MHRD announces entrance dates; JEE Mains to be held twice in 2019

All the exams will be computer-based except for NEET, which will be conducted in pen-and-paper mode

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on Tuesday announced the schedule for various entrance examinations till May 2019 to be conducted by the newly-established National Testing Agency (NTA).

It announced the schedule for UGC-NET, JEE Main I & II, CMAT & GPAT, and NEET-UG.

All these exams will be computer-based except for NEET, which will be conducted in pen-and-paper mode as before. This mode of writing exam was kept unchanged at the request of the Health Ministry.

"The change in the NEET exam pattern (as against the statement made on July 7, 2018) -- which will now be a single exam in pen-and-paper mode and in the same number of languages as has been conducted last year -- is on the request of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which wanted the same pattern as last year's to be maintained," the HRD Ministry said in its statement.

While declaring the establishment of NTA, the Ministry had in July said that all these exams will be conducted online.

As per the schedule announced on Tuesday, the UGC-NET will be conducted on several days during December 9-23, 2018; JEE-Main I on days between January 6 and 20, 2019, while JEE-Main II will be held between April 6 and 20, 2019.

The CPAT-GMAT entrance, earlier conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education, will be conducted by the NTA now on January 28 and NEET-Undergraduate on May 5 next year.

The Ministry said that through NTA it has also established 2,697 Test Practice Centres (TPCs) in schools and engineering colleges for candidates to practice and familiarise themselves with the pattern of the exams.

These centres will be available to the candidates on Sundays and Saturdays starting from September 1 and will be free of charge.

"The TPCs will have a downloaded Computer Based Test (CBT) which will be similar to the actual test to be conducted on the exam day. (more)

Umar Khalid attack: Kanhaiya questions Delhi's law and order ahead of I-Day

Kanhaiya also said it is the democratic right of a common citizen to be given security if they are facing a threat to life

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumarcalled the attack on fellow student Umar Khalid an attempt to "stop us from reaching out to the masses" to educate them about the current political agenda.

An unidentified man targeted the JNU student leader outside the Constitution Club and gunshots were heard but Khalid escaped unhurt, according to witnesses even as the police asserted it would verify the incident.

He also raised questions on the law and order situation in the national capital since the attack happened a couple of days before Independence Day.

ALSO READ: JNU student leader Umar Khalid allegedly shot at in Delhi; escapes unhurt

"August 15 is Independence Day and just two days before it, there is a deadly attack on a man in a high-security zone. This raises serious questions on the law and order situation," Kumar told PTI.

Khalid had gone to participate in an event when the attack took place.

"He had gone to an event which was about gaining freedom from fear. The attack was an attempt to create an atmosphere of fear. The incident shows that certain people are scared of those who talk about rights and justice," he said.

He also said it is the democratic right of a common citizen to be given security if they are facing a threat to life.

"Unfortunately, the government is protecting those who have mob lynch mentality. Those who raise their voices are not being protected," he said.

He said that they are "against intolerance" and will keep putting their views across and putting pressure on the government.

"A specific type of political agenda is being played out and there is an attempt to break those who talk about democracy and believe in non-violence. The social fabric is breaking and people should be told about it. Incidents like these are attempts to stop us from reaching out to common people," he said.

RRB ALP & Technician exam 2018: How to download admit card for Aug 17 CBT

In the first stage exam, out of 119,110 around 111,332 aspirants appeared for the RRB exam at 416 centres across 160 cities

Schedule for e-call letter/Admit card download for the 1st stage CBT

RRB Exam 2018: The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) has now activated the links to download admit card for Assistant Loco Pilot and Technician on Monday, August 13, 2018, for the exam to be held on August 17, 2018. The candidates can download the RRB ALP and Technician Admit Card and RRB Group D admit card (hall ticket) from the official websiteindianrailways.gov.in.

For direct link of respective zones click here

In the first stage of the exam, out of 119,110 around 111,332 aspirants appeared for the RRB exam at 416 centres across 160 cities.

No call letters would be sent via e-mail. Candidates should, therefore, note that they must download these from the right website. Admission to the examination hall without the call letter/admit card/hall ticket is strictly prohibited.

