In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the admission eligibility for Bachelor of Architecture, B.Arch. Degree Course has been relaxed for academic session 2021-2022.

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has said that the minimum requirement of 50 per cent in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and aggregate of 102 is relaxed to only pass in 12th Class with PCM subjects or 103 Diploma with Maths.

Union Health Ministry said that the country has administered over three crore 93 lakh vaccination doses in the country so far. More than 22 lakh two thousand people have been inoculated with Covid-19 doses in the last 24 hours.
 
Meanwhile, the country saw a spike in reported cases taking the total number of new infections to 39 thousand 726 in the past 24 hours taking the cumulative positive cases to over one crore 15 lakh. The Health Ministry said, 154 deaths have also been reported during the last 24 hours taking the toll to over one lakh 59 thousand across the country.
 
Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 recovery rate is 96.26 per cent at present with the total recovery of more than 20 thousand patients in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that more than one crore ten lakh patients have already recovered from this disease. Presently, the total number of active cases in the country is over two lakh 71 thousand which comprises only 2.36 per cent of the total positive cases.
 
The Indian Council of Medical Research said that various laboratories have conducted more than ten lakh 57 thousand tests of corona virus samples during the last 24 hours and more than 23 crore 13 lakh tests have been done in the country so far.

Government today said that Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh are reporting a steep rise in daily new Covid Cases. Maharashtra reported highest daily new cases at 25 thousand 833. It is followed by Punjab with two thousand 369 while Kerala reported one thousand 899 new cases.
 
Union Health Ministry said, Centre is actively engaging with all State and Union Territory governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high caseload of active cases. It said, centre is regularly reviewing the status of COVID containment and public health measures with them.
 
The Ministry said, States and UTs have been advised to improve testing in districts reporting reduction in testing. They have been also advised to carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case in the first 72 hours along with isolation and early treatment of the serious cases. It is also advised to focus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases and focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.
 
Recently, the Centre had deputed high level Public Health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab to assist in COVID-19 control and containment measures in view of recent spike in cases in these States. The Central Government had earlier deputed high-level teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Jammu and Kashmir to support them in their fight against the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

In Cricket, India will face England in the fourth T-20 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad today. The match will begin at 7.00 PM IST.

England are 2-1 up in the five-match series after a convincing win in the third T-20. Yesterday, England Yesterday defeated India by eight wickets. The Fifth and the final T-20 Match will be played on Saturday.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has passed away at a hospital in Dar es Salaam. He was 61. In a televised address, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said, the President died of a heart ailment that he has battled for over 10 years. She added that the president had been receiving treatment at Mzena hospital since Sunday. The Vice President announced 14 days of national mourning.
 
According to the African country’s constitution, Ms Hassan will be sworn in as the new president and should serve the remainder of Magufuli’s five-year team which he began last year. While a date for her swearing in has not yet been announced, she will be Tanzania’s first female president.

Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal has said that redevelopment of railway stations across the country is a priority agenda of his Ministry. He said, this agenda is being driven with full force by the Government with the participation of private players as a part of PPP projects. As part of this agenda, work on redevelopment of 123 stations is in progress.
 
As per current estimates, total investment needed for redevelopment of 123 stations along with real estate development is about 50 thousand crore rupees. Reviewing the progress of Habibganj and Gandhinagar Railway station. yesterday, Mr Goyal appreciated the work being done for redevelopment of these Railway Stations with facilities at par with Airports and as Multi Modal Hubs and commercial development harmonious with the city development.
 
Habibganj Railway Station is  being redeveloped under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The redeveloped station will have features like ‘segregation of passengers based on arrivals and departures’ leading to congestion free movement at Concourse and Platforms. The station will have latest Safety, Security and Information features. Gandhinagar Railway Station is being developed by Gandhinagar Railway and Urban Development(GARUD). The project is first of its kind in India with an exclusive 5-star Hotel Building over Live Railway Tracks.  The station has been redeveloped with all modern amenities for better passenger experience.
 
At present, works for redevelopment of stations have been initiated including in Nagpur, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Ajni stations in Maharashtra, Habibganj and  Gwalior Stations in Madhya Pradesh, Gandhinagar and  Sabarmati station in Gujarat, Ayodhya and  Gomti Nagar stations in Uttar Pradesh and Safdarjung and  New Delhi stations in Delhi.

Italy has signed the International Solar Alliance under the amended ISA Framework Agreement. The amendments to the Framework Agreement of the ISA entered into force, opening its Membership to all Member States of the UN. The External Affairs Ministry said the Framework Agreement was signed by Italy’s Ambassador, Vincenzo De Luca. The signed copies of the Agreement were received by Additional Secretary (ER), as the representative of External Affairs Ministry, which is the depositary of ISA Framework Agreement. 

