PRELIMS NEWS
- PM seeks respect for ‘territorial integrity’
The issue in news
20th Summit of SCO Council of Heads of State was held on the 10th of November 2020 (in Video Conference Format).
- In the address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to respect “territorial integrity” and “sovereignty”.
- He reminded that India has traditionally supported infrastructure and connectivity projects in the SCO region and cited examples of the Chabahar port and the North-South Corridor.
- He reiterated India’s firm belief in regional peace, security and prosperity and raising voice against terrorism, smuggling of illegal weapons, drugs and money-laundering.
- As a member of the UNSC, India’s attention will be on changing the global rules of governance, he said.
- From 2021 India will take part in the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.
- He announced that in 2021, the National Museum of India will hold an exhibition on the Buddhist heritage of the SCO countries.
- The President of China hinted at the difficulties among members and said differences should be resolved through dialogue.
Note:
This was the first SCO Summit held in Virtual Format and the third meeting that India participated in after becoming a full member in 2017.
- National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs)
The issue in news
14th Foundation Day Celebrations at NIPER-Hyderabad.
About NIPERs:
- NIPERs are institutes of national importance under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, GOI.
- They are autonomous institutes involved in higher education, research and development in the pharmaceutical sciences.
- The first NIPER was established in Mohali in 1998.
- Currently, there are seven such NIPERs in Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Hajipur, Guwahati and Rae Bareli. The six were established in 2007.
- NIPER is a member of the Association of Indian Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
- Thrust areas for research of the institutes include tuberculosis, malaria, diabetes, Leishmaniasis and immunomodulation.
- National Education Day
The issue in news
11 November is observed as ‘National Education Day’ in India.
About National Education Day:
- The day is observed in honour of India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, whose birth anniversary falls on 11 November.
- During his stint as education minister from 1947 to 1958, Azad made several significant contributions in the field of education.
- The Union HRD Ministry (currently the Education Ministry) institutionalized the observance of the National Education Day in 2008.
- Hunar Haat
The issue in news
Hunar Haat programmes to restart after a gap of seven months. It was temporarily closed due to the pandemic.
- Hunar Haat is an exhibition of handicrafts and traditional productsmade by artisans from the minority communities.
- These are organised by the Ministry of Minority Affairsunder USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills & Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development)
- The USTTAD scheme aims to promote and preserve therich heritage of the traditional arts & crafts of the minority communities.
- These Haat aim to provide market exposure and employment opportunitiesto artisans, craftsmen and traditional culinary experts.
- It envisages boosting the skills of craftsmen, weavers and artisans who are already engaged in the traditional ancestral work.
- ‘Hunar Haat’ has proved to be “Empowerment Exchange”for master artisans and craftsmen.
- The next ‘Hunar Haat’ will be organised at Lucknow from 10th to 20th January 2020
- Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)
The issue in news
Indian astronomers collaborated with 2020 Physics Nobel laureate Prof. Andrea Ghez on the Thirty Meter Telescope Project.
About the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project:
- The TMT is being installed at Maunakea in Hawaii, and it can revolutionize the understanding of the universe and the enigmas in it.
- The project is an international partnership between CalTech, Universities of California, Canada, Japan, China, and India – through the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
- With its 30 m prime mirror diameter, TMT will be three times as wide, with nine times more area, than the largest currently existing visible-light telescope in the world
- A large diameter telescope provides two new basic capabilities that are not available with existing ground based telescopes and that cannot be delivered by the small telescopes in space or planned for the future:
- Improved spatial resolution, as long as the distorting effects of the Earth’s atmosphere are corrected for with an adaptive optics system; and
- Increased sensitivity
- TMT images are more than 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Areas explored include
- DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY:
- The Evolution of the Structures in the Universe
- Supermassive Black Holes In Galaxies
- Their Birth and Their Relationship With Galaxies:
- The Formation of Stars and Planets
- The Characteristics of Exoplanets and Whether There Is Life Elsewhere in the Universe
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