Category Center for Human Dignity and Development

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Initiative to strengthen school environment : Assessing the vidyanjali scheme (2021)

School education in India has long relied on public investment alone to meet the twin challenges of infrastructure gaps and learning-resource shortages, particularly in government schools. Recognising that community and private-sector participation could supplement  rather than replace government effort, the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, introduced Vidyanjali, a school volunteer programme designed to connect government and government-aided schools with volunteers, resources, and institutional support.

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CHIRAYU (Comprehensive Health Insurance of Antyodaya Units) Haryana (2022): Expanding Access to Affordable Healthcare 

The Comprehensive Health Insurance of Antyodaya Units (CHIRAYU) Scheme of Haryana was launched on November 21, 2022 as an extension of state-specific Ayushman Bharat Yojana by the Department of Health, Haryana Government (Ayushman Bharat, Haryana, n.d.). The rationale behind launching CHIRAYU Haryana was to extend state-level implementation to Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to ensure healthcare development.

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Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021: Regulating India’s Multi-Level Marketing Industry

India's direct selling sector, encompassing multi-level marketing (MLM) companies selling wellness, cosmetics, and household products through networks of independent sellers rather than fixed retail outlets, operated for decades without a binding statutory framework. The only regulatory reference point before 2021 was the Model Framework for Guidelines on Direct Selling, issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs on October 26, 2016, following consultations with the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and select states including Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala.

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Gyan Bharatam: Building a Digital Knowledge Infrastructure for India’s Manuscript Heritage

India possesses a vast and diverse manuscript heritage covering fields such as philosophy, literature, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, arts, governance and other knowledge traditions. These manuscripts are dispersed across libraries, academic institutions, museums, temples, monasteries, private collections and individual custodians, making their systematic identification, preservation and accessibility a major institutional challenge. Government sources have estimated India's manuscript corpus in the range of 5–10 million manuscripts, highlighting the scale of the task involved in creating a comprehensive national inventory (Ministry of Culture, 2026).

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SHE-LEAPS 2026: Advancing Digital Rural Women’s Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Livelihoods

The Self Help Entrepreneur- Livelihoods and Enterprise Application for Prosperity and Sustainability (SHE -LEAPS) was launched on 29th June 2026 at Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Sammelan, in New Delhi. The application, introduced in the context of expanding the Lakhpati Didi target from 3 to 6 crore, aims to strengthen the rural women enterprises associated with Self-Help Groups. 

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Drone Shakti Initiative 2022 and India’s Drone Policy Ecosystem: Assessing Innovation, Employment and Commercial Drone Adoption (2021–2026)

In just one budget cycle India's drone industry went from the fringes of civil aviation policy to an official driver of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The turning point was the new liberalised Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021, by the Ministry of Civil Aviation notifying on 25 August 2021 which replaced the compliance-heavy Civil Aviation Requirements of 2018 with a lighter framework, where security clearance was not required, type certificates were not required, import clearances were not required, and several other approvals were eliminated, and where close to 90 per cent of Indian airspace was declared as ‘green zones'’ where drone flights up to 400 feet will be allowed without case-by-case permission.

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Tamil Nadu’s Old Age Pension Scheme: Tracing Its Evolution Under the IGNOAPS Framework

Tamil Nadu's old-age pension is older than the national scheme it now sits inside. The state's Old Age Pension (Normal) Scheme has run since 1 April 1962. Paying destitute persons aged 65 and above (60 if incapacitated) who had no means of subsistence or supporting relatives and moreover owned no property above ₹5,000 and were not professional beggars.

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