PIB Summary- 5th September, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

Why in News?
Recently, the Ministry of Education informed Lok Sabha that, during 2021-22, more than 3 Lakh women were trained under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardisation of skills.
• Launched in 2015, it is a flagship program of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
• National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) implements it with the help of training partners.
• Under this Scheme, Training and Assessment fees are completely paid by the Government.
• Skill training would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.

PMKVY 2.0

• The PMKVY 2016–20 (PMKVY 2.0) was introduced with increased sectoral and geographic scalability as well as stronger alignment with other Government of India goals like Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat, etc.
• Two Components for Implementation:
  • Centrally Sponsored Centrally Managed (CSCM):
    • National Skill Development Corporation implemented this element.
    • 75% of the PMKVY 2016–20 funding have been distributed under CSCM, together with the accompanying physical targets.
  • Centrally Sponsored State Managed (CSSM):
    • This component was implemented by State Governments through State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs).
    • The CSSM programme has received 25% of the PMKVY 2016–20 money and related physical targets.

PMKVY 3.0

• The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched the third phase of its flagship scheme—Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0 (PMKVY 3.0) in January 2021.
• PMKVY 3.0 will encourage and promote skill development throughout the country to address the industry needs, meet the market demands, impart skills in services and in new-age job roles that have become crucial in the post- pandemic era.

The Prime Objectives of PMKVY 3.0 are

• Create an ecosystem for the youth to make informed choices on the available skilling avenues.
• Provide support to youth for skill training and certification.
• Promote sustainable Skill Centres for greater participation of private sector.
• Benefit 8 lakh youth across the country.

Key Components

• Short Term Training: Training as per National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) is provided to those who are either school/college dropouts or unemployed.
• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): An individual with a certain set of skills or with prior learning experience is assessed and certified under RPL with grade according to the NSQF.
• Special Projects: This component ensures training in special areas and premises of government bodies and corporate. It aims to encourage training in vulnerable and marginalized groups of society.
• Training Partners (TPs) are mandated to organize Kaushal and Rozgar Melas every six months, thus providing placement assistance to certified ones.

Aims of PMKVY

• Its Aim is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them.
• It aims to mobilize youth to take up skill training with the aim of increasing productivity and aligning the training and certification to the needs of the country.
• To enable a large number of Indian youths to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.
• Individuals with prior learning experience or skills will also be assessed and certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

What Are Zonal Councils ?

Why in News?
The Union Minister for Home and Cooperation, chaired the 30th Southern Zonal Council meeting in Thiruvananthapuram.

What are Zonal Councils?

• Zonal Councils are advisory councils and are made up of the states of India that have been grouped into five zones to foster cooperation among them. These were set up vide Part-III of the States Reorganization Act, 1956.
• The Zonal Councils are the statutory (and not the constitutional) bodies.
  • They are established by an Act of the Parliament, that is, States Reorganization Act of 1956.
• The act divided the country into five zones (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern) and provided a zonal council for each zone.
• The Union Home Minister is the common chairman of the five Zonal Councils.
• Each chief minister acts as a vice-chairman of the council by rotation, holding office for a period of one year at a time.
• While forming these zones, several factors have been taken into account which include  the natural divisions of the country, the river systems and means of communication, the cultural and linguistic affinity and the requirements of economic development, security and law and order.
• In addition to the above Zonal Councils, a North-Eastern Council was created by a separate Act of Parliament i.e. the North-Eastern Council Act of 1971.
• These are advisory bodies that will discuss and make recommendations with regard to any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning between the Centre and States.

Each zonal council consists of the following members

• Home minister of Central government.
• Chief ministers of all the States in the zone.
• Two other ministers from each state in the zone.
• Administrator of each union territory in the zone.

Composition

• The Northern Zonal Council: It comprises the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh,
• The Central Zonal Council: It comprises the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,
• The Eastern Zonal Council: It comprises the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and West Bengal,
• The Western Zonal Council: It comprises the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli,
• The Southern Zonal Council: It comprises the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Objectives of the zonal councils

• To achieve an emotional integration of the country.
• To help in arresting the growth of acute state-consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic trends.
• To help in removing the after-effects of separation in some cases so that the process of re- organisation, integration and economic advancement may synchronise.
• To enable the Centre and states to cooperate with each other in social and economic matters and exchange ideas and experience in order to evolve uniform policies.
• To cooperate with each other in the successful and speedy execution of major development projects.
• To secure some kind of political equilibrium between different regions of the country.