Policy on School Bag 2020.
The
new ‘Policy on School Bag 2020’ of the Union ministry of education also
recommends that the weight of the bag needs to be monitored on a regular basis
in schools.
They
should be light-weight with two padded and adjustable straps that can squarely
fit on both shoulders and no wheeled carriers should be allowed. The policy
even recommends that the weight of each textbook may come printed on them by
the publishers.
School
bags should not be more than 10% of the body weight of students across classes
I to X and there should be no homework till class II.
The
recommendations have been arrived based on various surveys and studies
conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The policy stated that data collected from 3,624 students and 2,992 parents
from 352 schools, which include Kendriya Vidyalayas and state government
schools were analysed.
The
‘Policy on School Bag 2020’ made 11 recommendations on the weight of the bags,
including adequate good quality mid-day meal and potable water to all the
students so that they need not carry lunch boxes or water bottles.
The
policy also recommended that children with special needs be provided a double
set of textbooks, through book banks in schools and lockers in classes for
storing and retrieving books and other items.
The policy said there should be no bags in pre-primary. For classes I and II the bag weight range should be between 1.6 kg to 2.2 kg. Like-wise it should be 1.7 kg to 2.5 kg, 2 kg to 3 kg, 2.5 to 4 kg, 2.5 kg to 4.5 kg and 3.5 kg to 5 kg for classes III to V, classes VI and VII, class VIII, classes IX and X and classes XI and XII respectively.
Recommending
that total study time should be accounted for while planning the syllabus, the
policy said while there should be no homework upto class II and a maximum of
two hours per week for classes III to V, homework duration for classes VI to
VIII should not exceed one hour a day and two hours a day for classes IX and
above.
Department of Integrative Medicine.
Ministry
of AYUSH and AIIMS have decided to initiate work on setting up a Department of
Integrative Medicine at AIIMS.
This
was decided in a joint visit and review by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary,
AYUSH and Dr.Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS of the Centre for Integrative
Medicine and Research (CIMR) at AIIMS, New Delhi.
The
CIMR receives notable support through the Centre of Excellence Scheme of the
Ministry of AYUSH.
It
was decided that the Centre for Integrative Medicine and Research, CIMR, AIIMS
may develop an integrated protocol with Ayurveda and Yoga for study on Post
COVID treatment.
Mount Everest .
Nepal
and China jointly certified the elevation of Mount Everest at 8,848.86 metres
above sea level — 86 cmhigher than what was recognised since 1954.
Mount
Everest rises from border between Nepal and China. It is believed to be 50-60
million years old.
It
isformed out of the collision of Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The
Union Cabinet gave its approval for Provision of Submarine Optical Fibre Cable
Connectivity between Mainland (Kochi) and Lakshadweep Islands (KLI Project).
The
Project envisages the provision of a direct communication link through a
dedicated submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) between Kochi and 11 Islands of
Lakshadweep viz. Kavaratti, Kalpeni, Agati, Amini, Androth, Minicoy, Bangaram,
Bitra, Chetlat, Kiltan, and Kadmat.
The
estimated cost of implementation is about Rs 1,072 crore including operational
expenses for 5 years. The Project would be funded by the Universal Service
Obligation Fund.
As
per an official release, the submarine connectivity project will have a vital
role in the delivery of e-governance services at the doorstep of citizens,
potential development of fisheries, coconut-based industries and high-value
tourism, educational development in terms of the education and in health care
in terms of telemedicine facilities.
It
will help in the establishment of numerous businesses, augment e-commerce
activities and provide adequate support to educational institutes for knowledge
sharing. The Lakshadweep Islands have the potential to become a hub of logistic
services.
The
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been nominated as Project Execution
Agency and Telecommunications Consultant India Limited (TCIL) as the Technical
Consultant of the Project to assist Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)
under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
The
project is targeted to be completed by May 2023.
Minimum Support Price .
