Targets of Global Education

Targets of Global Education

The Government is committed to provide equitable access to quality education to all sections of the society. Having nearly reached the goals/targets of universalizing elementary education, and making substantial gains in expanding access to secondary and higher education, the focus is on improving the quality of education at all levels so as to realize India’s human resource potential to its fullest. Presently, the Government is in the process of formulating a New Education Policy to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regard to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry.
Further, several initiatives are currently being undertaken to enhance the quality of education across the spectrum. In elementary education, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme harmonized with Right to Education (RTE) aims for improvements in school infrastructure and also improving learning outcomes. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), ICT in Schools, Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE), Shaala Siddhi, Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan are being implemented to improve the quality of secondary education. In higher education also, various schemes ,namely, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), Global Initiative for Academics Network (GIAN), Impacting Research, Innovation & Technology (IMPRINT), Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme(TEQIP), Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT), Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), National Digital Library, campus connect programme, Uchhatar Avishkar Abhiyan, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan are being implemented to improve the quality of higher education. To promote objective assessment of performance annually, Government has launched the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in September 2015. A number of initiatives are also undertaken by UGC and AICTE for quality improvement in higher and technical education.

Exercise EKUVERIN – 2016

Opening Ceremony: Indo- Maldives Joint Military Exercise Commences in Maldives

A 14 days joint training exercise of the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Force commenced today with the Opening Ceremony at Kadhdhoo, Lammu Atoll in Maldives.
The training contingents comprised of a platoon strength from BIHAR Regiment and a similar strength of the Maldivian National Defence Force. Senior military observers of both the countries will be witnessing the validation phase of the Exercise.
Exercise EKUVERIN – 2016 will be the seventh edition of Joint Exercise and is in continuation of a series of joint Exercises between the Indian Army and Maldivian National Defence Force. The previous edition of the Exercise was held at Trivandrum, India in 2015.
The aim of the Joint Exercise is to acquaint both forces with each other’s operating procedures in the backdrop of amphibious and counter insurgency/ Counter terrorism environment as also to enhance the existing military relationship between the Indian Army and the Maldivian National Defence Force.
The Indian Army contingent had landed at Male International Airport on 14 Dec 2016 on a C-130 military aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The exercise aims to enhance the interoperability between the Indian Army and Maldivian National Defence Forces in conducting joint operations and cement bonds of friendship between the two countries.

Satellites Designed for Benefit of Farmers

Satellites Designed for Benefit of Farmers

The satellite-enabled services in conjunction with ground data, to support farmers in India include weather forecasting, agro-advisory, agromet services, soil moisture and agricultural extension activities to support farming operations in the country by India Meteorology Department (IMD), Ministry of Earth Sciences. Also, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) collaborates with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on various applications using satellite data and geospatial technology in agriculture sector, which include – (i) horticultural crop inventory and site suitability for expansion in under-utilised areas, (ii) crop assessment using medium and high resolution satellite data, (iii) field data collection with field photos using mobile App, (iv) crop cutting experiments based on satellite derived crop vigor information. Earlier, ISRO had transferred the technology to Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmer’s Welfare for (i) Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL) and (ii) National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) and internalised the monitoring of irrigation infrastructure at Central Water Commission.

The satellites designed by ISRO, which are currently in operation, to support these services and applications, include Resourcesat-2, Resourcesat-2A, RISAT-1, Cartosat-1, Kalpana-1, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR.

The details of their launching, cost incurred towards building these satellites, along with objectives are given below:

SN	Satellite (Launch Vehicle)	Launch date	Cost incurred (in  Crores)	Objectives
1.	Resourcesat-2 (PSLV-C16)	20.04.2011	138.71	To provide multispectral images for inventory and management of natural resources, Crop production forecast, wasteland inventory, Land & Water Resources development, and Disaster Management Support.
2.	Resourcesat-2A (PSLV-C36)	07.12.2016	106.11
3.	Cartosat-1 (PSLV-C6)	05.05.2005	248.49	To provide high resolution images for Cartographic mapping, Stereo data for Topographic Mapping & DEM, and host of DEM Applications – Contour, Drainage network, etc.
4.	RISAT-1 (PSLV-C19)	26.04.2012	375.38	To provide all weather imaging capability useful for agriculture, particularly paddy and jute monitoring in kharif season and management of natural disasters.
5.	Kalpana-1 (PSLV-C4)	12.09.2002	71.30	To provide meteorological data to enable weather forecasting services.
6.	INSAT-3D (Procured launch)	26.07.2013	206.00	Designed for enhanced meteorological observations, including vertical profile of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and humidity for improved weather forecasting and disaster warning.
7.	INSAT-3DR (GSLV-F05)	08.09.2016	116.38

The data and value added products derived from these satellites have benefitted the concerned user ministries/ departments in Natural Resources Inventory & Monitoring, crop assessment, wasteland inventory, topographic Mapping & DEM, land & water resources development, weather forecasting and Disaster Management Support. These applications are useful to the decision makers to adopt suitable interventions for planning and management of various activities in agriculture sector.

