National
National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 Report
⇒ The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education released the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 report on 25 May 2022.
The report assesses the health of school education system in the country by conducting comprehensive evaluation survey of children’s learning competencies at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years. It reflects the overall assessment of school education system.
- The last National Achievement Survey (NAS) was held in 2017.
The NAS 2021 was held on 12 November 2021 at all India level and covered:
- Government Schools (Central Government and State Government)
- Government Aided Schools
- Private Unaided Schools
Subjects covered are:
- Language, Mathematics & EVS for class 3 & 5;
- Language, Mathematics, Science & Social Science for class 8;
- Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English for class 10.
» The report is based on the performance in all subjects through disaggregation by gender, Area, Management of schools and Social Groups.
Participation:
About 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from both rural and urban areas have participated in NAS 2021.
Objective:
The objective of NAS 2021 is to evaluate children’s progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the efficiency of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels.
- It will help to unravel the gaps in learning and will support state/UT governments in developing long term, mid-term and short-term interventions to improve learning levels and orient on differential planning based on NAS 2021 data.
Administered by:
- The achievement tests along with the questionnaires, i.e., pupil questionnaire, teacher questionnaire and school questionnaire were developed and translated in 22 different languages by NCERT.
- This nation-wide survey was administered by the CBSE in one single day at the same time.
- The survey was managed through the technology platform designed and developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
PARAM PORUL Supercomputer at NIT Tiruchirappalli
⇒ PARAM PORUL, a state-of the art Supercomputer at NIT Tiruchirappalli dedicated to the nation under National Supercomputing Mission was inaugurated on May 25, 2022 by Shri Bhaskar Bhat, Chairperson Board of Governors, Tiruchirappalli along with senior officials.
- National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Background:
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between NIT Tiruchirappalli and Centre for Development in Advanced Computing (C-DAC) on 12th October 2020 to establish this 838 TeraFlops Supercomputing Facility under NSM.
- PARAM PORUL supercomputing facility is established under Phase 2 of the NSM.
- Majority of the components used to build this system have been manufactured and assembled within the country, along with an indigenous software stack developed by C-DAC, in line with the Make in India initiative.
About PARAM:
- The system is equipped with a mix of CPU nodes, GPU nodes, High Memory nodes, High throughput storage and high performance Infiniband interconnect to cater the computing needs of various scientific and engineering applications.
- PARAM PORUL system is based on Direct Contact Liquid Cooling technology to obtain a high-power usage effectiveness and thereby reducing the operational cost.
- Multiple applications from various scientific domains such as Weather and Climate, Bioinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Molecular Dynamics, Material Sciences, Computational Fluid Dynamics etc. has been installed on the system for the benefit of researchers.
International
7th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting
⇒ Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for Culture and External Affairs participated in the 7th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting on 24 May, 2022 through video conference.
Host:
The meeting was hosted by the People’s Republic of China. All BRICS Member Nations participated in the meeting.
Discussion:
Discussion was held for advancement and expansion of cultural activities amongst BRICS countries under the theme “Establishing a Cultural Partnership Featuring Inclusiveness and Mutual Learning among BRICS”.
The areas of focus of the discussion were promoting the development and cooperation on cultural digitalization, strengthening cooperation on cultural heritage protection and advancing the building of cultural exchange platforms of BRICS countries.
» The Ministers adopted the BRICS Action Plan 2022-2026 to further strengthen the cultural cooperation and implement the BRICS Cultural Cooperation Agreement signed in 2015.
Important Day
World No Tobacco Day 2022
⇒ World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31 May to raise awareness about the damage caused by consuming tobacco.
Theme:
The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2022 was “Tobacco: Threat to our Environment.”
» The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India organized a virtual event to observe World No Tobacco Day 2022.
- The WNTD 2022 event also provided a platform for release of Pocket book on Standard Treatment Guidelines for Substance Use Disorders and Behavioural Addictions and Mobile APP “Addiction-Rx” for assisting physicians to provide quality care in substance use disorders, under Drug De-Addiction Programme.
Background:
- The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.
- In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a “a world no-smoking day.”
- In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.
World No Tobacco Day 2022 awards:
Every year, WHO recognizes individuals or organizations in each of the six WHO Regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control.
This recognition takes the form of WHO Director-General Special Recognition Award and World No Tobacco Day Awards.
WHO Director-General Special award:
- Tobacco Free Portfolios, Australia
- President of Mexico Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, United Mexican States
Indian winner of World No Tobacco Day Award:
State Tobacco Control Cell (STCC), Department of Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, Republic of India won World No Tobacco Day Award in South-East Asia Region.