SIA Fest by Tata Power and News18 celebrates India’s leadership role in green energy transition; elevates call to action for a greener tomorrow
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: The Sustainable Is Attainable Fest (SIA FEST) by Tata Power, one of India’s largest integrated power companies, and News18, which saw the convergence of leaders from diverse fields, made a decisive bid towards India’s global green leadership. It reinforced the call for mass collective awakening, and behavioural shift, to ensure that India, one of the fastest-growing economies of the world, sets new benchmarks in green energy transition.
Hon'ble Union Power Minister RK Singh hailed India as a global leader in energy transition, and a trailblazer. “Our per capita carbon emissions are one-third of global levels. In the 2015 Paris Summit we pledged that by 2030 we would have 40% of our total energy from non-fossil fuels; we’re already at 42.8% seven years ahead of the deadline. We have also emerged as the most attractive markets for renewables,” said Mr Singh at the Fest.
Hon’ble Union Environment Minister Shri Bhupender Yadav applauded the Sustainable Is Attainable initiative and said such actions galvanize community action. “One Earth, One Future is the right approach to development. We are working with the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to fight climate change. All arms of the government are working together to ensure Sustainable Is Attainable,” Mr. Yadav said.
The one-day SIA Fest, which was a culmination of a mass movement Sustainable is Attainable by India’s two leading corporate groups, not only celebrated India’s rapid march towards a clean energy future, but also listed priorities and set goals for the future.
"SIA Fest is a unique celebration of a mission which promises that sustainable is indeed attainable in our country. It has helped us to create a narrative around how a diverse set of stakeholders have to play a critical role to bring about lasting change. Sabka Prayas or active participation of all will ensure India's journey to energy transition. India is well poised to show the world how a growing economy can drive this transition to clean energy. The movement Sustainable Is Attainable aims to enable a better understanding of the conversation around sustainability and green transition,” said Dr Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD of Tata Power.
Applauding the initiatives of the Government of India, Dr. Sinha highlighted how various initiatives including solarisation of agriculture, electrification of rural areas, and enabling commercial and industrial establishments to adopt rooftop solutions are driving this change towards a greener future.
The Fest also saw participation from corporate leaders, Ambassadors and delegates of foreign embassies in India.
“Both India and the European Union are making massive investments in the transition towards a greener energy mix. India and the European Union together can help shape the global agenda, and work together for the common global good. The fight against climate change is an important component of our strategic partnership. India has experience in terms of scale which is going to be instrumental for global solutions.” H.E. Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the European Union to India and Bhutan said. “We just cannot park everything with the government, we have to take actions ourselves,” H.E. Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark to India said, while reiterating the need for collective community action for sustainability.” Terming storage as the big hurdle in clean energy, H.E. Naor Gilon, Ambassador of Israel to India, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan highlighted how Israel is working on providing technological solutions for this, especially on storage. Uruguay has set a unique benchmark by getting a total of 98% of its energy requirements from renewables. H.E. Alberto A. Guani, Ambassador of the Republic of Uruguay said that the country embarked on a challenging journey in 2005-06 by bringing together private and public sectors through legislation and created an enabling environment which led to this transition.
The future of India lies firmly in the hands of the present, and it is important that everyone comes together to strive to build a vibrant, clean, green and sustainable tomorrow, said many participants.
Mr. Avinash Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, Network18 (Broadcast) & Managing Director A+E Networks, said, “Our partnership with Tata Power to drive the Green Energy Culture in India is fuelled by our commitment to build awareness and empower the Indian consumers with the knowledge that inspires them to adopt and demand cleaner energy. Over the past few months, we have engaged with our varied audiences across news channels and digital properties with compelling content showcasing how sustainability is attainable. The SIA Fest elevates the movement by instilling conversations amongst policy makers, key opinion leaders, and consumers to drive an attitudinal shift towards sustainable energy.”
The SIA Fest was a significant leap forward for the Sustainable Is Attainable Movement as it created a vibrant platform for fostering dialogue and promoting the adoption of green energy in India. By celebrating sustainability and garnering support from key leaders, the fest aimed to inspire millions of Indians to embrace and achieve sustainable lifestyles.
