The government of Tripura announced 'Notun Disha' (New Direction) for assessing the academic level of students in classes III-VIII and then improving their current level.

It was launched by state Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

Notun Disha is one month project to provide training to teachers. Training will be provided by NGOs and educational institution to 800 teachers.

Important Points

Tripura

Capital - Agartala

Chief Minister - Biplab Kumar Deb

Governor - Kaptan Singh Solanki

National Park

• Bison National Park
• Clouded Leopard National Park

Wildlife Sanctuary

• Gumti WLS
• Rowa WLS
• Sepahijala WLS
• Trishna WLS

The Government of India, the State Government of Chhattisgarh and the World Bank signed a loan agreement worth $25.2 million to provide support to reforms such as expenditure planning, investment management, budget execution, public procurement and accountability which are undertaken by the state for expenditure management.

The Chhattisgarh Public Financial Management and Accountability Program, which is the first Bank-Finance State-Level Project in Chhattisgarh in nearly a decade, will also help the State strengthen its Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Tax Administration Systems.

The project will strengthen the human resources of the state and will help the institutions that handle public finances.

Important Points

Chhattisgarh

Capital - Raipur

Chief Minister - Bhupesh Baghel

Governor - Anandiben Patel

National Park

• Indravati National Park
• Kanger Vally National Park
• Guru Ghasi Das (Sanjay) National Park

Three districts of Jharkhand- Chatra, Sahibganj, and Hazaribagh have topped in the ranking of aspirational districts by NITI Aayog for the period of December 2018-January 2019. 

These districts are also said to have performed well in 'health and nutrition' parameters.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant released the list of 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas.

Sonbhadra (UP), Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Chatra (Jharkhand) emerged as the top three ranking districts on the education parameter.

Important Points

Jharkhand

Capital - Ranchi

Chief Minister - Raghubar Das

Governor - Draupadi Murmu

National Park

• Betla National Park
• Hazaribagh National Park

A Guinness World Record in Yoga was set by more than a thousand people who performed the Virabathrasan or the Warrior II Pose for 3 minutes at one place, in Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park, Hong Kong.

The record is a first of its kind in the history of Hong Kong, beating the previous record of 387.

This initiative to promote yoga was taken by Overseas President of BJP for Hong and China Sohan Goenka.

 

Google has launched a new app 'Bolo' that aims to help children in primary school learn to read in Hindi and English.

The Android app, which is being launched in India first uses Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology.

It is available as a free download on Google Play Store for all smartphones running Android 4.4 or later and can also work offline.

The app features an animated character 'Diya', who encourages children to read stories aloud and helps if the child is unable to pronounce a word. It also lauds the reader when he/she completes the reading.

About Google

Headquarters - Mountain View, California, US

Founded - 4 Sept 1998

CEO - Sundar Pichai

International Women's Day is celebrated on 8th March every year.

The theme for International Women's Day 2019  is 'Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change'.

The purpose of the theme is to achieve gender equality by putting innovation by women and girls, for women and girls, at the heart of efforts

It is a day when women are recognized for their achievement without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its French counterpart CNES signed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country in May.

K.Sivan, Chairman of the ISRO and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES of France, signed an agreement in this regard in Bengaluru.

The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track the movement of ships globally-and in particular, those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands.

About ISRO

Headquarters - Bengaluru

Established - 15 August 1969

Director - K. Sivan

Delhi government has launched a commute-planning app 'One Delhi' to track bus, metro services.

The app was launched by Kailash Gahlot, Transport Minister of Delhi.

'One Delhi' is an upgrade version of PoochhO, which was launched in 2014.

It was developed by Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).

Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, jumped six positions to rank 13th on Forbes World's Billionaires list with USD 50 billion wealth and leads 106 billionaires from India on the list.

And Wipro Chairman Azim Premji ranked 36th with USD 22.6 billion wealth.

Ambani saw wealth soar from USD 40.1 billion in 2018 when he was placed 19th richest in the world.

Jeff Bezos has topped Forbes' list of the World's Billionaires with USD 131 billion wealth followed by Bill Gates (USD 96.5 bn) and Warren Buffet (USD 82.5 bn).

Bezos has topped Forbes' list of the World's Billionaires for the second year in a row, after becoming the first person to do so with a net worth of over $100bn in 2018

Other Indians in Forbes' Billionaire  list

Click Here to Read Daily Current Affairs

Click Here to Attempt Daily Current Affairs Quiz