However, unsustainable forestry and farming practices like overgrazing have led to soil erosion, reduced agricultural output, water and air pollution, and degraded landscapes, especially in erosion-prone upland areas.

Through the Environmental Services Project (ESP), the World Bank, jointly with the Government of Albania and with support from the Government of Sweden and Global Environmental Facility, has been helping communities, farmers, and relevant associations in forest planning and restoration. Since 2015, ESP has trained more than 1,200 farmers who are now implementing best practices in sustainable resource and land use. The project has also expanded the first formal registration of property rights for municipalities to more than one million hectares (35% of Albania's territory).

Apart from preserving and restoring mountain landscapes and formalizing land tenure rights, ESP has secured livelihoods for over 3,850 people (28% of whom are women) in 3,000 remote and poor communities, through access to $5.6 million in grants. And, as a result of this project's success, the Government of Albania has included forestry development in its new Instrument for Pre-Accession for Rural Development (IPARD III) Program, which is set to receive another $6.8 million in EU-funded grants.

With more than 12,000 hectares of new or improved forests and pastures, ESP has contributed to the greening of Albania's mountains and bettered the livelihoods and well-being of those most in need.

Like in Albania, Turkey's rugged mountain topography, steep slopes, short rivers, degraded natural resources, and ever-evolving land use policies have increased the risks of floods, landslides, and soil erosion. Exacerbated by climate change, these natural calamities harm people's health and livelihoods and cause substantial damage to infrastructure, property, and agriculture.

The World Bank's $135 million Turkey Resilient Landscape Integration Project (TULIP), recently launched jointly with the Government of Turkey, aims to address seasonal flooding, droughts, soil erosion, and landslides in the Bolaman and Cekerek river basins - areas with high poverty rates and extreme vulnerability to climate change impacts which include mountains. TULIP will restore forests, train farmers in sustainable agriculture, and build climate-resilient infrastructure for irrigation and water supply.

Through TULIP, we expect more than 90,000 people to directly benefit from increased access to flood protection, better quality and availability of drinking water, irrigation supply for agriculture, and roads. Around 20,000 farmers will be able to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, and 13,000 households in remote forest villages will receive improved and climate-resilient infrastructure for irrigation and water supply.

The Pamir and Tian Shan - Central Asia's main mountain ranges- extend across Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. For rural populations residing in these upland and mountainous areas, agriculture is the principal source of income. Unfortunately, climate change and unsustainable land use practices here are harming people and the environment.

Mountains and ecosystems know no borders, so strong regional cooperation is key. The World Bank's Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program in the Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB) has been supporting mountainous regions in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to address the basin's common climate and environmental challenges.

Supported by IDA and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and implemented jointly with Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC) and the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, CAMP4ASB works to improve regional cooperation and adoption of climate-smart agriculture and landscape management in those rural communities most vulnerable to climate impacts and extreme weather events. By increasing resilience to, or reversing, desertification and land degradation, the program can improve food security and livelihoods.

Through CAMP4ASB, since 2016, nearly 6,000 farmers have learned and adopted sustainable climate-smart agricultural, landscape, and water management practices on 18,450 hectares across Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The project has contributed to conservation agriculture, sustainable mountain ecosystems, and ecotourism, while supporting energy efficient improvements and renewable energy. Some 200,000 rural poor have benefitted from an enhanced knowledge base and investments in crop diversification, climate-resilient seed banks, and efficient water resource management. CAMP4ADB is now focused on working with local communities to expand these practices thanks to additional financing from GCF.

Building on these successful initiatives, the World Bank is supporting governments in Europe and Central Asia with innovative studies and projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as a regional program in the mountains of Central Asia, through Resilient Landscapes (RESILAND CA+). These activities will help restore landscapes across boundaries, protect lives and livelihoods, promote ecotourism, and increase the resilience of people and places against climate change and natural disasters.

As we celebrated International Day of Mountains on December 11, 2021 and are wrapping up the first year of the 2021-2030 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in the Europe and Central Asia region, we continue to recognize the critical role mountains and mountainous communities play in preserving and nurturing, the environment, culture, and economies. If we don't, both the beauty and bounty of our mountains could be irrevocably lost.

