Mathura, January 2. Sixty-six suspects have been taken into police custody for alleged involvement in a fraudulent diversion of Rs.23 crore from the state’s post-matriculation scholarship fund during the period 2015-20.

Those booked include social welfare officer Karunes Tripathi, suspended by chief minister Yogi Adityanath last December, three clerks of the district’s social welfare department and officials of nearly two dozen government and private Industrial Training Institutes and other education institutions, said Mathura’s Superintendent of Police Udai Shankar Singh, addressing a press conference.

Jammu
E-learning initiative

Jammu, January 14. The district administration’s Directorate of School Education has resolved to establish a digital studio for teachers in Jammu to train them deliver online lectures under the Central government’s Samagra Shiksha (primary-secondary school) programme.

“While the directorate will set up the studio very soon, various measures to improve quality of education through digital interventions need to be introduced for making learning more efficient and effective,” said Anuradha Gupta, director of school education at a press conference.

The directorate will also launch an official YouTube channel Shiksha Darpan to broadcast video content and e-magazine Shiksha Patrika, she added.

Karnataka
ISRO-NITI Aayog concordat

Bengaluru, January 11. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will adopt 100 of the 7,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) established countrywide, to stimulate interest in space education and technology. This decision was taken at a virtual meeting attended by representatives of ISRO and the Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog.

According to an official statement issued on the occasion, ISRO will facilitate coaching and mentoring of students in advanced 21st century cutting-edge outer space technologies. ISRO scientists and engineers will actively mentor children and interact with teachers in ISRO-adopted ATLs to encourage experiments, brainstorm ideas and spread awareness of outer space science and technologies.

Haryana
Digital learning programme

Chandigarh, January 4. The state government will distribute 8.20 lakh computer tablets to facilitate online learning of class VIII-XII students enrolled in state government schools at the start of the academic year 2021-22. Addressing the media, a government official said that the devices will be preloaded with QR coded NCERT content, Edusat videos, DIKSHA online content, YouTube videos prepared by teachers, question banks and preparatory material for competitive exams such as NEET, JEE, NDA.

At a review meeting of the state’s school education department of the education ministry presided by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, it was resolved that the tablets will be issued to students based on the library books model with students expected to return them after completing their class X and XII board exams.

Madhya Pradesh
Ayodhya development plan

Indore, January 8. The Ayodhya Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Indian Institute of Management-Indore have signed a partnership agreement to develop Ayodhya, where a new Ram Temple is being constructed following a Supreme Court judgement of November, 2019, into an international tourism hub.

The prime objective of the agreement is to plan the city aesthetically by incorporating best practices that have won Indore the cleanest city award under the Central government’s Swachh Survekshan programme for the past four years.

Under the agreement, a scheme for information, education and communication (IEC) will be formulated on the lines of the Swachh Bharat programme and special training will be given to AMC employees to welcome tourists, says an AMC official, who added that Indore’s civic governance model is based on the ‘3R formula’ — reduce, reuse and recycle.

Assam
Girl child incentives

Guwahati, January 4. In an unprecedented initiative to promote the education of girl children, state education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that every school-going girl child will receive Rs.100 per day for attending classes.

Speaking at a function in Sivsagar, the minister said 22,000 automotive scooters valued at Rs.144.30 crore are currently being distributed under the state government’s Pragyan Bharti Scheme among girl students who passed the class XII board exam in the first division. Scooters will also be awarded to meritorious girl students who wrote their exams in 2018 and 2019.

Moreover, a sum of Rs.1,500 and Rs.2,000 will also be deposited in the bank accounts of undergraduate and postgraduate students to help them purchase textbooks and study material.

Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs