गणतंत्र दिवस (Republic Day) पर हर साल राजपथ पर परेड होती है. 26 जनवरी (26 January) को होने वाली परेड (Republic Day Parade) की तैयारी तेजी से चल रही है. 17, 18, 20 और 21 जनवरी को गणतंत्र दिवस परेड की रिहर्सल होगी. गणतंत्र दिवस की भव्य परेड में भारतीय सेना के विभिन्न रेजिमेंट, वायुसेना, नौसेना आदि सभी भाग लेते हैं. इसके साथ ही परेड में झांकियां निकाली जाती हैं. इस बार जिन 15 विभागों की गणतंत्र दिवस परेड में झांकी निकलेंगी, उनमें कृषि विभाग की दो झांकियां शामिल हैं. इसके साथ ही जेल, स्वास्थ्य एवं परिवार कल्याण, समाज कल्याण, नगरीय प्रशासन, ऊर्जा विभाग, आदिम जाति तथा अनुसूचित जाति, महिला एवं बाल विकास, पंचायत एवं ग्रामीण विकास, लोक निर्माण, वन, जल संसाधन, ग्रामोद्योग, संस्कृति एवं पर्यटन तथा कौशल विकास, तकनीकी शिक्षा एवं रोजगार, विज्ञान और प्रौद्योगिक विभाग की एक-एक झांकी परेड में शामिल होंगी.

1. गणतंत्र दिवस की भव्य परेड देश की एकता अखंडता सांस्कृतिक विविधता और सैन्य शक्ति का प्रदर्शन करने के लिए आयोजित की जाती है. 
2. गणतंत्र दिवस की भव्य परेड नई दिल्ली स्थित राजपथ पर आयोजित की जाती है. लेकिन क्या आप जानते हैं 1950 से लेकर 1954 ईस्वी तक परेड का आयोजन स्थल राजपथ नहीं हुआ करता था? इन वर्षों के दौरान 26 जनवरी की परेड का आयोजन क्रमशः इरविन स्टेडियम (अब नेशनल स्टेडियम), किंग्सवे, लाल किला और रामलीला मैदान में किया गया था. 
3. 26 जनवरी की परेड की शुरुआत राष्ट्रपति के आगमन के साथ होती है. सबसे पहले राष्ट्रपति के घुड़सवार अंगरक्षकों के द्वारा तिरंगे को सलामी दी जाती है, उसी समय राष्ट्रगान बजाया जाता है और 21 तोपों की सलामी दी जाती है. हालांकि वास्तव में 21 तोपों से फायरिंग नहीं होती है, बल्कि भारतीय सेना के 7 तोपों, जिन्हें “25 पौन्डर्स” कहा जाता है, के द्वारा तीन-तीन राउंड की फायरिंग की जाती है.
4. 26 जनवरी 1955 में राजपथ पर आयोजित पहले गणतंत्र दिवस समारोह में पाकिस्तान के गवर्नर जनरल मलिक गुलाम मोहम्मद विशेष अतिथि बने थे,
5. हर साल गणतंत्र दिवस की परेड में गीत “Abide with Me” निश्चित रूप से बजाया जाता है क्योंकि यह महात्मा गांधी का पसंदीदा गीत था. हालांकि अब इस गीत को हटाकर इसके स्थान पर भारत के राष्ट्रीय गीत वंदे मातरम को बजाया जाएगा. 

Many central banks are striving to issue digital currencies.

Many central banks are racing to create digital currencies, which could provide substantial Over the last decade, thousands of digital currencies have come into existence. While this rapid proliferation has helped illustrate the enthusiasm and innovative nature of cryptocurrency advocates, one can’t help but wonder how many of these projects will survive in the long-term.

Earlier this month, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Bloomberg that 99% of all digital assets will “probably” go “to zero.” He is not alone, as Jake Yocom-Piatt, project lead for Decred, has predicted that “many cryptocurrencies will perish.”

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

This struggle for survival has grown even more intense, as many central banks have jumped into the fold, moving to create their own digital currencies.

Central Bank Race

“At the moment the three biggest currencies in the world are racing to make their fiat digital,” noted Mati Greenspan, senior analyst for eToro.

 “So far, China is winning and set to announce the PBOC blockchain and digital Yuan early next year,” he emphasized.

The central banks behind the other two largest currencies, the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, have failed to generate as much progress, noted Greenspan.

Libra

Another player in the game is libra, a digital currency proposed by The Libra Association. So far, the association, which aims to create a global digital currency and offer financial services to billions who are unbanked, has encountered significant challenges. Several would-be members of The Libra Association cut ties with the project, and regulators have responded with significant skepticism.

