GOVERNMENT OF INDIA INITIATIVE’S FOR COVID-19: HIGHER EDUCATION

1. Associate Prof., S.R.M.S. College of Engineering and Technology, Bareilly. 2. Chairman, Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, MoE, New Delhi. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 20 June 2020 Final Accepted: 24 July 2020 Published: August 2020

Within a short span of time, the COVID-19 epidemic has spread worldwide. Today, according to the WHO, about 220 countries are affected by this epidemic. COVID 19 has impacted worldwide causing every country is grappling with the major economic crises. The spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has significantly disrupted every walk of human life, that too includes education. Internationalization has also slowed down considerably due to this epidemic. The COVID-19 epidemic has led to an unprecedented ambush on education. In many educational institutions around the world, campuses are closed for formal education, and teaching-learning has gone online or virtual. A progressive country like India has also been affected in this field, but technology has also solved this problem to some extent. In India, there are about 32 crore learners who are covered under schools/colleges and all educational Institutes. COVID-19 has also made an impact on the admission of the learner to higher education in this session, due to which one important reason is the decrease in the source of parental income due to COVID-19. Two main issues are discussed in this research paper. In the first part, during the COVID-19 epidemic, the Government of India includes numerous measures and instructions that are given from time to time for its prevention. In the second part, this research discusses the reasons for the major effects on admission to higher education for the current session.

First Phase Prevention of COVID-19 by GOI
Indian Government was closely monitoring this important situation from the beginning and it started preparing well before this epidemic / pandemic entered in India. As soon as the first positive case in India came up on 30 January 2020, the Government of India started taking strict restrictive action. On 11 March 2020, the Cabinet Secretariat of India announced that the provisions of Section 2 of the Infectious Diseases Act 1897 would be implemented by all states and Union Territories. Under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the central government declared the epidemic a "notified disaster" on 14 March 2020 [1].
To prevent the spread and lethal growth of this virus, the government has taken initial action with caution on these important points so that the entry of this virus into the third phase can be prevented. 1. The process of issuing new visas was first suspended and the already issued visas were put on hold. 2. The Indian government made health check-up mandatory for all international passengers at all international Indian airports. 3. The Indian government immediately started closing primary and middle schools so that children under the age group could be protected from the effects of coronaviruses. 4. Major pilgrimage sites, temples and all religious sites, monuments, shopping malls, and parks were closed to reduce social and religious gatherings and interaction. 5. Measures under the gradual response regime to reduce the effects of coronavirus disease include the process of proper hybridization involving the process of cancellation of metro rail, travel restrictions, trains, buses and flights. 6. In order to prevent the entry of coronaviruses in the third phase, all private and government organizations and educational institutions were advised to employ their employees from domestic facilities i.e. encourage the work from home. 7. The rules adopted by the Government of India to implement social distance include encouraging work from home, reducing office staff, cancelling weddings ceremony, banning religious and cultural events, banning public meetings, closing restaurants etc. This prevented the spread of coronavirus by breaking the chain of contamination. 8. Among other measures adopted to prevent entry into the third phase are declaring health emergency, enforcing the law. Spreading contamination by carriers has become a criminal offense and FIR is being deliberately registered against persons involved in its spread. 9. Apart from this, from time to time social consultations, self-quarantine, not-holding of large meetings, cancellation of conferences, and issuing consultations regarding social events, the Government of India urged Indian citizens to support the "Janata curfew" Where everyone was requested to stay indoors from 7am to 9pm on 22 March 2020 to break the chain of contamination.
750 The Government of India issued a new notification of the guidelines on Wednesday 15 April 2020 as it was the  second phase of nationwide lockdown in India involving the spread of novel coronaviruses. The entire guidelines  detail which citizens are allowed to relocate, which industries can start operations, which items can be sold, what  measures to keep the workplaces open during the lockdown phase II must go, and more. The new lockdown rules  and regulations enforced until May3, 2020 [1]. Some conditional relief may be seen in areas that are not hotspots for the novel coronavirus from April 20. 1. All international and domestic air travel of passengers, except for purposes enumerated in para 4 (ix), and for security purposes. 2. All passenger movement by trains (except for security purposes), buses for public transport, metro rail services, inter-district and inter-State movement of individuals (except for medical reasons) etc. All educational, training, coaching institutions, etc. shall remain closed. Also, all industrial and commercial activities will remain closed. 3. Hospitality services are other than those specifically permitted under these guidelines. 4. All cinema halls, malls, shopping complexes, theatres, gymnasiums, auditoriums, bars, sports complexes, swimming pools, entertainment parks, assembly halls, etc. will remain closed. 5. All social / political/ sports / entertainment / academic / cultural / religious functions/ other gatherings will remain suspended. 6. All religious places / places of worship shall be closed for the public. Religious congregations are strictly prohibited.

