ODISHA

KISS to provide free education project in other states

ð Founder of Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Achyuta Samanta announced that the Institute is to provide the free education policies in other States also.

ð The Institute initially provided free education to nearly 30,000 tribal students in Odisha. It showed great success in the State. The Institute aims to launch similar projects, like free education, in other states to fight social ills of poverty and Naxalism.

ð The Institute is to launch ten new centers soon in tribal-dominated areas. The parent institute is located at Bhubaneswar.

ð The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, along with an NGO, is working on setting up an academy at Joka on the southern outskirts of Kolkata.

ð KISS was started in 1993 as a residential tribal School. It is located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. It is aimed to break the vicious cycle of poverty and social isolation and to restore hope for a better future. It was founded by Achyuta Samanta. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Engineering, Management, Rural Management, Biotechnology, Medicine, Fashion, Law, Computer application, Film Studies, Journalism, Architecture, and Sculpting.

INTERNATIONAL

· Exercise Indra 2019 to be held in December

Exercise Indra 2019, ajoint tri-service exercisebetween India and Russia, has been scheduled to be held in December 2019. In the exercise, the mechanized contingents, fighter and transport aircraft and ships of the armed forces of India and Russia will be participating.

Exercise Indra 2019 is aimed to enhance interoperability between both the national armed forces to jointly undertake operations under the UN flag. It is expected that the theme of the exercise will be relevant as it will focus on combatting the threat of global terrorism nations and by countries around the world.

NATIONAL

· Centre approves to set up four medical device parks

The government has approved setting upfour medical device parksin the country. It aims to support the Make in India initiative. It will also provide world-class products at affordable prices for treatment.

The four parks will be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.The states Uttarakhand and Gujarat have also approached the Centre for a go-ahead for such parks. These parks will provide the necessary infrastructure, where companies can easily plug and play. This will not only cut import bills but will also help in easy access to standard testing facilities and reduce the cost of production.

· Mahendra Nath Pandey conferred the 2019 National Entrepreneurship Awards

The Union Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandeypresented the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 to Enterprises and Ecosystem builders on 9 November 2019. A total of 36 entrepreneurs and Ecosystem builders received the award. The fourth edition of the award ceremony was organized by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The day marks the completion of 5 years of setting up of the Ministry in 2014.

The National Entrepreneurship Awards aimed to honour the outstanding young First-Generation Entrepreneurs, and Ecosystem builders. The award recognized their outstanding contribution to entrepreneurship development and provided support to the entrepreneurs.

· Defence innovations conference to showcase accomplishments of iDEX

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is organizingDef-Connect on 11 November 2019. Def-Connect aims to showcase the accomplishments of the Innovations forDefence Excellence (iDEX) initiative. It also aims to construct a strong outreach towards the potential future entrepreneurs of the defence sector. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the Chief Guest of the event.

Def-Connect is aimed to lead better interaction and bridging the gap between the stakeholders. The one day conference will support the Startup showcase during the forthcoming DefExpo 2020, which has been scheduled to be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, from5-8 February

· RBI increases household income limits for borrowers of NBFCs and MFIs

Reserve Bank of India increased the household income limits for borrowers of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)and microfinance institutions (MFIs) from 1 lakh to 1.25 lakh rupees.

The move is aimed at strengthening credit to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid in rural areas.

The limit is increased from 1.6 lakh for urban or semi-urban areas to 2 lakh rupees. The limit has been increased after taking into consideration the important role played by microfinance institutions in delivering credit to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid and to enable them to play their assigned role in a growing economy.

National Mission ‘NISHTHA’ launched in J&K

National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) was launched in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
‘NISHTHA’ is a pioneering scheme being launched across the country, with a total of 86000 Elementary teachers of Government Schools being trained in J&K under the programme.

NISHTHA is a capacity building programme for “Improving Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training”.

It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage.

NISHTHA is the world’s largest teachers’ training programme of its kind.

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