Lok Sabha Question No. 1321 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-25
Subject: Innovation Fund
Ministry: Education
Asked by: M. Selvaraj

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

## DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1321 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25th July, 2022

## Innovation Fund

1321.  SHRI M. SELVARAJ: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: Education and if so, the details thereof; (b) the number  and  details of States which have the most educationally backward blocks in the country; and

(a)  whether  the  Government  proposes  an  Innovation  Fund  for  Secondary number  of (c)   the number of educationally backward blocks benefitted from the said funds

- so far?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a):   Innovation is central to improving the quality of education. In the Budget for the  year  2017-18,  an  Innovation  Fund  for  Secondary  Education  was  created under  Rashtriya  Madhyamik  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (RMSA),  to  encourage  local innovation for ensuring universal access, gender parity and quality improvement, including ICT-enabled learning transformation with a special focus on educationally backward districts of the country. During 2017-18, an outlay of Rs. 6974.96 lakh was approved for the Innovation fund.

The  integrated  scheme  of  Samagra  Shiksha  launched  in  2018-19  after subsuming  Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan,  Rashtriya  Madhyamik  Shiksha  Abhiyan seeks to capture innovations in the education sector from each State /UT which significantly  contribute  to  the  improvement  of  learning  outcomes  or  overall condition and quality of education. The overarching objective is to give schools a new  or  creative alternative to the existing instructional  and  administrative practices. Such  initiatives would  also help students in improving learning outcomes  and    in  their  holistic  development,  financial  support  is  provided  for national  innovative  activities    like  Shaala  Siddhi,  Youth  and  Eco  club,  Teacher Resource Package, Holistic Report card, Orientation of teachers on Safety and Security  and  also  State-specific  innovation  projects  like    BALA,    setting  up  of Virtual Labs, Tinkering Labs etc.

(b) and (c): The details of States/UTs having the educationally backward blocks across the country are in Annexure-I.   Financial support for innovation projects is based  on  State-specific  proposals  with  distinct  objectives  and  implementation plans  which  will  have  a  positive  impact  on  the  learning  outcomes  of  students. Funds are approved  to  respective  States/UTs  under  the  quality  and  innovation component of Samagra Shiksha, by the Project Approval Board (PAB) up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the total outlay. The funds are not allotted block-wise under the scheme and the States/UTs have flexibility to utilise the funds.

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## Annexure-I

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (b)  OF  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1321 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.07.2022 ASKED BY HON'BLE MP SHRI M. SELVARAJ REGARDING INNOVATION FUND

## State-wise Percentage of EBB Blocks

|   S. No. | State Name                           |   No of Blocks |   No EBB Blocks |   %of EBB Blocks |
|----------|--------------------------------------|----------------|-----------------|------------------|
|        1 | Bihar                                |            537 |             530 |            98.7  |
|        2 | Jharkhand                            |            264 |             202 |            76.52 |
|        3 | Uttar Pradesh                        |            954 |             679 |            71.17 |
|        4 | Telangana                            |            594 |             396 |            66.67 |
|        5 | Madhya Pradesh                       |            319 |             201 |            63.01 |
|        6 | Assam                                |            147 |              81 |            55.1  |
|        7 | Odisha                               |            316 |             173 |            54.75 |
|        8 | Rajasthan                            |            359 |             186 |            51.81 |
|        9 | Jammu & Kashmir                      |            188 |              97 |            51.6  |
|       10 | Andhra Pradesh                       |            670 |             341 |            50.9  |
|       11 | Chhattisgarh                         |            146 |              74 |            50.68 |
|       12 | Arunachal Pradesh                    |            101 |              40 |            39.6  |
|       13 | Karnataka                            |            204 |              74 |            36.27 |
|       14 | Gujarat                              |            254 |              85 |            33.46 |
|       15 | Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli |              3 |               1 |            33.33 |
|       16 | Haryana                              |            119 |              36 |            30.25 |
|       17 | Nagaland                             |             46 |              11 |            23.91 |
|       18 | Uttarakhand                          |             95 |              19 |            20    |
|       19 | Meghalaya                            |             48 |               9 |            18.75 |
|       20 | West Bengal                          |            469 |              87 |            18.55 |
|       21 | Manipur                              |             35 |               5 |            14.29 |
|       22 | Tripura                              |             72 |               9 |            12.5  |
|       23 | Tamilnadu                            |            413 |              44 |            10.65 |
|       24 | Maharashtra                          |            408 |              43 |            10.54 |
|       25 | Punjab                               |            228 |              21 |             9.21 |
|       26 | Himachal Pradesh                     |            134 |               5 |             3.73 |
|       27 | Mizoram                              |             36 |               1 |             2.78 |
|       28 | Kerala                               |            166 |               1 |             0.6  |

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