Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Vivek Srivastava (IPS) as Director General of Fire Service, Civil Defence & Home Guards under the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday. He is a 1989-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre.

According to an order issued from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) on December 28, Srivastava has been appointed to the post for a period with effect from the date of joining the post and up to June 30, 2025 i.e. date of his superannuation or till further orders whichever takes place earlier. Presently, he is posted as Special Director in Intelligence Bureau.

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The public sector head hunter, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has shortlisted Ms. Rashmi Govil as the new Director (HR) of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).

Ms. Rashmi Govil is currently ED in Corporate office, have long and versatile experience of ER and HRD functions of Refineries as well as Corporate office. Her selection will maintain the women representation in board, post superannuation of Ms. Shulka Mistry, who is due for retirement from Director Refineries in March, 2024.

Aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in collaboration with the Government of Assam's flagship Arohan scheme is actively engaged in motivating meritorious students to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in their higher education.

To date, the Institute has successfully hosted 3311 students (2009 girls and 1302 boys) and few hundred mentee teachers, inspiring them to explore the vast opportunities and interests in STEM education. Notably, the number of female students was around 65% of the total participants, highlighting the importance of encouraging and promoting girls and women in STEM education.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the 21st Convocation of the Tezpur University in Assam on the 31st of December. Mr. Singh will confer Degrees and Diplomas to the successful candidates of the university. 783 Postgraduate degrees, 428 Undergraduate degrees, five PG diplomas, and more than 100 PhD degrees are expected to be conferred. Postgraduate degrees and diplomas to 23 learners under Distance and Online Education are also scheduled. 

J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar today laid the Foundation Stone of Composite Regional Centre (CRC) in Village Chak Jawala Singh of Samba district in Jammu and Kashmir. Member Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, Chairman District Development Council Samba Keshav Dutt Sharma, PRI members and officers of Samba district administration were present at the e-foundation ceremony of CRC. The CRC will be housed in a new building to be constructed by NBCC in a multistory building with a barrier free environment for persons with disabilities, in a sprawling campus of 38 kanals 18 marlas of land in Samba near AIIMS-Jammu. The estimated cost of construction is 29 crores rupees and the  construction work will be finished within a span of one year. 

In a significant move towards enhancing India's capabilities in renewable energy research, Union minister for power and new & renewable energy, R.K. Singh laid the foundation stone for the new Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru.

ICER, envisioned as a leading research hub, will delve into a wide array of renewable energy domains, including the development of Net Zero Technology for Green Hydrogen, sCo2, Power and Turbine, and pioneering research in Clean Coal technology.

Additionally, the center will focus on groundbreaking research and development in the field of green energy technologies. This includes the generation of hydrogen and biofuels from biomass, advancements in battery technology, energy storage systems, and other sustainable technologies.

An IPS officer currently posted as the SP of Assam’s Lakhimpur district, who is also a part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the Manipur ethnic clash, has tendered his resignation from the service to pursue a life of “freedom and independence” through social services.

Dubbed as “Assam’s Singham” on the social media, the officer, Anand Mishra, submitted the resignation letter to Assam chief secretary through the DGP on December 18.

However, the matter has come to light now.

“This is to submit my unconditional resignation from the IPS to pursue a life of freedom and independence that I want to realise through various social services and other means that are beyond the mandate of the IPS,” he wrote in the letter.

The 2011-batch IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre was recently posted in Manipur to be a part of the SIT probing the violence in the state.

NASA has recently launched a mission to intercept a near-Earth asteroid nicknamed “God of Chaos.” For this mission, the US space agency deployed OSIRIS-APEX, after the spacecraft's return from deep space. The asteroid Apophis, or God of Chaos, will brush past Earth’s orbit, only 20,000 miles away from the surface in 2029. Its close proximity could even result in Apophis’ visibility in the Northern Hemisphere

Apophis, ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid

Named after an ancient Egyptian deity, Apophis is a 1,000-foot-wide asteroid. It was first discovered in 2004 and is expected to fly by Earth on April 13, 2029. During that time, OSIRIS will intercept the asteroid to study any changes made by its earthly encounter. According to scientists, such an asteroid passes by Earth every 7,500 years.

In a move to advance better standards of education and improve the socio-economic progress of members of the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has approved a new scheme named SHRESHTA (Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas).

The scheme aims to provide access to the best private residential schools for meritorious students from SC communities. The scheme is expected to provide admissions to around 3,000 students in Classes 9 and 11 each year. The core objectives of the scheme are to enhance the reach of the development initiatives of the government and fill in the gap in service-deprived SC dominant areas in the education sector.

The scheme will collaborate with voluntary organisations to provide an environment that can help create conditions for socio-economic upliftment and the overall development of the SC communities. This scheme will enable students from the SC community to explore future opportunities by providing access to high-quality education.

Para-Military forces will completely switch to 'Sandes App' for all official communication and sharing of documents from the first week of January.

A senior official, who is aware of the development informed that all paramilitary forces have been suggested to switch to 'Sandes App' for all kinds of official communication and sharing of documents.

"For quick and fast communication, WhatsApp was very popular among security forces for internal communication, but in the present scenario where the safety of data is paramount and document sharing on messaging apps is a regular affair. To overcome security issues, it has been decided to switch to the 'Sandes app' that has been designed and developed in India," said the officer.