Page 8 - Dharmendra Pradhan

G20 agrees upon role of education as enabler of human dignity: Pradhan

The G20 countries have unanimous views on five major areas including capacity building of teachers, role of education as critical enabler of human dignity and empowerment globally and recognising important role of green transition and digital transformation, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. Pradhan outlined the five outcomes after a meeting of G20 Education Ministers here. "The G20 countries have agreed upon role of education as critical enabler of human dignity and empowerment globally. The countries agreed upon the need to work together for resilient, equitable, inclusive and sustainable future through education," he told a press conference. "G20 nations have a unanimous view that education is not only about academic learning but also developing life, technical, vocational skills to make learners future ready. There is also unanimity among G20 nations on role of teachers in promoting education, focus to be on capacity building. The counties have also .

Nothing of this kind happened: Pradhan on 'deletion' of Darwin theory

Pradhan also mentioned that he reached out to the NCERT an autonomous body responsible for curriculum development, to gather detailed information on the matter

BPCL's Bargarh bio-refinery to invigorate circular economy: Pradhan

State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (BPCL) Bargarh 2G bio-refinery which will use rice straw to produce ethanol for mixing in petrol, will invigorate a circular economy and give impetus to waste-to-wealth creation, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday. Pradhan, who is the Union Minister for HRD, visited the under-construction Bargarh 2G bio-refinery site in Odisha as part of the Vikas Teerth Yatra to mark nine years of the Modi government. "Bargarh bio-refinery is making steady progress and is expected to be commissioned soon," he tweeted. After producing ethanol from sugarcane, India is now pushing for producing low-carbon fuel from grains and agri waste. This is part of an ambitious programme to mix ethanol in petrol to cut down emissions as well as the country's dependence on imports for meeting oil needs. Presently, 10 per cent ethanol is mixed in petrol (10 per cent ethanol, 90 per cent petrol) and this volume is targeted to be doubled by 2025. The Barga

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All of us should embrace NEP in letter and spirit: Dharmendra Pradhan

"NEP is a philosophy. All of us should embrace and implement in letter and spirit to realise the goal of a modern, culturally-rooted, developed India," tweeted Pradhan

Our responsibility to establish normalcy: Pradhan on Odisha train accident

Union Minister of Education and Skill Development Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said that strict action will be taken against those responsible for the Odisha triple accident

Pradhan meets Singapore Deputy PM; discusses deepening cooperation

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday met Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and held fruitful discussions on the existing cooperation between the two nations, including deepening engagements in the sectors of technical and vocational education, the Indian Embassy here said. Pradhan, who is on a three-day visit to Singapore, also deliberated on ways to strengthen bilateral engagements in the field of skill development with Wong, who also holds the finance portfolio. "Fruitful discussions on strengthening the existing cooperation between India and Singapore and deepening engagements in skill development as well as technical and vocational education," said the High Commission of India in Singapore in a post on LinkedIn. During the visit, Pradhan will be meeting various key ministers of the Singaporean government, including Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Trade and Industr

Dharmendra Pradhan objects to Odisha govt's move of pension pay in cash

You would appreciate the fact that cash payments, historically, have had tendencies to spur corruption, pilferage, and exploitation of beneficiaries by middlemen, Pradhan's letter read

Have to link Indian market with innovation, says Dharmendra Pradhan

Linking the Indian market with innovation and prioritising competency over degrees will make the country self-reliant and a leading economy, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. Addressing the annual summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said India is taking great strides in areas of digital capabilities, frontier technologies and innovation. "In the coming days, we will have to work on a new curriculum to prepare our youth for opportunities in these booming areas. The new National Education Policy (NEP) will be helpful in this area," Pradhan said. "We will have to link Indian market with innovation and prioritise competency over degrees, then only we will be able to become self-reliant and a leading economy. We will have to trust more, the strength of our youth and intellectual capabilities of our country and move ahead with new approaches and fundamentals," he said. The theme of the summit was "Future Frontiers: Competitiveness, ...

