Dear Aspirants,
THE rankings 2018: 42 Indian Universities in list, none in top 25
The Times Higher Education (THE) released the list of the best colleges in Asia in the Asia University Rankings 2018 on 6 February.
- While the top 10 spots were secured by universities from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, India managed to improve its score on the index with a total of 42 finding a place among just over 350 Universities.
- Indian Institute of Science (IIS) in Bengaluru was the topmost Indian University in the list coming in at rank 29.
- At rank 44 was the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, followed by IIT-Kharagpur at 60 with 11,016 students.
- IIT-Roorkee, rank 65, IIT-Kanpur, rank 81 and IIT-Delhi, rank 86. At rank 100, Tezpur University in Assam was the last Indian university in the top 100 list.
Sushma Swaraj inaugurates Saudi cultural festival
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has inaugurate Saudi Arabia’s annual ‘Janadriyah Festival’ where India has been invited as guest of honour this year, officials said.
- Earlier, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had said that India’s participation in the festival will be multifaceted and would take relations of the two nations “to new heights”.
- According to the minister, the Indian pavilion at the festival will project a number of Indian themes and projects.
First-ever Pelican Festival held at Atapaka Bird Sanctuary
Andhra Pradesh government has held the first-of-its kind, one-day Pelican Festival at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru lake.
- Koleru is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country.
- Officials made elaborate arrangements to attract tourists for the ‘Pakshula Panduga’ at Atapaka village, located on the borders of the Krishna and the West Godavari districts.
Centre to link driving licence with Aadhaar
The Centre is in the process of linking driving licences with Aadhaar number to weed out fake licences and a software for this covering all states on a real time basis is under preparation, the Supreme Court was told.
- A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was informed about it by a court-appointed committee on road safety headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan.
- This assumes significance as a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra is currently hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the enabling 2016 law.