The National Overseas Scholarship Scheme was started by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, to help students from low-income families from marginalized communities to pursue Master’s and PHD programmes from universities abroad.
When we think of governance, most of us imagine big offices, ministers, and heavy paperwork. But real governance, the kind that touches people’s everyday lives, actually happens in villages, in small meetings under trees, or in community halls where someone speaks up about a broken handpump or an unused ration card. That’s the world of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), and it’s a world that runs on the shoulders of thousands of elected representatives, many of whom are women, first-timers, or people who’ve never stepped into a leadership role before.
The Government of India has promulgated the Aircraft Leasing and Financing Policy (2021) to position India, especially GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City), as an aircraft leasing global hub. This was prompted by the realization that more than 80% of India's fleet of aircraft was leased from outside the country, leading to a huge foreign exchange outflow and exposure to foreign jurisdictions in terms of law, such as Ireland and Singapore.
The Free Coaching for SCs, OBCs, and beneficiaries of the PM CARES Children Scheme is an initiative taken by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India. The scheme aims to provide high-quality coaching to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and beneficiaries of the PM CARES Children scheme, who were included from 2024-25. These groups often face systemic inequalities and exclusion that hinder their access to educational resources.
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly increasing in the everyday life of humans. As the global demand for AI-related skills is rising, SOAR aims to create a future-ready generation equipped with technical knowledge and ethical and societal understanding required to navigate AI-driven transformation. This programme is part of a larger mission under Skill India, celebrating its 10th anniversary alongside the launch. The world is witnessing the revolution led by technological advancement, machine learning, AI, data analytics and automation. Unfortunately, Access to AI education in India has remained limited to higher education and elite institutions. The SOAR Programme breaks the barrier by introducing these subjects to classes of 6 to 12, including less resourceful schools, and by ensuring teachers are trained to deliver the subject. It aspires to build the largest AI-ready school population in the world, as declared by the Union Minister, Jayant Chaudhary.
Critical minerals, from lithium and cobalt to rare earth elements, have become linchpins of the modern economy. They are the new oil of the twenty-first century for electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar panels, wind turbines, and advanced batteries and are critical for not only clean energy but also medical, defence, and aerospace. Critical minerals are also crucial for developing the digital and the green economy. But what are critical minerals exactly?
According to the ILO (2020), around 90 percent of India’s workforce is engaged in the unorganized sector, which absorbs most of the internal migrants.
The 2011 Census enumerated 450 million internal migrants, and this is estimated to increase to 600 million by 2021. Therefore, creating a comprehensive, accurate, and accessible database was the need of the hour. In May 2021, the Supreme Court directed the Union government to build a national database of unorganized workers.