General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - December 2018

Dec 2018

Oct 07, 2020

India is Becoming a Huge Market for Foreign Universities

Indian higher education presently is in a tryst with the invention, discoveries, and transformation all at once. As per the latest Census, 600 million youth under the age of 25 will be added to India's population by 2030. This will be making our nation one of the youngest in Asia. The preparation for turning this potential into an asset and boosting the economy is already happening. However, the advent of the pandemic has given it a historic turn, with a surge in online adoption, demand for skill-based courses for working professionals, a collaboration of foreign experts and teachers with Indian universities.
Plans of international students coming to India for securing the coveted degrees have been put on hold due to Covid and a similar situation prevails for Indian students keen on studying abroad. Giving the Indian institutions and universities an upper hand to tap on this disguised opportunity.
India has immense respect around the globe for its higher studies and reputed universities, like IIT's& IIM's Sundar Pichai - CEO of Google Inc, Satya Nadella - CEO of Microsoft, Ajaypal Singh Banga President & CEO of MasterCard, Rajeev Suri - CEO of Nokia, are some of the names that are products of the Indian education system and leading the world's most powerful organizations. To revitalize this respect, upskilling of teachers in English language and their ability to function with tech-enabled studying tools needs to be honed.
The NEP aims to attract top 100 QS World Ranking universities to establish their offshore campuses in India.

Harsh Vardhan Launches 'Ayush Standard Treatment Protocol'

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan launched the Ayush Standard Treatment Protocol.
The Union Health Minister launched the protocols at an event held via video conferencing and hailed the up-gradation of protocols by the AYUSH Ministry, which has been done in sync with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The modern systems of medicine have their own strengths, they have made available operations and medicines which have made people's lives better. But Ayurveda is an ancient science of our country, and probably the oldest knowledge base. Many say it's an offshoot of the Atharva Veda.

Free Course on Anti-racism and Allyship

Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) announced a free online course on anti-racism and allyship. The seven-day course is for students, young professionals, and educational fraternity across the nations "who care about racial equity and justice", the institute said in an official statement.
It covers racism in the US context, as well as themes designed to address the issue from a global perspective. The institute claims that the course aims to help learners move from understanding to reflection to taking new actions. The online course is self-paced, with the learner required to spend 45 minutes a day for either a week or up to several weeks. It will also provide learners with access to additional resources and tools for continuing the learning journey after the completion of the course.
Stanford offers several socially-impactful courses. It had earlier offered, 'An Evidence-Based Approach to the Diagnosis and Management of Migraines in Adults in the Primary Care and General Neurology Setting (CME)', Giving 2.0, health across the gender spectrum, international women's health and human rights among others.

Oct 06, 2020

NCERT and ISLRTC Sign MoU to Help Deaf Children Access Education Material

The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) and Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make the education material accessible to the deaf children.
Under the MoU, educational print materials, teachers' handbook, supplementary materials and NCERT Textbooks are to be converted into sign language in digital format. Apart from these other supplementary materials and all the other resources of Class I-XII of all subjects of both Hindi and English medium are to be converted.
The step is a part of the mandate of New Education Policy, 2020. The policy claimed to standardise Indian Sign Language. It will enhance the literary skills of the deaf children greatly.
The GoI has been taking several measures recently to help the deaf people. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment recently launched the second edition of Indian Sign Language Dictionary. The dictionary was developed by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre. IT includes 6000 words under categories such as legal, academic, medical, every day terms and technical. The dictionary is available in both video and printed formats.
According to census 2011, around 18.9% of the Indian population is deaf.

Oct 05, 2020

Government Schools Drawing More Students

According to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, five lakh new students have enrolled in government schools in Kerala in the last three years with the focus on upgrading them as "Centres of Excellence" with modern facilities. Though in the past there were discussions in society about closure of government schools, now these were being improved, resulting in them attracting more students.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was speaking after dedicating 90 schools as "Centres of Excellence" and laying the foundation stone virtually for 54 school buildings on Saturday as part of the government's Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign to protect the public education system in the state. He said that the government was implementing changes in the field of school education keeping in mind the next generation.

Schools in Delhi to Remain Closed Till October 31

All schools in the national capital will remain closed till October 31 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Delhi government had earlier extended the school closure till October 5, though the Centre had permitted calling students of classes 9 to 12 to schools on voluntary basis from September 21.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) has been directed to extend the ongoing closure of schools till Oct 31. Formal orders to this effect were issued by DoE.
In March 25, the central government announced a nationwide lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading. As per the latest unlock guidelines, schools, colleges and other educational institutions can reopen outside containment zones after October 15.
However, the decision on whether to reopen educational institutions has been left with states and union territories.

Oct 04, 2020

US Universities Woo Indian Students, Waive GRE

Universities went out of their way to convince students that US education remained the best even during a pandemic. To woo students, a majority of universities have waived the GRE for their programmes and many are offering remote learning options.
A representative of University of Michigan, Flint, said that our computer science program does not require GRE. For students who are apprehensive of travelling to the US, the university is offering a hybrid mode of studying. We also emphasise hands-on learning so there are lots of opportunities for internships and 100% of CS and engineering internships at UM-Flint is paid.

Oct 03, 2020

Marathi Compulsory in All Schools in Maharashtra

The state school education and sports department announced the formation of a committee to draft rules regarding the implementation of The Maharashtra Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Marathi Language in Schools Act, 2020.
The Act mandates compulsory teaching and learning of Marathi in all schools — government and private — from Class 1 to X across all mediums and boards in Maharashtra.
As per Section 16 (1) of the Act, which allows the state to frame rules for the law that came into being on April 1, the department has formed an eight-member committee to be headed by State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Dinkar Patil.
For 2020-21 academic year, Class I and Class VI students will be mandated to study Marathi, followed by Class II and Class VII in 2021-22, Class III and Class VIII in 2022-23, Class IV and Class IX in 2023-24 and Class V and Class X in 2024-25.

Reliance Develops R-Green Kit

Reliance Life Sciences has developed an real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kit. It claims to diagnose COVID-19 infection in about 2 hours. Presently, COVID-19 RT-PCR test takes up to 24 hours to give a diagnosis.
The kit has been developed by Computational biologists at Reliance Life Sciences a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd.
This kit is indigenous development of the R&D scientists working at the firm.
They analysed more than 100 genomes of SARS-CoV-2 sequenced in India in order to design RT-PCR primers for developing quantitative-Real Time PCR kit.
The kit has been technically validated by ICMR for satisfactory performance. It does not approve or disapprove the kit design as well as it does not certify user-friendliness.
The kit can detect the presence of E-gene, R-gene, RdRp gene of SARS COV2 virus with Actin as an internal control. According to the ICMR results, the kit is 98.7 % sensitive and 98.8 % specific. The diagnosis time of the kit is approximately 2 hours.

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