YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS (15848)
NEW DELHI: The number of coronavirus vaccine doses administered to health care and frontline workers in the country rose to 9.06 million on Wednesday, an official statement said, as the Prime Minister’s principal secretary chaired a high-level meet to review the progress of the immunisation programme.
India launched the world’s largest drive to vaccinate people against Covid-19 on January 16, and began administering the second doses a month later. The two vaccines currently approved in India – Covishield and Covaxin – have a two-dose regimen, with shots being given 28 days apart.
“68.3% of all health care workers have been administered the first dose and 37.6% of eligible health care workers have been administered the second dose. 28.2% of all frontline workers have been administered the first dose,” a statement released after the principal secretary’s meet said. “With this cumulative number [of 9.06 million till 3pm on Wednesday], India ranks third globally after USA (55.2 million doses) and the UK (16.12 million doses) who have completed more than 60 days of vaccination compared to 31 days in case of India,” it added.
NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the vice-chancellors (V-CS) of universities across the country to “encourage” students to take an online voluntary nationallevel exam to test their knowledge of “Gau Vigyan” (cow science).
The ‘’Kamdhenu Gau Vigyan Prachar-prasar Examination’’ will be conducted by the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) on February 25. There won’t be any registration fee for the exam and students from primary, secondary, and senior secondary schools, as well as colleges, can appear for it. All participants will be given appreciation certificates.
In a letter addressed to the V-CS of all universities across India, UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain on February 12 said: “I write this to request you to give wide publicity to this initiative and encourage students to enroll or register themselves for this examination. This may also be brought to the notice of the colleges affiliated to your university.”
Faculty members at several central universities raised objections to the UGC’S letter. Rajesh Jha, an assistant professor at Delhi University’s Rajdhani College, said, “How will it help students? Education should not be used to propagate any political agenda.”