Recently,
the major demands of protesting farmers has been that the government guarantee
in writing the Minimum Support Price system, which assures them of a fixed
price for their crops, 1.5 times of the cost of production.
About Minimum Support Price:
•
It is also the price that government agencies pay whenever they procure the
particular crop.
•
The Union Budget for 2018-19 had announced that MSP would be kept at levels of
1.5 the cost of production.
About
Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP)
•
It recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP)
for sugarcane.
•
It is an attached office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,
Government of India.
•
It came into existence in January 1965. It is an advisory body whose
recommendations are not binding on the Government.
•
The mandated crops include 14 crops of the kharif season, 6 rabi crops and 2
other commercial crops.
•
In addition, the MSPs of toria and de-husked coconut are fixed on the basis of
the MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and copra, respectively.
•
The list of crops are
✓ Cereals (7): Paddy,
wheat, barley, jowar, bajra, maize and ragi,
✓ Pulses (5): Gram,
arhar/tur, moong, urad and lentil .
✓ Oilseeds (8):
Groundnut, rapeseed/mustard, toria, soyabean, sunflower seed, sesamum,
safflower seed and niger seed,
✓ Raw cotton, Raw jute,
Copra, De-husked coconut, and Sugarcane (Fair and remunerative price).
•
The CACP considered various factors while recommending the MSP for a commodity,
including cost of cultivation.
• It also took into account the supply and demand situation for the commodity, market price trends (domestic and global) and parity vis-à-vis other crops, and implications for consumers (inflation), environment (soil and water use) and terms of trade between Agriculture and Non-agriculture sectors.
Surveyor-2 Spacecraft .
NASA
has confirmed that the Near-Earth Object called 2020 SO is the rocket booster
that helped lift the space agency’s Surveyor spacecraft toward the Moon in
1966.
Surveyor-2:
•
The Surveyor-2 spacecraft was supposed to make a soft landing on the Moon’s
surface in September 1966, during which time one of the three thrusters failed
to ignite.
•
As a result of this the spacecraft started spinning and crashed on the surface.
•
The aim of the mission was to reconnoiter the lunar surface ahead of the Apollo
missions that led to the first lunar landing in 1969.
•
While the spacecraft crashed into the Moon’s surface, the rocket booster
disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun.
How was the Object Determined to be
the Rocket Booster?
•
Astronomers track Asteroids using telescope to determine if there are
potentially hazardous asteroids that pose a threat to the planet.
•
Therefore, it is also important for them to be able to distinguish between
natural and artificial objects that orbit around the Sun.
•
The rocket booster has come “somewhat close” to the Earth in the past few
decades.
•
One approach to the Earth in late 1966 was so close that the object was thought
to have originated from Earth.
•
In September, the NASA-funded telescope Detected It.
Arecibo Radio Telescope .
A
massive radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory — one of the
world’s largest — collapsed on after sustaining Severe Damage, following 57
Years of Astronomical Discoveries.
Arecibo Telescope:
•
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere
Center (NAIC), was an observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US
National Science Foundation (NSF).
•
It was the world’s largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in
July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in
China.
•
The second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, it had withstood
many hurricanes and earthquakes since it was First built in 1963.
Its contributions:
•
Being the most powerful radar, scientists employed Arecibo to observe planets,
asteroids and the Ionosphere.
•
It made several discoveries over the decades, including finding prebiotic
molecules in distant galaxies, the first exoplanets, and the first millisecond
pulsar.
•
In 1967, Arecibo was able to discover that the planet Mercury rotates in 59
days and not 88 days as had been originally thought.
•
In the following decades, it also served as a hub in the search for
extraterrestrial life, and would look for radio signals from alien
civilizations.
•
In 1993, scientists Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor were awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physics for their work on the observatory in monitoring a binary
pulsar.
•
It provided a strict test of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and the
first evidence for the existence of Gravitational Waves.
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