Protecting Central Asia's mountains and landscapes to transform people's lives and livelihoods

Restoring Uzbekistan's landscapes: Lessons from a virtual field trip

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From the Alps to the Pamirs: Investing in mountain economies to make people and places more resilient - marketscreener.com

India and the U.S. are natural allies, especially in the field of education. There is a lot of potential to strengthen collaborations between India and US educational institutions, specifically in an interlinking industry, academia, and policymakers. Educational partnerships can play an increasingly vital role in that relationship. The new administration can strengthen U.S.-India higher education cooperation by funding research in areas of mutual interest, encouraging reciprocity in student and researcher mobility, and invigorating entrepreneurship.

As we are aware, the main goal of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is to transform the educational system by bridging the chasm between current learning outcomes and more desirable goals for the future of work and employability. In a recent lecture in Hyderabad on The Role of Higher Education Institutions in the Modern Context, Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce and Information Technology Departments of Telangana, stated that universities should lead in establishing Centers of Excellence and emphasizing education that developing students as thinkers rather than merely passive receptors of information. Furthermore, Principal Secretary emphasized the need to accelerate the development of entrepreneurial skills instead of only relying on the state or private sector for future employment opportunities.

There were over 200,000 Indians in American universities in 2019-20. Covid-19 and Americas tightening immigration policy reversed some of these gains, but student interest is still high. But student mobility is only one area to build upon. Others include joint research in areas of strategic importance and entrepreneurship education for job creation. The National Education Policy, 2020 will drive much of the conversation from Indias side, but the issues of educational partnerships go far beyond just what is outlined there. There are three reasons why the U.S.-India relationship will become even stronger under President Biden: personal interests, strategic importance, and economic potential.

Personal interests do not always get attention when talking about foreign policy. The personal connection between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi did get some attention. Who can forget the September 2019 Howdy Modi rally in Texas or February 2020 Namaste Trump rally in Gujarat? But that was more show than substance. Now, in Vice President Kamala Harris, we have a true, if complicated, daughter of India. Her mother emigrated to the United States from Tamil Nadu to pursue higher education and then work in research. Modi has called her victory pathbreaking, and a matter of immense pride, not just for your chittis, using the Tamil term for aunties. When Harris makes her first trip to India, it will be celebrated as a homecoming. Leveraging that personal goodwill and Harris stories of her mother benefiting from U.S. education should further the potential for strengthened ties in education.

The strategic issue that gets the most attention is Indias role in hedging the rise of China. And while that is a crucial dynamic in a dangerous neighborhood, especially given Chinas increasing military activities on the border with India. There should also be more collaborative planning involving the Indian governments Strategic Forces Command and the U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska which could involve university partners.

Economic development is one of the key impacts of education. Not only is education a driver of higher human resource capacity, but there are often entrepreneurial initiatives that create jobs. The community college model, prevalent in the United States in which quick skills development is done for industries where the workforce is needed and jobs await, can be more widely adopted in the Indian context. Covid-19 has forced many institutions to rethink online education. That could be a boon to educating Indias huge population but will require better infrastructure and more attention to technology access disparities between rural poor and urban rich, which is also a barrier faced in U.S. education.

There are at least three key policies the US administration should focus on to further educational partnerships:

Many India observers in the United States are enthusiastic about the potential for the Biden-Harris administration to build upon the successes of the past, right some of the wrongs in perception and policy, and forge a common path ahead for the people of the two largest democracies.There is also renewed enthusiasm in the U.S. education sector with the appointment of experienced and lifelong educators to key leadership positions in the U.S. Department of Education leaders who embrace the key elements of the NEP and who will champion the value of international education and exchange.

