“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“एक बार एक युवक को एक अच्छी सलाह प्राप्त करते हुए मैंने सुना था कि, "हमेशा वह कार्य करो जिसको करने से आप ड़रते हैं।"”
राल्फ वाल्डो एमर्सन
State Ranking Index for National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2022 was released by Central government recently. In the index, Odisha has emerged as number one state in India.
The assessment framework to rank States and Union Territories was prepared on three important pillars. These pillars enfold end-to-end implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA) via Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). The three pillars include:
The Conference of Food Ministers on Food & Nutrition Security was held on July 5, 2022. On this day in 2013, National Food Security Act (NFSA) came into existence. Conference was organised to celebrate the day. During the conference, discussions were held on food security, nutritional security, crip diversification, best practices & reforms in Public Distribution System and storage sector.
New Delhi: In celebration of India’s 75th anniversary of independence, the UK government has partnered with leading businesses in India to offer 75 fully-funded scholarships for Indian students to study in Britain from September. In a statement, the British High Commission (BHC) said, this is the highest number of fully-funded scholarships given for the one-year master’s programme to date.
Companies like HSBC, Pearson India, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Sons and Duolingo are supporting this special initiative to celebrate India’s 75th year of independence, the high commission said.
The programmes on offer include Chevening scholarships for a one-year master’s programme, with the opportunity to study any subject at any recognised UK university. Further to this, the British Council in India is offering at least 18 scholarships for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) covering over 12,000 courses across more than 150 UK universities.
Along with these, the British Council is also offering six English scholarships.
The announcement comes as British and Indian leaders from international business and government gather in London for the India Global Forum.
In India’s 75th year, this is a great milestone together, Alex Ellis, the British High Commissioner to India, told the India Global Forum’s UK-India Week in London.
Source: indiaeducationdiary.in, 30/06/22
Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska, chair of Number Theory at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, was on Tuesday (July 5) named as one of four recipients of the 2022 Fields Medal, an honour that is often described the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
The Fields Medal is awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organisation that aims to promote international cooperation in mathematics.
The IMU recognised Viazovska’s work on the sphere-packing problem in 8 and 24 dimensions, EPFL said in an announcement. Previously, the problem had been solved for only three dimensions or fewer. The other winners were French mathematician Hugo Duminil-Copin of the University of Geneva; Korean-American June Huh of Princeton; and Briton James Maynard of the University of Oxford.
Viazovska, 37, is only the second female Fields Medalist, after the Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014.
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to one or more mathematicians under the age of 40 in recognition of “outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement”.
The winners are announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which was supposed to be held in Russia this year, but was moved to Helsinki.
The honour carries a physical medal of 14K gold, 63.5 mm in diameter and weighing 169 g, and with a unit price of approximately 5,500 Canadian dollars, according to the IMU website. There is also a cash award of CAD 15,000.
The obverse of the medal is embossed with the head of Archimedes facing right, and the Latin words “Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri”, translated as “To pass beyond your understanding and make yourself master of the universe”.
The reverse has the inscription “Congregati ex toto orbe mathematici ob scripta insignia tribuere”, or “The mathematicians having congregated from the whole world awarded (this medal) because of outstanding writings”.
History of the Medal
According to the IMU website, the 1924 ICM in Toronto adopted a resolution that at each conference, two gold medals would be awarded to recognise outstanding mathematical achievement.
The Canadian mathematician Prof J C Fields, who was secretary of the 1924 Congress, later donated funds to establish the medals, which were named in his honour. In 1966, it was agreed that, in light of the great expansion of mathematical research, up to four medals could be awarded at each Congress, the IMU says.
The Fields Medal Symposium is organised by the Fields Institute, Toronto, Canada. “The goals of the program for the Fields Medal Symposium are to present the work of a Fields Medalist and its impact, to explore the potential for future directions and areas of its influence, to provide inspiration to the next generations of mathematicians and scientists, as well as to present the Medalist to a broader public,” the IMU says.
Indian-origin winners
Among the more than 60 mathematicians who have been awarded the Fields Medal since 1936, there are two of Indian origin — Akshay Venkatesh of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, who won in 2018, the last time the honour was announced, and Manjul Bhargava of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, in 2014.
According to the IMU, Venkatesh was awarded the Medal “for his synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory, which has resolved long-standing problems in areas such as the equidistribution of arithmetic objects”.
Bhargava was honoured for “developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves”.
Source: Indian Express, 5/07/22
Around 100 students of an engineering college in East Sikkim have reported skin infections after coming in contact with Nairobi flies, officials said on Tuesday (June 5).
The population of Nairobi flies, a species of insect native to East Africa, is growing at a fast pace on campus of the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT) in Majhitar, officials were quoted as saying. The flies can overwhelm new areas in search of breeding grounds and food supply, Health Department officials said.
The college administration said infected students had been given medication and were recovering. One student who was recently infected had to undergo surgery in his hand.
What are Nairobi flies?
Nairobi flies, also called Kenyan flies or dragon bugs, are small, beetle-like insects that belong to two species, Paederus eximius and Paederus sabaeus. They are orange and black in colour, and thrive in areas with high rainfall, as has been witnessed in Sikkim in the past few weeks.
Like most insects, the beetles are attracted by bright light.
How are humans affected by them?
Usually, the insects attack pests that consume crops and are beneficial for humans — but at times, they come in contact with humans directly are cause harm. Health officials say these flies do not bite, but if disturbed while sitting on anyone’s skin, they release a potent acidic substance that causes burns.
This substance is called pederin, and can cause irritation if it comes in contact with the skin, leading to lesions or unusual marks or colouring on the skin. The skin begins to heal in a week or two, but some secondary infections can occur, especially if the victim scratches the irritated skin.
Have there been outbreaks of the disease?
Major outbreaks have happened in Kenya and other parts of eastern Africa. In 1998, unusually heavy rain caused a large number of insects to come into the region, reported the Associated Press.
Outside Africa, outbreaks have happened in India, Japan, Israel, and Paraguay in the past.
What is the way to protect oneself against Nairobi flies?
Sleeping under mosquito nets can help. If a fly lands on a person, it should be gently brushed off, and should not be disturbed or touched to reduce the chances of it releasing pederin.
The area where the flies sits should be washed with soap and water. If they are squelched and end up leaving toxic fluids on the skin, care should be taken that unwashed hands do not touch any other part of the body, particularly the eyes.
Written by Rishika Singh
Source: Indian Express, 5/07/22