General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - December 2018

Dec 2018

Nov 18, 2020

Srinagar Administration to Upgrade Govt-run Schools into Smart Schools

The Srinagar district administration has decided on an ambitious project of turning 180 government-run schools into smart schools by equipping them with modern technology and learning tools. The main objective of the project is to improve the quality and learning outcome of public schools and bring them to par with private schools.
A dedicated team has been constituted for the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the project, to be completed within six months for Rs. 6 crore, they added.
The administration will upgrade the infrastructure of the schools and will improve the learning outcome through a range of interventions.
Under the project, the administration will make interventions including the refurbishing of buildings, upgrading of furniture and equipment, round-the-clock power and water supplies, and establishment of libraries, science laboratories, IT labs, and smart classes.

WHO Launches Strategy to Eliminate Cervical Cancer

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer, aiming to reduce more than 40% of new cases and 5 million related deaths by 2050 with vaccination, screening and treatment.
For the first time, 194 countries, including India, have committed to eliminating the cancer following adoption of a resolution at this year's World Health Assembly. The WHO said that by 2030 the countries should achieve a target of 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by 15 years of age, 70% of women screened using a high-performance test by age 35 and again by 45 and 90% of women identified with cervical disease receive treatment (90% of women with pre-cancer treated and 90% of women with invasive cancer managed).
The strategy also stresses that investing in the interventions to meet these targets can generate substantial economic and societal returns.

Nov 17, 2020

Germany Climbs up Preference List for International Education

The pecking order of international education providers is changing. The United States continues to be the largest host country for students wanting to pursue a foreign degree, followed by the UK and China. But with students broadening their options, Germany has gained popularity and has climbed up one notch to occupy the fourth spot, upstaging France.
Fresh data released from the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, shows that China and India are the most popular source countries for international students coming to Germany, making up around 13% and 7% of the international pool respectively. With that, Germany has gone ahead of France.
The most significant countries of origin for international students coming to Germany in 2019 were China, with around 40,000 students, followed by India (20,600), Syria (13,000), Austria (11,500) and Russia (10,500).

Nov 16, 2020

Arunachal Records Best Sex Ratio, Manipur the Worst

Arunachal Pradesh recorded the best sex ratio in the country while Manipur recorded the worst sex ratio, according to the 2018 report on "vital statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System".
Arunachal Pradesh recorded 1,084 females born per thousand males, followed by Nagaland (965) Mizoram (964), Kerala (963) and Karnataka (957). The worst was reported in Manipur (757), Lakshadweep (839) and Daman & Diu (877), Punjab (896) and Gujarat (896).
Delhi recorded a sex ratio of 929, Haryana 914 and Jammu and Kashmir 952.
The ratio was determined on the basis of data provided by 30 States and Union Territories as the "requisite information from six States namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal is not available," said the report published by the Registrar General of India.

Nov 15, 2020

EU Seeks Powers to Declare Health Emergencies

The European Commission proposed rules which would give the EU the power to declare a health emergency and stress test national plans to tackle pandemics, in a potential blow to the World Health Organization.
The move follows an often uncoordinated reaction by the 27 EU governments to the COVID-19 pandemic, which at the beginning of the crisis led to competition on vital medical gear and export bans on medicines.
It also comes after the WHO was criticised for having declared the pandemic, which first emerged in China at the end of last year, too late. The U.N. agency has repeatedly denied the accusation.
Under the proposals, the EU would be able to declare an EU-level public health emergency, which would, in turn, trigger more coordination among EU states.
Currently, the EU relies on the WHO to declare such an emergency.
The new rules will enable the activation of EU emergency response mechanisms without making it contingent upon the WHO`s own declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Bande Utkala Janani to be Part of School Curriculum

Odisha's state song 'Bande Utkala Janani' will be part of the school curriculum for students of class 9 and 10. A notification in this regard was issued after the proposal was approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
As per the notification, 'Bande Utkala Janani' written by legendary poet Lakhmikanta Mohapatra will be part of the school curriculum in class 9 and 10.
Earlier this year, the Odisha government had accorded the state song status to the 'Bande Utkala Janani'.

Kolkata to Start First of its Kind Young Readers' Tramcar Library

A young readers' tramcar library, which will be giving free access to books to all the children to motivate them to read and learn, began covering its route in Kolkata on the occasion of Children's Day 2020.
The Apeejay Anand Children's Library has teamed up with the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC), which runs the country's only functional tramways, to launch the "Kolkata Young Readers' Tramcar", which gives free books to the city's children.
The Oxford Bookstore is also participating in this initiative by curating a unique selection of titles and literature for various young reading age groups for the tramcar library.
The library on wheels has been decorated with attractive artworks of children reading, hand-painted by local artists. Priti Paul, director of Apeejay Surrendra Group, which has partnered with WBTC in this novel venture, said that it will perhaps be the very first children's library on a tramcar anywhere in the world, with free access to all children.

Nov 14, 2020

IIT Madras Conducts First Ever Online Orientation for Students

Indian Institute of Technology Madras conducted an orientation session for the new batch of students for the academic year 2020-21 in online mode for the first time. Parents also attended the event organised to welcome the first-year students of BTech, Dual Degree, and MA.
The Academic year for the incoming students will commence on Monday, November 16, 2020. A total of 938 BTech students,175 Dual Degree Students, and 52 MA Students have been admitted for the Academic Year 2020-21.
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said that we have one of the most flexible academic curriculum in the system in India and anywhere in the world. In all programs and all departments, at least 40 per cent of your courses are electives, and half of these courses, you can opt for any elective in the Institute. The rest of the electives will have some restrictions but students will still get to choose.
These MTech. courses are in several new, emerging, and interesting interdisciplinary areas such as data science, robotics, computational engineering, quantum science and technology, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology and energy systems, among other areas. More and more such programs are being created by IIT Madras faculty and will be offered in the years to come.

Seven New UG, PG Programmes By Indian Railways' Institute

The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI) in Vadodara launched seven new programmes at the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) level. The programmes consist of two at the undergraduate level (BTech) and five at the postgraduate level (2 MBA and 3 MSc).
According to the Ministry of Railways, the BTech programmes are focused on rail infrastructure, rail systems and communications engineering, while the MBA programmes are focused on transportation and supply chain management. The MSc programmes are focused on systems engineering and integration, systems and analytics, policy and economics.
Also, the MSc programme on Systems Engineering and Integration is offered in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, and the students will get international exposure.

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