The Outcome

As for how this struggle for dominance will pan out, analysts offered varying points of view.While the vast majority of digital currency projects might fail, market observers provided a consensus that this won’t produce a winner-take-all scenario. “Between cryptocoins, corporate coins & state coins, we’re probably not going to end up with 100+ widely used digital currencies,” said Jacob Eliosoff, a cryptocurrency fund manager.

“Network effects will matter & there will probably be only a few winners,” he emphasized.

Marouane Garcon, managing director of crypto-to-crypto derivatives platform Amulet, offered a similar point of view. “There won’t be a single currency because of too many political differences in the world, but just like fiat currencies some will be stronger in value than others.”

Yocom-Piatt predicted that many digital currencies people think of as being a store of value (SOV), for example bitcoin and decred, will survive.

Benefits Of Competition

At the same time, while many cryptocurrencies may die out, this outcome will certainly have its benefits, he claimed. “Instead of a large amount of capital and attention spread across many currencies, we will increasingly see that same capital and attention spread across a smaller number of SOVs, leading to a corresponding increase in their value.” Further, Yocom-Piatt noted that more traditional cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have characteristics that may help them come out on top.

Many prefer cryptocurrencies due to their ability to provide their users with privacy.

Monero and Zcash, for example, have made substantial progress on this front.

Central bank digital currencies, however, “are simply not incentivized to deliver substantive privacy,” noted Yocom-Piatt.

Eliosoff also spoke to this, emphasizing that China is working on a digital currency that will enable “monitoring & state control.”

Obviously enough, privacy is only one of the benefits provided by digital currencies, as these innovative creations offer many others.

While some digital assets “value privacy,” others emphasize transparency, Greenspan emphasized.

“Some are built to scale and some are built for security,” he added.

“Each has it’s pros and cons according to the needs and values of the developers.”

If the vast majority of cryptocurrency projects die out, it could help provide some clarity, by showing which benefits are of greatest value to the market.

CBDC Benefits

While CBDCs may not be as popular as their more traditional counterparts within the crypto community, these government-issued digital assets certainly have potential.

By issuing digital assets that are cryptographically secured, governments might be able to completely eliminate counterfeiting.

Further, by issuing a CBDC, a government could potentially trace every single transaction made using the digital asset.

Between these two benefits, digital currencies issued by central banks could eliminate a great deal “of illegal activity,” noted Garcon.

Past that, CBDCs could potentially assist governments with both “Tax Collection and Money Laundering prevention,” noted Garlam Won, head of marketing for blockchain startup Harmony.

By harnessing CBDCs, governments could “accurately assess the health of the economy and [obtain a] detailed view into which sectors might require more funding and support.”

Armed with this information, governments might use tax dollars more efficiently, he noted.

Self-made billionaire Bill Gates consumes about 50 books a year. Every December, of those 50 or so books, he chooses his top five.

“My list is pretty eclectic this year,” the Microsoft co-founder writes on his blog, Gates Notes. “From a how-to guide about meditation to a deep dive on autonomous weapons to a thriller about the fall of a once-promising company, there’s something for everyone.”

For a productive start to 2019, crack open one of Gates’s favorites this holiday season.

“Educated” by Tara Westover

In this bestselling memoir, Tara Westover reflects on her childhood as the youngest of seven children raised in a fundamentalist Mormon home in rural Idaho. Her dad believed in isolating the family from mainstream society, including the health and education systems, so she didn’t set foot in a classroom until age 17.

“Tara’s process of self-discovery is beautifully captured in ‘Educated,’” says Gates. “It’s the kind of book that I think everyone will enjoy, no matter what genre you usually pick up.”LIVE, NEWS-MAKING DISCUSSIONS
UNIQUE, IN-PERSON EXPERIENCES

“Army of None” by Paul Scharre

This is a “thought-provoking look at A.I. in warfare,” writes Gates.

“It’s an immensely complicated topic,” he says, but Scharre, a Pentagon defense expert and former U.S. Army Ranger, “offers clear explanations and presents both the pros and cons of machine-driven warfare.”

“Bad Blood” by John Carreyrou

John Carreyrou is the reporter who, in 2015, started exposing the scandal that eventually brought down the multibillion-dollar biotech start-upTheranos. In “Bad Blood,” he details the rise and fall of the company and its founder Elizabeth Holmes.

“The story is even crazier than I expected, and I found myself unable to put it down once I started,” says Gates. “This book has everything: elaborate scams, corporate intrigue, magazine cover stories, ruined family relationships, and the demise of a company once valued at nearly $10 billion.”

“21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari

Gates is a big fan of historian and author Noah Harari, who also wrote “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” and Harari’s latest book is a new favorite.