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Italian Ambassador to India Vincenzo De Luca and welcomed Italy’s accession to International Solar Alliance. They also discussed Italy’s G20 presidency and Vaccine Maitri. The International Solar Alliance was launched jointly by the Indian Prime Minister and the French President during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP21, in Paris. It aims to contribute to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through rapid and massive deployment of solar energy.

A total 520 Kashmiri Migrants have returned to the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and nearly 2,000 more are expected to return by this year. The migrants have returned to Kashmir for taking up jobs that have been provided to them under the centre’s rehabilitation package.

This was stated by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. Mr. Reddy said that additional 2,000 migrants will return to the valley upon successful completion of their selection process. 

The Government has asserted that the supply of vaccines abroad under the Vaccine Maitri initiative is based on the assessment of adequate availability in the country. The assessment of adequate domestic availability of COVID-19 vaccine is continuously monitored by an empowered committee which is also overseeing the requirements of the vaccination programme. External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar yesterday made a statement on Vaccine Maitri in both the Houses of the Parliament.
 
Terming the initiative as a people centric diplomacy, Dr. Jaishankar said that Vaccine Maitri has made the world see not just the selfless outlook of India but also the quality of its products and capabilities. He added that though COVID-19 has been a test of fire for the entire world, the unique initiative of deep friendship under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised India’s standing and generated international goodwill. The External Affairs Minister informed that Vaccine Maitri began in the immediate neighbourhood and the supply has been extended to other countries.
 
Dr. Jaishankar informed that the domestic producers of the vaccines have also entered into contracts with other nations either bilaterally or through the COVAX route. He added that till date Made in India vaccines have been supplied to 72 nations across the world. Referring to India’s humanitarian assistance and disaster responses in Yemen, Nepal, Mozambique and Fiji, Dr. Jaishankar said that in the last few years the country has developed a reputation of being the first and reliable responder in the region. The Minister also highlighted India’s bridging role in the Paris Agreement and the Prime Minister’s initiatives of International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
 
Dr. Jaishankar asserted that embodying the values of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, India also came to the fore as Pharmacy of the World even when the pandemic was in full fury. He informed that the country supplied 150 nations with medicines, 82 of them as grants. The Minister also mentioned that the country’s generous approach has also been extended through the Vande Bharat Mission. India brought back over 45 lakh people including nationals of other countries in addition to Indians stranded in other countries. 

Campaigning has intensified in poll bound States of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry for the upcoming assembly elections. West Bengal will go to the polls in eight phases while Assam will be witnessing three-phase elections this time.

47 Assembly Constituencies in Assam and 30 Assembly Constituencies of West Bengal will go to polls on 27th of this month during the first phase. Senior BJP Leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam and West Bengal today and will address rallies there. In Assam, Mr Modi will address a rally in Karimganj.
 
In a tweet, Mr Modi said, Assam has witnessed positive changes across various sectors over the last five years and NDA seeks people’s blessings to continue the development agenda. In West Bengal, Mr Modi will address a rally in Purulia. He said, across West Bengal, there is a desire for change and BJP’s agenda of good governance is striking a chord among the people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the need to take quick and decisive steps to stop the emerging ‘second peak’ of Corona immediately. He warned that a countrywide outbreak can occur if this growing pandemic is not stopped now. Interacting with the Chief Ministers of various states yesterday regarding the COVID-19 situation via video conference, Prime Minister stressed the importance of solving the problems of local governance. He expressed concern about the high-test positivity rate in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and rising cases in Punjab.

Addressing the Chief Ministers, the Prime Minister said that more than 96 percent of the cases in India have recovered and India is having one of the lowest fatality rates in the world. He noted the need for provision of micro containment zones. He stressed the need to be serious about ‘Test, Track and Treat’ as has been done for the last one year. He said it is very important to track every infected person’s contacts in the shortest time and keep the RT-PCR test rate above 70 percent. He insisted on more RT-PCR tests in states which give more emphasis to Rapid antigen tests like Kerala, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

The challenge of maintaining Covid appropriate behaviour in the general public was also discussed, in light of the recent rise in the number of cases in some states. Prime Minister remarked that there is a need to identify mutants of coronavirus and assess their effects. He also warned to take the problem of vaccine doses wastage very seriously. He noted the vaccine waste in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to the tune of 10 percent. He urged to immediately correct the drawbacks of planning and governance at the local level to reduce vaccine waste.

 Popular knowledge directs the ire of a growingly unsustainable population at those in developing countries that form a part of the global poor and are unable to understand the immediate need to adopt family planning, and rightly so. However, this is not an inherent trait of certain sections of people and sociological reasons behind large families and overpopulation must be examined. These are:

1. High infant and childhood mortality: according to UNICEF one child dies every three seconds (6,500 per day) due to malnutrition and disease. It is an insurance to have more than you may need so that some of them reach adulthood. 

