
- 15-year-old class IXth student, Wahengbam Lamnganba Singh, of Kumbi area in Manipur, has been selected by the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) for receiving National Bravery Award. He will be honoured because he had saved his two and half year's old cousin brother from drowning in a pond, on May 16, 2018. He would receive the award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. The National Bravery Awards are given under the aegis of the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) every Republic Day. These awards are broadly classified into five categories, including the Bharat Award, Sanjay Chopra Award, Geeta Chopra Award, Bapu Gaidhani Award and the General National Bravery Awards.
- The Ministry of Culture announced that Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) declared 6 monuments as 'protected and of national importance' under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, in 2018. These sites are: 125-year-old Old High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra, 2 Mughal era monuments in Agra- Haveli of Agha Khan and Hathi Khana, The Neemrana Baori in Alwar district of Rajasthan, The Group of Temples in Ranipur Jharail in Bolangir district of Odisha, The Vishnu Temple in Kotali, Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand. After this the total number of centrally protected sites or monuments under ASI are 3693, increasing from 3686. Among that, Uttar Pradesh has 745 sites, Karnataka has 506 and Tamil Nadu has 413 sites, marking them as the states having the highest number of ASI-maintained sites.
- To mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, there will be a special book exhibition of books on and by Mahatma Gandhi. Over 20 countries will participate in the fair. The 27th New Delhi World Book Fair has begun at Pragati Maidan. Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the 9-day annual event. The theme of this year is 'Readers with Special Needs'.
- The Indian Panorama Film Festival (IPFF) has started at Siri Fort Auditorium II, New Delhi from 4th January. The 10-day Festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B). The directors of the opening feature film 'Olu' and of the opening non-feature film 'Kharvas' viz. Shri Shaji N Karun and Shri Aditya Suhas Jambhale were presented at the inauguration of the fest. All the films selected under the Indian Panorama section in the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2018) will be screened during the Festival. The entry for the Festival is free and seating is on the first-come-first-served basis.
- Chhabilendra Roul has assumed the charge of Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers from 31 December 2018. He replaced Bharathi S. Sihag, who retired on 31 December 2018. He was the Special Secretary of Department of Agricultural Research and Education. He is an Indian Administrative Services Officer of 1985 batch, from Punjab Cadre.
- The Ministry of Human Resource Development constituted a Task Force to look into the reasons of suicides reported in the JNVs. The Task Force will be headed by Psychiatrist, Dr. Jitendra Nagpal. The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) are fully residential schools managed and run by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
- The Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018 that seeks to do away with the no-detention policy in schools. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, was moved in the Rajya-Sabha by Union minister for Human Resources Development Prakash Javadekar and was passed by a voice vote. It is already passed by the Lower House (Lok-Sabha) on July 18 2018. Under current provisions of the Section 16 of the Act, no student can be detained up to class 8th but as per the amendment, it would be left to the States to decide whether to continue the no-detention policy. 25 states have favoured abolishing the no-detention policy. The bill provides for regular examination in classes V and VIII. The MHRD Minister assured that no child will be excluded from school in case he or she fails and such children will be provided two-month remedial teaching to perform better in another examination to be conducted by their schools. If the students still do not pass the exam, the state government may decide to detain them.
- Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have developed a simple paper kit that can test freshness of milk and tell how well it has been pasteurized. The kit is sided with smart phone app to ensure that milk is consumed before it turns too sour. The team has prepared a kit by attaching probe discs onto a 2 cm square transparent cellulose acetate film. The probe is then covered with another cellulose acetate film. Colour reaction takes place when milk is injected through a tiny hole in the cover and a smart phone can be used to get the results. It takes just about 15 minutes to detect raw milk from pasteurized one.
|