“While ‘Sapiens’ and ’Homo Deus’ covered the past and future respectively, this one is all about the present,” writes Gates. “If 2018 has left you overwhelmed by the state of the world, ’21 Lessons’ offers a helpful framework for processing the news and thinking about the challenges we face.”

“The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness” by Andy Puddicombe

“I’m sure 25-year-old me would scoff at this one, but Melinda and I have gotten really into meditation lately,” says Gates, who now meditates two or three times a week.

“I now see that meditation is simply exercise for the mind, similar to the way we exercise our muscles when we play sports,” he adds. If you’re interested in trying mindfulness, this book by former Buddhist monk and founder of the Headspace app Andy Puddicombe offers an excellent introduction.

After years of not buying into meditation, Puddicombe was “the person who turned me from skeptic to believer,” says Gates.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the test which is taken by the candidates who wish to study or work in the English speaking countries. The IELTS is the world’s most popular high-stakes English language proficiency test, in which around 3 million candidates appear every year.

The IELTS scores are admissible in over 140 countries and more than 10,000 institutes recognise IELTS scores for granting admissions. Also IELTS scores are recognised by many employers, professional associations and government organisations around the world.

Why should you appear for IELTS?

Because of its world wide acceptance, the IELTS is the most preferred English language test among others.

IELTS for Study: World’s top Universities and Colleges accept the IELTS scores for checking candidates’ English language proficiency. There is hardly any organistation which does not recognise IELTS scores, therefore clearing the IELTS with good scores will help you in taking admission in a desired college/university.

IELTS for Professionals: Maximum organisations working in the filed of medicines, engineering, accounting, teaching, pharmacy, nursing etc accept IELTS score for English as an international language. Therefor, after completing your degree, you need to clear this examination in order to work as a professional in a foreign nation.

IELTS for migration: Even if you wish to a business or work in a English speaking country you should be well-versed with the English language. Your IELTS score helps in securing permanent residency. IELTS General Training Test is the only non-academic test available for migration to the USA, Canda, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

IELTS test format

Test Name	Test Duration
IELTS Listening test	30 minutes
IELTS Reading test	60 minutes
IELTS Writing test	60 minutes
IELTS Speaking Test	11-14 minutes

A unique emissions trading system being piloted in Surat, Gujarat, has achieved a 29% drop in deadly particulate pollution generated by industrial plants while cutting costs, the first evaluation of the scheme has found.

The Emissions Trading System (ETS) launched in July 2019 by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) is billed as the first such scheme, not just in India but the world, for particulate pollution. 

One hundred and fifty-eight plants in the industrial hub have signed up for this “cap and trade” scheme. Industrial clusters are set a limit on how much particulate pollution they can collectively emit; they can then either install equipment to cut their emissions, or purchase credits from those that do, to keep their collective emissions down. It began live trading on September 15, 2019, after two months of trials.

An evaluation of the scheme, released on October 18, 2019, suggested that the flexible character of the market-based scheme allows the participating plants to save a large part of what they spend on complying with relatively rigid government regulations, without compromising on environmental standards. For example, it said they could potentially save more than a third of the annual cost of installing pollution control equipment and thereby boost their profits.

This cost-benefit analysis, based on survey reports from each of the 158 units, mostly textile and dye mills, was done by researchers from the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC-India) and the Economic Growth Center at Yale University (EGC-Yale), USA, two of several institutions involved in shaping the scheme.

“This first look at the programme finds that [it] is projected to both foster economic growth by reducing industries’ compliance costs and improve people’s health by reducing particulate air pollution,” Michael Greenstone, director of EPIC and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “It is bringing Indian environmental policy to the global frontier.”

The ETS allows plants that are able to reduce their pollution cheaply to sell their permits–certificates issued to them in proportion to their pollution load–to others that find it more expensive to comply because of the nature of their production process. In an interview to IndiaSpend in June 2019, Greenstone had stressed the scheme’s potential for being replicated in other parts of the country after proving its efficacy in Surat.

Air pollution caused one in eight deaths and took 1.24 million lives in India in 2017, IndiaSpend reported in December 2018. The country struggles in particular with fine inhalable particles known as PM 2.5 that are especially dangerous to human health. India’s PM 2.5 levels are the fourth highest in the world and nine times the World Health Organization’s prescribed limit. Industries and power plants together contribute about one-fifth of the country’s PM 2.5 pollution.

Explaining the 29% figure

Before the ETS came into effect, several of the 158 Surat plants were violating pollution regulations, and were collectively emitting 362 tonnes of particulate pollution every month.

