Government-run Anganwadis and privately managed preschools, two major models of early childhood education available in India, neither offers children the environment and inputs they need at this age. In particular, opportunities for planned play, a critical component of successful early childhood education programs, are almost entirely absent from both models.

A report `India early Childhood Education Impact study (2011-2016), released by UNICEF, has said on average, children’s school readiness levels at age 5 were far below expected levels. Most children participate in institutions that are of low quality and fail to use age appropriate methods, materials, and activities, and children thus enter school unequipped with the skills necessary to meet the demands of the  primary school curriculum.

While, regular preschool participation from age 4 to 5 years has a significant impact on children’s school readiness levels at age 5+, with quality of the preschool emerging as a key factor in enhancing impact, the report said almost every one of the villages sampled for IECEI had at least one government preschool facility,usually an Anganwadi. The majority also had one or more privately managed preschools. Most families were sending their children to these facilities, even at age 4. This is a major achievement.

The India Early Childhood Education Impact study (IECEI) is a longitudinal study that followed a cohort of 14,000 four year olds from age 4 to age 8 in rural areas of three states of India: Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The first of its kind in India for its scale, its longitudinal design and mixed methods it employed, the study documented children’s institutional participation; assessed their school readiness levels and subsequent early grade learning outcomes; and assessed the quality of preschool programmes, identifying specific programme characteristics that are associated with positive developmental outcomes for children.

The study was conceptualized in consultation with and with the support of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, UNICEF and other partners, including the World Bank, CIFF, Bernard van Leer Foundation, CARE, UNESCO and SERP.  It was conducted by the Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED), Ambedkar University and ASER Centre.

However, children’s participation in preschool and early primary grades does not necessarily follow the linear age-based trajectory prescribed by policy (RTE, 2009 and National ECCE Policy, 2013). In some states, large numbers of 4 year olds are already in school. As a consequence, these children are expected to master curriculum content that is developmentally inappropriate. In other cases, significant proportions of 6 and 7 year olds are still in preschool. In all states, children attend irregularly.

Recommending inclusion of pre-school education as an integral part of Right to Education, 2009, the report says that experiences at the preschool stage influence children’s outcomes at the primary stage of education. Currently, the RTE covers only children in the age group 6-14, thus excluding children during the most important phase of brain development in violation of their right to a sound foundation for education.

Currently, many state governments allow children to enter school before the age of 6. The RTE stipulation requiring the entry age for grade 1 to be 6+ years should be made mandatory across the country, so that children entering primary education are better able to handle curriculum demands, the report calls for ensuring that children begin primary school only when they are developmentally ready.

Calling for planning for young children up to the age of 8 as an early learning continuum which requires early childhood care and education – as is now globally accepted – the report said such a curriculum would cover preschool to primary grades, thus building upward from what three year olds need, meeting the specific content and pedagogical requirements of this foundational stage with play-based opportunities and experiences for emergent and early literacy and numeracy.  It also calls for developing a customized Teacher Education curriculum and a cadre of trained teachers at par in status with primary school teachers.

Institute an effective quality regulation or accreditation system for early childhood care and education, which covers preschool education across private, public and voluntary sectors to ensure compliance with quality standards and prerequisites for developmentally appropriate practices in these critical years, the report said.

All stakeholders – policy makers, teachers, parents and others – need to understand why and how young children’s learning needs are different from what formal education provides, and why meeting these needs is critical to establishing a solid foundation for lifelong learning and development, the report said.

“Activities that should be prioritized and proactively supported include large-scale advocacy via public interest advertisements and media campaigns; mechanisms that facilitate direct communication between pre-primary education centres and parents; and the design and large-scale dissemination of simple methods and materials that enable parents to actively support their children’s learning,’’ it said.

NEW DELHI : An Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) has been signed in October 2007 between the Governments of India and the Russian Federation for Joint Development and production of Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).

The project is planned to be executed in two phases (i) Preliminary Design (PD) Phase; and (ii) Detailed Design & Development Phase (called R & D Phase). The PD stage contract was signed in December, 2010. The work commenced in February 2011 and completed in June, 2013.

