Excellence by Saikat Sir: 07/25/20

The Indian Scholastic Assessment Test, or Ind-SAT, in its first, has been under the ‘Study in India’ Programme.
Ind-SAT 2020 was held in remote-proctored mode and was administered by the National Testing Agency, or NTA. Around five thousand students from Nepal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri-Lanka, Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia and Mauritius took Ind-SAT 2020.
Ind-SAT is an eligibility test for granting scholarships and admissions to foreign students to study in selected Indian universities under the Study in India programme. Ind-SAT is designed to measure the scholastic capabilities of students seeking admission in educational institutes in India. The scores obtained in Ind-SAT will serve as a criterion to shortlist the students for the allocation of scholarships in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The Ministry of HRD [Human Resource Development] conducted the first ever Indian Scholastic Assessment (Ind-SAT) Test 2020 under its ‘Study in India’ programme.

The Indian Railways will use radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) for tracking of all wagons by
A total of 23,000 wagons have been covered under the RFID project so far and the target is to cover all wagons by December 2022.
Using RFID devices, it would be easier for the railways to know the exact position of wagons, locomotives and coaches.
By using RFID, each moving wagon can be identified and its movement tracked.
While the RFID tag will be fitted in the rolling stock, trackside readers will be installed at stations and key points along the tracks to read the tag from a distance of about two meters and transmit the wagon identity over a network to a central computer.

Demand for electricity in India will be lower by 7 to 17% due to covid-19 by 2025, a new report by TERI has found. All 10 of India’s largest power-consuming states will see a demand drop between 5 to 15%.
The report, titled ‘Bending the Curve: 2025 Forecasts for Electricity Demand by Sector and State in the Light of the COVID Epidemic’, also suggests policy-makers, developers, distribution companies, and investors need to be better prepared for the future, if the decline in demand growth persists.
In particular, the financial health of Discoms and the sustainability of the prevailing cross-subsidy may be even more pressing issues in a mid-term scenario of sustained muted growth in commercial and industrial demand.

India and the United Kingdom have affirmed their shared commitment towards Free Trade Agreement between both the countries. The two sides will engage into early harvest schemes or limited trade agreements in a staged manner marking preparatory steps towards the free trade agreement.
The declaration was announced during the 14th Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting which was held virtually. Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and UK Secretary of State for International Trade, Ms Elizabeth Truss co-chaired the meeting. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri and his UK counterpart, Minister of State for International Trade, Mr Ranil Jayawardena were also present during the meet.
It was decided in the meeting that a deliberation led by Mr Goyal and Ms Truss will be held in Autumn 2020 in New Delhi to carry forward the dialogue.
Mr Puri and Mr Jayawardena will have monthly meetings to intensify the dialogue. Both sides also resolved to cooperate in the health sector especially in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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