General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jul 13, 2021

Mixing and matching Covid-19 vaccines 'dangerous trend': WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan warned against mixing and matching of Covid-19 vaccines by different manufacturers for the first and second doses, calling it a "dangerous trend" and saying that there was a lack of data about the impact of the process.
"There are people who are thinking about mixing and matching. We receive a lot of queries from people who say they have taken one [dose] and are planning to take another one (doses). It's a little bit of a dangerous trend here. We are in a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as mix and match," Swaminathan said in an online briefing.
Mixing and matching of Covid-19 vaccines is a method of immunisation using two doses of the shot from different manufacturers.
Most vaccines currently in use, including those of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, University of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Bharat Biotech as well as the Russian Sputnik V, are all required to be administered in two doses with the prescribed intervals between the shots differing for each vaccine. Sputnik V also has a single-dose vaccine named Sputnik V Lite and the jab by Johnson & Johnson is a single-dose vaccine too.

Jul 12, 2021

UP CM Yogi Adityanath Unveils new Population Policy

The Uttar Pradesh government released the new population policy for 2021-2030 on the occasion of World Population Day. In the new population policy, a target has been set to bring the birth rate to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030.
The state's total fertility rate is 2.7 percent currently.
While unveiling the policy at the inauguration event, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that there should be a gap between two children in order to control the population in the state.
The unveiling of the policy comes days after a draft of the population control bill was put up on the state law commission website.
He further said that an increasing population was a 'hurdle in development' and that more efforts are needed to control it.
"Across the world, from time to time, concerns have been expressed that increasing population can be a hurdle in development, and for the past four decades discussions on it are going on. Population growth is also related to poverty. Every community has been taken care of in Population Policy 2021-2030," Adityanath said.

Cuba develops the World's first Conjugate Vaccine for COVID-19

Cuba's State-run corporation, BioFarma, said that its indigenously produced Soberana 2 vaccine was 91.2% efficacious in phase-3 trials. This follows closely on an announcement that another of its vaccines, Abdala, had reported an efficacy of 92.8% in late stage trials.
The greater-than-90% efficacy puts them in a select league; however, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines that had reported an efficacy of over 90%, both the Soberana and Abdala are three-shot vaccines.
Both are subunit vaccines, meaning that a part of the virus forms the antigen and is hitched on to another construct. In Abdala the spike protein of the coronavirus is combined with a chemically manufactured adjuvant, whereas in Soberana 2, the spike protein is chemically linked to the tetanus toxoid, making it a conjugate vaccine. The design and manufacturing allows the vaccine to be stored in regular refrigeration settings of 2–8 degree Celsius.

Jul 11, 2021

Zaila Avant-garde Becomes First African-American to Win Spelling Bee

Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling Murraya, a genus of plants, becoming the first African American to win the 90-year-old competition, which was cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Also an accomplished basketball player who holds several Guinness World Records for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time, Avant-garde, from New Orleans, is the first Black contestant to win since Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Maxwell was also the first winner from outside the United States.

IIT Madras and Sony India to Host National-level Hackathon

The IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation (IITM-PTF) is collaborating with Sony India Software Centre Pvt. Ltd. to conduct a National hackathon called 'SAMVEDAN 2021 – Sensing Solutions for Bharat' to inspire citizens to solve India-specific problems of societal interest using IoT sensor board.
Registration has already commenced on July 1, 2021 for this challenge, which is open to all Indian nationals residing in India.
The challenge will be held in three stages quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. A total of 75 ideas will be selected for the quarter-finals, and among them, 25 best ideas will be selected for the semi-finals. There will be seven finalists with prizes for every finalist. Prizes worth 3 Lakhs will be awarded to the best teams.

Jul 10, 2021

Ladakh University Introduces NCC as General Elective Course

NCC Directorate Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh, in its relentless efforts, achieved another milestone in the incorporation of NCC as General Elective Credit Course under the Choice Based Credit System in all constituent colleges of the University of Ladakh get final go-ahead of the Vice-Chancellor Chewang Phunchok.
The notification on the subject issued by the University of Ladakh on July 07, 2021, is based on the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission.
As had been earlier informed that NCC as a Credit Course is designed with an intent to transform NCC training into a curricular activity from an extracurricular activity, thereby providing academic credits to students undergoing NCC training.

IGNOU Launches Certificate Course in Sanskrit

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) School of Humanities today launched the certificate course in Communicative Sanskrit (SSB) from the July 2021 session, through open and distance mode. Interested candidates may apply for the course at the admission portal ignouadmission.samarth.edu.in. The last date to submit the online application form is July 15.
This course aims to improve the linguistic skills of students and enable them to converse in Sanksrit. The course will be conducted for a period of six months.

Jul 09, 2021

NIIT, Axis Bank Partner Launch Digital Banking Academy

NIIT Institute of Finance Banking and Insurance (NIIT IFBI) and Axis Bank have launched a fintech professional programme to build future-ready professionals for the private sector lender.
The programme offers graduates with zero to three years of experience an opportunity to join Axis Bank as a deputy manager (IT). NIIT said the programme is immersive in nature where the learners perform tasks of similar complexity as they would face in their role.
NIIT Ltd is a global skills and talent development company, and a leading provider of managed training services.
Axis Bank is the third-largest private sector bank in India offering an entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering large and mid-corporates, SME, agriculture and retail businesses.

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