Here's how to download the RRB ALP admit card 2018:

Step 1: Candidates can go to the official website of the RRB zone for which he/she made the application, or visit indianrailways.gov.in

Step 2: Click on the recruitment tab available on http://indianrailways.gov.in

Step 3: Then it will take you to the list of RRBs portals (zone-wise)

Step 4: Candidates can click on the relevant RRB website

Step 6: Then you have to click on the link named Admit Card of 1st stage Computer Based Test (CBT) for recruitment to ALP & Technicians Centralized Employment Notice No. 01/2018(English) (more)

Microsoft builds digital solution for CBSE to prevent question paper leaks

At present, the solution is having its pilot run, but it has passed the first test with flying colours

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which came under heavy criticism this year following the leak of class 10 mathematics paper and class 12 economics paper, has forged a partnership with tech giant Microsoft to prevent such leaks in the future.

The paper leaks triggered nation-wide outrage among students and parents. This set the CBSE, which has 20,299 schools in the country, in action, paving the way for the partnership with Microsoft which developed an encrypted security solution for digital question papers for the board within a period of three months.

"We have developed for CBSE an innovative solution which makes question papers leak-proof until 30 minutes prior to the start of the examinations," Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) and Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise, told IANS in a telephonic interaction.

"But if the question papers get leaked after they are allowed to download (just half an hour before the start of the exam) due to some bad actors, the system allows easy traceability as question paper for each centre are watermarked," Bhansali said.

At present, the solution is having its pilot run, but it has passed the first test with flying colours, Microsoft claimed.

As part of their collaboration, CBSE and Microsoft successfully executed in July the first ever pilot of the digital question paper generation and delivery process at 487 centres for compartment examinations for class 10.

How does the system work?

The system allows the Controller of examination to track the entire process using a software solution built on Windows 10 and Office 365.

The overall process is encrypted and a two-factor authentication process is embedded. So examiners will have to identify themselves before they can download the examination papers. They are allowed to download the papers (after authetification) only 30 minutes prior to start of the exams. (more)

Rahul Gandhi seeks probe in NEET candidates' data leak, writes to CBSE

Rahul called for putting in place additional safeguards to prevent such a breach in the future

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has written a letter to the CBSE over media reports claiming a massive breach of data of candidates who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test this year, and demanded an inquiry into the matter.

In the letter to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairperson Anita Karwal, he called for putting in place additional safeguards to prevent such a breach in the future.

Drawing attention to the recent media reports regarding the "massive breach" of candidate data, Gandhi, in his letter, said, "It is alleged that this data is available on certain websites for a price, and has leaked the data of over 2,00,000 students".

Education news : The reports claimed that personal data, including names, phone numbers and email ids of over 2,00,000 candidates, who appeared for CBSE's National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year, were available for a price on some online portals.

I am shocked by this wide scale theft of personal data that has compromised the privacy of candidates across the country, Gandhi wrote in the letter.

He said it highlighted the serious lack of safeguards to prevent data breach, and calls into question the ability of the CBSE to ensure the sanctity of the examination process.

I strongly urge you to order an inquiry against this shocking lapse and take action against the officials responsible for the same. In addition, I request you to put additional safeguards to prevent the recurrence of such data breaches, Gandhi said.

The CBSE conducted the NEET on May 6 in 136 cities in 11 languages, the results of which were announced on June 4.

Honor 9N India launch today: Watch live stream, know expected price, specs

The Honor 9N would sport an optimised notch-based screen and 2.5D curved glass design with 12-layer Nano coating on the back for a mirror-like effect

Honor, the online subsidiary of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, is all set to launch the Honor 9N in India on July 24. The Flipkart-exclusive smartphone would sport an optimised notch-based screen and 2.5D curved glass design with 12-layer Nano coating on the back for a mirror-like effect.

The Honor 9N is reported to be a renamed version of the Honor 9i, launched in China some time ago. In terms of specifications and features, the Honor 9N is expected to sport a 5.84-inch fullHD+ notch-based screen stretched in a 19:9 aspect ratio. The phone would be powered by Kirin 659 system-on-chip (SoC), paired with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. This is the same processor that has been used in most of Honor’s budget smartphones, including the Honor 9 Lite, Honor 7X and Honor 9i (Indian version).

