Day: December 19, 2022

Key points of UN COP15 summit held at Canada.

After four years of fractious talks, nearly 200 countries, including India, approved a historic Paris-style deal on Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity following an intense final session of negotiations at the UN COP15 summit here in Canada.

The UN Development Programme said the “historic agreement” meant people around the world could hope for real progress to halt biodiversity loss.

The main points include:

  • Maintaining, enhancing and restoring ecosystems, including halting species extinction and maintaining genetic diversity
  • “Sustainable use” of biodiversity – essentially ensuring that species and habitats can provide the services they provide for humanity, such as food and clean water
  • Ensuring that the benefits of resources from nature, like medicines that come from plants, are shared fairly and equally and that indigenous peoples’ rights are protected
  • Paying for and putting resources into biodiversity: Ensuring that money and conservation efforts get to where they are needed.

Furthermore, the framework also calls for increasing the amount of money sent to poor countries to at least $20 billion every year by 2025 which could be increased by $10 billion each year by the end of the decade. However, the document only calls for identifying subsidies by 2025 which can be reformed or phased out and work on reducing them by 2030. 

The draft comprised four broad goals and 22 targets addressing the protection of nature and sharing its benefits which included, the management of wildlife, working on the restoration of habitats and using less plastic. 

Key points of UN COP15 summit held at Canada.

After four years of fractious talks, nearly 200 countries, including India, approved a historic Paris-style deal on Monday to protect and reverse dangerous loss to global biodiversity following an intense final session of negotiations at the UN COP15 summit here in Canada.

The UN Development Programme said the “historic agreement” meant people around the world could hope for real progress to halt biodiversity loss.

The main points include:

  • Maintaining, enhancing and restoring ecosystems, including halting species extinction and maintaining genetic diversity
  • “Sustainable use” of biodiversity – essentially ensuring that species and habitats can provide the services they provide for humanity, such as food and clean water
  • Ensuring that the benefits of resources from nature, like medicines that come from plants, are shared fairly and equally and that indigenous peoples’ rights are protected
  • Paying for and putting resources into biodiversity: Ensuring that money and conservation efforts get to where they are needed.

Furthermore, the framework also calls for increasing the amount of money sent to poor countries to at least $20 billion every year by 2025 which could be increased by $10 billion each year by the end of the decade. However, the document only calls for identifying subsidies by 2025 which can be reformed or phased out and work on reducing them by 2030. 

The draft comprised four broad goals and 22 targets addressing the protection of nature and sharing its benefits which included, the management of wildlife, working on the restoration of habitats and using less plastic. 

Outstanding Achievement for NIT Calicut in NBA Accreditation

 Five Major B.Tech Programmes of NITC receives NBA Accreditation for 6 Years Five major B.Tech programmes offered by National Institute of Technology Calicut namely B.Tech in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering., Electronics & Communication Engineering., and Computer Science & Engineering have been accorded with the highest accreditation status of 6 years (2022-2028) by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), New Delhi. 6 years is the maximum possible duration of accreditation where “Not Accredited” or “Accredited for 3 years” being the other two possible status. 

The present result of NIT Calicut is based on the inspection visit of an expert committee composed of 11 senior professors from top Institutions in the country during 11-13 November 2022. The committee evaluated all aspects of these 5 programmes with a special emphasis on the data during the period 2019-22 during which all academic institutions in the country experienced several challenges due to Covid pandemic. While the programmes offered by colleges affiliated to other universities in the country come under Tier-II accreditation process, all NITs and other Deemed Universities come under the TierI scheme, which is known to be much more stringent in terms of most of the quality assessment parameters. Moreover, the current evaluation was done based on the new format introduced by the NBA in the year 2021 which is tough to achieve as compared to previous formats in practice. NIT Calicut is one of the very few institutions in the country to achieve this feat. 

