Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) was recently launched by Ministry of Human Resource and Development.
It is a three weeks flagship leadership development training programme.
The objective is mainly to train academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.
Its focus group is second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions.
It would include both domestic and foreign training in managerial skills such as problem-solving, handling stress, team building work, conflict management, developing communication skills etc.
The implementation will be through top ranked universities and top 100 global ranked foreign universities.
ARPIT initiative
Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) was recently launched by Ministry of Human Resource and Development.
It is a unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM.
National Resource Centres (NRC) will be identified to prepare online training material.
NRC will be in a mixed range of institutions such as, Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, IGNOU, State Universities, UGC’s Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) and National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training.
It will focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
SWAYAM - Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds is a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform launched to offer various online courses for school education and higher education.
INDRA
It is a bilateral joint military exercise between India and Russia.
It is joint tactical level operations in the peace keeping / enforcement environment under the aegis of UN.
It is being organised in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.
This year edition is the 10th exercise in the series of Exercise INDRA.
INDRA - 2018 focuses on combating insurgency under the aegis of United Nations (UN).
Global Digital Content Market
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) organises Global Digital Content Market (GDCM).
It is a conference to showcase the latest opportunities and challenges in the creative industries and, changes brought about by digital technologies.
This year, the special focus of the conference is Asia-Pacific region.
India has been chosen as a host nation for the conference by WIPO.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) hosts this conference in New Delhi.
This is the 2nd edition of the conference. The first one was hosted in Geneva, 2016.
It will feature panel sessions on music, education publishing, broadcasting and digital inclusion.
It will see participation of professionals from various creative fields, the digital industry around the world and delegates of the diplomatic community from Missions to the United Nations.
ExoMars
ExoMars is a joint space venture between European Space Agency and Russian space agency Roscosmos to Mars.
The ExoMars programme comprises 2 missions.
The first mission was launched in 2016 and consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module.
The second mission is planned to be launched in 2020 and comprises a rover and surface science platform.
The rover that will carry a drill and a suite of instruments dedicated to search for possible existence of life beyond earth and geochemistry research.
It is likely to land on Mars’ equator called Oxia Planum, which had housed a massive pool of water in the prehistoric era.
PM-STIAC
Prime Minister has recently interacted with the members of Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
It is a 21-member panel, advise the Prime Minister on all matters related to S&T, innovation and monitor the implementation of PM’s vision on the same.
It is chaired by government’s Principal Scientific Advisor.
It is expected to act as a high-level advisory body to several ministries and execute mission-oriented programmes.
Secretaries of various scientific ministries such as education, environment and health would be ‘special invitees’ to the council meetings.
Scientific Advisory Committees (SAC) - Cabinet and SAC-PM was dissolved and replaced by PM-STIAC.
