Overview
- The Union Ministry of Education conveyed displeasure over Maharashtra’s low uptake via a WhatsApp message attributed to a senior official in the Department of School Education and Literacy.
- Director Mahesh Palkar issued a December 22 circular instructing divisional and district education officers to boost sign-ups and file detailed registration and outreach updates.
- State data showed 2,78,537 registrations logged by December 22 against a 65 lakh target covering students, teachers and parents.
- The official participation mechanism is an online multiple-choice activity on the MyGov Innovate India platform running from December 1 to January 11 for Classes 6–12, teachers and parents.
- State secretary Ranjit Singh Deol described the Centre’s note as an administrative review to encourage participation, while some school leaders questioned the push since the PM’s interaction is publicly viewable.