An amount of Rs.1535.45 Crore has been spent as on 31st March 2017.

Planned expenditure has been recommended in the IGA. Any future expenditure under R&D Contract will be known once the Commercial negotiation Committee (CNC) submits its recommendations to the Government.

This information was given by Minister of state for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri Baijayant Jay Panda in Lok Sabha today.

The country is seeing a major shift in power equations with the President and Prime Minister belonging to backward classes. Come August fifth, history will be created with the Lotus party occupying the three crucial offices of the President, Vice President and the Prime Minister.  

After nearly seven decades of independence, ordinary citizens from backward classes are making their presence felt by occupying key constitutional positions in the country which invariably remained the preserve of the elite in the past. 

This is particularly so in the case of Ram Nath Kovind hailing from a poor family who has the distinction of being the first Head of State from Uttar Pradesh in his capacity as the country’s fourteenth President. 

The significance of the Bharatiya Janata party having one of its nominees occupying the majestic Rashtrapati Bhawan for the first time since last Tuesday, July 25, 2017, is a major milestone.

The Lotus party is expected to run away with the office of Vice – President on August fifth next month when the election takes place. It is a matter of great prestige for the saffron brigade that its leaders will not only be holding the offices of President, Prime Minister and very soon that of Vice President. 

History is being created in the country that the triumvirate of the top three leaders owe their allegiance to the BJP which was established less than four decades back in1980.   

The credit for this achievement viewed as a masterstroke must go to the indefatigable Prime Minister Narendra Modi for zeroing in on barrister Kovind from the RSS stable who had barely completed three years as the Governor of Bihar. 

Given his humble background coupled with being a low profile politician, his family was over the moon as they had least expected that Kovind will become the country’s President. He will be the second Dalit President of the country, the first being K R Narayanan. 

The underlying message is unmistakable. Anyone irrespective of their caste or creed can aspire to reach the top, thanks to this country’s democratic system. 

It has taken a long time for this country to reach a stage where both occupants of the office of President and Prime Minister are from backward classes. This represents a major shift in the country’s politics bringing about a change in power equations. With power percolating down to the grassroots away from the elite, it is bound to lead to forces and movements of its own.  

The question is can Kovind’s elevation as the country’s First Citizen provide the soothing effect in bringing round the 21 per cent oppressed and depressed Dalits in the country. On his part Kovind has spoken about ensuring equality of opportunity for everyone in the country. 

The lackadaisical and disjointed state of the opposition appears nowhere near getting its act together in challenging the BJP-led NDA anytime soon. NCP leader Omar Abdullah’s frustrated assertion recently to “forget 2019 and prepare for the 2024 (general elections)” appears to makes sense. 

The BJP gained enormously by naming its Presidential candidate well in advance with the Congress biding its time in naming the opposition nominee. For the 18-party opposition it was a losing battle which was apparent from the word go. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar knew it was a futile battle for her though she put up a brave front in the circumstances.  

The BJP’s resounding victory in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh recently was on account of its gambit of wooing the most backward among the Dalits and other oppressed sections which paid rich dividends. It facilitated the party winning nearly three fourths of the seats in the 403-member state assembly while regaining power after a gap of 17 years. 

Being the largest state in the country, UP contributes the maximum number of 80 seats to the Lok Sabha. Being in power in UP with a stunning majority sidelining the regional satraps cannot be dismissed as a fluke. 

During the April-May general elections in 2014, the BJP managed a mind blowing 71 seats on its own with two more being garnered by its allies. This took the Lotus party’s tally to 73 out of the 80 seats. 

It was the Hindi heartland that made the day for Modi giving the BJP a majority of 282 seats on its own for the first time in the Lok Sabha. Along with its allies the BJP led NDA crossed the rubicon of 300 finishing with a comfortable 340 odd seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. 

Modi became the undisputed leader of the saffron brigade and has enlarged its sphere of influence by bagging Assam for the first time seen as the gateway to the Northeast. The Modi wave in 2014 was unmistakable as he held sway over the masses making a multitude of pledges none of which have materialised over the last 36 months and more.  