After its launch, the ETS set a cap of 280 tons per month on the particulate emissions from these plants. This cap, equivalent to the amount of pollution the plants would have collectively emitted in a month had they complied with the GPCB’s regulations, represents a 29% reduction in their emissions. 

The report emphasised that the cap, being based on the total amount of pollution released into the atmosphere, was an improvement on the current regulatory approach, which is “based on how dirty a factory’s emissions are regardless of how many hours a factory operates”.  (Under the regulations, the government could, for example, end up levying higher fines on Unit A classified as high-polluting than Unit B classified as low-polluting even if Unit A emitted less overall pollution because it operated for fewer hours.)

How ETS reduces the cost of compliance

The GPCB’s regulations require polluting industries to install expensive equipment–such as bag filters, cyclone filters and electrostatic precipitators–to meet the government’s particulate pollution standards and obtain environmental clearance.

The report estimated the average cost for the Surat plants of installing such equipment to curb pollution–referred to as abatement cost–at around Rs 6.5 per kg of pollution load. 

However, under ETS, where installation of equipment is not mandatory, the report estimated that these plants would be able to reduce their pollution to the capped level with an abatement cost close to Rs 2.5 per kg of pollution load–or about 60% less.

The report also pointed out that the abatement costs under ETS would rise slowly, and not be overly burdensome, even when the regulator decided to tighten standards and lower the emissions cap. “Because of the ability to buy and sell permits, the cost to plants is gradual,” it said.The ETS Is Projected To Lower The Costs Of Reducing Particulate Emissions

Source: Surat Emission Trading Scheme: Evaluation Report, October 2019

Boosting profits, meeting targets

Under the ETS, plants with low abatement costs can make larger reductions in emissions than they need to and profit by selling the excess. Industries with high abatement costs can save money by buying permits instead of installing expensive equipment.

If a plant were to install instruments such as cyclone and bag filters to abate pollution, the estimated annual cost would be slightly higher than Rs 15 lakh, according to the report. By comparison, under ETS, it estimates a plant would spend about Rs 10 lakh annually to trade pollution permits, or 36% less.

Furthermore, about 80% of permits provided under the cap are given away free to industries at the start of the market, in proportion to their pollution load. Since permits have monetary value, this makes the scheme even more profitable for industries, said the report.

This model can provide significant revenue to factories that have low pollution today, since they are likely to have permits available to sell to other market participants, it said.

When comparing the costs of purchasing and operating pollution abatement instruments to the costs under the ETS, the report found that every industry in Surat would be potentially better off.

For more than 75% of the 158 plants, profits are projected to increase by more than Rs 5.5 lakh per year with the average increase in profits being Rs 8.6 lakh per year. “The industries that benefit the most are those that have expensive operating equipment… or those that are able to sell permits,” the report said.

“Importantly, none of these benefits come at the expense of the environmental integrity of the scheme,” it said.

The researchers from Yale University and the University of Chicago, along with others from The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (recently in the news for the awarding of the Nobel Prize to its founders) will update their analysis from time to time, and will carry out a full evaluation when the pilot ends, in coordination with GPCB.

DUBAI: The UAE has set up an artificial intelligence university, claimed to be the first in the world, in Abu Dhabi.

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) was inaugurated on Thursday and it offers courses for undergraduate students.

It is also accepting applications for its first masters and PhD programmes this month, with classes scheduled to begin on September 20 next year. All admitted students will be given full scholarship plus benefits such as a monthly allowance, health insurance and accommodation.

“AI is already changing the world, but we can achieve so much more if we allow the limitless imagination of the human mind to fully explore it. The university will bring the discipline of AI into the forefront, molding and empowering creative pioneers who can lead us to a new AI empowered era,” said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State, who has been appointed chair of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees and is spearheading the university’s establishment.

The university has been set up with an aim of introducing a new model of academia and research to the field of artificial intelligence, providing students and faculty access to some of the world’s most advanced systems to unleash its potential for economic and societal development, he said.

The varsity’s board of trustees is a global pool of experts including Michael Brady, professor of oncological imaging at the University of Oxford; Anil K Jain, distinguished professor at Michigan State University; Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences at Tsinghua University, Beijing; Daniela Rus, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

“The invention of electricity, the railroad, smartphones all transformed the world as we knew it. AI can lead to an ever greater societal and economic transformation, but first we must ensure we have the right infrastructure, talents and academic institutions,” Jaber said.

The university will offer Master of Science (MSc) and PhD level programs in key areas of artificial intelligence – machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing – while also engaging policymakers and businesses around the world so that AI is harnessed responsibly as a force for positive transformation.

MBZUAI has partnered with the Abu Dhabi-based Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI), for the supervision of PhD students and curriculum development.