National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)
- The idea of NCMC was floated by Nandan Nilekani Committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- NCMC falls under the umbrella of the ‘One Nation One Card’ initiative.
- It can be used at all transit locations making all new metro and transit payments interoperable via one card.
- It will turn smart phones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use to pay for metro, bus and suburban railways services.
- It will allow entry and exit from Metro stations with the help of a smartphone, known as the automatic fare collection (AFC) system.
- NCMC would contain two instruments –
- Regular debit card which can be used at an ATM and
- Local wallet, which can be used for contactless payments, without the need to go back to the server or additional authentication.
Blue Flag Certification
- International blue flags have been hoisted on country’s eight beaches that have the Blue Flag certification.
- This certification is an eco-label accorded by the “Foundation for Environment Education in Denmark” based on 33 criteria.
- India started its journey of sustainable development of coastal regions in 2018 by launching its beach cleaning campaign 'I-AM-SAVING-MY-BEACH' simultaneously at 13 coastal states.
- It has also implemented the BEAMS (Beach Environment and Aesthetics Management Services) programme.
- To know more about Blue Flag Certification, click here.
R P Tiwari Committee
- The University Grants Commission (UGC) has set up a seven-member committee headed by R P Tiwari.
- This committee will consider the issue of holding common entrance test at undergraduate (UG) level only from the next academic year in central universities to provide a single platform for admission.
- The new National Education Policy (NEP) advocates reducing the number of entrance tests to eliminate the need for taking coaching for these exams.
- If the NEP suggestion is implemented, the National Testing Agency will be established.
- This Agency will be tasked to conduct a common aptitude test as well as specialised common exams for different disciplines at least twice a year, for admission to bachelor degrees in central universities.
Ramgopal Rao Committee
- Ministry of Education had appointed a committee, headed by IIT-Delhi V Ramgopal Rao, to suggest measures for implementing reservation in student admissions and faculty recruitment in IITs.
- The committee has suggested that the 23 IITs should be exempted from reservations altogether under the CEI Act, 2019.
- [CEI Act, 2019 - The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Act, 2019]
- It suggests that IITs should be added to the list of “Institutions of Excellence” mentioned in the Schedule to the CEI Act, 2019.
- Section 4 of the Act exempts “Institutions of excellence, research institutions, and Institutions of national and strategic importance” found in the Schedule and minority institutions from providing reservation.
Radio Signal from Exo-planet
- The first possible radio signal emanating from an exoplanet in the Tau Bootes exoplanet system (51 light-years away) has been collected.
- Tau Bootes exoplanet system contains a binary star system and an exoplanet, which is a Jupiter-like planet so near its own sun.
- Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope in the Netherlands, was used to uncover emission bursts from the star-system.
- Till now, only Tau Bootes system exhibited a significant radio signature, a unique potential window on the planet’s magnetic field.
- Observing an exoplanet’s magnetic field helps astronomers decipher a planet’s interior and atmospheric properties, as well as the physics of star-planet interactions.
Source: The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Business World
