UTTARAKHAND

Two ‘Umbrella Acts’ for varsities in U’khand

The higher education department is now planning to bring two separate ‘Umbrella Acts’ for the universities of the State. Now, separate Acts for Government and private universities would be brought.

Earlier, the department had intended to set up one common Umbrella act which would have governed all the universities of the State.

It is learnt that the opposition of the universities coupled with practical problems in one single Act forced the department to change its plan and create two separate acts for private and Government universities.

There are 11 Government and 18 private universities in Uttarakhand. Apart from them one law university and four to five private universities are in pipeline in the State.

At present different universities of the State are governed with their own Acts. The proposed acts would be overriding on all the existing acts under which the universities of the state are being governed.

The objective of the umbrella act was to remove the inconsistencies which at present prevail in the governance of different universities and to ensure better education and better teachers.

The proposed acts would cover all universities and the colleges of the state and would replace the existing ‘Uttar Pradesh University Act 1073, which is followed by Uttarakhand ever since its creation in the year 2000.

INTERNATIONAL

China to open visa office in Pakistan’s Peshawar

ð China has decided to open a visa office in Peshawar to further boost economic relations with Pakistan.

ð The centre provides people exposure to the Chinese culture, literature, art and history through exhibitions, movie screenings and training.

ð China Window Centre was inaugurated on October 1 last year. However, due to security threats, it was shut down and was re-inaugurated on January 2.

NATIONAL

· Centre to launch NEAT AI learning scheme to boost higher education

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has announced a new National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) Artificial Intelligence (AI) scheme.
MHRD will start awareness programmes to create awareness of the NEAT solutions to teachers and students. The NEAT AI scheme will be launched and made operationalized in early November 2019.

The scheme aims to boost better learning outcomes in Higher Education. The scheme will ensure to use Artificial Intelligence which will make learning more personalized and customized as per the requirements of the learner.

The scheme requires the development of technologies in adaptive learning to address the diversity of learners. MHRD is to take support from a number of start-up companies and bring them under a common platform so that learners can access it easily.

· Google partners with BSNL to bring public WiFi to villages

The search engine giant Google has signed a partnership agreement with the state-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). The partnership aims to bring public WiFi to villages in states namely Gujarat, Bihar, and Maharashtra. The agreement will focus on villages that had no Wi-Fi connection previously.
The announcement comes after the 5th edition of Google for India event which took place in New Delhi on 19th September.
In July 2019 Google collaborated with Cisco for its gStation to provide free and high-speed WiFi at public locations across India.

Now, government will name and shame fraud hospitals

Adopting a zero tolerance policy towards fraud and corruption, the government has decided to “name and shame” hospitals involved in malpractices under its flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, which is now clocking as many as 25,000 hospital admissions a day – five times of what it recorded during the initial months.
During the first three months – after the scheme was kick-started by PM Narendra Modi in September last year – it recorded merely 5000 admissions a day.
However, the improved coverage has also prompted the government and National Health Authority (NHA) – the agency responsible for implementing and managing the scheme – to be more vigilant against fraud.

Around 10 crore e-cards have been given out to beneficiaries and a total of 18,073 hospitals have been empanelled with 53% of them from the private sector.
More than 39 lakh people have availed cashless treatment worth over Rs 6,100 crore for serious illnesses since the launch of AB-PMJAY. This has resulted in savings of Rs 12,000 crore to the beneficiary families.

Malnutrition still a factor in 68% of child deaths: Study

Malnutrition continues to be the leading risk factor for death in children under five years of age across India causing 68% of mortality in the category, even as the death rate due to malnutrition has dropped by two-third during 1990-2017, according to estimates released by Indian Council of Medical Research.

Data shows malnutrition is also the leading risk factor for health loss in persons of all ages, accounting for 17% of the total DALYs (disability adjusted life years). The DALY rate attributable to malnutrition in children varies seven-fold between states and is highest in Rajasthan, UP, Bihar and Assam, followed by MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Nagaland and Tripura.

Among malnutrition indicators, low birth weight is the biggest contributor to child deaths in India, followed by child growth failure which includes stunting, underweight and wasting. The prevalence of low birth weight was 21% in India in 2017, ranging from 9% in Mizoram to 24% in UP.

The findings also highlight rapidly increasing prevalence of child overweight. This annual rate of increase in child overweight between 1990 and 2017 was pegged at 5% in India, which varied from 7.2% in MP to 2.5% in Mizoram. In 2017, the prevalence of such children was 12%.

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