Govt launches Green Highways Policy
Aims at planting trees along 6,000 km of highways in the first year
The government launched its Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy 2015 on 29th September, the aim of which is to help the environment, help local communities, and generate employment by planting trees along all the highways in the country. The target for the first year is to plant trees along 6,000 km of highways.
The vision of the policy is “to develop eco-friendly National Highways with the participation of the community, farmers, NGOs, private sector, institutions, government agencies and the Forest Department for economic growth and development in a sustainable manner”, according to the policy document.
HRD Ministry calls off global education meet
The first international summit on education, which was announced with much fanfare by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, has been shelved.
The event that was expected to have ministers and in-charges of education from 180 countries as participants was scheduled to take place in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in November. It was expected that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the event at Mahatma Mandir.
While the Ministry officials were tight-lipped about the reasons for calling off the event, sources said the Patidar agitation and poor response from some of the invitees contributed to its scrapping.
The Patidar (Patel) community has been agitating for reservation under the OBC category in Gujarat.
India to rank its higher centres of learning
The system will be in place by the first week of April 2016
On the first Monday of April 2016, India will have its own ranking system--the National Institutional Ranking Framework-- for higher educational institutions that will cover all institutes offering courses in management, engineering, law, and humanities.
The ranking system, tailored for the Indian institutions that are otherwise placed far too low on the global ranking lists, will mark institutions on the basis of five major parameters, which include teaching, learning resources; research, consulting, collaborative performance; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity and perception. There will be subheads under each of these five categories to rank the institutions, for instance under the teaching, learning and resources head, institutes will be graded on the basis of faculty-student ratio, faculty with Ph.D and experience, laboratory, sports and extra curricular facilities.
Released by Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday, the framework takes into account aspects of education that are India-centric, for instance, inclusive education through reservation, research in languages other than English and upcoming private institutions.
A core committee that included National Board of Accreditation Chairman Surendra Prasad, IIT-Kharagpur director P.P. Chakraborty, IIT-Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi, besides the Higher Education Secretary and HRD Ministry officials have drafted the framework. The methodology of ranking is open to all Indian institutions that wish to be part of the system, but is not mandatory; it is also aimed at empowering the institutions to compete for international ranking systems like QS and Times.
Jayant Prasad is IDSA Director-General
In a significant move for policy circles, former ambassador Jayant Prasad has been appointed the next Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), the prestigious New Delhi-based think tank on strategic affairs.
In his long and distinguished career that he began by specialising on the South Asian neighbourhood, Mr. Prasad most prominently served in Afghanistan as the Indian Ambassador during 2008-2010 and as Ambassador to Nepal during 2011-2013.
Mr. Prasad takes charge at a special moment in the history of IDSA as 2015 marks the fiftieth year of existence of the think tank.
RBI slashes key rates by 50 bps
Raghuram Rajan announces a downward revision in RBI's growth projection for the year to 7.4 per cent from the earlier 7.6 per cent.
Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 6.75 per cent, lowest since May 2011 and the repo rate by 50 basis points to 6.75 per cent.
In the fourth bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2015-16, Governor Raghuram Rajan also announced a downward revision, the second this year, in the Reserve Bank's growth projection for the yearâto 7.4 per cent from the earlier 7.6 per cent.
SBI cuts lending rate by 0.4%
Andhra Bank has also reduced its base rate by 0.25 per cent effective today.
Soon after reduction in repo rate by the Reserve Bank, country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday slashed minimum lending or base rate by 0.4 per cent to 9.3 per cent, setting the trend for benign interest rate regime.
With the reduction in the base rate, all loans, including home, auto and corporate, would become cheaper by at least 0.40 per cent.
The bank has decided to reduce the base rate by 0.40 per cent to 9.3 per cent with effect from October 5, SBI said in a statement.
China launches 20th satellite for its BeiDou Navigation system
China on 30th September successfully launched 20th new generation satellite which has among others a hydrogen atomic clock, moving a step closer to build its own Global Positioning System to compete with the US-operated GPS.
Launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the satellite was boosted by a Long March-3B carrier rocket, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
It was the 20th satellite for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and puts China one step closer to providing an alternative to the US-operated GPS, it said.
For the first time the satellite featured a hydrogen atomic clock. A series of tests related to the clock and a new navigation-signal system will be undertaken, according to a statement from the center.
Named after the Chinese term for the plough or the Big Dipper constellation, the Beidou project was formally launched in 1994, some 20 years after GPS.
Dhanush roped in as League brand ambassador for TN
Popular Tamil actor Dhanush was on 29th September roped in as brand ambassador of Hero Indian Super League football tournament's brand ambassador for Tamil Nadu.
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