To begin with, it will hold exams conducted by the CBSE, and other tests will be included in its ambit gradually.
The Cabinet on Friday approved setting up a National Testing Agency to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutes in India.
To begin with, the agency will hold exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Other tests will be included in its ambit gradually, the Centre said.
“As of now, CBSE conducts nine types of exams, with about 70 lakh students appearing for them,” Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Twitter. “The National Testing Agency will take off the burden of conducting entrance examinations from the CBSE.”
Javadekar said the testing agency will bring in “high reliability, standardised assessing aptitude and conduct of tamper-proof exams”.
Facebook Inc. rolled out Disaster Maps for India on Thursday to help communities across the country recover and rebuild from natural disasters faster by sharing critical pieces of data sets with humanitarian agencies in a timely manner.
The new product was launched at the company’s first Disaster Response Summit in India along with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to improve disaster response and disaster management in India.
According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) data, India is the third-worst affected country by natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones and drought. Moreover, the response time during and after these crises is often slow and it takes significant time and resources to understand where help is needed most. Disaster Maps, powered by Facebook’s technology and intensive research, will address this critical gap in data that government organizations face when responding to a crisis.
According to Ritesh Mehta, head of programs, India, South and Central Asia: “We want to empower our community by building products that connect people and create positive social impact. In times of disaster, our platform is a valuable source of information—whether it’s letting your friends and family know you are safe with Safety Check or using Facebook to raise donations for relief efforts.”
“The NDMA is proactively utilizing social media for awareness generation. This is an important benchmark towards integrating social media with disaster response activities. I am sure this partnership will open new avenues for using mobile technology in disaster situation,” said R.K. Jain, member, NDMA.
22. Stamping of hand baggage tags ends at Pune, Nagpur, Trichy and Goa airports.
Four airports, including the ones in Pune and Goa, have done away with the practise of stamping and tagging of passengers` hand baggages from today, the CISF said.
With this decision, a total of 23 airports in the country -- out of the total 59 under the CISF security cover -- are now tag-free. The airports that will implement the new travel norm beginning today include Pune, Goa, Nagpur and Trichy (Tiruchirappalli), the airports guarding security force said.
It added that the new travel regime for air passengers, that began at the airports in April this year, will soon be implemented at 27 more airports.
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) spokesperson Assistant Inspector General Hemendra Singh said the four airports have made all the required security arrangements to roll out the new protocol with the deployment of smart cameras and re-positioning of security paraphernalia, as mandated by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
He said the BCAS had also asked these airport operators to increase the length of the output roller of the X-ray machine so that the hand bags are checked easily.
The old stamping of hand baggage procedure was a major irritant for passengers and they had made many complaints in this regard to airport authorities saying the system poses hassles for them as it consumes time and in case they forget to get it tagged, security personnel would ask them to go back and get it done.
By having the stamped tags on the hand baggage, the security personnel were assured that no weapon or ammunition like material enters the aircraft. It also pin points the accountability on the CISF personnel who clears the baggage. All these procedures have now been replaced by smart gadgets.
A committee comprising officials of the CISF, the BCAS and the airport operators was constituted early this year by the government to smoothen the roll-out of this new protocol at all the 59 airports guarded by the paramilitary force.
CISF chief O P Singh, while rolling out the measure in April, had said that the new measure will enhance "passenger experience and provide hassle-free security environment to them" while travelling through the airports.
23. Government to give proxy voting rights to over 25 million Non Resident Indians.
The government has decided to give proxy voting rights to over 25 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) spread across the world, attorney general KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court on Friday.
“An amendment (has to) be made in the relevant central law (the Representation of People Act), and the government intends to introduce a bill in the winter session of Parliament for the purpose,” Venugopal informed an apex court bench.
The top court has given the government 12 weeks to carry out the exercise.
The court was hearing separate petitions filed by VP Shamsheer, a UAE-based doctor, and Nagender Chindam, chairman of Pravasi Bharat in London, on the issue of according voting rights to NRIs. These petitions have been pending for three years now.
The Election Commission of India had already recommended that the government take necessary steps to amend the law for NRI voters. It had prepared a report titled ‘Exploring Feasibility of Alternative Options for Voting by Overseas Electors’ and presented it to the court in October 2014.