Higher education institutions come forward to drive 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan'

As many as 750 higher education institutions have come forward to take up research and development projects for improving the socio-economic conditions of people living in the country's villages under "Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0" of the Centre.

Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Satya Pal Singh on Wednesday launched the revised version of the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan during a workshop organised by the All India Council for Technical Institutes (AICTE) to apprise the participating institutions of its details.

Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburgi; Karnataka State Women's University, Bijapur; Karnataka University, Dharwad; Christ deemed-to-be-University; Horticulture Sciences, Bagalkot and the National Institute of Technology-Surathkal are in the list of the institutions which have joined the programme.

"Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is a movement. Students and faculty members can become the soldiers of this movement by bringing change in the lives of the people living in the country's villages. Students will get to learn from the villagers and get inspiration to work for the masses living in rural India," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a video message played during the event.

The Centre has earmarked a fund of Rs 83.08 crore for implementation of the programme in next two years.

This will cover expenditure on various heads, including orientation of the faculty members towards identification of the projects, customisation of solutions, publicity and Swachchta action plan.

"The higher education institutions to be selected under the scheme will meet from their own resources all the expenses for the field visits, and any other expense that is not specifically funded under the scheme," a ministry official said.

Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Javadekar said higher education students and faculty members can work on various areas ranging from healthcare, waste management, sanitation, education, to agriculture to improve the lives of people living in the country's backwaters.

Addressing the event, higher education secretary of the HRD ministry R Subrahmanyam noted that it's time for higher education institutions to "pay back" to the people of the country as the funds granted to them comes from the taxes paid by the people.

The programme, launched in 2016, was limited to participation of centrally-funded higher education institutions so far.