Govt to set up startups to hone entrepreneurship skill of youths

The Centre has decided to set up 10 startups in higher educational institutions across the country to hone the skill of youths and promote zeal among the young entrepreneurs. It will also support establishing 35 livelihood colleges in states to fructify the Skill India programme, PM Narendra Modi’s pet project.

Talking about the initiatives carried out in 10 states under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the government was also mulling to set up modern language labs in all states to promote various languages.

RUSA, started by the UPA government, aims at strengthening infrastructure and ensuring quality education in states. It provides strategic funds to states, besides giving impetus to governance, academic and administrative reforms. Under the scheme, 115 universities and 1,183 colleges across India are provided with grants to enhance the infrastructure.

Spelling out her ministry’s achievements, Irani talked about launching the Shala Asmita Yojana (SAY), the world’s largest student-tracking mechanism. She said, “The mammoth ‘first-of-its-kind exercise’ would help in better understanding of infrastructure requirements in schools. It was proposed that ‘attendance of students, teachers and other staff’ would be tracked to improve learning outcomes.”

The schemes aims to track the educational journey of around 25 crore students from Class 1 to Class 12 across 15 lakh schools in the country. This online database will carry information about student attendance and enrolment, mid-day meal service, learning outcomes and infra facilities, among others, on one platform for both private and government schools. 

The government will track students through their Aadhaar numbers. According to official estimates, 65% of students in the age group of 5 to 18 years have Aadhaar numbers.