The Sustainable Is Attainable movement holds immense significance as India acknowledges the urgent need to shift towards renewable and sustainable energy sources, given the detrimental impact of fossil fuels. India aims at achieving Net Zero Emissions by 2070 and position itself as a key leader in the global green energy revolution.
"To foster the Green Energy culture in India through the Sustainable Is Attainable campaign, we have strived hard to raise awareness and empower Indian consumers with the knowledge necessary to embrace and demand cleaner energy solutions. The SIA Fest catapults this movement by bringing key policy makers, leaders, influencers, and change makers on a common platform, paving the way for a green and clean future for India," added Dr. Sinha.
The event also saw felicitations of Champions of Change which included Cochin International Airport, world’s first green airport, which is fully powered by solar energy to meet their electricity requirement; Ms Bhumi Pednekar, India’s first National Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals, appointed by the UNDP; Ms Prachi Shevgaonkar, the young climate innovator, who runs an app and the movement ‘Cool The Globe’ that helps individuals take small actions to reduce their carbon footprints; BluSmart Mobility, India’s first all-electric ride hailing mobility service with a mission to steer towards clean mobility; V-Shesh, which works towards training persons with disabilities to gain employment within the corporate sector; Mr Pradeep Sangwan, founder of Healing Himalayas and Ms Anshu Pragyan Das, Divisional Forest Officer, Hirakud Wildlife Division at Sambalpur & Bargarh districts, Odisha.
The Sustainable Is Attainable campaign's reverberations will be felt among the masses for a long time. The critical call to action of adopting green energy solutions resonates with people and bolsters public awareness.
/BI
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NEP-2020 aspires for inclusive excellence in school education
Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The New Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), unveiled recently, aims at achieving excellence in school learning by imparting quality, affordable and inclusive education to all, with an extra emphasis on those children coming from socially and educationally disadvantaged groups of the society. It is a futuristic endeavour towards building Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat. The previous education policies largely focussed on the issues of access and equity in giving school education, while the NEP-2020 commits to laying the foundation of a vibrant Bharat where no one is devoid of a kind of school education, which helps every student become an asset for the nation in a true sense. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, which was modified in 1992, has been effectively dealt with in the NEP-2020 along with the vision behind the Right to the Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which “laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.”
Given the undisputed role of education in nation building, the NEP-2020 rightly lays the stress on standardization and accreditation of school infrastructure and teachers as well, since education with accountability, transparency and affordability is the need of the hour, and hence the need to “empower schools, teachers with trust, enabling them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while ensuring the integrity of the system through the enforcement of complete transparency and full public disclosure of all finances, procedures and outcomes.” Since private sector is significantly present in the field of school education, the idea to promote ‘not-for-profit’ entities is a unique feature of NEP-2020, which at the same time intends to promote private philanthropic efforts for quality education, thereby affirming the public-good nature of education, while protecting parents and communities from arbitrary increase in tuition fees.
An equally important area, which has got due attention in the NEP-2020 is the need for efficient resourcing and effective governance through school complexes and clusters, a significant initiative in view of the fact that nearly 28 per cent of India’s public primary schools and 14.8 per cent of upper primary schools have less than 30 students. The average number of students per grade in the elementary schooling system – Grades 1 to 8 – is about 14, with a notable proportion having below six students during 2016-17, the year which also had 1,08,017 single-teacher schools, and majority of them – 85,743 – being primary schools taking care of Grades 1-5 children. It was, therefore, a pressing need to evolve a mechanism for establishing a grouping structure, say, school complexes, consisting of one secondary school together with all other schools, which lead to greater resource efficiency and more effective functioning, coordination, leadership, governance, and management of schools in the cluster. This will not only ensure optimum utilisation of resources, but will also foster the sense of oneness and togetherness among the school children, who are the future of the nation.
What further makes the New Education Policy-2020 uniquely special is its pledge for equitable and inclusive education for all, one of the great dreams of our founding fathers. Education, as the NEP-2020 rightly envisions, is “the single greatest tool for achieving social justice and quality.” Inclusive and equitable education, indeed an essential goal in its own right, is also critical to achieving a social order where every citizen has “the opportunity to dream, thrive, and contribute to the nation.” Quality, affordable and ethical education to all is the first move to break multiple social and economic barriers, which sow the seeds of exclusion, discrimination and exploitation against our own people on different parochial considerations.
