TELANGANA

Telangana at bottom in south with lowest number of NAAC-accredited colleges

Telangana has the lowest number of colleges — 168 — in south India accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). This comes as a dampener at a time when the higher education department is encouraging colleges to seek accreditation and autonomous status for the ensuing academic year.

NAAC accreditation is a must to be eligible for several central government schemes, projects, funding under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan for seeking autonomy and getting approval for running courses. NAAC inspects colleges to determine the quality of education on basis of which it accredits and ranks higher educational institutions.

Though Telangana boasts of having the highest number of colleges for per lakh population, over 90 per cent are yet to seek accreditation. Ironically, southern states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have second and third highest number of accredited colleges in the country at 642 and 506 respectively. Even Andhra Pradesh (242) and Kerala (210) have higher number of NAAC-accredited colleges.

Figures from the NAAC state that 286 colleges from Telangana have applied for the accreditation so far and are in the fray to secure grades and ranks.

INTERNATIONAL

International Mother Language Day: 21 February

International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21st February.

The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world.

It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Since then it is being celebrated every year.

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh the 21 February is the anniversary of the day when Bangladeshis fought for recognition for the Bangla language.

Saudi Arabia joins International Solar Alliance

Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to become the 73rd member of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

The organisation now has a total of 122 member countries.

The signing of the agreement took place after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who arrived on a state visit to India.

NATIONAL

Operation Digital Board launched to provide better digital education

Government has launched Operation Digital Board on the lines of Operation Blackboard to provide better digital education in schools.
Under the initiative seven lakh classrooms of 9th, 10th and 11th standards and two lakh classrooms of colleges and Universities will be equipped with digital boards in the next three years.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said that it will convert the monologue classrooms into interactive ones.

It will also improve the quality of education and offer new opportunities and new ways of teaching and learning.

OFB gets clearance for producing 114 long-range artillery gun ‘Dhanush’

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has received a bulk production clearance from the Indian Army and the Defence Ministry for production of 114 ‘Dhanush’ artillery guns.

‘Dhanush’ is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced in India.

It is a major success story of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

It is the product of efforts by the OFB and the Army with various contributions.

Government relaxes Angel Tax Norms for Start-ups

The Union government has liberalised angel tax rules, exempting registered start-ups of a specified size from the tax.

Investments of up to Rs. 25 crore in an eligible company will be exempt from the angel tax.

In addition, investments made by a listed company with a networth of at least Rs. 100 crore or a turnover of at least Rs. 250 crore will also be exempt.

Also an entity shall be considered a startup upto 10 years from its date of incorporation / registration instead of the existing period of 7 years.

· Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, launched SWAYATT in New Delhi

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation launched SWAYATT in New Delhi.
SWAYATT-an initiative to encourage Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
It aims at creating a conducive atmosphere for interaction between key stakeholders within our entrepreneurial ecosystem and Government e-Marketplace which is the national procurement portal.
A Startup Runway which is an initiative under the collaboration of GeM with Startup India, established to provide help to start-ups, registered with Startup India so that it can gain access to the public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers.

· PM Modi inaugurated supercomputer ‘PARAM Shivay’ at IIT-BHU

Supercomputer named ‘PARAM Shivay‘ of 833 teraflop capacity is built for ₹32.5 crore, at IIT-Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
It will include 1 peta byte secondary storage.
It was built under the ₹4,500-croreNational Supercomputing Mission (NSM), under which 73 supercomputers would be installed.
India’s first supercomputer called PARAM 8000was launched in 1991.

· Kerala Police inducts India’s first humanoid robot officer

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inducted India’s first humanoid robot ‘KP-BOT‘, gendered female, into the Kerala Police force at the rank of Sub-Inspector (SI).
It’ll receive the visitors & direct them to different places according to their needs.

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