• National

Parliament Passes Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018

• The Indian Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018 that seeks to do away with the no-detention policy in schools.
• The legislation is significant as it brings accountability in the elementary education system.
• The Bill seeks to amend the Right to Education (RTE) Act to abolish the “no-detention” policy in schools.
• Under the current provisions of the Act, no student can be detained up to class VIII.
• As per the amendment, it would be left to the states to decide whether to continue the no-detention policy.

• National

HRD Ministry constitutes a task force to look into suicides of JNV students

• The Ministry of Human Resource Development constituted a Task Force to look into the reasons of suicides reported in the JNVs.
• The Task Force will be headed by Psychiatrist, Dr. Jitendra Nagpal.
• The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) are fully residential schools managed and run by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

• International

Trump signed ‘ARIA’ into law

• The US President Donald Trump signed the ‘Asia Reassurance Initiative Act’ (ARIA) into law.
• ARIA was earlier passed in the US Senate in December 2018.
• The act establishes a multifaceted U.S. strategy to increase US security, economic interests, and values in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The ARIA will authorise $1.5 billion in spending for a range of U.S. programs in East and Southeast Asia.

• International

Panj Tirath site declared as National Heritage

• Pakistan has declared the ancient Hindu religious site of ‘Panj Tirath’ in Peshawar as National heritage.
• Panj Tirath got its name from the five pools of water present there, also contains a temple and a lawn with date palm trees.
• The five pools of the heritage site now come under the Chacha Yunus Park and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

• International

Turkmenistan launches first messaging app

• Turkmenistan has launched its first messaging app ‘BizBarde’.
• BizBarde app will allow the exchange of messages, files, photos and videos.
• Earlier, the ex-Soviet republic has blocked Western services including Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Viber, along with popular Russian networks Odnoklassniki and VKontakte.

• Appointments

V K Yadav takes charge as Chairman, Railway Board

• General Manager of South-Central Railway (SCR) Vinod K. Yadav (1980 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers) has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board.
• Yadav succeeds Ashwani Lohani (retired on 31st Jan 2018)
• The Railway Board is the apex body of the Indian Railways.
• It reports to the Parliament of India through the Ministry of Railways headed by the Railway Minister of India.

• Important Days

World Braille Day observed on 4 January

• The United Nations observed the first official World Braille Day on 4 January.
• The aim of the day is to raise awareness of the importance of Braille.
• It also aims to raise awareness about the human rights of visually-impaired and partially-sighted people,
• The day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in November 2018.

• Science and Tech

Telescope to detect cosmic X-rays launched

• US scientists have successfully launched a telescope from Antarctica that analyses X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes, and other exotic celestial bodies.
• The name of the telescope is ‘X-Calibur’ instrument.
• It is carried by a helium balloon and will reach an altitude of 130,000 feet.
• Neutron stars are objects of very small radius.

• Obituaries

Veteran Bengali Writer Dibyendu Palit Passes Away

• Renowned Bengali writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee Dibyendu Palit passes away due to age-related ailments.
• He was 79-year-old.
• Palit was conferred the Sahitya Akademi for his novel ‘Anubhab’ in 1998.
• He was awarded the ‘Bankim Purashkar’ for ‘Dheu’ in 1990 and ‘Ananda Purashkar’ in 1984 for ‘Sahojoddha’.

• States

East Siang Dist. achieves 100% electrification

• In Arunachal Pradesh, East Siang District has achieved 100% electrification under the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana- Saubhagya Scheme.
• Pasighat Electrical division, which falls under the East Siang district, has electrified 2,662 households.
• The power department has electrified 1,483 villages under ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya-Gram Jyoti Yojana’ in the state.

• Miscellaneous

Arunima Sinha climbs Mount Vinson

• Arunima Sinha has now become the first woman amputee to climb Mount Vinson (highest peak of Antarctica).
• She was the world’s first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest in 2013.
• She was a national level volleyball player who had one of her legs amputated in 2011.
• She had earlier scaled five peaks including Mt Everest, Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Elbrus, Mt Kosciuszko, and Mt Aconcagua.

• Agreements

Syndicate Bank and SBI Life Insurance Signed Bancassurance Pact

• Syndicate Bank and SBI Life Insurance signed a bancassurance pact aiming to offer a comprehensive financial planning solution to its customers.
• The pact was signed between Syndicate Bank MD & CEO, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra and MD and CEO of SBI Life, Sanjeev Nautiyal.
• Through the pact, Syndicate Bank will provide penetration in the market with its 3,000 branches and SBI Life’s diverse range of protection, wealth creation and savings insurance products will be brought to the table to the customers.