India's 13 states and 3 Union Territories along with the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) have signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Education to upgrade their schools under the Pradhan Mantri Schools For Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme. The MoUs were signed by Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Punjab. The upper limit for each state is two schools per block. MoU is the first stage. The states would still have to go through the next two stages before reaching the stage of final selection of the schools. The scheme of PM SHRI schools is to be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a total project cost of Rs27,360 crore which would include a central share of Rs18,128 crore for the period of five academic sessions starting from 2022-23 to 2026-27. These schools are scheduled to be developed as Green schools, which will incorporate environment-friendly aspects like solar panels and LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management, plastic-free, water conservation and harvesting, the study of traditions or practices related to the protection of the environment, climate change related hackathon and generating awareness to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
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