General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - January 2019

Jan 2019

May 30, 2019

Cabinet Nod for Merger of School Directorates

The Cabinet gave its approval for merging the three school directorates in the general education sector.
The Directorate of Public Instruction, the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education, and the Directorate of Vocational Higher Secondary Education will be merged to form the Directorate of General Education as per the recommendations of the Khader committee set up to study school education. An IAS official will head the directorate.
The meeting decided to implement the committee's recommendation in phases. The first phase will be implemented this academic year.

May 29, 2019

TOEFL to Undergo Revamp

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is set to undergo a revamp from August with the duration shortened and scores mentioning the best sections of an individual's test if the exam is taken more than once.
The Educational Testing Services (ETS), known for conducting the global TOEFL and GRE tests, is working on making changes in the test in sync with the changing demands of the educational institutions.
The changes which will come in effect from August will provide a significantly better testing experience for students, while institutions can widen their pools of qualified applicants that meet their English language requirements.
The duration of the test will be shortened by 30 minutes and the number of questions in three sections, reading, listening and speaking, will be reduced.

May 28, 2019

Cutoff Relief for Students

Marks of students who have Modern Indian Languages (MILs) as one of their main subjects in class 12 will not be deducted when they enroll in undergraduate courses in Delhi University (DU) colleges in 2019.
The university has included all 21 MILs, mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution, in the list of academic subjects.
Till now, a few modern Indian languages such as Nepali, Assamese and Tamil, Malayalam, Odiya and Marathi were not mentioned in DU's academic subject list.
And thus, students would have a 2.5 % deduction in their aggregate marks when they included these languages in their "best of four" subjects.

All-woman Crew Flies Mi-17 Chopper

In yet another achievement by women officers, an all-woman crew flew a medium-lift helicopter for the first time in India.
The crew, comprising Flight Lieutenant Parul Bhardwaj (Captain), Flying Officer Aman Nidhi (co-pilot) and Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal (flight engineer), flew a Mi-17 V5 helicopter for a Battle Inoculation Training Mission, taking off and landing from restricted areas at a forward air base in the South Western Air Command.
Flight Lieutenant Bhardwaj hails from Mukerian in Punjab and is incidentally also the first woman pilot to fly the Mi-17 V5.
Flying Officer Nidhi hails from Ranchi and is also the first woman IAF pilot from Jharkhand while Flying Officer Jaiswal hails from Chandigarh and is the first woman Flight Engineer of the IAF.
The pilots had undergone basic flight training at the Helicopter Training School at Air Force Station, Hakimpet followed by advanced training at Air Force Station, Yelahanka.

India among Countries Where Women Face Most Violence

According to global estimates published by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1 in 3 (35%) women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
Worldwide as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. What makes this worse for countries like India is the fact that intimate partner violence is the highest at 37.7% in the WHO South-East Asia region.
As per figures released by WHO, the violence ranges from 23.2% in high-income countries and 24.6% in the WHO Western Pacific region to 37% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region.
WHO together with UN Women and other partners has developed a framework for prevention of violence against women called Respect which can be used by governments to counter this menace.

May 26, 2019

Women's Strength in Lok Sabha

At 78 elected women MPs, the 17th Lok Sabha would have the highest number of women representatives ever.
They would account for 14.4% of the entire strength of the Lower House, an increase from the 12.5% (65) women MPs in the last Lok Sabha.
This is for the first time in independent India that such a large number of women MPs are sitting in Parliament.
With 40 women MPs, the BJP has the largest number of elected women representatives among the parties because of the sheer size of its victory.
It is followed by Trinamool Congress (9), Congress (6), BJD (5) and the YSRCP (4), as per data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

May 25, 2019

First Pancreas Transplant in Mumbai

A 33-year-old woman suffering from diabetes and kidney failure became the first in Mumbai to undergo a kidney and pancreas transplant at Jupiter Hospital in Thane.
Her transplant became possible after the family of a 16-year-old boy, who was declared brain dead at MGM Hospital, consented to donate his pancreas along with heart, liver, kidneys, and corneas.

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