Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. - Information and communication technology, going global through the Intel way

Information & Communication Technology is a budding dominant tool for empowerment in a developing country like India. The diverse Information & Communication Technology which includes telecommunications, television & radio broadcasting, web and mobile application software, electronic media, social media and electronic mail has opened new horizon to create, disseminate, store, bring value and manage information in a smarter and a brighter way.

Over the period of time information and communication technology has changed many lives in India especially in the field of education. From communicating with friends and fellow workers all over the world, social networking, applying and searching for jobs, documentary and film making tips, joining and sharing views on the discussion forums, applying for educational courses, medical advice and help – the usefulness of information and communication technology is endless. In the recent span of time the growth and utility of e-learning cannot be overvalued and it’s a very well known fact that information and communication technology has been used to enhance learning and improve creativity especially in classrooms in urban areas.

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. believes that there is an enormous growing trend to apply ICT based technologies in schools and the other educational institutions. Many schools and colleges have active and animated virtual learning methods which gives students access to study materials, skills questions, feedback, sample papers and assignments. Some schools even have smart interactive white boards for teaching. Children find it more interesting and become more expert in multimedia presentations when engaging with them in their assignments. Quite a percentage (24%) of schools in India use Open Distance Learning. Teachers and students both say that ICT-enabled learning is more interesting, interactive and keeps students hooked.

According to Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. the best example of Information and Communication Technology for development in India is, Intel Teach Program India - Powering up teachers for the promise of digital learning 

 

Intel® Teach is an established professional development program that provides *K-12 teachers with instruction on how to create and support standards-aligned, project-based approaches, with multiple forms of assessment and effective use of technology to engage students. The main highlight of the courses are to improve learning by helping teachers of any subject and transform their classrooms by engaging students in project-based lessons that encourage critical thinking, partnership, group effort, creativity and communication—specifically the need of the hour is high-technological  networked society backed up high technical and enriched knowledge skills.

All the way through Intel Teach Program India is a public-private partnership with government ministries and teacher, education institutions worldwide, Intel Teach Program India, now in its 13th year, has reached more than 10 million teachers in over 70 countries. It is the largest, most successful program of its kind.

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. said In India, more than 1.7 million teachers have successfully completed their training, across 19 states and Union Territories, State Councils of Education Research and Training, Colleges of Education in 74 universities, and Central Government bodies like the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, and National Institute of Open Schooling.

Since education basically is a main catalyst of social change and transformation we need to applaud all we have and find more innovative and better ways for information and technology-enabled learning. Initiatives like Intel Teach Program India – Powering up teachers for the promise of digital learning not only providing a pathway to profess and propagate the broad use of computer – aided learning which covers schools associated with the central Government and various state Government s.   

*K-12 (Is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education. It is used in the United States, Canada, Turkey, the Philippines, and Australia )

Informal Education In India - Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

Informal Education in India is basically a continuous process in simple terms it is a process to learn through some activities or through the interest of an individual or from a group of society. Informal education takes its existence when an individual or group of peoples who are not able to continue their education or who are uneducated but informal education is a regular process of helping or supporting people to learn. The main advantage of informal education is that it can occur at any stage or at any age of life. It can occur at any age from birth to death it can be additive or transformative. Structure of this format of education is basically non- formal in simple terms we can define non formal education as a "systematic education which is carried outside the boundaries of formal system of education."

The implementation of non formal education is systematically organized in difference to formal education. Informal education does not require any special efforts learning in a market place or in a room can be an example of informal education. Formal education is generally imparted in schools or colleges but informal education does not have any specialized or pre planned structure and even informal education does not have any fixed time-table or any curriculum. Understanding the importance of Non-Formal education in the country like India where school drop out rate is very high, Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. always tends to include Non Formal Education in Social Development Projects. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. has been associated with NGOs working in education sector.

Informal Education is one of the modes of providing education basically derived from formal education and this concept i.e. used wide in range in India and the main aim of non- formal education is to spread the knowledge among the whole society. Non-formal education is programmed to serve the needs of the identified groups. Formal education has clear set of characteristic. Whenever one or more of these characteristic is absent, we can say that the educational system had adopted non-formal features. Non-formal education features are initiated when the process does not need attendance of the students and there is decreased contact between teacher and student and almost major activities take place outside the institution or study center. This will majorly involve home reading and paperwork. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. understands that teachers play a crucial role in uplifting the quality of education. Non-formal education consists of sufficient variety of educational situations and this has played an important role in the regeneration of educational systems. There is a need to analyze three processes of education that are: “distance learning”, “correspondence learning” and “open systems”, which will fall under the category of non-formal education. 