Selling lies: Pradhan slams Kejriwal for jibe at PM over note withdrawal

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "selling lies", following the AAP leader's jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the RBI's decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation. Kejriwal had tweeted that it was first said that Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes will end corruption and now it is being said that withdrawing them will end corruption. "That is why I say that we should have an educated prime minister," he said, adding that people have to suffer otherwise. Hitting back, Pradhan said Rs 2,000 notes remain legal tender and added that the "educated chief minister is again out to sell lies". Citing a poem by Kabir, the Union minister said education alone does not make someone wise. Targeting Kejriwal over the alleged excise policy scam in which his former deputy Manish Sisodia has been arrested, Pradhan said it is natural for the "hardcore corrupt" living in 'sheesh mahal' to feel rattled. The 'mahal' r

Run by half-engine govt, Odisha suffers from governance deficit: Pradhan

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday alleged that Odisha suffers from a "governance deficit" which has "led to massive malnutrition" among tribals, and the state government is run by a "half-engine". His comment came three days after BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a veiled attack on the BJP, said it was good governance and not a 'double engine' government that could help a party win an election. Notably, the BJP used its oft-repeated slogan of 'double engine' government (BJP government at the state and the Centre) in Karnataka where the party suffered a heavy loss at the hands of the Congress last week. In a scathing attack on the chief minister, Pradhan said, "Odisha suffers from governance deficit and only half engine' exists in the state. Therefore, Odisha is hit by misrule and bad governance. The state's health survey report speaks volumes." The Union education minister, however, did not name the BJD supremo. He expressed concern over the "rising"

UGC, AICTE, NCERT must join hands to make framework for mapping skills: Min

The Centre is deliberating on ways to formalise skilling in the school education system, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday, asserting the UGC, AICTE and NCERT must come together to create a framework for mapping future skills. The minister also said "we need to de-link degrees from competency and envision a future where competency would prevail". Pradhan made the comments in an interaction with reporters here ahead of the 3rd G20 Education Working Group Meeting. "Deliberations are going on about how to formalise skilling in our school education system. Today, we discussed with the delegates from Singapore the way forward for a comprehensive and substantive partnership towards skilling," he said. The minister noted that the deliberations going on at G20 forum will aid the implementation of new National Education Policy by understanding and adopting best practices and global models. "The University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council of technical ...

Skills will drive future than degrees, old jobs fading due to tech: Pradhan

Skills and competencies will drive the future rather than degrees, and old jobs have begun to vanish due to disruptive innovation and technology, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday. Pradhan was addressing a conference here ahead of the third G20 Education Working Group meeting later this week. "Skills and competencies will drive the future rather than degrees. There will be a constant competition between God gifted human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI)," Pradhan said in the keynote address at the conference themed 'Deep Tech with a Focus on Advanced Technology in Future of Work.' "Old jobs are vanishing due to disruptive innovation and technology. New jobs are emerging but our workforce needs continuous skilling, reskilling and upskilling. Hence, we must think of new approaches to prepare youth for future jobs," he added. The minister said that the 21st century will be knowledge-based and technology-driven. "Guided by its civilisational ethos

Pradhan asks IITs to ensure zero tolerance for discrimination on campuses

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called for the complete eradication of social discrimination from campuses of educational institutions. Chairing the 55th IIT Council meeting here on Tuesday, he said students of Indian Institute of Technology must aspire to become job creators rather than job seekers. "There should be no social discrimination in any institute, be it IITs or private institutions. It is the responsibility of the authorities and the students to ensure that there is no discrimination on campuses," he told reporters after the meeting. With 34 students of various IITs dying by suicide over the last five years, he called upon the directors to be proactive in providing all kinds of support and develop and robust mechanism to ensure "zero tolerance" for discrimination on campuses. The council discussed steps needed to ensure mental health wellness among students. It focussed on the need for a robust grievance redressal system, increasing psychological counselling