Operation in Hotspots and Containment Zones: Lock down 2.0
To deal with coronavirus outbreaks in an effective and structured way, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) [1] has set up 'hotspots', i.e., outbreaks of COVID-19, or groups with significant prevalence of COVID-19. According to the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the districts of the country have been classified into three regions -Red, Orange and Green, based on the severity of the outbreak in those areas. In these hotspots, the equivalent areas are demarcated by the States / UTs / District Administration as per MoHFW guidelines.

Red zone
The Centre has named hotspot districts as Red Zone as it needs to have focused attention in these areas reporting a large number of Covid-19 cases and high growth rate. The health ministry has classified 170 hotspot districts under the 'Red Zone'. This is further divided into two groups i.e. there are 123 hotspot districts with a large outbreak and 47 hotspot districts with clusters.

Containment / Buffer / Cluster Containment Zone
Containment Strategy will contain the disease within a defined geographical area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission, and thus preventing its spread to new areas. This will include geographic quarantine, social removal measures, increased active surveillance, testing of all suspected cases, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts and risk communication to create public awareness on preventive public health measures [3].
A buffer zone of an additional 5-kilometre radius (7 Kms in rural areas)/administrative boundary of including neighboring districts/per-urban zone shall also be identified, as detailed in the cluster containment plan. The cluster containment strategy would be to contain the disease within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas. The cluster containment strategy would "include geographic quarantine, social distancing measures, enhanced active surveillance, testing all suspected cases, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts and risk communication to create awareness among public on preventive public health measures". The perimeter will be defined after the delimitation of the Containment Zone and strict perimeter control with: 1. Establishment of clear entry and exit points, 2. No movement to be allowed except for medical emergencies and essential goods and services, 3. No unchecked influx of population to be allowed and 4. People transiting to be recorded and followed through Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP).

Orange Zone
The areas with a limited number of cases in the past and with no surge in positive cases recently would be included under the orange zone. Only restricted activities such as limited public transport and farm product harvesting are 751 expected to be allowed in the coronavirus orange zone. Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in manufacturing of essential items like wheat four (Atta), pulses (Dal) and edible oils would be allowed to function freely with strict maintenance of social distancing. A hotspot district can be turned to Orange Zone when no cases are reported in the last 14 days.

Green Zone
For the Green Zone, the health ministry stated that a district that has not reported positive coronavirus cases can be marked under this zone. Also, any district currently in hotspots can be moved to the Green category if no new cases arise in 28 days. Exemptions may be given in these sectors as per the government's plan. Limited movement of people linked to essential services and business may be given extension. A total of 207 non-hotspot districts with clusters and non-infected districts have been classified as Green Zone. 752

Aarogya Setu App
Arogya Setu is a mobile application developed by the Government of India to connect essential health services with the citizens of India in the joint fight of the Government of India against COVID-19. It based on geo tagging technology. The app has been specially designed by the Government of India with the objective of enhancing the initiative of the Department of Health. This app is able to reach and inform users of the application regarding the risks, best practices and relevant advice related to the operation of COVID-19. It can help people stay safe and adopt necessary precaution in some areas where there are cases and accordingly, help stop or prevent community transmission to an extent.