2. Security in old age: the tradition in the family is that children will take care of their parents. The more children the more secure the parents, and the less the burden for each child. If there is no social welfare network, children look after their parents. 

3. Children are an economic asset in agricultural societies: They work on the land as soon as they are able. More children mean more help but more children need feeding. In MEDCs, children are dependent on their parents during their education and take longer to contribute to society. 

4. Status of women: the traditional position of women is that they are subordinate to men. In many countries, they are deprived of  any rights, like owning property, having their own career, getting an education. Instead they do most of the agricultural work and are considered worthy only for making children, and their social status depends on the number of children they produce, particularly boys. Breaking down such barriers of discrimination (social or religious), allowing girls to get an education and be capable of gaining status outside the context of bearing children has probably contributed more than anything toward the very low fertility rate in MEDCs.

5. Unavailability of contraceptives: in MEDCs this is the prime way of reducing fertility. In LEDCs, many women would like to have them but they are too poor to pay for them or they cannot get them.

Now that these issues have been addressed, methods to strike them at their roots must be designed so that society is benefitted as a whole, and the earth can free itself of the burgeoning burden of increasing population. These are:

1. Provide education in the form of basic literacy to children and adults, especially about family planning, financial safety and the population crisis.

2. Improve health by preventing the spread of diseases through simple measures of hygiene (boiling water), by improving nutrition, and by providing some simple medication and vaccines. 

3. Make contraceptives and family counselling available, especially to illiterate and underprivileged women.

4. Enhance income by small-scale projects focusing on the family level. Microlending, as in the Gramin Bank, is a practice that has had high success. Small loans are given for a peasant to buy some seed and fertilizer to grow tomatoes, for a woman to buy pans to bake bread, for a weaver to buy yarn, for an auto mechanic to get some tools. Thus, small enterprises may start that will feed the whole family (at least). Return of the loan is guaranteed through credit associations formed by the members of the community. 

5. Improve resource management. Local people may grow tree seedlings for transplanting in reforestation projects, prevent erosion through soil conservation measures. We have realized that large projects in LEDCs often do not work. Major projects like building dams for HEP or roads cost an LEDC which is then in debt (third world debt) and force the population into cash cropping (eg tobacco, oil palm). 

Thus, through a combination of welfare, education, humanity and initiative, we as a community can help earth overcome one of the biggest environmental and social crises it has ever faced.

External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar will make statements in both the houses of Parliament today regarding India’s Vaccine Maitri Initiative. In Rajyasabha the discussions will be held on the working of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Tourism.

In Lok Sabha, the discussion and voting will be held on the demands for Grants of Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for 2021-22.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a whip to all its members in the Lok Sabha to be present in the House throughout the day today.

Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has described the New Education Policy as the foundation stone for Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Replying to the discussion on the demands for grants of the Ministry of Education for 2021-22, in Lok Sabha yesterday, he said, developed countries have flourished with education in Mother Tongue.  Keeping this in mind, emphasis has been given in the NEP to promote education in 22 Indian languages. He also said, for the first time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been incorporated in the school curriculum.

The Minister said, 50 thousand crore rupees have been allocated for the National Research Foundation over five years to boost the research ecosystem in the country. The Minister refuted the allegations by the opposition, that the budget for the education sector was reduced.  

He said, in the IITs, the seats for girls is increase by twenty percent. Listing out several measures during the Covid pandemic, the Minister said, the government has successfully conducted online classes, board examinations, and prestigious JEE and NEET entrance exams during the peak of the pandemic.

Earlier, participating in the discussion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor welcomed the Government’s decision to bring in National Education Policy. However, he alleged that education is not a priority of the government at the Centre as budgetary allocations for several educational schemes have been reduced, which will hamper the quality and affordability of education.

Raising the issue of digital divide during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tharoor said, online education in its current form is exclusionary and discriminatory. He stressed on the need to bridge the digital divide gap by allocating more funds on key educational schemes.

BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said that budgetary allocations have been increased manifold during the NDA regime in the education sector. Terming the NEP as a revolution in the education system in Independent India, BJP MP, Tejaswi Surya said, during the pandemic when the countries across the world came to standstill, education did not stop in India.

He highlighted the success of PM e-Vidya, with over One Lakh Crore page hits, that made study materials available for the students, in various languages.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant while congratulating the Government for New Educational Policy said that more focus should be given to infrastructure at primary level. Ritesh Pandey of BSP said, only 21 percent of women are going for higher education due to various social and financial constraints.

Faizal Mohammad of NCP suggested that interactive educational equipment in every classroom would help students learn in a better way. Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference appealed to the government to ensure that schools are not disturbed due to political or calamity reasons.

Parliament has passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with the Rajya Sabha approving it yesterday. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in March last year. The Bill provides for an outer limit of 24 weeks for medical termination of pregnancy.

The limit is in sync with the advancements in medical technology that allows for the removal of foetus at a relatively advanced stage of pregnancy.