Notes:
In New Delhi, the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry signed an agreement with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for India’s Participation in Programme for International Student Assessment- PISA 2021. The student assessment by PISA will ensure learning outcome through education. Students will be selected by PISA through random sampling. The format for the student assessment will be offline and the question to Indian students will be related to India’s perspective only. The PISA test will help reveal where they stand globally as far as learning outcomes are concerned. PISA is a triennial international survey in which students are assessed in reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem-solving. The purpose of the survey is to evaluate the education system worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. The CBSE and NCERT will be part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.

Notes:
Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been appointed the South-East Asia regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for a second five-year term. Under her leadership, the Region has made remarkable progress. In her first term, she focused on building an increasingly responsive and accountable WHO in the Region, while prioritizing persisting and emerging epidemiological and demographic challenges; promoting universal health coverage and building robust health systems; strengthening emergency risk management and articulating a strong regional voice in global health agenda. In the last five years, four countries eliminated measles and six controlled rubella. Thailand became the first in Asia-Pacific and the first with a large HIV epidemic—to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Maldives and Sri Lanka were certified malaria free. Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand eliminated lymphatic filariasis, India was declared yaws-free and Nepal trachoma-free.

Notes:
The Ministry of Defence launched a mobile app ‘RDP India 2019’ to let people watch highlights of the 70th Republic Day event all over the world. This app contains information about the Parade on Rajpath, New Delhi, including Order of the March, details of the tableaux presented by different States and Ministries, children cultural performances, fly past and names of recipients of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019. It was extremely informative to the spectators witnessing the Parade and was widely appreciated. The app also had the provision for live streaming of the Parade. People who desire to know the theme and ideas depicted in the tableaux and also those who for some reason could not witness the Parade on Rajpath or watch it on TV, can still download the app and gather all information about the event. This new initiative is in sync with the Digital India campaign of the Government.

Notes:
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Atal Setu — the third Cable bridge across river Mandovi in Panaji, Goa. The new bride is four-lane and 5.1Km long, and is expected to overcome the bottlenecks and curb traffic jams at Panaji Circle and Panaji entrance. It is constructed by the GIDC (Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation) and engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro. This is the third bridge across Mandovi River. It is named as ATAL SETU in memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpeyee.

Notes:
Dhirendra Nath Chakraborty, the veteran journalist and former editor, has been conferred the Assam Republic Day Journalism Award 2019 for his lifelong contribution to journalism in the state. The award comprises a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh, a citation, the Assamese ‘xoraai’ (the bell metal memento presented as an honour), ‘jaapi’ (headgear) and an angavastra. Chakraborty is the former editor of Dainik Asom, Dainik Janambhumi and Ajir Batori group of newspaper.