Even though nothing can be taken for granted, the general elections in 2019 appears irretrievably tilted in Modi’s favour. The opposition has suffered a major setback with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar abandoning the ‘Mahagatbandhan’ and joining hands with the BJP in retaining power in Patna. For now Modi is way, way ahead of all the other leaders in the popularity charts.    

NEW DELHI : An all-woman team of Indian scientists has developed a novel antibiotic delivery system that enhances action of drugs at cellular level and overall efficiency of conventional antibiotics. The system could help improve cancer treatment in future.     

Development of antibiotic resistance due to inefficient and indiscriminate use of antibiotics poses a treatment challenge. The severity of the problem increases in patients with weak immune system like in cancers. In the absence of new and more potent antibiotics or other viable alternatives, scientists are focusing on improving efficacy of existing options.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) have used nanoconjugates – nanoparticle bound with molecules to render them with added biological features – in this context. The new study demonstrates that the nanoparticle-bound antibacterial agent, a short molecule called sushi-peptide, was more efficient than anti-bacterial agent alone.

“We used nanoparticles as efficient delivery vehicles for the antibiotic and cancer cell-specific biomarkers for specific targeting” explained Dr Shalini Gupta, one of the lead researchers of the study published in journal Scientific Reports.

The strategy, according to researchers, may specifically be useful in treating infected cancer cells where conventional antibacterial agents cannot reach. Dr Gupta elaborates “our strategy is to reach and kill these bacteria that lie hidden inside the cancer cells”.  The study demonstrates this by effectively eliminating E.Coli andS.typhi bacteria in cells under laboratory conditions.

The gold nanoparticle-based conjugate was efficiently taken up by the cell and demonstrated no toxicity. Adding to this, Dr Neetu Singh, another member of the research team, said “the nanoparticle system offers a platform for new generation of antibiotics, which are active at much lower dosages thus addressing a very common problem of bacteria developing resistance to most of the known antibiotics due to overdosing”.

The study team included Rohini Singh, Smita Patil, Dr Neetu Singh and Dr Shalini Gupta. 

(India Science Wire).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said making of a developed India in all fronts by 2022, coinciding with 75th year of Independence, would be the true tribute to be paid to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. 

He dedicated Dr Kalam Memorial at Rameswaram this morning in presence of Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao, chief minister Edapadi K Palaniswamy, Central and State Ministers and other dignitaries.

Later, Prime Minister in a public rally appealed that all 125 crore Indians should contribute to realise the dream of a developed India. In the rally, Mr Modi inaugurated a slew welfare measures and development schemes. 

He distributed sanction letters to fishermen for getting Long Liner Trawlers. For the scheme under the Blue Revolution initiative, the Centre has sanctioned 200 crore rupees towards distributing 300 trawlers in the first phase, and 86 crore rupees has been allocated by the state as its share. 

Prime Minister Modi said the scheme would help Indian fishermen to go deep into the sea and enhance their economic activities besides avoiding crossing international maritime borders that often leads to detention. 

PM Narendra Modi also flagged off a weekly train between the pilgrim centres of Rameswaram and Ayodhya. He dedicated to the nation a 9.5 kilometers long stretch of National Highways linking the Dhanuskodi island with the mainland. Dhanuskodi remained virtually cut off since the devastating cyclone 53 years ago.

In his address, Mr Modi said a progressive India is possible only with the states progressing. He added that the Centre is working closely with all state governments including the Tamil Nadu administration. 

He said Eighteen Thousand Crore rupees has been spent on making lakhs of youth of the nation skilled in the past three years. He expressed hope that the ambitious Sagar Mala scheme would help generate plenty of jobs including those living in coastal areas. 

Mr Modi asked the Tamil Nadu Government to send proposals for housing schemes for the needy and promised that the Centre would consider them favourably. He said an estimated 8 lakh families are in need of housing and added that the Government is spearheading initiatives to meet the need.

Background of the Kalam Memorial

The memorial has been constructed by DRDO in exactly one year. Architecturally, it has taken inspiration from several national landmarks.  The front entrance looks similar to India Gate, while the two domes are on the lines of Rahstrapati Bhavan. 