Needless to say efforts were made in the past as well to bridge the educational chasm between socially and educationally disadvantaged groups (SEDGs) and the children of top social strata, but the desired results remained elusive. SEDGs account for the country’s overwhelming population, but their children’s share in quality school educational institutions has been minimal over the years. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) needs to be handled more comprehensively. According to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2016-17 data, about 19.6 per cent of students belonged to Scheduled Castes (SCs) at the primary level, but this fraction fell to 17.3 per cent at the higher secondary level. These enrollment drop-outs were more severe for ST students (10.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent), and differently-abled children (1.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent), with even greater declines for female students within each of these categories. Thus, there is no scope for any complacency on the part of the government. A series of interventions including better facilities, more and more hostels, scholarships and other enabling support have been provisioned in the NEP-2020 so that the idea of ‘learning for all’ is realised in a more comprehensive manner.
Teachers are not only an integral part of an education system, but the most important stakeholder in the entire gamut of things. Their quality and ability to teach school students, when they are in their formative age, become something of paramount importance. From their recruitment to training, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that school education is not rendered to a mere formality, but becomes a game changer. The New Education Policy-2020 comes with a basket full of tools and parameters to ensure holistic training and upgradation of teachers and their teaching skills in a sustainable manner. From continuous professional development (CPD) to career management and progression (CMP), the NEP-2020 vouches for a set of common guidelines – National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST), which will be put in place by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in its restructured new form as the Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under the General Education Council. This exercise will be carried out in consultation with National Council Educational Research and Training (NCERT), SCERTs, teachers from across levels and regions.
The teacher education will also undergo a sea-change. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. that teaches a range of knowledge content. Today B.Ed. teaching is most poorly regulated in our country ever since the standalone B.Ed. colleges were allowed to be opened up in the private sector. It is high time to take B.Ed. teaching more than seriously. The NEP-2020 stipulates that by 2021, a new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE-2021) will be formulated by the NCTE. NCFTE, which will also factor in the requirements of teacher education curricula for vocational education, will be revised once every 5-10 years.
In conclusion, the NEP-2020 visualizes to impart a school education which lays the foundation of a self-reliant India and also to help our country emerge as a knowledge hub. From the foundation of learning to foundational literacy and numeracy to checking drop outs and ensuring universal access to education for all and at all levels to the restructuring of school curriculum, India is in for a metamorphosis in the field of school education, recognizing, identifying and fostering the unique capabilities of each student. Tools such as multi disciplinarity, emphasis on conceptual understanding, creativity and critical thinking, ethics and human and constitutional values, full equity and inclusion, and light but tight regulatory framework are bound to do wonders. Education is a public service, a rare pursuit in nation building, which should be holistic and inclusive and must make one take pride in India and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and tradition. The NEP-2020 aspires so, indeed!
( The writer is a senior journalist and author. The views expressed are strictly personal.)
NEP-2020 aspires for inclusive excellence in school education
Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The New Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), unveiled recently, aims at achieving excellence in school learning by imparting quality, affordable and inclusive education to all, with an extra emphasis on those children coming from socially and educationally disadvantaged groups of the society. It is a futuristic endeavour towards building Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat. The previous education policies largely focussed on the issues of access and equity in giving school education, while the NEP-2020 commits to laying the foundation of a vibrant Bharat where no one is devoid of a kind of school education, which helps every student become an asset for the nation in a true sense. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, which was modified in 1992, has been effectively dealt with in the NEP-2020 along with the vision behind the Right to the Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which “laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.”
Given the undisputed role of education in nation building, the NEP-2020 rightly lays the stress on standardization and accreditation of school infrastructure and teachers as well, since education with accountability, transparency and affordability is the need of the hour, and hence the need to “empower schools, teachers with trust, enabling them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while ensuring the integrity of the system through the enforcement of complete transparency and full public disclosure of all finances, procedures and outcomes.” Since private sector is significantly present in the field of school education, the idea to promote ‘not-for-profit’ entities is a unique feature of NEP-2020, which at the same time intends to promote private philanthropic efforts for quality education, thereby affirming the public-good nature of education, while protecting parents and communities from arbitrary increase in tuition fees.
