Top Headlines 17th December 2020: EducationBro

Top Headlines 17th December 2020: EducationBro

Top Headlines 17th December 2020: Education Bro Provide Every Single Day Important Top Headlines, Current Updates including different areas Like Current Affairs Updates like New Appointment, Awards, Deaths News, Banking News, Economic Update, National News, International News, State Level News, New launching Update, Summit & Conference Update, Defence News, Science & Technology Update, Sports News Updates.

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Top Headlines 17th December 2020 Given Below:

I. India, World Bank sign USD 400 million project to protect India’s poor and vulnerable from the impact of COVID-19: Quick Highlights 

• The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a $400 million project to support India’s efforts at providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the second operation in a programmatic series of two. The first operation of $750 million was approved in May 2020.
• The programme will strengthen the capability of state and national governments in India to provide coordinated and adequate social protection to the poor and vulnerable from the shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

II. Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati elected Vice President of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)

• Prasar Bharati has achieved another global milestone in broadcasting today with the CEO, Shashi Shekhar Vempati being elected as the Vice President of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), one of the largest broadcasting associations in the world. The election happened today during the General Assembly of the Union which was held virtually due to COVID-19. Shri Vempati has been elected to the office of the Vice President, ABU for three years with immediate effect.
• The Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union was formed in 1964 as a professional association of broadcasting organisations with over 286 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching the potential population of about three billion people.

III. Cabinet approves MoU between India and USA for exchange of information in areas of mutual interest in the electricity sector

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s proposal for entering into a Memorandum of Understanding between Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), India and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), United States of America (USA) for exchange of information and experiences in areas of mutual interest to both in the electricity sectors.

IV. Cabinet approves Auction of spectrum: Point-to-Point Details

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing commercial mobile services.
• The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands. Spectrum will be offered for assignment for validity period of 20 years. A total of 2251.25 MHz is being offered with total valuation of Rs. 3,92,332.70 crore (at reserve price).

V. Cabinet approves revised cost estimate of North Eastern Region Power System

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) of North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) at an estimated cost of Rs. 6,700 crore. This is a major step towards economic development of North Eastern Region through strengthening of Intra - State Transmission and Distribution systems.
• The scheme is being implemented through POWERGRID, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under Ministry of Power in association with six beneficiary North Eastern States namely, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura and is targeted to be commissioned by December 2021.

VI. Cabinet approves assistance of about Rs. 3,500 crore for sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan)

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved assistance of about Rs. 3,500 crore for sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan).
• Currently, there are close to five crore sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan) and their dependents in India. In addition to this, there are about five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and ancillary activities; and their livelihood depends on the sugar industry.

VII. India, NDB sign agreement for USD 1,000 million to provide support to Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

• The Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB) signed a loan agreement for lending $1,000 million for ‘supporting India’s economic recovery from COVID-19’ by supporting expenditures on rural infrastructure related to natural resource management (NRM) and rural employment generation under Government of India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
• The country-wide restriction on movement of people, coupled with additional stringent restrictions imposed by State Governments and intermittent localized lockdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19, affected domestic supply and demand, resulting in slowed down economic activity.

VIII. Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announces four times JEE (Main) Examination from 2021  

• Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ today made several announcements on JEE (Main) Examination-2021. He announced that JEE (Main) Examination- 2021 will be conducted in four sessions in the month of February, March, April and May 2021. The first session of JEE (Main) 2021 will be held from February 23rd - 26th, 2021.
• He also announced that drawing from the National Education Policy (NEP), for the first time ever JEE (Main) Examination-2021 will be conducted in 13 languages- Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu , Hindi, English and Gujarati.

IX. India and UK to strengthen education collaboration

• India and the United Kingdom have expressed the resolve to further strengthen their educational collaboration. In a bilateral meeting between Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Foreign Secretary of UK Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab here today, the two countries agreed to deepen their engagement in the field of education and research, and work collaboratively on mutual recognition of academic qualifications over the next year.
• Minister of State for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Secretary, Higher Education Shri Amit Khare and senior officials of the Ministry were present in the meeting.

X. Deadline for States to implement citizen centric reforms extended till 15th February 2021

• The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, has extended the deadline for the States to complete citizen centric reforms in various sectors. Now, if the recommendation from the nodal Ministry concerned regarding implementation of the reform is received by 15th February, 2021, the State will be eligible for reform linked benefits.

XI. Farmers' protest against new farm laws continues for 22nd day

• Farmers' protest against new farm laws continues for the 22nd day today at various borders of Delhi. Security has been enhanced at the border areas including at Singhu border and Jaisinghpur-Khera at Rajasthan-Haryana border with multi-layered barricades.