The Memorial has four main halls each depicting the life and times of Dr Kalam.  Hall-1 focuses on his childhood and educational phase, Hall-2 the Presidential days, including address to Parliament and UN Council, Hall-3 his ISRO and DRDO days and  Hall-4 his post-Presidential days, till he breathed his last at Shillong. 

There is a separate section to exhibit some of the personnel belongings of Dr Kalam, including his famous Rudra Veena, G-suit he wore during his Su-30 MKI flight and numerous awards he received.  Twelve walls have been utilized for murals and paintings. 

The entire area has been landscaped beautifully to reflect the peace and harmony aspect of Dr Kalam’s personality. 

The construction material and other accessories for the Memorial have been shipped to Rameswaram from many parts of India. The crafted front doors are from Thanjavur; stone claddings from Jaisalmer and Agra; stone pillars from Bengaluru; marbles from Karnataka and murals from Hyderabad, Shanti Niketan, Kolkata and Chennai to name a few.

D Ajit, Han Donker, Ravi Saxena, of the University of Northern British Columbia in their much-cited research Â‘Corporate Boards in India- Blocked by Caste?’ published in the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) in 2012, calculated that 70% of Indian corporate boardrooms have a Blau’s caste index of zero. This, effectively, means that boardrooms of more than two-thirds of the top 1000 firms (private & State-owned) have no caste-diversity. The research found that an overwhelming 93% belonged to the forward castes. OBCs – a collection of caste groups lower down in the hierarchy – accounted for 3.8% of the directors. And despite six decades of affirmative action Scheduled Castes and Tribes accounted for only 3.5% of the directors. 

This research was grist to the mill for the usual suspects, and eristic arguments of brahiminical capitalism flew thick and fast. Any social research on business often runs the risk of lending itself to vested interests. What is essentially a snapshot could be misconstrued and misrepresented as a deliberate exclusion by the Leadership. As India democratizes economically, there would be greater access to opportunities for everyone. However the more important question is whether there is an acknowledgement of the organic demographic reality of organizations? The answer lies somewhere between the contrived accusations of statistical legerdemain and the frenzied bouts of self-flagellation. 

Organizations have demonstrated their commitment to diversity and inclusion in articulation and action. While gender, age, disability and sexuality have been the axes of inclusion, the social reality of caste has been glossed over. It is not difficult to understand the squeamish diffidence on caste. Much of it stems from the perception of caste as a feudal construct unlike gender or sexuality, which is ipso facto progressive. However caste has so insidiously seeped in our everyday lived reality that it cannot be whisked away as a relic of the past. As Shiv Visvanathan eloquently says, “Caste is information in knowledge society”. 

The Millennial Aspect: 

Every organization is striving hard, some even bending over backwards to engage millennial talent. Sundry studies and surveys have highlighted the need for a Talent engagement modus operandi tailored to Millennials. However a few studies have also cautioned against addressing millennials as a monolithic demography. The consciousness of a first-generation learner would be markedly different from a third-generational one. First generation learners enter organizations with social experiences (often underpinned by exclusion) which inform their consciousness. 

The liberalization process in India began only in 1991 and therefore, India is still at a nascent stage. Affirmative action has ensured that at least half of the student community at premier institutes is drawn from the socially marginalized Dalit & Bahujan communities. Since the student community is the fountainhead of organizational millennial talent, it is axiomatic that the workforce of the future would reflect this social diversity. The point is not therefore of diversity but inclusion. The challenge that organizations face is to foster a culture which is not oblivious of the Dalit-Bahujan consciousness but embraces caste as another structural demographic dimension. 

It seems remarkable that while our political process is excessively focussed on the fault lines of caste, our espoused organizational socialization is hardly cognizant of it. The choice between being Identity-blind and being Identity-conscious is often a difficult one to make for any D&I intervention but it is important to ask how does India Inc. engage with caste? This article is neither normative nor positivist but an attempt to include caste in the matrix of organizational identity. To even seek an answer to whether caste-based discrimination exists in organization is not merely contentious but subversive. Therefore, how can we engage with caste in the corporation without the zeal of an activist or the hypocrisy of the well-heeled? As wise, old Dumbledore said, “Acceptance is the first step towards understanding”. 

