RUSA Scheme to be implemented to improve Equity, Quality of Higher Education

An initiative to improve the Quality of Higher education in India by implementing RUSA scheme which was started in 2013 was in news again with the Minister of HRD providing information about the scheme in the Lower house.

  • RUSA- Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan
  • Aim –To provide strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions

India ranked 118th in UN’s world happiness index; behind Pak, China

India ranked 118th out of 157 countries on the United Nations’ World Happiness Index (WHI) 2016. It was revealed by the fourth World Happiness Report 2016 published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the UN.

  • Top 10 countries: Denmark (1st), Switzerland (2nd), Iceland (3rd), Norway (4th) and Finland (5th), Canada (6th), Netherlands (7th), New Zealand (8th), Australia (9th) and Sweden (10th).
  • 5 Least happiest countries: Rwanda (152nd), Benin (153rd), Afghanistan (154th), Togo (155th), Syria (156th) and Burundi (157th).
  • Among BRICS: Brazil (17th), Russia (56th), China (83rd), South Africa (116th) and India (118th).
  • India’s Neighbours: Nepal (78th), China (83rd), Bhutan (84th), Pakistan (104th), Bangladesh (110th), Sri Lanka (117th) and Afghanistan (154th).

Note: For the first time, the report has given a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions. Countries where there was less inequality were happier overall.  These variables include real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms India was ranked 111th in 2013 and 117th in 2015.

Fazle Kabir appointed as Governor of Bangladesh’s Central Bank

Bangladesh Government has appointed Former Secretary of Finance Division Fazle Kabir as the new Governor of Bangladesh Bank, country’s central bank. He will succeeds Atiur Rahman who had resigned after taking moral responsibility over the cyber theft from the central bank’s official account with New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Nepal To Have Its First Woman Chief Justice

Nepal is on a gender equality drive as it chooses its first woman Chief Justice, in a row of selecting women to top posts. Recently, the country got its first woman President and Speaker.

  • Sushila Karki, the senior most of the judges in the Nepal’s Supreme Court has been nominated for the top post by the judicial council chaired by the Prime Minister, K P Oli.
  • She will take charge as Nepal’s first woman President Bindya Bhandari, endorses her nomination and the current chief justice, Kalyan Shreshtha retires.

Shehnai exponent Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan passes away

Eminent Shehnai exponent Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan, one of the best-known players of the shehnai after the legendary Bismillah Khan, passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. He was 77.

  • He hailed from a family of renowned Shehnai exponents from Benaras.
  • He was felicitated with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2009 for his contribution to Hindustani instrumental music.
  • In 2012, he was felicitated with the ‘Bangabhushan’ award by the West Bengal government.