ASSAM
Assam bill to repeal madrassa education Act will be tabled this month
The state government will bring a bill to repeal the Assam Madrassas Education (provincialisation) Act of 1995 in the winter session of the assembly in the last week of the current month to pave the way for closing down all government-run madrassas and Arabic colleges.
The state cabinet cleared the decks for dissolving the State Madrassa Board from the next academic session and all their academic and administrative authority will be transferred to the Directorate of Secondary Education. Teachers, who are teaching theological courses in the madrassas, will be trained to teach general subjects.
At present, there are four Arabic colleges under the State Madrassa Board, 14 title madrassas, 138 senior madrassas and 230 pre-senior madrassas in Assam.
NORTH-EASTERN STATES
India International Cherry Blossom Festival in Shillong cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
India International Cherry Blossom Festival, the calendar event of Meghalaya which attracts record number of tourists annually in Shillong, has been cancelled this year in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
The capital, Shillong hosts the only Cherry Blossoms festival in India.
These beautiful flowers can be spotted across Meghalaya during this time of the year.
It is expected that the flowers will continue to bloom till the end of November.
The beautiful hill station Shillong in Meghalaya has turned pink with blooming cherry blossoms.
INTERNATIONAL
‘Swadhinata Sarak’ between Bangladesh and India will be opened on March 26 Next year
The ‘SwadhinataSarak’ between Bangladesh and India will be opened on 26 March next year.
The road remains functional on the Indian side while it will be connected through Mujibnagar, Meherpur district in Bangladesh.
The Chilahati-Haldirbari rail link which was active till 1965 will also be inaugurated during the summit meeting between the two Prime Ministers on December 17.
Bangladesh has invited Modi to visit Bangladesh on March 26 in person to jointly celebrate the Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the Indian government accepted the invitation in principle.
NATIONAL
Bharti Infratel gets RoC nod for change of name to Indus Towers
Bharti Infratel has received approval from the Registrar of Companies for changing its name to Indus Towers, following the recent merger of the two companies to create a mega tower entity.
The company has initiated due process for final approval from stock exchanges for updating the name change.
The merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers to create a mega tower company was completed last month.
The debt-ridden Vodafone Idea had received about Rs 3,760 crore cash for its 11.15 per cent holding in Indus Towers.
E-Courts Project – Funded By Department Of Justice
E-Courts Project is a Pan-India Project, supervised and funded by Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India for the District Courts across the country.
The e-Courts project is conceived based on the “National Policy and Action Plan for the Implementation of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) in Indian Judiciary-2005” submitted by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India. It aims to change the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts.
The goal of the e-court project is to provide designated services to litigants, lawyers and the judiciary by universal computerization of district and subordinate courts in the country by leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for improved justice delivery.
Provide efficiently and time-limited citizen-centred service delivery in accordance with the regulations of e-Court Project Litigant.
New Policy on School Bag 2020 By The Ministry Of Education
According to the new “Schoolbag Policy”, the weight of a schoolbag shall not exceed 10% of the weight of students in grades I to X, and no homework should be done until class II.
The new policy also recommends regular monitoring of the weight of bags in schools.
They should be lightweight, with two padded and adjustable straps, can fit just two shoulders, and no wheel brackets are allowed.
The policy even recommends that publishers print the weight of each textbook on it.
These recommendations are based on various surveys and studies conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
National Water Development Agency Meeting Presided By Mos For Jal Shakti
The MoS for Jal Shakti presided over the annual shareholders meeting of the National Water Development Agency (NWDA).
National Water Development Agency (NWDA):
NWDA was Established in 1982, as an autonomous society that conducts water balance and other studies based on science and reality to make the best use of water resources in the peninsula river system for preparation of feasibility reports.
This will be managed by the Central Water Commission and the then Ministry of Irrigation(now Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD& GR)).
In 1990, the agency also carried out similar activities for the Himalayan component of the National Vision Program.
Since 2006, NWDA has also begun the task of exploring the feasibility of river connections in the state. It belongs to the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Lidar Survey Technique Adopted By National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited
The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited will be adopting Light Detection, and Ranging Survey (LiDAR) technique using Laser enabled equipment mounted on a helicopter for conducting a ground survey for the preparation of the detailed project report for the proposed Delhi-Varanasi HSR corridor.
This is for the first time that the aerial LiDAR survey technique is being adopted for any railway project in India.
Geologists and surveyors usually use LiDAR technology to make high-resolution maps, lasers are used to survey locations, and sensors are used to measure their reflectivity.
LiDAR is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of pulsed lasers to measure the distance to the earth (variable distance).
Lidar uses ultraviolet, visible or near-infrared light to image objects. It can target a variety of materials, including non-metallic objects, rocks, rain, chemical compounds, aerosols, clouds and even single molecules