On this occasion, Director Prof.Prasad Krishna told, “This reiterates the outstanding quality that NIT Calicut ensures for the teaching and research. Over the last few years, we have conducted a few faculty recruitments which also have helped us to achieve this laurel. I congratulate all my faculty members, students, alumni and employers for their consistent efforts and exemplary contributions. As India is a full signatory in washington accord now, this achievement will help our students to secure admissions in top universities of the world for higher studies as well as employment all over the world- particularly in US, Europe and Middle-East” Prof. P. S. Sathidevi, Deputy Director and Chairperson, Centre for Quality Assurance & Enhancement said “The Centre for Quality Assurance and Enhancement at NITC and Office of Dean (Academic) are taking concerted efforts to ensure the academic quality of the programmes offered in the Institute. Regular Academic Audit is conducted to ensure that the highest levels of academic and research quality are maintained in the Institute. 

The remarkable achievement of six year accreditation for the five UG programmes by the NBA is indeed a pointer to the quality conscious academic environment in the Institute”. “In Tier-I format, NBA considers the performance of the programmes on multiple aspects such as Course Outcomes and Program Outcomes, Program Curriculum and Teaching-Learning Processes, Students’ Performance, Faculty Contributions, Institute Resources, Governance and Continuous Improvement. Outstanding achievement in almost all these criteria is required in order to get 6 years accreditation. This shows the non-compromising attitude of students and faculty members in the teaching-learning process even during the challenging time of Covid and ensures the global competencies of our graduates”, Prof. Sameer S. M., Dean (Academic) said. 

NBA came into existence as an independent autonomous body with effect from January 2010 with the objectives of assurance of quality and relevance to technical education, especially of the programs in professional and technical disciplines, i.e., Engineering and Technology, Management, Architecture, Pharmacy and Hotel Management and Catering Technology, through the mechanism of accreditation of programs offered by technical institutions. The NBA conducts evaluation of programs of technical institutes on the basis of laid down norms as prescribed by the Washington accord, a global consortium of accreditation bodies of 22 countries including USA, UK, Canada, Australia and India. 

Argentina wins FIFA world cup.

The Lusail Stadium hosted what will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, World Cup finals of all time. Argentina were cruising for much of the match, until Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty and scored a sensational equaliser to force the game into extra-time. That led to more insane football as chances flew around at both ends. Messi scored late in the second-half of extra time to seemingly win it for Argentina, only for them to concede a penalty mere seconds later. The flawless Mbappe converted that as well, thus becoming the first player since 1966 to score a hat-trick in the final of a World Cup. And yet, he ended up on the losing side, with Argentina winning the penalty shootout. Messi finally got his hands on the covetted World Cup trophy in what he said will be his last match in this tournament. 

Mbappe wins the Golden Boot, but Messi bagged the World Cup. It was the battle of the Number 10s, as two titans of the game stepped up and gave it their all. But it was the veteran that stood tall in the end. Nobody expected Argentina to dominate the way they did for the first eighty minutes of the match. Nobody expected them to lose their lead twice in the match. And certainly nobody expected Mbappe to score a hat-trick and still find himself on the losing side. But for all the criticism that Argentina had received over the years for crumbling under pressure, this World Cup has shown that there is none better than them when it comes to penalties, where nerves mattered the most.

Argentina wins FIFA world cup.

The Lusail Stadium hosted what will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, World Cup finals of all time. Argentina were cruising for much of the match, until Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty and scored a sensational equaliser to force the game into extra-time. That led to more insane football as chances flew around at both ends. Messi scored late in the second-half of extra time to seemingly win it for Argentina, only for them to concede a penalty mere seconds later. The flawless Mbappe converted that as well, thus becoming the first player since 1966 to score a hat-trick in the final of a World Cup. And yet, he ended up on the losing side, with Argentina winning the penalty shootout. Messi finally got his hands on the covetted World Cup trophy in what he said will be his last match in this tournament. 

Mbappe wins the Golden Boot, but Messi bagged the World Cup. It was the battle of the Number 10s, as two titans of the game stepped up and gave it their all. But it was the veteran that stood tall in the end. Nobody expected Argentina to dominate the way they did for the first eighty minutes of the match. Nobody expected them to lose their lead twice in the match. And certainly nobody expected Mbappe to score a hat-trick and still find himself on the losing side. But for all the criticism that Argentina had received over the years for crumbling under pressure, this World Cup has shown that there is none better than them when it comes to penalties, where nerves mattered the most.