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Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. - CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON RURAL GROWTH-

Corporate nowadays have begin to realize that they have certain level of responsibility towards the society. A growing realization has developed among corporate that they should contribute to social activities globally with a desire to improve the immediate environment where they work and many companies are taking keen interest in such activities. This has also developed due to the general perception that companies paying genuine attention to the principles of social responsibility are favored by the public who prefer to consume their goods and services. This has given rise to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The term social responsibility is based on the doctrine that claims that any entity whether it is government, corporation or individual has a responsibility towards society they are part of. Narayan Murthy, the founder of Infosys once said about Corporate Social Responsibility that ‘social responsibility is to create maximum shareholders value working under the circumstances, where it is fair to all its stakeholders, workers, consumers, the community, government and the environment.'

Majority of population in India lives in its villages. Literally and from the social, economic and political perspectives the statement is valid even today. 65% of the countries population is living in rural areas. People living in rural areas should have the quality of life equivalent to the life enjoyed by people living in sub urban and urban areas. Apart from this problems like poverty, unemployment, poor and inadequate infrastructure in rural areas effects adversely on urban centres causing slums and consequential social and economic tensions manifesting in economic deprivation and urban poverty. Hence, Rural Development, that is concerned of  economic growth and social justice and improvement in the living standard of the rural people by providing adequate and quality social services and minimum basic needs become essential.  

India is a land primarily based on agriculture. Agriculture contributes nearly one-fifth of the gross domestic product in India. In order to increase the growth of agriculture, the Government has planned several programs pertaining to Rural Development in India. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. designs social concepts related to agriculture and allied sectors to increase the yield per hectare as well as increase income from the activities by strengthening the value chain. 

Apart from this, Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. also develops concepts to provide alternative skills to rural people through CSR projects. Providing alternative skills to rural people reduces their dependency on agriculture that doesn't provide sustainable income. Corporate Social Responsibility is thus considered very important as far as rural areas are concerned.

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Fiinovation - Meeting the country's Millennium Development Goal targets on health indicators - The clock is ticking.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The goals are:

1.      Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

2.      Achieving universal primary education

3.      Promoting gender equality and empowering women

4.      Reducing child mortality rates

5.      Improving maternal health

6.      Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

7.      Ensuring environmental sustainability

8.      Developing a global partnership for development

According to WHO, India will fail to achieve some of the most important Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets like reduction in maternal and child deaths, and increase in child immunization rates by 2015. There is a major possibility that India will miss its targets, some by a big margin. WHO admits that India has been effectively reducing its infant and maternal mortality figures, largely due to National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). But still the pace hasn't been satisfactory enough, especially when it comes to infant and maternal deaths.

One of the MDG goals is to reduce under-five mortality rate to 42 per 1,000 live births by 2015. India will reach 52 by that year missing the target by 10 percentage points. The national level estimate of infant mortality rate is likely to be 44 against the MDG target of 27 in 2015. Some of the largest states like Madhya Pradesh (62), Odisha (61), Uttar Pradesh (61), Assam (58), Meghalaya (55), Rajasthan (55), Chhattisgarh (51), Bihar (48) and Haryana (48) still have IMR above the national estimates.

India is, however, expected to cover about 89% children in the age group 12-23 months for immunization against measles by 2015 — short of universal immunization of one-year olds against measles by about 11 percentage points. India will reach maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 139 per 100,000 live births by 2015, falling short by 30 percentage points.

Goal 4: Reducing child mortality rates

Over the last few decades, good Nutrition, healthcare and better standards to living have almost halved the number of child deaths. In 1990, more than 12 million children died before the age of 5, in developing countries, because of diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition, pneumonia, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. By 2012, this number dropped to 6.6 million. Still Under-5 mortality rates are very high because of considering that most of these deaths are due to preventable or treatable causes.

We can still reduce child mortality by taking initiatives and strengthening the national health systems. We need to expand our immunization programs which will further enhance growth monitoring of children. By ensuring the survival and improved health indicators of mothers by supporting better nutrition for the child and mother will be the first step in this direction. The country needs to better the available infrastructure so that enhanced reproductive health status can be achieved.

Goal 5: Improving maternal health

Out of all the MDGs, maternal health has been the least progressive goal. Nearly 800 women all  over the world die every day due to complications during pregnancy or child birth. Among those, 99 percent of the deaths occur in developing countries. Every country's priority should be to better the women's health status.

We can promote women health by improving maternal nutrition and by advocating for spacing and empowering them to choose family size. We need to educate young boys and girls on the importance of contraception so as to reduce teenage pregnancies. This will also help in combating the evil effects of early marriage. There is an emergence need of ensuring trained attendants to conduct deliveries and to better the access to emergency and comprehensive obstetric, ante-natal and post-partum care

Goal 6: Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

99% of people who die from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) are living in the developing countries. Though new cases of HIV infections are declining and the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment is growing, still 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.

For effective prevention, care, and sustainable treatment of various diseases various effective steps need to be taken. For HIV infections, measures like promotion of safe sexual behavior, male circumcision, and providing treatment for HIV prevention are the first step. To combat malaria, promotion of use of long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets and increasing access to efficacious anti-malaria medicines are the best bet. Improving housing conditions of TB patients, TB screening of HIV-positive persons, and Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) therapy for TB needs to done.