Maintain 'raj dharma': Pradhan urges Patnaik as police detain BJP leaders

With a high-level BJP delegation being prevented from entering violence-hit Sambalpur, senior party leader and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan Tuesday urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to maintain raj dharma and act in a neutral manner. Pradhan's statement came hours after the Odisha Police detained members of the delegation comprising, among others, Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Tribal Affairs Bisheswar Tudu, Sundergarh MP Jual Oram and BJP state president Manmohan Samal. They were intercepted at Sripura Chhak on Jharsuguda-Sambalpur road and denied permission to move further. Later, they were taken to nearby Thelkoli police station and reportedly detained for seven hours till 7 pm. Though Tudu left the police station after some time, the other members remained there and were released on the condition that they would not visit Sambalpur, as curfew is in place in the city, officials said. "The BJP delegation was denied permission to enter the city because th

IITs should have zero tolerance for discrimination: Dharmendra Pradhan

The premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) should have zero tolerance for all kinds of discrimination and should provide adequate support to students, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday. At a meeting of the IIT Council, the apex coordination body of all the 23 premier engineering colleges, Pradhan also said students of the institutes should be the face of the new India and ready to be global citizens. The council discussed several steps needed to ensure mental health and wellness of IIT students. It laid stress on the need for a robust grievance redressal system, increasing psychological counselling services, reducing pressure and highlighting the importance of reducing fear of failure and rejection among students. The council agreed to enhance support to students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. It also resolved to enhance the tenure of support to women PhD sholars for an additional year. The crucial decisio

'Under NEP, courses till Class 5 will be provided in 22 Indian languages'

The government will provide study materials till Class 5 in 22 Indian languages as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 puts a special emphasis on the mother tongue, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here on Tuesday. We have decided to provide the curriculum till fifth standard in 22 Indian languages listed in the Constitution. Study materials of the foundational stage, be it textbook, playbook or play-based material, will be prepared in 22 languages of the Indian Constitution using technology, Pradhan said. Pradhan was here at the launch of the three-day Future of Learning Collaborative' conference by city's Anant National University and the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Talking to reporters, Pradhan said that the mother tongue and local language are a special feature of the NEP. He said that the decision was taken at a meeting chaired by him on Monday to review the study materials for the foundational stage under the new National ..

Education ministry preparing guidelines for students' mental wellbeing

The Education Ministry is preparing a comprehensive framework of operational guidelines to safeguard the mental and emotional well-being of students, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday. The education and skill development minister asserted that there should be zero tolerance for any discrimination in educational institutions across the country. "The ministry is preparing a comprehensive framework of operational guidelines to safeguard the mental and the emotional well-being of students which will holistically cover schools to higher education institutions," Pradhan said. "The framework will institutionalise safeguards and mechanisms that can ensure comprehensive protection to students from any threat or assault -- physical, social, discriminatory, cultural, and linguistic; causing psychological distress leading to self-harming and self-destructive tendencies among students," he said. Pradhan on Monday chaired a high-level review meeting focusing on the mental wellness

Discussed pendency of Australian visa applications: Dharmendra Pradhan

The pendency of Australian visa applications from Indians has been discussed again at a bilateral forum, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. The minister discussed the issue with his Australian counterpart Jason Clare, who is on a visit to India till March 5. "After the COVID-19 pandemic, the visa process for students and the workforce had significantly slowed down. Last year, the Australian government assured us to add more manpower and enhance the ease of the process," Pradhan told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. "The pendency of four lakh visa applications from Indians has been reduced in the last five months. Still a sizeable number is pending. The issue was again discussed at the bilateral forum when we spoke of student mobility," he added. Clare is leading a delegation of Australian higher education leaders to promote institutional partnerships and boost the collaboration between the two countries. His visit builds on Pradhan's trip to

Wollongong university's campus in GIFT City to be operational in 2023

The University of Wollongong's campus in Gujarat's GIFT City is expected to be operational by the end of this year and admit the first batch of students, Australian Education Minister Jason Clare announced on Thursday. The campus will initially start "small" and offer finance and STEM courses, said Clare, who is on a visit to India till March 3. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday announced that two Australian varsities -- Wollongong and Deakin -- would open their campuses in GIFT City. "The University of Wollongong has signed a Letter of Intent with the Indian government and we are hopeful that the campus in GIFT City will be operational by end of this year and start admitting first batch of students," Clare told PTI on sidelines of an event. The minister, however, did not share a timeline for setting up of Deakin University's campus. "More details will be available during the Australian Prime Minister's visit next week," he said. Responding to a question ab