• Keyi Panyor has become the 26^th district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• It has been carved out of Lower Subansiri
• The new district, which was being demanded by the people of the Nyishi community for long, will have its headquarters at Ter Gapin-Sam Sarth.
• The 27th district, Bichom, is scheduled to be inaugurated early next week.

• The coal ministry announced that Gevra mine, operated by South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) in Chhattisgarh, has received environmental clearance to boost its production capacity to 70 million tonnes per annum.
• The expansion will position Gevra as the largest coal mine in Asia, overtaking Indonesia’s Sangatta mine in coal production.
• Currently, Gevra’s production capacity stands at 52.5 million tonnes a year, making it the largest in India.
• The Gevra mine stretches approximately 10 km in length and 4 km in width.
• SECL is a Coal India subsidiary and deploys environmentally friendly, blast-free mining technology, including surface miners and ripper mining equipment
• In FY23, SECL produced 167 million tonnes of coal and aims to increase this to 200 million tonnes this fiscal year (FY24), with a goal of reaching 260 million tonnes by FY26.

• Prime Minister inaugurated the country’s first-ever underwater metro, the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Metro section in Kolkata.

ABOUT THE METRO

• Kolkata’s new underwater metro is 6 km long.
• About 8 km runs underground from Howrah Maidan to Phoolbagan, including the tunnel under the Hooghly River, making it the deepest in the country. The rest is above ground.
• Stretching over 8 km, one section connects Howrah and Salt Lake, providing a vital link between these twin cities.
• The underwater metro has six stations, with three of them underground.
• The metro covers a 520 m river stretch in just 45 seconds, promising a quick and efficient mode of transportation.
• The train uses Automatic Train Operation (ATO), a cutting-edge system where the train advances to the next station when the motorman presses a button.

• A Kerala school has introduced a humanoid as a teacher.
• Named Iris, the humanoid was unveiled last month at KTCT Higher Secondary School in Thiruvananthapuram in collaboration with Makerlabs Edutech Private Limited.
• According to Makerlabs, Iris was built as part of the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL), a 2021 NITI Aayog project to boost students’ extracurricular activities in schools.
• Iris can speak three languages and also answer difficult questions, along with features including voice assistant, interactive learning, manipulation capabilities, and mobilities.
• Equipped with a dedicated Intel processor and a coprocessor for maneuvering tasks, the robot offers seamless performance and responsiveness.
• With its Android App interface, users can easily control and interact with the robot for a personalized learning experience.

• French lawmakers approved a bill to enshrine abortion rights in France’s constitution, making it the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.

• The historic move was proposed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to prevent the kind of rollback of abortion rights seen in the United States in recent years.
• The measure was approved in a 780-72 vote in the Palace of Versailles.
• Both houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, had already separately adopted a bill — as required — to amend Article 34 of the French Constitution.
• The measure specifies that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”

• ‘Women, Business and the Law 2024 report’ was released recently by the World Bank Group.
• The report assesses the gap between legal reforms and actual outcomes for women in 190 economies.

 MAJOR FINDINGS

• No country, including the most affluent economies, ensures equal opportunities for women.
• When considering legal distinctions related to violence and childcare, women are found to have less than two-thirds or 64 per cent of the rights enjoyed by men.
  • Earlier estimates projected women had 77 per cent of the rights.
• Although laws on the books imply that women enjoy roughly two-thirds the rights of men, countries on average have established less than 40% of the systems needed for full implementation.
• Women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.
• Eliminating discriminatory laws and practices hindering women from working or initiating businesses could result in a more than 20 per cent increase in global gross domestic product.
• About India
  • India’s rank has marginally improved to 113, with a score of 74.4 per cent.
  • While the country’s score has remained constant since 2021, its ranking witnessed a decline from 122 in 2021 to 125 in 2022 and further to 126 in the 2023 index.
  • Indian women have just 60 per cent of the legal rights compared to men, slightly below the global average of 64.2 per cent.

• National Council for Educational and Research Training (NCERT) has introduced a new “holistic” report card that incorporates feedback from parents, classmates, and even self-evaluation by students to track their overall progress regularly.
• PARAKH, a standard-setting body under the NCERT, has devised the Holistic Progress Card (HPC) for foundational stage (Classes 1 and 2), preparatory stage (Classes 3 to 5) and middle stage (Classes 6 to 8) and is currently working on developing one for the secondary stage.
• The NCERT has asked all states to either adopt the HPC or adapt it according to their requirements.
• The HPC, aligned with the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) to make evaluation more “learner-centric”, has started considering various aspects of learning, including diverse skills and competencies, rather than solely relying on marks obtained in periodic tests.
• Its aim is to track not only students’ academic performance but also their cognitive, socio-emotional abilities, and creativity during class activities.

ABOUT PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT, REVIEW, AND ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE FOR HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT (PARAKH)

• Established in February 2023.
• PARAKH was set up in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) as an independent constituent unit.
• It aims to fulfill the basic objectives of setting norms, standards, and guidelines and implement activities related to student assessment along with other tasks as mandated by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

• Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti was celebrated on March 5.
• As per Hindu Panchang, Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti is celebrated on the tenth day of Krishna Paksha in the month of Phalguna.

ABOUT MAHARISHI DAYANAND SARASWATI

• He was born in 1824 in Tankara, Gujarat in a Brahmin family.
• He was earlier named Mool Shankar Tiwari as he was born during Mool Nakshatra.
• He wandered as an ascetic for fifteen years in search of truth.
• Dayananda’s views were published in his famous work, Satyarth Prakash (The True Exposition).
• He supported a number of social reforms and publicly denounced discrimination and women inequality.
• He was the founder of Arya Samaj.
  • The first Arya Samaj unit was set up by him at Bombay in 1875 and later the headquarters of the Samaj were established at Lahore.
• He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as “India for Indians” in 1876, which was later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
• He upheld the infallibility of the Vedas, the doctrines of karma and denounced idolatory and rituals.
• He gave the slogan “Back to the Vedas”.

• India’s first city-specific Zero Carbon Building Action Plan (ZCBAP) has been launched in Nagpur.
• With this, Nagpur becomes one of the six cities globally to get a Zero Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA) project.
  • Other 5 cities are in 4 countries– Colombia, Turkey, Kenya and Costa Rica.
  • ZCBA was launched by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in 2021, and was supported by Global Environment Facility (GEF), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), World Green Building Council (WGBC) and other global partners.
• The Action Plan, released by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI-South Asia) states the goal to make new buildings within Nagpur city Net Zero by 2030, and also convert all existing buildings into Net Zero by 2050.
• The Action Plan for Nagpur has been developed jointly by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd (NSSCDCL).
• ICLEI South Asia is the implementing partner for the ZCBA project in Nagpur.
• The ZCBAP road map covers various types of buildings, including public buildings, affordable housing, commercial buildings, and private homes.
• It also includes strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the choice of building materials and improved design, construction, management, and deconstruction practices.