1) World's Biggest Cleanliness Survey 'Swachh Sarvekshan 2018' Launched
•The world's biggest cleanliness survey 'Swachh Sarvekshan Survey 2018' was launched in India by PM Narendra Modi. It will be conducted from the 4th of January to 10th of March. The survey will evaluate achievements in cleanliness level of urban areas.
•The cleanliness survey was launched in 2016 as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The main objective of Swachh Survekshan is to encourage large-scale citizen participation and create awareness towards making towns and cities a cleaner and better place to live in.
2) Goa to Host 3rd Edition of Science Film Festival
•Goa will be hosting the third edition of the Science Film Festival of India in January 2018. The festival, titled SCI-FFI Goa, is being organised by the state-based Vidnyan Parishad, Goa Department of Science and Technology.
•The competition aims to boost the culture of science films, all the films submitted should be related to science and technology.
3) Meghalaya signs host city contract for 39th National Games in 2022
•Meghalaya signed the Host City Contract with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for hosting the 39th National Games in 2022.
•The tripartite contract was signed between the IOA, the Meghalaya State Olympic Association and the state government. Meghalaya had made the bid to host the 39th National Games after successfully co-hosting the South Asian Games in 2017.
4) Budget session of Parliament to begin from Jan 29
•Budget Session of Parliament will be convened from 29th of this month.
•Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) met in New Delhi today and decided to recommend to the President to convene the session.
•Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters in New Delhi after the meeting that President will address the joint sitting of both houses on the opening day.
5) India Excludes Pakistan from a SAARC Initiative
•India has excluded Pakistan from the list of SAARC member countries with which it will be connecting its state-of-the-art National Knowledge Network (NKN) for sharing scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.
•The government has kicked off the process of appointing a telecom company that will connect and extend the NKN to research and education networks in six South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation member states — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
6) India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio in Higher Education up by 0.7%
•The country’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has registered an increase from 24.5% in 2015-16 to 25.2% in 2016-17, according to the All India Higher Education Survey (AIHES) launched by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar.
•According to AIHES of 2016-17, Tamil Nadu has the highest GER in the country at 46.9%. Bihar has the least GER of 14.9%.