Cooperation in the education sector has been made an integral part of the strategic partnershipbetween the two countries. The Fulbright program was renewed in 2008, with an enhancedmandateand joint funding, to provide more student and scholar exchange grants. About 130,000 Indianstudents are pursuing advanced degrees in the U.S. The Higher Education Dialogue, which hashad four meetings since 2011 (last in November 2014 in New Delhi), laid out the road map forpromoting strategic institutional partnerships, deepening collaboration in research anddevelopment, fostering partnerships in vocational education, and focusing on junior facultydevelopment.

India is learning from the U.S. experience in community colleges to meet ourdemandsfor skilldevelopment. It has been agreed to collaborate with U.S. institutions in thearea ofTechnology Enabled Learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to extend the reachof education in India. Under the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) launched byIndia, upto 1000 American academics will be invited and hosted each year to teach in Indianuniversities at their convenience. The two sides are also collaborating to establish a new IndianInstitute of Technology in Ahmedabad.

The India-U.S. S&T cooperation has been steadily growing under the framework of U.S.-India

Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2005. There is an Indo-U.S.Science & Technology Joint Commission, co-chaired by the Science Advisor to U.S. Presidentand Indian Minister of S&T. The U.S. attended as the partner country at the Technology Summit2014 at New Delhi.

In 2000, both the governments endowed the India-U.S. Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) to facilitate mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in science, engineering, and health. Overthe past decade, the IUSSTF has facilitated more than 12,000 interactions between Indian andU.S. scientists, supported over 250 bilateral workshops, and established over 30 joint researchcenters. The U.S.-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund, established in 2009, under theScience and Technology Endowment Board promotesthe commercialization of jointly developedinnovative technologies with the potential for positive societal impact.

Collaboration between the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has been strengthened under the 2008 MOU on EarthObservationsand Earth Sciences. A monsoon desk has been established at the U.S. National Centers forEnvironmental Prediction. Indias contribution of US$250 million towards the Thirty-Meter TelescopeProject in Hawaii and Indian Initiative in Gravitational Observations (IndiGO) with U.S. LIGOLaboratory are examples of collaboration to create world-class research facilities.

The 3.5million-plus strong Indian American community is an important ethnic group in theU.S., accounting for about 1% of the total population in the country. Indian Americancommunity includes a large number of professionals, business entrepreneurs, and educationalistswith increasing influence in society. With two Indian Americans occupying high-level postsof Governor and several representatives of the people, the Indian Diaspora has assimilated intotheir adopted country and is acting as a catalyst to forge closer and stronger ties between Indiaand the U.S. The two countries have been working together to facilitate the travel of their respectivecitizens, and to this end, an MOU has been signed in June 2016 to facilitate Indias joining of theGlobal Entry Programme for expedited immigration for eligible Indian citizens at U.S. airports.

Education HUB planned to use Secured Governance growth model will not only benefit students, attract foreign investment, retain local students, build a regional reputation by providing access to high-quality education and training for both international and domestic students, and create a knowledge-based economy. An education hub can include different combinations of domestic/international institutions, branch campuses, and foreign partnerships, within the hub. When education thrives, higher productivity and faster economic growth become a norm. Investment in education under Secured Governance methodology will give a big boost to the Indian economy.

Secured governance for Education has major characteristics like participation, rule of law, transparency, and responsiveness, at each stage of its operations and in developing a robust education system in the country. With improved resource allocation, enhanced governance, Interdependency among sectors, and transparency in the system going hand in hand with development and effective use of Information Technology and Innovation can deliver a safer, cleaner, and more accountable delivery of self-sustaining Education infrastructure and services.

Through secured governance establish a vibrant institutional framework in the educational system. India could capture a greater global opportunity in technology and other knowledge-intensive fields.

Indias National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has opened the mobility of students and teachers across the globe and it encourages research partnerships and mutually beneficial educational collaborations.New guidelines have been issued for Indias higher education institutes to move ahead in research at the international level. Regulations for embedding internships in general education have been set into motion. The government proposes to set up a national research foundation to further improve the research ecosystem in the country.

All these provide huge opportunities for US institutions. We could now look at two-way student and research mobility: US students can do short-term courses or some semesters in Indian institutions. We could certainly have more student and academic exchanges as well as joint research programmes. Education institutions in both countries can also explore joint projects in third countries including in Africa, Latin America, and Indo-Pacific.