Outcomes of Precautions taken by GOI in a Phase-Wise Manner
1. The first-phase lockdown 1.0 by the Indian government, which was implemented as the largest practice in the world for 21 days from 25 March, was successful in preventing widespread epidemics. 2. Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) revealed that India took longer than most countries in west to show up 12,000 or more number of COVID -hit positive patients. The rate shows India took six day from its tally of 3000-6000 Coronavirus patients (16 th April 2020) to double to 12,799. 3. Despite a known cluster of densely populated areas, India has shown 9 cases per million population and the death rate is 0.3 per million population, which is far better than other countries. 4. India has become the fifth country to successfully isolate a strain of the novel coronavirus. China, Japan, Thailand and the US did it before. National Institute of Virology (NIV) has succeeded in isolating the deadly coronavirus from an affected patient. According to reports, it has a 99.98% match with the virus in China's Wuhan. It means that scientists have been able to obtain a pure sample of the virus that has been contained outside the human body. It is important because it will help in developing drugs, vaccines, and rapid diagnostic test kits.  Again on 29 th July 2020 Indian government announced the unlock phase-3 guidelines. Ministry of Home Affairs has issued new guidelines for unlock 3.0 for the period from 1st July 2020 till 31st July 2020. The government have consulted with states and union territories and based on the feedback received from states and union territories have issued the guidelines for Unlock 3.0 [1]. However, it should be noted that there will be no relaxation in the containment zones during unlock phase 3. All the containment areas will have to follow strict lockdown. The main activities permitted outside the containment zone are as follows: 1. International Air Travel only with MHA approval 2. All School, College, educational / training, coaching institutions shutting upto 31.08.2020 3. Cinema halls, Swimming Pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places. 4. Training institute of Centre / State govt shall be closed upto 15.07.2020 5. Also all social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions and similar gatherings. 6. Yoga Institute and gymnasiums will be allowed w.e.f. 05-08.2020 with SOP 7. Metro rail movement still under suspension. 8. Lockdown shall be in force in Containment zone upto 31.08.2020 9. Independence Day Celebration-Be allowed with social distancing and SOP suggested by MoHFW. 10. Movement of passenger trains and shramik special trains, air travel, movement of Indian National from out side country and Foreign national, sign on and sign off of Indian Seafarers will continue with SOP 11. Persons above 65 and children below 10 years are advised to stay home. The effect of this guide line becomes that, on July 9 2020, India's Covid-19 recoveries first overshot the active cases by 2,06,588, with the recovery rate climbing to 62.09%. This took the number of recovered cases to 1.75 times (almost twice) the number of active coronavirus cases as declared by the Union health ministry. Again on 13th July, 2020, the Ministry of Health declared that India's Covid-19 recovery rate has jumped to 63.02%, with nearly 19 states across the country logging a recovery rate higher than that of the national average,. The data issued by MoHFW indicated that the number of recoveries exceeds the active coronavirus cases by more than 2.5 lakh. Among the 19 states which have registered a recovery rate significantly higher than the national average are Ladakh with 85.45%, closely followed by Delhi at a healthy 79.98% with Uttarakhand in third spot with a recovery rate of 78.77%. some of the other states where a high number of Covid-19 patients have recovered at that time (13th July 2020). India's Covid-19 fatality rate has also declined to 2.64% on 13th July 2020 despite a huge surge in positive cases reported daily which has taken the country to third place globally with a high concentration of coronavirus patients.

Effect of COVID-19 on Normal Life:-
Due to this pandemic "COVID-19" human life around the world has been shaken to its roots in terms of social, economic, educational, healthcare etc. [8]. In most of the countries still lockdown is going on and people are facing the social issues as complete disruption of celebration of cultural, religious and festive events, cannot hold any gathering, cannot meet with our peers and family members due to cancellation of travelling services etc. Due to COVID-19 hotels, restaurants, religious places, places for entertainment such as movie and play theatres, sports clubs, gymnasiums, swimming pools etc. all are closed, and one has to stay at his place. A very few business activities are allowed resulting a downfall in manufacturing of essential goods, supply chain of products, national and international business movement etc. Schools /colleges /universities are closed, and all the academic activities are destabilized [7]. In the case on COVID-19 challenge lie in the diagnosis, quarantine and treatment of suspected or confirmed cases. Thousands of peoples per day are being killed due to the spread of this disease and that puts an extra burden on doctors and other healthcare professionals and as a consequence patient with other disease do not get priority. Presently the effects of COVID-19 in daily life are very significant and needs to be taken care of by some strategic action plan of government in all areas including education.

