Gohain was the first woman to graduate from UNSWs School of Chemical Engineering. She then completed her postgraduate degree from the same university on July 13, 1959.
ASSAM
AFSPA to be extended in 8 Assam districts
The Assam government will extend the ‘disturbed area’ tag under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) for another six months in eight districts of the state from April 1. It will be extended for Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, according to a notification issued by the state Home and political department. The tag, however, would be lifted from Lakhipur sub-division of Cachar district from April 1, following a review of the law and order scenario in the state. The Centre had earlier announced removal of AFSPA from April 1, 2022 from the entire state of Assam barring nine districts and a sub-division of Cachar district. The state was declared a ‘disturbed area’ under AFSPA during the intervening night of November 27-28, 1990, and this has been extended every six months since then.
Assam: ’32 of every 100 girls in 20-24 age group were married before 18′
Assamis reeling under a rise in the number ofchild marriagesdespite aprohibition lawso much so that 32 girls among every 100 in the state in the 20-24 age bracket were under 18 years at the time of their marriages and 12 among every 100 such child brides were either pregnant or have already become mothers, as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) for 2019-21.
According to NFHS-5, West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list of child marriages with more than 40% of Women aged 20-24 years married below 18. Five other states – Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and saw more than 30% child marriages in the said period.
The Percentage of child brides in the same age cohort in the state as recorded in NFHS-4 for 2015-16 was one per cent lower, but the percentage of child brides who were pregnant or mothers was one per cent higher than that recorded in the last survey.
While child marriages are on the rise in Assam, nationally this social menace has reduced from 47 in 2005-06 to 26 in 2015-16, registering a decline of 21% points during the decade. During 2019-21, it declined further by 3% points to reach 23%, against Assam’s 32%.
The NFHS, over the years, shows thatchild marriagein the country has been relatively lower among Christians and other religious groups.
Percentage of women in the country aged 20 to 24 years, who were married before 18 years of age, was 48 among the Hindus in 2005-06, which was one per cent higher than Muslims. But during 2019-21, the percentage was three notches higher for the Muslims (26) than the Hindus. The percentage for Christians declined from 26 in 2006-06 to 15 in 2019-21.
AFSPA extended in Assam till August
Assamgovernment notified the entire state as a disturbed area and extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) for six more months from February 28.
The earlier six-month term of the Disturbed Area status and enforcement of AFSPA in the state since August 28 last year expired on February 28.
The act empowers security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without any prior warrant. It also gives a certain level of immunity to the security forces in case of an operation going wrong.
The act was first imposed in Assam in 1990, byministry of Home affairswhen the state had witnessed large scale violence byULFA. In 2017 centre transferred its power to the to decide on further extension of the imposition of the act in the state.
Assam: GIS mapping to find closer exam center
The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) has launched GIS mapping of schools and examination centres to minimise travel distance for students.
Students would be allocated centres closer to their schools based on the mapping. Students in hilly terrains and the riverine belt of Assam have been facing difficulties commuting long distances to reach centres for their board examination.
All 1,784 institutions affiliated to it, including higher secondary schools, degree colleges and erstwhile junior colleges (now known as senior secondary schools), have been asked to complete geo-tagging at the earliest.
TheAssam governmentwill notreopen schoolsunless theCovid positivity ratedips below two per cent across all districts, thestate education departmentsaid.
The newSOPpublished by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority directed alleducationinstitutions, including schools, colleges and universities, to continue to provide qualityvirtualoptions and said there would be no in-person classes. Online Education amid a lingering second wave has posed a big hurdle for students from underprivileged backgrounds as they are not able to afford the necessary .
The positivity rate of the state in the last seven days (from July 20 to July 26) has been 1.24%. Though most of the districts are maintaining below two per cent positivity, in the hill districts of Dima Hasao and West Karbi Anglong, its still 5.27% and 2.13% respectively. In five other districts, the positivity rate is hovering between 1.50 and 1.99%. These are Dhemaji (1.62%), Golaghat (1.94%), Kamrup (1.79%), Karbi Anglong (1.50%) and Nalbari (1.73%). During the seven days, 10,939 cases were positive.
Assam govt signs MoU with Caspian Impact Investment Adviser
Assam Rural and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) Society, an autonomous body under the Assam government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Caspian Impact Investment Adviser Pvt. Ltd. (Caspian Equity), a Venture Capital institution that invests in social impact enterprises.
This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of strengthening rural infrastructure and fostering agricultural productivity in Assam.
Under the PARTNERSHIP, ARIAS will be the nodal agency for establishing and implementing a contributory and determinate investment trust — theAssam Agribusiness Investment Fund(AAIF).
ARIAS is designated as the anchor investor for the AAIF, which will be managed by Caspian Equity as the fund manager.
With a corpus of Rs 250 crore, AAIF is a unique sector-specific fund through a State Government in India, focusing on boosting agricultural productivity and EMPLOYMENT generation in the state. It will mainly invest in small and medium enterprises in the agribusiness and allied sectors to achieve accelerated Growth.
Assam Baibhav Award Awarded To Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata received Assam’s highest civilian award, the ‘Assam Baibhav,’ on 24 January.
Highlights:
Ratan Tata can’t attend the function personally owing to the Covid-19 crisis. His representative accepted the award during a ceremony in Guwahati.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Chief Minister of Assam, said on January 23 that the Assam Baibhav, Assam Saurav, and Assam Gaurav Awards would be conferred for the year 2021.
Professor Dipak Chand Jain, Lovlina Borgohain, Professor Kamalendu Deb Krori, Dr. Lakshmanan S, and Neel Pawan Baruah received the Assam Saurav prize.
Manoj Kumar Basumatary, Munindra Nath Ngatey, Dharanidhar Boro, Hemoprabha Chutia, Dr. Basanta Hazarika, Kaushik Baruah, Khorsing Terang, Akash Jyoti Gogoi, Namita Kalita, Dr. Asif Iqbal, Kalpana Boro, Boby Hazarika, and Bormita Momin received the Assam Gaurav award.
On the occasion of “Asom diwas,” it was declared (Assam Day). The prize for the award is Rs 5 lakh.
Furthermore, the recipient will be eligible for government-funded medical treatment for the rest of his life.
IIT-G makes low-cost, recyclable solar cells
TheIndian Institute of Technology Guwahati(IIT-G) researchers have developed cost-effective, highly efficient perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to produce electricity from sunlight that can have over 21% power conversion efficiency about 5% more than conventional solar panels.
This cutting-edge technology in emerging perovskite-based semiconducting devices, developed by the team, is considered the most promising due to their low-cost, ease of manufacturing as roll-to-roll devices, high material availability and easy recyclability.
The hybrid perovskite-based solar or photovoltaic devices are easy to manufacture and easily recyclable were developed by achieving significant power conversion efficiencies by utilizing economical solution-based photovoltaic device processing techniques even at mild room temperature and obtaining high ambient, thermal and optical stability that can be easily achievable in northeast-like Environment. The Centre has recently given a push to semiconductor manufacturing in the country, which can be a big boost for this new kind of solar cells.
Assam to build 2,000 anganwadi centres for Rs 500 croreThe Assam Cabinet approved Rs 500 crore to construct 2,000 new Anganwadi centres across the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. According to the cabinet decisions shared on Sarma’s official Twitter handle, the Anganwadi centres will be constructed in rural areas in order to improve child care services.
The cost of each centre will be Rs 25 lakh and the total cost of all the centres will be Rs 500 crore.
To boost the handloom sector, administrative approval was granted to set up the College of Sericulture at Titabar in Jorhat at an expenditure of Rs 22.41 crore