News Flash (22nd September 2020): Top 10 Stories Of The Day

UGC sets November 1 as the date to begin academic session for freshers

The Union Grants Commission has set 1st November as the date for all colleges and universities to commence their new academic session of freshers. However, the winter break this year, the summer vacation in 2021, and other holidays will be trimmed short to compensate for the time lost. According to the freshly released UGC guidelines, colleges are recommended to conduct a six-day teaching-learning schedule every week.

5 new IIITs given the tag of ‘institutions of national importance’

On Tuesday, the Rajya Sabha passed a bill tagging five newly established Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) as institutions of national importance. These 5 newly established IIITs set up under the Public-Private Partnership mode are situated in Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala, and Raichur. This bill was presented by the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

7 key bills passed by the RS in three and half hours

In a very rare event, a total of 7 key bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha is just a matter of 3 hours. These key bills include the one that excludes cereals, pulses, and onion from the essential commodities list and another that abolishes penalties for certain offenses by companies. These bills were passed in the house, immediately after the opposition parties like the Congress, Left parties, the TMC, the Samajwadi Party, and the NCP chose to boycott House proceedings as a sign of protest against the suspension of eight MPs for the remainder of the session for unruly behavior. This left the floor of the house open to only the members of the ruling BJP and its ally JD-U and other parties such as AIADMK, BJD, YSR-Congress and TDP, which usually extend support to the NDA government. When these 7 bills were passed, there was hardly any participation from the members and no properl debate or discussion. 

Umar Khalid’s plea to meet family while in custody rejected

Former JNU student Umar Khalid’s plea to meet family while in custody was rejected by a Delhi court. The student was arrested under the UAPA, and is going to be kept in custody till September 24, in a case related to the Delhi riots. On rejection of the plea, Khalid said that police had given him assurance that he would be allowed to meet his family.

UK most likely to undergo the second lockdown as COVID 19 cases rise

The citizens of the UK have been told to start working from home by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A set of new restrictions are soon to be imposed on pubs, bars, and restaurants to tackle the gradually rising second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak. “We know this won’t be easy, but we must take further action to control the resurgence in cases of the virus and protect the NHS,” Johnson has said.

Retired aircraft carrier ‘Viraat’ dismantled in Gujarat

The world’s longest-serving warship, Viraat, which was decommissioned by the Indian Navy three years ago, has been dismantled in Gujarat. The aircraft took off from the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Saturday and reached the waters at Alang in Bhavnagar district on Monday evening to be dismantled. After dismantling, the remains of the aircraft will then be sold as scrap. The warship was inducted into the Indian Navy in the year1987 and was purchased by Shree Ram Group for Rs 38.54 crore at an auction earlier this year.

Oxford COVID-19 vaccine’s third phase of the human trials begins in Pune

Serum Institute of India’s Oxford COVID-19 vaccine has entered its Phase III clinical trial of the at the state-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune. “We will administer [the vaccine] to 150 to 200 volunteers,” Dean of hospital Muralidhar Tambe said. The Phase II trials of the vaccine were earlier conducted at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and KEM Hospital.

Gmail can now be set as the default email app in phones with iOS 14

Google has rolled out an update to Gmail which has not granted the setting of the email app as the default app on all iOS14 devices. Apple released iOS14 last week, which enabled users to set third-party email applications as default for iPhone and iPad devices. 

Sashi Tharoor takes a dig at govt, calls it an ‘NDA=No-Data-Available’ Govt

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has made a sharp and sattirical remark on the Modi government for repeatedly stating that they did not have data on various subjects – from migrant labourers to farmer suicides. “No data on migrant workers, no data on farmer suicides, wrong data on fiscal stimulus, dubious data on COVID deaths, cloudy data on GDP growth – this government gives a whole new meaning to the term NDA!” Tharoor tweeted along with a cartoon.