Methodology for finding Impact on Education Sector:-
COVID-19 brings the crisis in every country and in every area. In this pandemic situation every country facing economically downfall. Obviously out of other sectors one of the important sectors is education where also COVID-19 imposed the break. "There are 34 crore students in the country, more than America's population. They are our biggest treasure. Safety of students and teachers is of utmost importance to the government (during this COVID-19 pandemic)" -Ramesh Pokhriyal, Minister of Education [6]. India is third largest in the education sector and due to this pandemic every one related to this field is mostly effect whether it is management of the institutions, universities, colleges, faculty, related staff and important one is the students. Due to COVID-19, there is also an impact on the admission of the students on higher education which is related to the financial condition of their parents/guardian also. To analyse this effect, we have collected students' views through questionnaires. For the analysis of the impact on admission in the higher education due to COVID-19 by the parents to their ward we collected the views of students through the questionnaire. In between 1st April to 30th June 2020, we get 1112 responses from the students all over India. The questionnaire is analysed on the 5 point Likert scale for which Strongly Agree -Strongly Disagree is considered to 5-1 scale. Before analysis the questionnaire factor analysis is to be find by applying KMO and Bartlett's test. In KMO test less than 0.05 value considered as poor whereas between 0.7-0.8 is considered good and more than 0.8 is considered excellent. Here we get KMO value is 0.861 which is considered excellent result as it exceeds 0.5. A high value for KMO and low significance for sphericity test indicates that the variables are related, and it forms the relevance of factor analysis. .000

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Also further reliability analysis measures is tested for finding internal consistency. The most common type of internal consistency is coefficient alpha, also known as Cronbach alpha. It indicates the closeness among the questions. Cronbach's alpha means that the items' reliability coefficient, if this value is greater than or equal to 0.70, then it is considered "acceptable". On applying this test on questionnaire, values of Cronbach's Alpha for all eleven questions and then further nine questions have been obtained as given table below: The feedback received by circulating this questionnaire between 1 April 2020 to 30 June has been used for analysis. In this study we get 53.06 % of male and 46.94 % of female respondents. Also in this study 61.87 % students participate though belongs to 21yrs-30 yrs. of the age and 46.94% of students are graduate and 41.19% of students are above graduate students.

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The questionnaire used in this study have the following main questions except few basic questions like Gender, Age Group, Level of Education and use of internet facility etc. Table 3:-The Questionnaire used in this Study. Q1 The economic situation of the country in this period will have an impact on the entry of their ward into higher education by the parents in the coming new season? Q2 The impact of parents on their ward entering higher education will be highest on the lower class.
Q3 The impact of parents on admission of their ward to higher education will be more on middle class than upper class. Q4 Presently technical and medical education is more expensive than other such as science, arts and commerce education. Q5 Under the influence of this situation, parents will have an impact on the admission of their ward to technical education. Q6 Under the influence of this situation, parents will have an impact on the admission of their ward to medical education. Q7 Due to the effect of this situation, the field chosen by parents for admission will be more towards science, art, commerce education. Q8 Whether as a student, you will accompany or explain the decision to your parents. Q9 Government will have to take into consideration the fee structure for admission in different areas in the coming session, keeping the student class in this situation.

