PARAKH
PARAKH has devised the Holistic Progress Card (HPC) as per NEP 2020.
- PARAKH – Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development
- A standard-setting body under the National council Education Research and Training (NCERT).
- Objective – Setting norms, standards, guidelines and implementing activities related to student assessment
- As per suggestions by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, it is made for the foundational stage (Classes 1 and 2), preparatory stage (Classes 3 to 5) and middle stage (Classes 6 to 8)
- Report cards for the secondary stage (beyond Class 9) are still being prepared
Zero Carbon Buildings Action Plan
India’s 1st City-Specific Zero Carbon Buildings Action Plan (ZCBAP) launched in Nagpur
- Location – Maharahtra
- Aim – To develop all buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050
- Zero carbon buildings – Buildings that improve their lifecycle environmental performance through measures that reduce embodied, operational and end-of-life GHG emissions without compromising visual and thermal comforts
- Developed jointly – With implementing partners of Zero Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA) project
- Builds upon national policy frameworks and initiatives supporting building decarbonization
UNCOVER Program
Researchers, finds a clue about the end of ‘dark ages’ in early universe as part of UNCOVER program
- Dark ages – A period when light sources were obscured by a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas
- It was followed by ‘epoch of reionization’ that arose because of arrival of first stars and galaxies
- UNCOVER – Ultra-deep NIRCam and NIRSpec Observations Before the Epoch of Reionization
- Aims to detect 1st light galaxies in the Dark Ages
- Aims to investigate ultra-low luminosity galaxies pivotal in the process of reionization
India’s 1st underwater metro
Recently, Prime Minister inaugurated India’s 1st under-river metro tunnel
- Location – Kolkata
- Built under Hooghly River which connects Howrah Maidan to Esplanade
- Metro Connects – Elite club of London, Moscow and Munich metros
- It is the deepest metro in India
2008 OS7
Recently, NASA captured the images of a stadium sized asteroid that passed by Earth
- An asteroid – An Apollo class Near-Earth object (NEO)
- Orbits the sun once every 2.6 years
- Travels within the orbit of Venus to beyond the orbit of Mars
- Discovered by – The Catalina Sky Survey – A NASA-funded project that searches for NEOs
- Classified as – “Potentially hazardous” due to its large size and close approach to Earth, but does not poses any threat for at least the next 200 years