International Women's Day (IWD) is being celebrated on 8th March every year to highlight the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.
It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.
The UN Women’s theme for 2017 is “Women in the changing world of work: Planet 50:50 by 2030” with the campaign hash tag # BeBoldForChange.
Note:International Women's Day first emerged from the activities of labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.
International Yoga fest to begin today in New Delhi
Today, the two-day International Yoga fest has been inaugurated by the union Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi.
More than 3,500 participants including yoga gurus, yoga masters, scholars, policy makers and representatives from 15- 18 countries has participated in this event.
It will comprise parallel yoga workshop, lectures, Satsang, cultural programs and yoga demos.
A half-day seminar will be conducted on Life Sketch and contributions of two Yoga Gurus ‘Swami Ved Bharati’ and ‘T K V Desikachar’ for the promotion and development of Yoga.
Note: The fest has organized by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga in association with the Yoga associations.
CBSE introduces mobile application for class 10th,12th students locate their exam centers
The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) has introduced a mobile application 'Exam Locator' to help students appearing for class 10th and 12th examinations locate their exam centres.
The App will help students to quickly know the exam centre (address, images, and geolocation) on the basis of their roll number.
A student or a parent will have to register using mobile number to receive one time password which will help the user log in to the mobile application.
The user can then access information by selecting the option class X or XII and entering the roll number.
IISc becomes first Indian university to be ranked among top 10 in world
The Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore has become the first Indian educational institution to make it to the top 10 of a global ranking for universities.
The IISc has been ranked eighth in the Times Higher Education Rankings, 2017 in the best small universities category.
It joined the elite list that includes California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from the US, Ecole Normale Superieure from France and Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.
Small universities are those with a student strength of less than 5,000. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings was founded in 2004 by the UK-based Times Higher Education magazine.
Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has congratulated IISc for the recognition.
IISc, a public university for scientific research and higher education, was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore.
Giriraj Singh launches air conditioned jacket made of cotton fabric
The Union Minister Giriraj Singh has launched the first of its kind Air Conditioned jacket made of cotton fabric in Nawada district of Bihar.
This jacket has been made by a villager of Khanwa of the district through Solar charkha using swadeshi technology.
Climate gear has been fitted in this jacket which controls temperature.
The cost of this jacket price would be decided by NITI AAYOG.
EU launched 5th satellite of Copernicus observation program
The European Unio ((EU).) has launched the fifth satellite of the Copernicus observation program.
It will cut the time of imaging the earth by half and improve the services for farmers, fishermen and other users of land and sea maps.
The program is aimed at improving the life of EU communities by providing near-real-time global environment data.
Note: The Copernicus earth observation program has created by the European Union (EU).
Actress Viola Davis named Harvard ‘Artist of the Year’ award
Viola Davis has honored with the Harvard foundation 'Artist of the Year-2017 award" in Cambridge.
Recently, She has won an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Award for the best-supporting actress female for her performance as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of August Wilson’s play ‘Fences’.
Note: Harvard foundation award aims to honour the America’s most acclaimed artists and scientists each year.
Bengali Folk singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya passes away
Popular Bengali folk music singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya(46-year) passed away in a road accident in Hooghly district, West Bengal.
He was also part of a folk band called “Dohar”, which had as its objective the popularisation of the rustic songs of Bangal and North East India.
Bhattachary had lent his voice in films like Moner Manush (2010), Jaatishwar (2014), and Bhuban Majhi (2017).
Indian economy to grow 7.1% this fiscal: Global rating agency Fitch
According to Global rating agency “Fitch Ratings Inc” Indian economy will grow by 7.1% in the current fiscal before stepping up to 7.7% in the next two financial years.
The agency has termed the 7% GDP growth for the October-December quarter as surprising and a tad lower than 7.4% in the previous quarter.
It expects the policy interest rate to stay at its current level of 6.25%.
Gradual implementation of the structural reform agenda is expected to contribute to higher growth, as will higher real disposable income.
Note:
Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSRO) designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975.
The other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's.
Fitch Ratings is dual-headquartered in New York (USA) and London(UK).
HDFC Bank launched chatbot Eva for customer services
HDFC Bank has launched an artificial intelligence based chatbot, EVA (electronic virtual assistant) for customer services in India.
Eva is India's first AI-based banking chatbot and can answer millions of customer queries across multiple channels instantly.
Now, Eva can assimilate knowledge from thousands of sources and provide answers in simple language in less than 0.4 seconds.
