Group of Ministers reviews the progress of Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat

The Group of Ministers (GoM) set up to monitor Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat (EBSB) of Government of India held a high-level meeting under the chairmanship of Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, to review the progress of Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat (EBSB) programme. 

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports (I/C) and Minister of State for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju and Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (I/C) Shri Prahlad Singh Patel took the review meeting. Secretary, Higher Education and I&B, Amit Khare; Secretary, Sports, Ravi Mittal and Senior officials of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth Affairs, Sports Ayush, Defence, Railways, Women and Child Development, MSME, Agriculture and Home Affairs attended the meeting.  

A detailed presentation outlining the EBSB activities undertaken by Partner Ministries was made by Secretary, HE, Amit Khare. Briefing the GoM about the implementation of the EBSB so far, Secretary Khare said that all the partner Ministries must take up concerted and coordinated efforts to transform the EBSB programme into a larger Jan Andolan. He informed that six more Ministries viz Ministry of Environment, forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Ayush, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of MSME have been included in the programme.

Pokhriyal highlighted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisaged that EBSB programme will unite the countrymen and promote harmony and bonding. During the “Mann Ki Baat” program on October 25th this year, Prime Minister had appealed to his fellow countrymen to visit the EBSB Website and to upload their local dishes on the recipe corner of the website. The Minister said that the people of this country have shown great interest and actively participated in it, with over 1000 recipes being uploaded on the portal. 

Pokhriyal emphasized that the EBSB program should be taken further to celebrate the commemoration of 75th year of country’s independence. In this regard, he requested each partner ministry to provide suggestions and devise an action plan exploring new initiatives that can be taken up under EBSB. He urged participating ministries to identify sub themes under EBSB and prepare a yearly calendar of EBSB events. He added that progress of the EBSB activities organized by the Ministries will be reviewed every three months.  

Speaking about New Education Policy, the Minister said that it lays emphasis on learning various languages by involving students in fun activities so that they have better understanding of different languages. Minister said that ‘Aaj ka Vakya’ is a very good initiative that needs to be further strengthened.  

Prakash Javadekar emphasized that branding of EBSB must be done to enhance its visibility among the wider public. 

Prahlad Singh Patel informed that to promote EBSB, the Ministry has already identified 100 tourism places where educational institutions can explore and study the sites, their history, scientific contributions, traditions and literature to enlighten the students about these areas. 

Kiren Rijiju said that Youth National Integration Camp is the powerful tool to foster the spirit of EBSB among youth across the country. He called upon everyone to carry on with the essence and mandate of Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat in a pro-active manner.