An equally important area, which has got due attention in the NEP-2020 is the need for efficient resourcing and effective governance through school complexes and clusters, a significant initiative in view of the fact that nearly 28 per cent of India’s public primary schools and 14.8 per cent of upper primary schools have less than 30 students. The average number of students per grade in the elementary schooling system – Grades 1 to 8 – is about 14, with a notable proportion having below six students during 2016-17, the year which also had 1,08,017 single-teacher schools, and majority of them – 85,743 – being primary schools taking care of Grades 1-5 children. It was, therefore, a pressing need to evolve a mechanism for establishing a grouping structure, say, school complexes, consisting of one secondary school together with all other schools, which lead to greater resource efficiency and more effective functioning, coordination, leadership, governance, and management of schools in the cluster. This will not only ensure optimum utilisation of resources, but will also foster the sense of oneness and togetherness among the school children, who are the future of the nation.
What further makes the New Education Policy-2020 uniquely special is its pledge for equitable and inclusive education for all, one of the great dreams of our founding fathers. Education, as the NEP-2020 rightly envisions, is “the single greatest tool for achieving social justice and quality.” Inclusive and equitable education, indeed an essential goal in its own right, is also critical to achieving a social order where every citizen has “the opportunity to dream, thrive, and contribute to the nation.” Quality, affordable and ethical education to all is the first move to break multiple social and economic barriers, which sow the seeds of exclusion, discrimination and exploitation against our own people on different parochial considerations.
Needless to say efforts were made in the past as well to bridge the educational chasm between socially and educationally disadvantaged groups (SEDGs) and the children of top social strata, but the desired results remained elusive. SEDGs account for the country’s overwhelming population, but their children’s share in quality school educational institutions has been minimal over the years. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) needs to be handled more comprehensively. According to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2016-17 data, about 19.6 per cent of students belonged to Scheduled Castes (SCs) at the primary level, but this fraction fell to 17.3 per cent at the higher secondary level. These enrollment drop-outs were more severe for ST students (10.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent), and differently-abled children (1.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent), with even greater declines for female students within each of these categories. Thus, there is no scope for any complacency on the part of the government. A series of interventions including better facilities, more and more hostels, scholarships and other enabling support have been provisioned in the NEP-2020 so that the idea of ‘learning for all’ is realised in a more comprehensive manner.
Teachers are not only an integral part of an education system, but the most important stakeholder in the entire gamut of things. Their quality and ability to teach school students, when they are in their formative age, become something of paramount importance. From their recruitment to training, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that school education is not rendered to a mere formality, but becomes a game changer. The New Education Policy-2020 comes with a basket full of tools and parameters to ensure holistic training and upgradation of teachers and their teaching skills in a sustainable manner. From continuous professional development (CPD) to career management and progression (CMP), the NEP-2020 vouches for a set of common guidelines – National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST), which will be put in place by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in its restructured new form as the Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under the General Education Council. This exercise will be carried out in consultation with National Council Educational Research and Training (NCERT), SCERTs, teachers from across levels and regions.
The teacher education will also undergo a sea-change. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. that teaches a range of knowledge content. Today B.Ed. teaching is most poorly regulated in our country ever since the standalone B.Ed. colleges were allowed to be opened up in the private sector. It is high time to take B.Ed. teaching more than seriously. The NEP-2020 stipulates that by 2021, a new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE-2021) will be formulated by the NCTE. NCFTE, which will also factor in the requirements of teacher education curricula for vocational education, will be revised once every 5-10 years.
In conclusion, the NEP-2020 visualizes to impart a school education which lays the foundation of a self-reliant India and also to help our country emerge as a knowledge hub. From the foundation of learning to foundational literacy and numeracy to checking drop outs and ensuring universal access to education for all and at all levels to the restructuring of school curriculum, India is in for a metamorphosis in the field of school education, recognizing, identifying and fostering the unique capabilities of each student. Tools such as multi disciplinarity, emphasis on conceptual understanding, creativity and critical thinking, ethics and human and constitutional values, full equity and inclusion, and light but tight regulatory framework are bound to do wonders. Education is a public service, a rare pursuit in nation building, which should be holistic and inclusive and must make one take pride in India and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and tradition. The NEP-2020 aspires so, indeed!
( The writer is a senior journalist and author. The views expressed are strictly personal.)
