General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - January 2019

Jan 2019

Jul 12, 2020

IIT-Madras Launches 'Young Research Fellow' Programme for UG Students

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras launched 'Young Research Fellow' (YRF) programme in the lines of 'Super-UROP' programme at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Any third-year undergraduate and dual degree students of IIT-Madras or other institutes can apply for this programme.
This is a year-long programme and up to 20 fellowships are being planned to be awarded in the first year. The programme will encourage multi-disciplinary projects. It offers one-on-one interaction with the IIT faculty members, to participate in research and offer a 'career and life coaching' (CLIC) programme offered by the 1979 alumni and curated by expert professional coaches.
The students selected into the programme will be paid a monthly honorarium, provided research guidance by IIT-M faculty, and will participate in an interactive lecture series on research skills. They can also avail of mentorship by the alumni batch of 1979. "The Young Research Fellows will be strongly encouraged to publish their findings in reputed peer-reviewed international journals and to present their work at high-quality international conferences for which they will receive travel support," the IIT-Madras said in an official statement.

Jul 11, 2020

China Warns of 'Unknown Pneumonia' Deadlier than Covid-19 in Kazakhstan

China has warned its citizens living in Kazakhstan of a local unknown pneumonia, which it said, has a "much higher" fatality rate than the Covid-19 disease.
The Chinese embassy in the central Asian country said that the unknown pneumonia in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone, the fatalities also included Chinese citizens.
Many organisations including Kazakhstan's health department are studying the "virus of this pneumonia.
There has not been any indication whether this disease is related to the Covid-19.
Some Chinese experts said that measures should be taken to prevent the pneumonia from spreading into China.

Jul 09, 2020

Harvard and MIT Sue US Govt. on Foreign Student Visa Plan

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit against the US government agencies that proposed new visa rules for international students that could hit thousands from India.
The Trump administration sought to soften the impact of its controversial order, calling it only a temporary measure and that it was meant to force these institutions to reopen fully from the Covid-19 lockdowns. In the lawsuit filed in a Boston court, the two universities sought a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to bar the department of homeland security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from implementing the proposed order that will force foreign students of institutions offering online-only classes for the upcoming fall semester to leave the country.
Harvard would be directly impacted by the order as it had announced plans to hold online classes for the fall semester just hours before ICE issued the guidelines.

Jul 08, 2020

ICMR-NIV in Collaboration with Bharat Biotech Develops India's First COVID-19 Vaccine

Bharat Biotech India Ltd (BBIL) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV) developed India's first COVID-19 vaccine – Covaxin (BBV152 COVID vaccine). The vaccine is developed and manufactured by the BSL-3(Bio Safety Level- 3) high containment facility of BBIL.
The inactivated vaccine (vaccine developed using particles of killed virus) was developed using the strains of SARS-CoV-2 which was isolated by ICMR-NIC.
The vaccine was approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for Phase 1 and Phase 2 trial on 29th June 2020
The vaccine is set to be launched for public use on 15th August 2020, Independence Day.

CBSE Drops Key Chapters from Class IX-XII Syllabi

Full chapters on democratic rights, challenges to democracy, gender, religion, caste and secularism stand dropped from the syllabi for CBSE class IX to XII this year.
The rationalisation of subject matter to make up for academic loss has also seen chapters on Five-Year Plans and India's relations with its neighbours deleted from the course book for academic year 2020-2021.
An analysis of 30 per cent syllabi rationalisation by the CBSE for higher classes shows that class XI students will no longer have to study the crucial and controversial topics of "citizenship", "nationalism" and "secularism" under the broad subject of political theory in political science.
Deleted portions from political science for class XII include Planning Commission and Five-Year Plans under the head "Planned Development"; India's relations with neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar under topic "India's Foreign Policy"; and a chapter on social movements and regional aspirations. Likewise, for class X, chapters deleted from political science syllabus include democracy and diversity, gender, religion and caste and popular struggles and movements and challenges to democracy. Class IX students need not study chapters on democratic rights and food security in India. For class XII students, an important chapter deleted is understanding Partition.

US: Foreign Students Whose Classes Move Online Must Leave

Foreign students in the US, hundreds of thousands of them Indians, will be forced to fly out of the country if all their classes are taught online because of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) restrictions, a government body in the country has said, triggering alarm among students over an uncertain future and criticism from politicians on the "cruelty" of the move.
India sent the largest number of students (251,290) to the US after China (478,732) in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) 'SEVIS by the Numbers Report'. The number of students from India increased in the next academic year by 4,157. It wasn't immediately clear how many student visa holders will be affected by the move.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said that it will not allow holders of student visas to remain in the country if their school is fully online for the fall. Those students must transfer to another school with in-person instruction.
As per ICE, non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.

Jul 07, 2020

IIT-Roorkee to Offer Artificial Intelligence in Banking Programme

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee will soon launch what it claims to be the first-ever course in India on 'AI in the banking programme'. The course is being offered in collaboration with WileyNXT, a learning solution platform. The four-month programme will focus on training IT professionals and graduates to implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the banking sector.
Top business leaders from the industry will be taking the classes under the programme. The aim of the course is to make the learner understand the role of AI in banking and financial domains. On completion of the course, learners will be offered a joint certification from WileyNXT and IIT-Roorkee.

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