A silent acknowledgement or an internalization of the asymmetric structural privilege that caste bestows is an important first step. Caste doesn’t lend itself for an easy discussion but a start must be made. As a guideline, delink the discussion on caste from a debate on reservations. Caste pre-dates reservations and would possibly outlast it. As an Indian organization which rightly prides itself on the adherence to Indian value systems, we must take the lead among our peers to address the elephant in the room (pun intended) and make an honest beginning. 

(The Author is Management Trainee, Reliance Industries Limited)

PATNA: Nitish Kumar quit as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday, saying it was becoming difficult for him to work under the present circumstances amid allegations of scam being levelled against Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav and also Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. 
 He was leading Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) coalition government in Bihar since November 2015. The coalition government had been rocked by allegations of corruption against Tejashwi and other members of Lalu Prasad’s family. 
Mr. Kumar met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at Raj Bhavan in the evening and submitted his resignation. The Governor accepted his resignation and requested him to continue till alternative arrangements were made. 
Addressing mediapersons, Mr. Kumar said that his commitment was towards the people of Bihar and for securing justice and development for them. The JD(U)-RJD coalition ran into rough weather as allegations of corruption, scam and amassing of property surfaced against RJD supremo and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family, including Tejashwi Yadav who was Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. 
Nitish Kumar said that he had met the Lalu-Rabri duo as well as Tejashwi. He said that he had asked Tejashwi to explain and come out clean. He said that it was becoming difficult to work under such circumstances and there was nothing much he could do. 
He said that he had been criticised for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision last year. He said that he had taken Bihar on the road of social transformation by enforcing liquor ban and had been a crusader against corruption. 
Prime Minister Modi was quick to tweet his reaction to Mr. Kumar’s resignation. In a tweet, the PM congratulated Nitish Kumar for joining hands in the fight against corruption. He said that 125 crore citizens of India have welcomed the honest step taken by Mr. Kumar. Mr. Modi said that for the country’s and Bihar’s bright future, it was necessary to rise above party affiliations in the fight against corruption. 
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who also hails from Bihar welcomed the principled stand taken by Mr. Kumar. He said that Nitish Kumar was very conscious of his clean image and termed the JD(U)-RJD coalition as one based on fear and inequality. 
JD(U) leader K. C. Tyagi hailed the decision of Mr. Kumar, saying the party wholeheartedly supported it and would fully back him. 

NEW DELHI:  Justice Dipak Misra, the second senior most judge of the Supreme Court, will be the next Chief Justice of India, succeeding Justice J S Khehar.   
The process of appointment of the next CJI has been set in motion with Justice J S Khehar sending his recommendation of Justice Misra’s name for the top judicial post of the country to the Union Law Ministry, sources in the Law Ministry said. 
Justice Khehar will retire on August 27. Justice Dipak Misra will take over from him, becoming the 45th Chief Justice of India.
Beginning his career as an advocate in 1977, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996 and was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court next year.  He became permanent Judge of the High Court in December, 1997. Justice Misra was elevated as Chief Justice of the Patna High Court in 2009 and later became the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in 2010. He was appointed Supreme Court judge on October 10, 2011.
Justice Misra will, under normal circumstances, retire as CJI on October 2, 2018. 

NEW DELHI : A great scientist, an institution builder, an able science administrator, an educationist and a science communicator par excellence. Prof Yashpal, who passed away on Tuesday, was all this combined and much more.  

Whichever role Yashpal donned, he brought an air of freshness, innovation and radical ideas. He took every job entrusted to him by his mentors like Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan – as well as Prime Ministers – Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi – seriously and executed with dedication. In every position he held during a career spanning half a century, Yashpal left his indelible mark.

Like several of contemporary scientists in independent India, Yashpal began his scientific career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) which was the fountainhead of space, atomic energy and electronics development. As space technology began to grow in the 1970s, he was asked to head a special project SITE – Satellite Instructional Television Experiment – which was originally conceived by Sarabhai but executed much after his death. 

