Shaala Darpan Portal
- It is an E-Governance school automation and management system for Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) in New Delhi.
- Navodaya Vidyalaya is the country’s largest residential schooling system that provides education to the talented children predominantly from the rural areas without regard to their family's socio-economic conditions.
- This portal has been developed for information sharing and knowledge dissemination for employees and students across schools and offices of NVS.
- It is the first major initiative to enable automation of all activities of the NV’s through a single umbrella - 636 schools, 8 Regional Offices, 8 NLIs and Head Quarter.
- There is also another portal with the same name for Kendriya Vidyalayas.
- Kendriya Vidyalaya Shaala Darpan is an e-Governance platform for all KVs in the country.
- It aims to improve quality of learning, efficiency of school administration, governance of schools & service delivery to key stakeholders namely, students, parents, teachers, community and schools.
Other Related Portals
- Shaala Sarathi is a State-NGO-CSR Portal to aid the collaboration among the stakeholders in sharing innovative practices in various schools.
- Shaala Siddhi is a comprehensive school evaluation system focused on well-defined quality-based parameters that facilitates Schools to make professional judgments for improvement.
IndAIR
- Indian Air quality Interactive Repository (IndAIR), is a web facility launched by CSIR-NEERI.
- It has archived research articles, reports, case studies and statues to provide the history of air pollution research and legislation in the country.
- It has the maximum number of studies (262) concerning Delhi-NCR.
- It reveals that air pollution was recognised as a subject in India even in 1905.
- This portal would be a useful platform for the scientific community to share its current work and exchange ideas.
Voyager 2
- Voyager 2 is the space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
- In 2018, It has passed an incredible milestone in its journey to explore the solar system by entering interstellar space (exited the heliosphere).
- Voyager probes (Voyager 1 and 2) are the first spacecraft to date that humans have sent to this boundary, called the heliopause.
- Recent developments - Scientists have decoded the signals sent by Voyager 2 from interstellar space.
- The signals will help scientists paint a clearer picture of cosmic shoreline, where the heliosphere ends, and interstellar space begins.
- The findings also confirmed that the plasma inside the heliosphere is significantly less dense and less cold than the plasma in local interstellar space.
- Another surprising revelation was the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere.
Heliosphere, Heliopause and Interstellar Space
- The sun creates heliosphere by sending a constant flow of particles and a magnetic field out into space at over 670,000 miles per hour. This stream is called the ‘solar wind.’
- Heliopause marks the end of a region created by our sun that is called the heliosphere.
- It is the boundary between our Solar System and the interstellar medium.
- It is the place where the sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings.
- Interstellar Space is the part of space that exists between stars with cold particles around it.
- Inside the heliosphere, the solar particles are hot but less concentrated. Outside of the bubble, they are very much colder but more concentrated.
- Once an object arrives in interstellar space, there would be an increase of “cold” particles around it.
BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave
- Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization of 7 members - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
- The first ever BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave is going to be organised at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
- The conclave is expected to explore the possibility of increasing economic cooperation by furthering EXIM trade and coastal shipping.
- It will also discuss on various investment opportunities, best practices adopted for productivity and safety at Ports.
- Objective of BIMSTEC is to harness trade and accelerated growth with mutual cooperation in different areas of common interest by utilising the regional resources and geographical advantage.
Office of Profit
- President has rejected a petition demanding disqualification of 11 Delhi MLAs belonging to Aam Aadmi Party for allegedly holding office of profit.
- In March 2017, a petition was filed before the President seeking disqualification of the lawmakers claiming that they were enjoying office of profit by being co-chairpersons of district disaster management authorities in 11 districts of Delhi.
- The issue was referred to Election Commission which gave an opinion that holding the office of co-chairperson of a district disaster management authority does not attract disqualification as MLA since there is no remuneration by way of salary and allowances.
- As per law, the President accepts the opinion of the Election Commission in cases of office of profit.
- ‘Office of profit’ (OoP) is not clearly defined in the Constitution.
- But deriving from the past judicial pronouncements, five tests have been laid down to check if an office is an OoP or not.
- They are:
- whether the government makes the appointment
- whether the government has the right to remove or dismiss the holder
- whether the government pays remuneration
- what the functions of the holder are
- does the government exercise any control over the performance of these functions
- In all, the word ‘profit’ has always been treated equivalent to or a substitute for the term 'pecuniary gain' (financial gain).
Source: PIB, The Indian Express, AIR
