Following is the text of Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s address to Awardee Teachers on the eve of Teachers’ Day:

“I am delighted to be with you on the eve of Teachers’ Day. I join you all in paying homage to the great teacher, philosopher and educationist of our time Dr. Radhakrishnan, whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Teachers’ Day every year.

I congratulate all of you – Teacher Awardees – on winning this very prestigious national award.  On the occasion of the Teachers’ Day.

I also extend my heartfelt warm greetings to all members of the teaching community and wish you every success and fulfillment in your personal life and vocation.

Education provides the skills and competencies necessary for economic development, it empowers citizens to fully participate in the political processes and it imparts values that foster social cohesion and national unity. A well educated population, is essential for the economic and social progress of any country.

It is for this reason that our government has substantially increased public spending on education since 2004-05. Education expenditure as a percentage of our GDP has increased from 3.3% in 2004-05 to 4% in 2011-12. Per capita public expenditure on education has increased from Rs. 888 in 2004-05 to Rs. 2,985 in 2011-12.  The enhanced outlays have helped in a massive expansion of the educational infrastructure and sanction of additional posts of teachers on a large scale.

As a result of these efforts, we have made significant progress in improving access to education. Enrolment of children in primary schools has now reached near-universal levels. The gender gap in elementary education has declined. Simultaneously, there is a significant reduction in socio-economic inequalities in access to education and a narrowing of the gap between SCs/STs, minorities and other social groups.

However, the poor levels of student learning remain a major concern. Therefore, as we move ahead we need a clear shift in our strategy from a focus on inputs, access and enrolment to what goes on in the classroom and the school.  We need to set up transparent and reliable systems for tracking attendance of children in a truly meaningful way. At the same time, we need to put in place a system of continuous assessment of the benefit our children are getting from their education. Participation of the community and parents would be essential in this process, so that they can be satisfied with the quality of teaching.

It goes without saying that the teachers, are critical to the success of our endeavours to impart quality education to our children.  Teachers have to be an integral part of policy-making, governance and management, as also of day-to-day instructional strategies and decision making. The empowerment of teachers that includes real opportunity for them to share policy perspectives and decision-making will have to be the key component of the educational  reform process.

As teachers, we look to you to guide the children of our country in their quest for knowledge and truth. Through you, we aspire to build in our children a commitment to the values of democracy, and the values of equality, social  justice, freedom, secularism, and respect for human dignity.  I urge you to develop in children independence of thought and action and the capacity for taking carefully considered decisions. Through you, our children should also develop a sensitivity to the well-being and feelings of others and also the ability to work and participate in the processes of social and economic change.

I once again congratulate you for contributing so handsomely to the processes of nation building. Teachers are key to a nation’s future as they are the nation builders.  I have full confidence that with teachers like you the future of our country is safe and bright.  I wish all teachers in the country a very meaningful and satisfying engagement with our children.”

-PIB

The Government has introduced a third mode of recruitment to the Indian Police Service, known as Limited Competitive Examination. Dy. SPs of State Police Services, Assistant Commandants of CAPFs and Captains/Majors of Armed Forces have been made eligible to appear in the same.

The scheme of Limited Competitive Examination has initially been approved by the Competent Authority for only 2 years. The approval of Competent Authority mandates for evaluation of the scheme after expiry of that period. Even the first batch has not been inducted till now. So the question of impact study at present does not arise.

Consultations with all the State Governments as well as other stakeholders, viz the UPSC, Ministry of Law & Justice, Ministry of Defence etc. were made before finalizing the scheme of Limited Competitive Examination. Out of 24 States whose comments were received, 20 agreed with the proposal either unconditionally or with some suggestions. Rest of the 4 States expressed their disagreement. The UPSC also agreed with the proposal. Even the examination notification was prepared by them. This fact was also upheld by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in W.P. (C) No. 1610 of 2012. In fact in this judgement the Court observed that “….. the matter was ultimately discussed at all levels and the UPSC, Ministry of Law etc have fallen in line.”

This was stated by Shri Jitendra Singh, Minister of State of Home Affairs in written reply to a question by Dr. Ajay Kumar in the Lok Sabha today.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is in the process of implementing recommendations of the Review Committee headed by Dr. P. Rama Rao and fine-tuned by the Defence Secretary Committee.

The following recommendations have been implemented:-

• Nomination of Nodal Officers for interaction between DRDO and Services.
• Introduction of Integrated Financial Advice (IFA) system for financial decentralization.
• A dedicated Chief Controller Research and Development (Human Resource) has already been appointed at DRDO HQrs.
The following recommendations are at various stages mplementation:-

• Creation of Technology Domain based clusters.
• Increase of Budget for Extramural Research to 5% of DRDO Budget.
• Restructuring of DRDO HQrs.
• Cabinet Note has been initiated for the following recommendations:-
• Creation of Defence Technology Commission. Creation of a Commercial Arm of DRDO. Renaming of DG, DRDO as Chairman, DRDO.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shri R. Thamaraiselvan in Lok Sabha today.

Ex-servicemen with service less than 15 years are not entitled to pension as it is a mandatory requirement for a Personnel Below Officer Rank to render 15 years and for Commissioned Officers 20 years qualifying service to earn pension. Minimum qualifying service is an essential criterion for pension in the Government.

The Short Service Commissioned Officers who are not pensioners are eligible for certain schemes of DGR like Training, Security Agencies and other self-employment schemes. Ex-Defence personnel with more than 5 years of service are entitled to CSD canteen facilities available in units / establishment apart from being employed as security guards. Some grants out of RakshaMantri Discretionary Funds is also provided to non-pensioners upto the rank of Havaldar.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr MM PallamRajuin a written reply to Shri Gopal Singh Shekhawatin Lok Sabha today.

All the Gram Panchayats in the country will be covered under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) scheme. The project is to be completed in two years’ time.

The Government had approved the scheme for creation of NOFN on 25th October 2011, for providing Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats through Optical Fibre Cable. The connectivity to Gram panchayats will be provided through this network for establishing e-governance.

NOFN project will be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) i.e. Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a company incorporated under Indian Companies Act 1956, fully owned by Central Government, with equity participation from Government, BSNL, Railtel and Powergrid. The Company has been incorporated on 25.2.2012 for this purpose. Presently, the pilots are being conducted in Paravada block of Vishakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. Arian block of Ajmer district in Rajasthan and Panisagar block of North Tripura district in Tripura.

The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sh Milind Deora gave this information in the Rajya Sabha recently.