By,Dr. P. Sekhar, Chairman,Unleashing India Global Smart Cities Panel& MTGF

By,Dr. Ronald Kovach,American International Accreditation Association of Schools & Colleges

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Article Name

Indo US Education and Skill development with Smart and Secured Governance for Global Reincarnation

Description

The new administration can strengthen U.S.-India higher education cooperation by funding research in areas of mutual interest, encouraging reciprocity in student and researcher mobility, and invigorating entrepreneurship.

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TPT News Bureau

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THE POLICY TIMES

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Indo US Education and Skill development with Smart and Secured Governance for Global Reincarnation - thepolicytimes.com

FAYETTEVILLE -- Growing recycling in the local business community depends in part on marketing and motivation, according to panelists in an online forum Tuesday.

The Northwest Arkansas Council created the Onward Ozarks speaker series to provide organizations, companies and individuals a platform to share news, events and other information with a regional audience, according to the council's website. Randy Wilburn, host of the "I Am Northwest Arkansas" podcast, hosts the series.

Tuesday's event, held via Zoom, featured Joe Tucker, vice president for business development with eSCO Processing and Recycling in Rogers, a company that processes electronic devices for reuse and recycling. Also on the panel were Faebyan Whittle, director of sustainability with the Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville; Heather Ellzey, environmental educator with the city of Fayetteville; and Tom Rohr, CEO of Food Loops, a Rogers firm that works with businesses to compost food waste and other products.

Each panelist explained what he does and how it relates to the Northwest Arkansas business recycling effort. The Northwest Arkansas Council is spearheading a project to encourage recycling and the growth of a circular economy.

A circular economy is one in which materials are recycled and reused, as opposed to a linear economy where materials are used once and discarded, according to a study done as part of the council's effort. One example of a circular economy is food waste recycling in which the original food products are used and the food waste recycled and used to grow more food.

Fayetteville is working in food waste recycling as well as more traditional home and business recycling programs, Ellzey said. Much of her work involves education about how those programs work. She gave an example from the recycling program, saying the market for plastics right now is such that the city can recycle only No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles.

Ellzey said the bales of material can't include different types of plastics, for example, because they have different melting temperatures. The material can be rejected if there is too much contamination, she said.

"Our buyers are very picky," Ellzey said.

Whittle said the recycling effort at the Pack Rat center is less formal. The business makes information about recycling available to people based on the experience the employees gain through their work, she said.

"It's about gathering information and making it available," she said.

Whittle said the business makes the information available at the center and through social media. She said it's a very informal process.

"Usually people are just there to shop in the store, and we have these conversations," she said. "It's a very organic experience."

Tucker said the electronics recycling business has several layers that may not exist in more traditional recycling. Businesses want to be sure their company's data will be removed from the devices, he said. After that, the devices may be refurbished for reuse or taken apart to recover the materials that can be recycled, he said.

"Electronics are not aluminum cans," he said. "It's not a clean piece of cardboard. We're turning a difficult material into a raw material that's valuable."

The panelists agreed recycling stems from different motivations and what resonates with one person or group may not move others.

Ellzey said she often focuses on resource conservation, sustainability and on preserving the planet for future generations while making her presentations. She added it helps when she can show a business that recycling can benefit them financially.

Tucker agreed that showing how recycling fits into a business model works. He said he tries to show how his company makes money and how his clients save money.

Rohr said while money is important, it's also important to build a culture that values recycling, something he said hasn't happened across Northwest Arkansas.

"Maybe you can save money in Fayetteville, but in the rest of Northwest Arkansas, it's very inexpensive to throw something away," he said.

Regional recycling

More information about recycling resources in Northwest Arkansas can be found through the nwarecycles.org website, a joint effort of the Northwest Arkansas Council and the Benton County and Boston Mountain solid waste districts.

Source: Staff report

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Speakers in Northwest Arkansas forum say information drives recycling - Arkansas Online