Joint Venture by NPCIL for Production of Electricity

Joint Venture by NPCIL for Production of Electricity

At present, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is the sole agency producing electricity from nuclear power in the country. However, another company, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI) is also authorised to generate electricity from nuclear power.
The Government has brought about amendments in the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to enable Joint Ventures (JVs) of NPCIL & Public Sector companies to set up nuclear power projects. The main objective of enabling the JVs is to achieve expansion of nuclear power capacity in the country. So far, three joint venture companies – Anushakti Vidhyut Nigam Limited (NPCIL-NTPC Ltd.), NPCIL-Indian Oil Nuclear Energy Corporation Limited (NPCIL-IOCL) and NPCIL-Nalco Power Company Limited (NPCIL- NALCO) have been incorporated. Exploratory discussions have also been held with other Public Sector companies and Indian Railways in this regard.
The quantity of electricity produced in the year 2015-16 was 37456 Million Units (MUs) and has been 25803 MUs during the current financial year (2016-17) upto November 2016, including 425 MUs of infirm (non-commercial) power from Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP – Unit 2). In the last ten years, share of NPCIL’s generation was around 3% of the total electricity generation in the country.

MPPCS-2017 PRELIMS EXAM ON 10TH FEB2017

UKPCS-2016 Prelims on : 29th January 2017

UKPCS-2016 Prelims on : 29th January 2017
http://www.ukpsc.gov.in/files/scan0004_9.pdf

Scientists discover hot hydrogen atoms in Earth’s atmosphere

Scientists say hydrogen atoms are very light and can easily escape a planet’s gravitational force and because of this,Mars lost majority of its water

Hydrogen atoms play a critical role in the physics governing the Earth’s upper atmosphere and also serve as an important shield for societies’ technological assets, such as the numerous satellites in low earth orbit, against the harsh space environment

Researchers have discovered the existence of hot hydrogen atoms in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere known as the thermosphere. This finding significantly changes current understanding of the hydrogen distribution and its interaction with other atmospheric constituents, researchers said.

Since hydrogen atoms are very light, they can easily overcome a planet’s gravitational force and permanently escape into interplanetary space. The ongoing atmospheric escape of hydrogen atoms is one reason why Earth’s sister planet, Mars, has lost the majority of its water, researchers said.
Hydrogen atoms play a critical role in the physics governing the Earth’s upper atmosphere and also serve as an important shield for societies’ technological assets, such as the numerous satellites in low earth orbit, against the harsh space environment.
“Hot hydrogen atoms had been theorised to exist at very high altitudes, above several thousand kilometres, but our discovery that they exist as low as 250 kilometres was truly surprising,” said Lara Waldrop, assistant professor from University of Illinois’ Coordinated Science Laboratory in the US.
“This result suggests that current atmospheric models are missing some key physics that impacts many different studies, ranging from atmospheric escape to the thermal structure of the upper atmosphere,” said Waldrop.
The discovery was enabled by the development of new numerical techniques and their application to years’ worth of remote sensing measurements acquired by Nasa’s Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite.
“Classical assumptions about upper atmospheric physics did not allow for the presence of hot hydrogen atoms at these heights,” said Dr Jianqi Qin, research scientist at Coordinated Science Laboratory. “Once we changed our approach to avoid this unphysical assumption, we were able to correctly interpret the data for the first time,” Qin said.
Atomic hydrogen efficiently scatters ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun, and the amount of scattered light sensitively depends on the amount of hydrogen atoms that are present in the atmosphere. As a result, remote observations of the scattered hydrogen emission, such as those made by Nasa’s TIMED satellite, can be used to probe the abundance and spatial distribution of this key atmospheric constituent.
In order to extract information about the upper atmosphere from such measurements, one needs to calculate exactly how the solar photons are scattered, which falls into Qin’s unique expertise.
The researchers developed a model of the radiative transfer of the scattered emission along with a new analysis technique that incorporated a transition region between the lower and upper extents of the hydrogen distribution.