Current Affairs 26th May 2018

Current Affairs 26th May 2018 - Important Points

• Online degree, diploma courses from upcoming academic session approved by - UGC
• Congress-JD(S) coalition wins floor test in Karnataka assembly on - 25th May 2018
• Data visualisation app on education scenario in India launched by - UNICEF
• Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve won - India Biodiversity Award 2018

Current Affairs 26th May 2018 - Details

Online degree, diploma courses from upcoming academic session approved by - UGC

The UGC sanctioned new guidelines for online courses by universities on May 24th , 2018.
The commission finalised that the higher educational institutions and universities will be talented to propose graduate, Post-Graduate and Diploma courses online from the forthcoming academic session.
Key Information

• The Institutions can propose online courses in those guidelines in which they are already presenting the similar programmes in regular/open and distance learnings.
• The Institutions will be talented to propose online degrees in all areas, except that need practical or laboratory classes consisting Engineering, Medicine, Dental, Pharmacy, Nursing, Architecture and Physiotherapy.
• The tests would be conducted in proctored mode and in conformism with any standards for such papers specified by the commission.
• The online learning shall have least 4 quadrants, Video lectures, e-content, personal-assessment and a debate forum to clarify queries.

Congress-JD(S) coalition wins floor test in Karnataka assembly on - 25th May 2018

The Janata Dal-Secular- Congress alliance led by H.D.Kumaraswamy secured the floor test in the Karnataka assembly on May 25th , 2018, winding-up the ten days political drama.
The motion communicating assurance in the Kumaraswamy government was accepted via a voice vote. Overall, 117 MLAs voted in side of the alliance government. The Bhartiya Janta Party MLAs headed by former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa performed a walkout over the farm loan sacrifice concerns just before the trust vote.
Key highlights

• The elections for the position of Speaker led for the vote of confidence. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Kumar was selected unanimously to the position by the policymakers after Bhartiya Janta Party contender Suresh Kumar removed his nomination.
• The victory for the position-poll coalition came 2 days following Kumaraswamy took oath in as the new CM of the state.
• Kumaraswamy had appealed the support of 117 representatives including single BSP and single independent member.
• BJP with 104 members was 8 short of being the mega party in the House that has the asset of 222 associates.
• With the final result out in the open, Bhartiya Janta Party would be the only opposition in the House and B.S.Yeddyurappa was nominated to be the leader of Opposition.

Did you know?

With the Karnataka Assembly polls ensuing in a hung judgement, the 2nd largest party, Congress and Janata Dal-Secular finalised to come together to stake rights to form the government in the state.
With the power with the Governor Vajubhai Vala, BJP as single largest party in the state was asked to set up the government and the party’s state leader B.S.Yeddyurappa took oath as the CM of the state.
However, in the unexpected floor test well-ordered by the Supreme Court, the BJP was unsuccessful to collect the needed numbers and Yeddyurappa declared his letter of resignation from the position just before the trust vote.

Data visualisation app on education scenario in India launched by - UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund- UNICEF released Data Visualisation Application to
deliver operator-friendly visual symbol of complex analytics of education situation in India. It was
established with technical inputs from the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, in partnership
with National Council for Educational Research and Training and National Institute of Education
Planning and Administration.
Key Points

• The application utilises Unified District Information System for Education, National Assessment survey and demographic information.
• It can be utilised as visual instrument by policy-formers, academic world, senior government administrators, and scientists to address breaks and monitor programmes in field of education.
  Shiksha Mela Education Open Day
• United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund India in corporation with Ministry of Human Resource
  Development organised Shiksha Mela Education Open Day to validate case stories demonstrating
  complete and reasonable quality education attained via convergent programming around 17 states.

Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve won - India Biodiversity Award 2018

Arunachal Pradesh-based Non-Government Organisation “Singchung Bugun Community Reserve”
secured the India Biodiversity Award 2018 in the “Conservation of wildlife species” class. It was
bestowed for its hard work to conserve erratic critically endangered bird Bugun Liocichla.
India Biodiversity Award
The prize is combined initiative of Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, National
Biodiversity Authority and United Nations Development programme. It recognises involvement of a
range of shareholders towards the protection of biodiversity. It is given in 4 categories including
Conservation of Threatened Species, Sustainable utilisation of biological sources, Successful replicas for access and advantage sharing and Biodiversity Management Committees.

Singchung Bugun Community Reserve

• Singchung Bugun Community Reserve is seventeen sq km biodiversity hotspot in Arunachal Pradesh.
• It was introduced under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It is homebased to censoriously endangered bird species Bugun Liocichla, which is not found anywhere else in world.
• It is situated right next to Eaglesnest Wildlife sanctuary, which is also homeplace to the bird species.
  Bugun Liocichla.
• The bird was recognized as a new species in 2006 and is supposedly only new bird species to have been revealed in India since 1947. It has been named after Bugun tribe because of their protection efforts.
• International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified Liocichla as Critically Endangered.
• There are only about 20-24 duos which live in the area.