17.11.22

Manipur gearing up for Amur Falcon Festival at TamenglongWith an objective to spread awareness on the protection and conservation of Amur falcon, Manipur forest authority is gearing up for the seventh edition of the Amur Falcon Festival at Tamenglong district headquarters, 150 km West of Imphal on November 14. The day-long festival is generally celebrated in the first or second week of November to strengthen human-nature relationship and acknowledge the importance of this small raptor in the lives of People in the region.

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The festival has become an annual affair since its first festival in 2015 with the peak Migration period of Amur falcon and best season for undertaking outdoor activities with an objective to address alternative and sustainable livelihood opportunities for the community though eco-tourism.

The Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) is the world’s longest travelling small raptors of the falcon family. Amur falcons migrate to their wintering grounds in South Africa, usually arriving in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur besides other places in NE undertaking a yearly journey of about 20,000 km. They leave the region in November after having enough food for their non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winters. The radio-tagging programme of Amur falcons started in Manipur in 2018 as part of an initiative to conserve wildlife and also to study the route of these long-distance migratory birds and the environmental patterns along the route as India is a signatory to an international agreement on conservation of migratory birds of prey.

Assam announces new tourism policy

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The Assam government launched a new sustainable tourism policy-2022 in Delhi in consultation with the aiming to create a strategic roadmap to strengthen tourism support segments and its sub-sectors, officials said.

After conducting an “Assam Tourism Road Show” in the national capital, state’s Tourism, Public Health Engineering, Skill development EMPLOYMENT and Entrepreneurship Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah announced the Tourism Policy-2022 to drive Sustainable Development in the state.

A panel discussions, visual presentations, cultural dance performances and B2B interactive sessions inviting entrepreneurs and investors to make the state their Investment destination were also held at a hotel in Delhi. The tourism policy was prepared after extensive consultations with the World Bank and at every stage of its preparation, the view of the stakeholders and Industry experts has been given due weightage

5T initiatives not followed in Works Dept

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The is repeatedly laying Stress on the 5T initiatives and the 5T Secretary is personally visiting the under-construction Infrastructure projects and taking stocks of their progress.

As part of the 5T initiative, in the different bridge collapses or other mishaps in the State like the Bomikhal flyover collapse incident, the supervising officials and the executing agency have been penalised. Some officials have been suspended and the contractor blacklisted.

In major projects undertaken by the OBCC, the work progress and other aspects, the Abadha project, Joda Flyover and other major projects which are on the priority list of the Chief Minister are getting neglected.

IIT-Madras and Tamil Nadu govt join hands to make school education experience better

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Starting with a new Learning management system which will be deployed in newly built high-tech labs in 6,000 government schools to improve the quality of learning for 90 lakh students, IIT-Madras researchers and Nadus department of schooleducationhave joined hands to make digital assessments and learning experience of school students better.

The collaboration between the IIT andTamil Nadu governmentis to provide a richer learning experience to the school students by improvising and updating the existing digital learning platform to an assessment focused learning management system.

Currently, the classroom Education of Tamil Nadus school students is supplemented through a digital learning platform i.e.Education Management Information System. IIT-M researchers will use their AI and data science expertise to come up with ways to improve the way assessments are conducted and framework for dissemination of educational material.

This initiative will be led by faculty, students, project associates and channel partners of the Robert Bosch Centre of Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI), a centre housed at the IIT with a vision to expand and further the research, education and outreach activities in the areas of data science andartificial intelligence.

The initiative will be executed in three phases first will focus on content management for educational material and assessment, second will work towards on delivery and feedback for educational material and assessment and the third phase will lay emphasis on data Analytics, Dashboards and Reporting system.

Internal grievance redressal committees to be set up at all shooting locations of Malayalam films soon

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According to the reports, the Kerala Film Chamber has prepared the design of the notice and logo for the committee and the notice, announcing its formation, will be posted at different movie locations. The notice will consist of the name, status, and phone number of the five committee members. One among the five members of the redressal committee will be having no association with a films shooting process.

13% state govt schools have tech labs, only 7% functional

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Only 13% of government schools (upper primary to higher secondary) inKarnataka, Home to the countrys IT capital, haveICTlabs, says the latest U-DISE (Unified District Information System for Education) data released by the ministry of school education and Literacy on Thursday. Worse, the Percentage of government schools with a functional ICT (Information & Communication Technology) lab is just 7%.

However, Karnatakas education department said the figures are not updated. The data could be reflecting only labs built using government funds. Almost all schools have labs through donors or other means. Last year alone, 764 schools were given permission. Due to Covid-19, we could implement it only in 502 schools thus far.

Telangana 10th state to withdraw general consent to CBI

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has become the tenth state to withdraw general Consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Its twomonth-old order was cited in court in the wake of the cashfor-MLA scandal in which BJP is demanding an investigation by the central agency.

In November 2018, then Andhra Pradesh chief ministerN Chandrababu Naidutook back the states general consent to CBI. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee andMeghalayachief minister Conrad Sangma too have withdrawn consent to the investigating agency.

Andhra Pradesh police focus on increasing conviction rate: DGP

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Andhra Pradeshdirector general of Police KV Rajendranath Reddy said the state police had focused on increasing the conviction rate to instil fear among the accused and to deter the crimes.

The DGP directed the officials to conduct Spandana programmes and take petitions regularly from people and he also stressed the need to redress peoples grievances quickly by holding meetings with the aggrieved parties.

Goa: Sanguem site inadequate for IIT campus, says Centre

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The Goa governments hopes of receiving the Centres nod for theSanguemland for permanent campus of theIndian Institute of Technology(IIT), Goa, seem to have been crushed.

The central government has turned down the 7 lakh sqm identified by Goa for the project, terming the area as inadequate.

As per procedure, once identifies a parcel of land, a team from the Centre visits for inspection, before approving or rejecting the site. However, this time around, the central government officials declined the site after going through the plans itself, and it was not found necessary to send an inspection team to Goa, sources said.

As per the Union Education ministrys requirement, 12 lakh sqm land is to be identified to establish a campus for an IIT. But former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had made it clear to central officials that given Goas land constraints around 6 lakh sqm could be provided for the campus.

The former IITian was of the view that 6 lakh sqm would be sufficient to meet the IITs requirements.

Implement digital tools: Education department to 100 schools

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Over 100 senior secondary schools inMahendergarhon Friday were directed to prepare a concrete plan to improve the standard of Education and implement digital tools and innovative pedagogy as per the New Education Policy and guidelines ofNipun Haryanamission.

The state education department launched a state-wide marathon monitoring and inspection drive of senior secondary schools under the Shiksha Diksha academic supervision plan. A team of 100 officers reviewed theFLNprogramme implementation, mid-day meal status and textbook distribution and utilisation of funds for infrastructural facelift works.