However, the Honor 9N processor might support Huawei’s recently announced GPU Turbo technology, which the company claims to boost graphic performance by up to 60 per cent and processor efficiency by 30 per cent.

ALSO READ: GPU Turbo aims to address smartphones' graphic performance challenge: Honor

In terms of imaging, the Honor 9N would have a dual camera set-up on the back and a single-camera unit on the front for selfies. The rear cameras would feature a 13-megapixel primary sensor mated with a 2MP depth-sensing lens. The selfie camera would feature a 16MP lens, which would also double up as a biometric utility for the face-unlock mechanism. Powering the device would be a 3,000 mAh battery.

As for the price, the Honor 9N is expected to be priced somewhere between Rs 12,000 and Rs 18,000. However, this is a speculative price and the official price, sale information and colour details would be added soon after the launch.

Sprint queen Hima Das: Is she the next big thing in brand endorsements?

Will brands line-up to sign her up or will she go the Dipa Karmakar way?

Last week was crazy. My WhatsApp was inundated with forwards on the FIFA World Cup. All kinds of stats, stories, anecdotes, jokes and footage on England, Belgium, Croatia and France were coming in from friends and acquaintances without too many filters or discretion being exercised. So, in the middle of all that chaos, I almost missed the first message on Hima Das winning a gold medal at the IAAF World U-20 Athletics Championship 2018 in the 400 metres at Tampere in Finland. But then in the space of the next couple of hours I received (I counted) 22 forwards of the video showing Hima Das’s dash to victory and glory. It was as if India had finally found its own hero amongst all the noise and hype of the FIFA being played by everyone else, but us. And, the forwards did not stop. Almost out of nowhere background stories about Hima started to fill up my inbox. Again, I counted. 31 of them over the next 4 hours. Finally, a video of Hima Das on the victory podium started to pour in. A video of the young champion, India’s national anthem playing in the background, and Hima with tears hesitantly rolling down her cheeks. The video actually brought tears to my eyes too. This time the count on the forwards exceeded 50. Overnight, Hima Das had become the darling of the nation, a sensation recognized the very next day by Amul with a hoarding headline that said, “Das pe dus!”.

Not since Dipa Karmakar attained the 4th position in the Women’s Vault Gymnastics event at the Rio Olympics in 2016, had I witnessed such mass adulation and euphoria. There were many similarities in the Dipa-Hima stories. Underprivileged backgrounds. Both from the North East. Almost no formal coaching. No facilities. Just a lot of grit, determination and loads and loads of hardwork. Entirely self-driven, supported by poor families, unsung heroes no one had expected to win on the global stage. So, in all the WhatsApp messages (I am not very active on Twitter, hence did not keep track on that) there was surprise (in fact wonder would be a more appropriate word to use). There was the usual lament about lack of support and encouragement to these emerging heroes and many many hopes that these newly minted champions would make India proud many more times in the future.

Das will soon be back home, I am sure to a hero’s welcome. I am sure the Minister of Sports will escort her to meet the Hon’ble President and the Hon’ble Prime Minister. It is after all the done thing. There will be lots of media coverage. Lots of social media commentary too. More stories will emerge about her impoverished past. A couple of stories on her coach for sure.

ARTICLE SOURCE : BS

At 107,487, India accounts for 1/5th of global deaths from floods in 64 yrs

India is one of the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change

India Floods : India accounts for one-fifth of global deaths due to floods, according to government data that lend perspective to a new World Bank study that says climate change will lower the standards of living of nearly half of India’s population by 2050.

As many as 107,487 people died due to heavy rains and floods across India over 64 years between 1953 and 2017, according to Central Water Commission data presented to the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) on March 19, 2018. Damage to crops, houses and public utilities was reported to be Rs 365,860 crore–or as much as 3% of India’s current gross domestic product–the data show.

“The main reasons of floods have been assessed as high intensity rainfall in short duration, poor or inadequate drainage capacity, unplanned reservoir regulation and failure of flood control structures,” according to the reply to the Rajya Sabha.

With heavy rains sweeping western India, many cities such as Mangaluru, Mumbai and Junagarh have flooded during the 2018 monsoon season. Over 30 people died in floods that inundated 58 villages, The Times of India reported on July 7, 2018.

