NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
1. Swachhta Saarthi Fellowships launched by The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser
2. “Sugamya Bharat App”
3. 1,200 faculty in rural engineering colleges will lose jobs by month-end
4. ISRO places Brazil’s Amazonia-1, 18 other satellites in orbit
1. Swachhta Saarthi Fellowships launched by The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser
Context
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India under its “Waste to Wealth” Mission launched the “Swachhta Saarthi Fellowship”.
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- Aim of the fellowship to recognize students, community workers/self-help groups, and municipal/sanitary workers who are engaged in tackling the enormous challenge of waste management, scientifically and sustainably.
- The Waste to Wealth Mission is one of the nine national missions of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
The three categories of awards under the fellowships are as below:
- Category-A – Open to School students from 9th to 12th standards engaged in waste management community work
- Category-B – Open to College students (UG, PG, Research students) engaged in waste management community work
- Category-C – Open to Citizens working in the community and through SHGs, municipal or sanitary workers working beyond specifications of their job requirement/descriptions
- The last date for applying to the fellowship is March 19th, 2021. Up to 500 fellows will be recognised under the fellowship.
2. “Sugamya Bharat App”
Context
Union Minister for Social justice and Empowerment will virtually launch “Sugamya Bharat App”
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- The App has been developed by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
- Sugamya Bharat APP — a Crowdsourcing Mobile Application is a means for sensitising and enhancing accessibility in the 3 pillars of the Accessible India Campaign i.e. built environment, transportation sector and ICT ecosystem in India.
- The app provides for five main features, 4 of which are directly related to enhancing accessibility, while the fifth is a special feature meant only for Divyangjan for COVID related issues.
- The accessibility related features are: the registration of complaints of inaccessibility across the 3 broad pillars of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan; positive feedback of examples and best practices worth emulating being shared by people as jan-bhagidhari; Departmental updates; and guidelines and circulars related to accessibility.
3. 1,200 faculty in rural engineering colleges will lose jobs by month-end
Context
Government is planning to replace the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) with a new programme MERITE Project.
About The Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme:
- It was started in 2002 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development with the assistance of the World Bank and is being implemented in a phased manner.
- It aims to upscale the quality of technical education and enhance capacities of institutions.
- The Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme III (TEQIP-III) was started in 2017 and will be completed by 2021.
- It aims to develop technical education as a key component for improving the quality of Engineering Education.
- The Objective is to improve quality and equity in engineering institutions in focus states such as in low income states.
4. ISRO places Brazil’s Amazonia-1, 18 other satellites in orbit
Context
- Recently, the 53rd flight of PSLV-C51 marked the first dedicated mission for New Space India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- In this flight, ISRO successfully launched Brazil’s optical earth observation satellite, Amazonia-1, and 18 co-passenger satellites from India (5) and the USA (13) from the SatishDhawan Space Centre (SHAR) at Sriharikota.
- SHAR, Sriharikota is the Spaceport of India. It is responsible for providing Launch Base Infrastructure for the Indian Space Programme.
Brazilian Satellite Amazonia 1:
- Weighing 637 kg, belonging to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), was injected into its precise orbit of 758 km in a sun-synchronous polar orbit successfully.
- To strengthen the existing structure by providing remote sensing data to users for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and for analysis of diversified agriculture across the Brazilian territory.