Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme

• 02 Dec 2020

Why in News

A review meeting regarding the progress of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme (UBA) was held via videoconferencing.

Key Points

• Highlights of the Meeting: The Union Education Minister emphasised on the following:
  
  • Identify three to five core issues common amongst all the villages and few issues based on local conditions and work on these.
  • Efforts should be made to maximise the number of Higher Educational Institutions under the scheme in order to benefit more villages.
  • UBA should be used in sensitizing the school teachers regarding National Education Policy, 2020.
  • Need for a portal was highlighted which will serve as an interactive platform for different institutions wherein they can share success stories and motivate each other.
  • Carry out a state-wise study and set targets regarding the parameters under UBA such as improvement in literacy, healthcare etc.
• Unnat Bharat Abhiyan:
  
  • It is a flagship program of the Ministry of Education. It was launched in 2014.
  • It aims to link the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a set of at least (5) villages, so that these institutions can contribute to the economic and social betterment of these village communities using their knowledge base.
    
    • It covers two major domains for holistic development of villages – human development and material (economic) development - in an integrated way.
  • The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT, Delhi) has been designated as the National Coordinating Institute (NCI) for the UBA scheme.
  • Main Objectives:
    
    • To engage the faculty and students of HEIs in identifying development issues in rural areas and finding sustainable solutions for the same.
    • Identify & select existing innovative technologies, enable customisation of technologies, or devise implementation methods for innovative solutions, as required by the people.
    • To allow HEIs to contribute to devising systems for smooth implementation of various Government programmes.
  • Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0:
    
    • It is the upgraded version of UBA 1.0. It was launched in 2018.
      
      • UBA 1.0 or UBA Phase-1 was the Invitation Mode in which Participating Institutions were invited to be a part of UBA.
      • Whereas UBA 2.0 is the Challenge Mode of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme where all HEIs are required to willingly adopt at least 5 villages. Currently, UBA 2.0 Mode is going on.

Source: PIB