Climate change will exacerbate flooding

“Temperatures have been rising across the [South Asia] region, and are projected to continue increasing for the next several decades under all plausible climate scenarios,” the World Bank study, published on June 28, 2018, said.

These changes will result in more frequent flooding, greater water demand and increased heat-related medical issues.

South Asian cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka and Karachi–that are home to over 50 million people–face a substantial risk of flood-related damage over the next century, the report said.

India is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change. It has increased the frequency of downpours as well as the gaps between rainy days during the monsoon, as IndiaSpend reported in January 2018 and February 2018.

As India’s climate warms, extreme weather, such as intense rain and floods, is predicted to worsen.

The new World Bank study mentioned above said the worst affected states by 2050 would be Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Seven of the 10 most affected districts will belong to Vidarbha, Maharashtra.

Article Source : BS

Apple App Store turns 10 with 500 mn weekly visitors in 155 countries

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store

Customers in 155 countries are visiting Apple App Store more often, staying longer and downloading and using more apps than ever before, the Cupertino-based iPhone giant has said.

App Store, that will turn 10 on July 10, now sees 500 million weekly visitors and hundreds of stories on the "Today" tab that have been read by more than 1 million people.

"When Apple introduced the App Store on July 10, 2008, with 500 apps, it ignited a cultural, social and economic phenomenon that changed how people work, play, meet, travel and so much more," Apple said in a statement on Friday.

With the introduction of in-app purchase (IAP) in 2009, customers could download an app and then pay to unlock different levels and functionality.

By June 2010, $1 billion were paid out to developers from IAP and paid apps.

Subscriptions are up 95 per cent from 2017, and as of June 2018, developers have earned over $100 billion from the App Store, the company informed.

"In its first decade, the App Store has surpassed all of our wildest expectations. We could not be more proud of what developers have created and what the next 10 years have in store," said Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Apple.

According to Marco Arment, a long-time iOS developer, App Store has been by far the easiest way for developers to reach the most people with his apps.

"It eliminated the friction and overhead of setting up our own distribution and payment systems, making development far more accessible to everyone and letting us focus on our true passion: making the best apps we can," he said.

Later, start-ups including Instagram, Calm, Uber and Instacart embraced features like the iPhone camera, Apple Pay, GPS and Location Services to deliver on-demand and personalised experiences -- with many creating billion-dollar businesses that started with apps in the App Store.

"At the same time, both traditional companies and those that started as websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Yelp, Airbnb and Amazon, began building apps to meet changing customer behaviour," Apple said.

The App Store brought gaming mainstream owing to the Multi-Touch technology on iPhone and iPad and the convenience of playing on the go.

Article Source : BS

Vivo X21 India launch at 12:30 PM: Watch live stream, know specs, features

The Vivo X21 in-display fingerprint sensor smartphone will be Flipkart-exclusive and will go on sale starting May 23

Vivo, a Chinese mobile phone brand, was one of the first smartphone manufacturers to launch consumer-ready notch screen-based smartphone the Vivo V9 in India. Now, in another first, the company is gearing up to launch an in-screen fingerprint sensor-based device the Vivo X21. The smartphone will be Flipkart-exclusive and will go on sale starting May 29.

The Vivo X21 is a flagship smartphone with top of the line specifications. The phone sports a vivid fullHD+ super AMOLED 6.28-inch notch-based screen, which has an embedded fingerprint sensor at the lower bottom. The phone boasts premium glass-metal-glass sandwich design, which is in-line with other premium offerings.

Powering the smartphone is a rather modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip (SoC), paired with mammoth 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, expandable up to 256GB using microSD card.

The dual-SIM smartphone boots Android Oreo out of the box covered under company’s customised skin called as the Funtouch OS 4.0. The phone takes its power from 3,200 mAh battery, which supports quick charging. However, instead of USB type-C, the phone uses a microUSB port for charging and data transfers.

In terms of imaging, the Vivo X21 sports a dual camera set-up on the back that featuring a 12-megapixel primary sensor, paired with a 5MP secondary lens. On the front, there is a 12MP selfie camera. Both the front and back camera boasts dual pixel technology for enhanced colour reproduction and low noise in low light conditions.