Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) app and portal

• Union Minister of Human Resource Development has launched the unique portal and mobile app of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), a body under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development
• This portal will capture the fund allocation as per the Project Approval Board, the instalment-wise fund release by the centre and the state, the institution-wise key project, vendors appointed and the payment made to them as also stage-wise photos and time stamps of payments made and comments entered.
• Component-wise details give a quick snapshot into the funding of RUSA projects. Whether it is infrastructure grants of equity initiatives, this window gives a peek into the funds approved, the amount released, the sum utilized and the percentage of work completed.
• Tracking projects is the soul of this App, and every initiative is tagged with a unique ID number, thus providing the entire story of how an idea germinated and matured.
• A powerful Dashboard gives an overall picture of the scheme and the state-wise performance of the impact that the programme has made.

About RUSA:

• Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013 aims at providing strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme(in the ratio of 60:40 for general category States, 90:10 for special category states and 100% for union territories

Objectives

• Improve the overall quality of state institutions by ensuring conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adopt accreditation as a mandatory quality assurance framework.
• Usher transformative reforms in the state higher education system by creating a facilitating institutional structure for planning and monitoring at the state level, promoting autonomy in State Universities and improving governance in institutions.
• Ensure reforms in the affiliation, academic and examination systems.
• Ensure adequate availability of quality faculty in all higher educational institutions and ensure capacity building at all levels of employment.
• Create an enabling atmosphere in the higher educational institutions to devote themselves to research and innovations.
• Expand the institutional base by creating additional capacity in existing institutions and establishing new institutions, in order to achieve enrolment targets.
• Correct regional imbalances in access to higher education by setting up institutions in unserved & underserved areas.
• Improve equity in higher education by providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/STs and socially and educationally backward classes; promote inclusion of women, minorities, and differently abled persons.

By: Vishal