Interpretation and Findings:-
Many studies have shown that effective use of e-learning or online learning could help increase student motivation engagement, and attendance. It should also increase student class participation and improved behaviour and performance on core subjects. But due to COVID-19, the stress is also increased in students. Its not only for about their studies but also due to the lack of their financial issue in family as they come under pressure to go with their parent's decision. Through the questionnaire, we handed over about 15 questions to the students and their views were noted.
In the first question the students were asked whether the economic situation of the country in this period will have an impact on the entry of their ward into higher education by the parents in the coming new season? Most of the students almost 51.96% agree and 23.97% students were strongly agree about that impact on the entry into higher education effected due to current situation of COVID-19. In the second and third questions the students were asked whether the impact of parents on their ward entering higher education will be highest on the lower class and more on middle class than upper class? For second question 44.52% students were agree and 28.77% students were strongly agree as well as for third question 46.77% student were agree and 23.68% were strongly agree about that the impact on the entry into higher education will be highest 757 on the lower class families than upper class families. Therefore we conclude that the impact on admission is greatest on Lower Class than the middle/ upper Class. Also for the upper class families the impact is less or negligible. In questions 4, 5 and 6 the students were asked that presently technical and medical education is more expensive than other such as science, arts and commerce. Is, in this current academic session parents will have an impact on the admission of their ward in technical and medical education? Here 43.64%, 48.43% and 46.67% students were agree with this but in these questions the percentage of neutral is greater than percentage of strongly agree. May be in this situation the students were thinking that the government will have to take into consideration the fee structure for admission in different areas in the current session due to COVID-19. Also, it may be possible those students were thinking that their parents will manage because they would not be compromise with their ward's future. In questions 7 and 8 the students were asked that the field chosen by parents for admission will be more towards science, art, commerce education and will they accompany the decision of their parents? For question 7, 36.79% of students agree about the change by the effect of COVID-19 and they feel that parents will be more towards to science, art, or commerce education but 33.95% were neutral in this case. Also 51.08% students were agree about the situation that they will accompany the decision to their parents.
The reason behind this may be, every student knows our family situation and they know that the parents will best possible to try to go with their choice but some conditions its not possible also and student agree with the decision of their parents.
In last question 9, the students were asked that government will have to take into consideration the fee structure for admission in different areas in the coming session? Here 43.74% students are agree and 33.27% students are strongly agree with this and they hope that government will surely consider the fee structure for admission in different areas in this current session.

Conclusion and Futuristic Remark:-
The WHO recently reported that COVID-19 can never be taken away from the masses and people will have to live with it. This virus can become just like a viral fever or any other infection virus in our communities, and it has to be cure by taking the proper vaccine, as and when vaccine become available for the infected persons. After observing the opinions of the learned learners, it can be said that there will be an impact on the admission of the learners in the new session, but if the government takes necessary measures and important decisions keeping the interest of the students, then the impact of this situation in higher education can be reduced up to the minimum level. However in the education sector, the Ministry of Education is constantly monitoring the situation and taking the necessary steps for the betterment of students. Result percentage of the respondent for each question has shown that the expectation of the learners is tied to the government. He is with his parents to return to the previous normalcy of his family by the learners. Also, the percentage of agreed and strongly agreed with respect to Question 9, i.e. "Government will have to take into consideration the fee structure for admission in different areas in the coming session, keeping the student class in this situation", is more than 75% percent indicating that the students believe that the Ministry of Education is really concerned about the future of their students. The Ministry of Education will certainly intervene in this context so that parents can take appropriate decisions regarding the admission of their wards in higher education.
759 The disaster of COVID-19 has caused havoc in the lives of common people. This has given rise to intense debate not only in common life but also in moral, social, cultural, political and economic fields. The central government, along with the state governments, is constantly making efforts to deal with this epidemic. During time to time, a further strategy was formulated by our Prime Minister in consultation with all the Chief Ministers of the states under which the extension of lockdown/unlock to deal with COVID-19 was considered and implemented. The MoHFW control room is working 24 * 7 to fight the epidemic not only with the states but also with various ministries of the central government. Obviously, the economy of all countries has collapsed due to the effect of COVID-19, but due to the efforts of the Central Government of India, we are in a better position as compare to other countries. Government of India making all the efforts to neutralized the loss caused in education sector by adopting various measures. We all are also confident that we shall win over this COVID-19 effect and will achieve the desired goal with due course of time. COVID-19 has given a lesson, so that we will become stronger enough to fight such challenges in future.
There will a lot of scope in futuristic research's, that will open new era of studies in education, science and technology, as well as sociology and clinical and non-clinical psychology. In brief the COVID-19 taught a lesson that how to became self-independent? It also lay the foundation of self-independent India in education and research wing.