Instead for going in for easy option like sending scientists to NASA or importing equipment, Yashpal pushed the envelope and developed indigenously the technology for satellite earth station and communications. This not only made SITE hugely successful but also, in some ways, laid the foundation for satellite television and communication revolution in the decades to come. As advisor to the Planning Commission, he catalyzed major changes in the communication sector.

Given his deep interest in making science education meaningful, the government made him the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). His work at UGC and in the education sector was legendary. He wanted to reform the higher education sector, and at one point, even suggested that all colleges and universities be closed down for one year so that they can re-invent themselves.  He saw the university as a place with “universal approach to knowledge” where “boundaries of disciplines be porous and scholars be constantly on guard against the tendency towards ‘cubicalization’ of knowledge.”  He wanted universities where humanities and sciences meet and co-exist, and not live in isolation. Yashpal had also emphasized on the role of higher education in creating an institutional space for dialogue and liberal inquiry.

He was equally concerned with school education. Referring to the load of books carried by children to schools, he had observed in a report to the government: “So far as physical load of the school bag is concerned, the situation has become worse over the past few years. However, the weight of the school bag represents only one dimension of the problem; the more pernicious burden is that of non-comprehension.”

Yashpal was a great communicator of science. He became popular as one who could explain science in to people with no background in science. He had begun experimenting with science communication through television during SITE. In the 1990s, he anchored science programme on Doordarshan – ‘Turning Point’ – and used to answer questions sent by viewers. He used to answer questions in manner that would make viewers think and seek more knowledge instead of giving direct answers. The programme ran for 150 episodes and had film actors like Nasiruddin Shah as hosts. He was also Chief Advisor for television serials – Bharat Ki Chaap, Tur-rum-tu, and Race to Save the Planet. He was the face of live telecasts of total solar eclipse programmes in 1995 and 1999, and the transit of Venus in 2004. 

Many people are intrigued about his name. Yashpal had no surname, rather he had dropped his surname.  He had revealed the full story to his biographer, Biman Basu, a few years ago. As non-believers in the caste system Yash Pal’s family had already given up using their surname (Bhutani). But when he was 13 and had to change his school, he took on the surname of Arya and he passed his matriculation examination under this name. In 1942, at the age of 15, when he joined college, he took on the surname of Bharati – influenced by the students movement and the freedom struggle. A couple of years later, he dropped Bharati too. “But interestingly, he could not escape having a surname. He acquired one after he started publishing scientific papers because people started calling him ‘Pal’”, says Basu.

Yashpal was born at Jhang (now in Pakistan) on 26 November 1926. He spent his early childhood in Quetta (Balochistan). He went to school in Quetta, Jabalpur, Lyllapur and studied BSc in Punjab University, Lahore. After post-graduation from Delhi University, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for doctorate. (India Science Wire)

The Government has appealed to the consumers to switch to LED bulbs and support its efforts to save energy.  The Ministry of Power said  that the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for all (UJALA), government’s  energy saving initiative has already resulted in 5,57,00,270 KWh worth of energy savings and reduced over 45,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. Consumers should not get influenced by surveys presenting incorrect information about the distribution process of the UJALA scheme.

Recently, there was a survey conducted by an independent research organization Localcircles.com stating that a significant number of citizens in the country are not aware of the process of obtaining a LED bulb under the scheme. The Power Ministry has clarified that UJALA has benefitted more than 5 crore citizens across 18 states and 4 UTs in India, which has been possible only through robust distribution and awareness mechanisms. The Ministry has also ensured that awareness of its UJALA programme reaches every beneficiary, irrespective of their social and economic background.

The online survey by Localcircles.com presents an incomplete picture of the UJALA scheme. The online survey claims to be conducted across 20 plus states and 56 cities. However, there are four states where the scheme has not taken off owing to necessary state government approvals. The Ministry of Power is engaging with the respective state governments and ensuring that the scheme is rolled out soon. The survey also ignores states like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, where the scheme has been successful. The survey has also been conducted in cities like Noida and Ghaziabad, where the scheme is yet to take off.