General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - January 2019

Jan 2019

Mar 19, 2020

IIT Hyderabad Creates a Sanitiser to Fight Coronavirus

As cities across India face a shortage of sanitisers and disinfectants due to hoarding and panic, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad developed their own hand-sanitiser. The institute claims the product is in line with standards recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a federal health agency in the US.
The IIT researchers will make the hand-sanitiser available for the use of staff and students in the institute as well as the neighbouring community.

Roche Diagnostics India's First Private Firm Gets Coronavirus Test Approval

Swiss firm Roche Diagnostics India received the license for conducting coronavirus tests after approval from drug regulator DCGI, making it the first private firm to get such permission after the government decided to allow accredited private labs to test for COVID-19.
As per reports, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is now assessing giving license to another private diagnostic firm, bioMérieux, which has also sought approval to conduct tests for coronavirus.
Two Indian diagnostic companies– Trivitron Healthcare and Mylab Discovery Solution– have also sought approval from the DCGI for the coronavirus testing kits developed by them.
The Union health ministry had issued guidelines for private sector laboratories intending to initiate COVID-19 testing while appealing them to conduct the tests free of cost.

HRD Ministry to Launch e-classes on Swayam Prabha DTH Channels

The Ministry of Human Resource Development will launch e-classes on Swayam Prabha DTH channels for school students in view of coronavirus outbreak, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ''Nishank'' said.
Time-slots of 4 hours daily has been approved on Swayam Prabha DTH channels for selected states.

Mar 18, 2020

E-learning Platforms Step in

With the Coronavirus outbreak gaining steam in India, governments around the country are shutting down schools and colleges to prevent mass gatherings. To prevent the educational year from breaking down, e-learning platforms are stepping in with their services. To be clear, the pandemic also gives the platforms a chance to market themselves and find prospective customers.
Coursera, one of the largest e-learning platforms in the world, has announced that its Coursera for Campus platform will be made available for free to any university so students can "continue to learn on the platform". The platform is free to universities till July 31 this year and Coursera plans to provide month-to-month extensions "depending on prevailing risk assessments" after that.
Similarly, homegrown Byju's has announced that its complete app is going to be free for school students till the end of April. Another platform called Toppr has said its content is available to all students for free unconditionally.

Mar 17, 2020

Extramarks Learning App Launches Go-To-School Campaign

Extramarks, the leading global education technology company, launched the 'Go-To-School' campaign. This campaign will give all students full and free access to the entire Extramarks - The Learning App until April 30, 2020, and to JEE and NEET crash courses, starting March 20 and 23 respectively.
Extramarks has given free access of all our learning apps to students till April 30, and of our technology platform to schools so that they can conduct online classes, under the Go-To School campaign.

JNU Renames Campus Road

Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) raised objections after a road on the campus was named after Hindu leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
JNU students' union president Aishe Ghosh said that it was a shameful move.
The decision to rename the road was taken in the 283rd Executive Council meeting held in November 2019.

US Begins First Human Trial of Coronavirus Vaccine

Supported by a global coalition founded by India and Norway, the US has begun the phase one clinical trial of an investigational vaccine designed to protect against the coronavirus disease which has claimed the lives of over 7,000 people globally.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is funding the trial. The open-label trial will enroll 45 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 years over approximately six weeks.
According to the NIH, the study is evaluating different doses of the experimental vaccine for safety and its ability to induce an immune response in participants. This is the first of multiple steps in the clinical trial process for evaluating the potential benefit of the vaccine.
The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by the NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mar 15, 2020

IIT Madras, Delhi, Mumbai Lead Race for Patents in 2019-20

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras emerged as the country's leading technical institution in creating new knowledge, as 186 patents were filed in the academic year 2019-20. The IITs of Delhi and Mumbai are ranked next, with 152 and 135 patents, respectively.
IIT-Kanpur has increased its tally of patents from 47 in 2018-19 to 78 in 2019-20. The number of patents registered at IIT in Roorkee and Guwahati was 42 and 26, respectively. While the older and established IITs have been improving their patents score,the newer ones are lagging behind.
The IITs at Mandi and Ropar, which are comparatively much younger institutions, registered five and seven patents, respectively, but did better than many other peers.
Top policymakers in the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry are examining the latest data to find ways in which research and innovation in the country's best technical institutions can receive a boost.

Mar 12, 2020

Top US Universities Move Classes Online

Major American universities — including Harvard, Princeton and Columbia — have been forced to cancel classes because of the coronavirus and move lessons online, affecting tens of thousands of students. The US government refrained from imposing an official ban so the often privately run institutions are each grappling with how best to deal with the fast-moving outbreak.
Ahead of the start of spring break at the end of this week, Harvard announced it would transition to having all classes online.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26