JEE-Mains to be held four times every year from next year

The 7th phase of District Development Council, DDC Polls concluded smoothly across the J&K Union territory with a turnout of over 57.22 per cent. Addressing a press conference in Jammu Wednesday evening, State Election Commissioner K.K. Sharma said that in Jammu, voting percentage  was 71.93 per cent (Highest till now) and in Kashmir Valley 39.52 percent (Highest till now) voting was recorded.He said a total of  3,93,200 electors exercised their franchise out of a total electorate of 6,87,115. Poonch district topped the list with an impressive voter turnout of  80.12 per cent followed by Reasi district with 76.75  per cent and Udhampur at 75.63 per cent.In Kashmir Valley Bandipora  district recorded highest polling at 70.47 per cent followed by Baramulla  District with 59.53 per cent and Kupwara district with 59.23 per cent in the seventh  phase of elections. Now the fate of 298 candidates has been sealed in the ballot boxes.The first ever District Development Council polls are being held in J&K Union Territory in Eight phases. The last and 8th phase will be held on December 19 while the counting of votes will be taken up on December 22.

-Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has announced that the JEE-Mains exam will be held four times a year starting 2021.
 Nishank said, it will offer flexibility to students and chance to improve their scores. He said, the Education Ministry has examined the suggestions received from students and others and decided to conduct JEE-Mains four times in February, March, April and May. Nishank said, in February the exam will be held from 23rd to 26th. He said, the move will ensure that students don't miss out on opportunities due to clash of exams.The Minister said, students will be given a choice to answer 75 questions out of 90 questions. No negative marking will be done in the 15 optional questions. The Minister also announced that drawing from the National Education Policy, for the first time ever JEE (Main) Examination-2021 will be conducted in 13 languages- Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu , Hindi, English and Gujarati. The Minister informed that a candidate need not appear in all the four Sessions. However, if candidate appears in more than one Session then his or her best of the 2021 NTA Scores will be considered for preparation of Merit List or Ranking.

-In Chhattisgarh, one Maoist was killed by security forces in Sukma district of Bastar division on Wednesday. According to senior police officials, a joint team of District Reserve Guard- DRG and CRPF launched an anti naxal operation in Jagargunda area of Sukma district. An exchange of fire between Maosits and the security forces took place near Milliampalli-Rajpenta. Later during search operation, the body of an unidentified male Maoist was recovered from the spot.Security personnel also recovered one Barrel Grenade Launcher- BGL and a Muzzle loading rifle along with rocket shells and huge quantity of ammunition from the spot.

-World stocks rose to record highs while the safe-haven dollar reached its lowest in more than two and a half years on the prospect of effective coronavirus vaccines and more U.S. fiscal stimulus on Wednesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained one percent. Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.6 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI ended half percent up. Japan's NIKKEI-225 added 0.3 percent while China’s Shanghai Composite index remained almost flat.European stocks were up in intraday trade as Germany's DAX surged 1.5 percent, London’s FTSC-100 gained 0.9 percent and France’s CAC added half a percent.

-Tribes India is continuing to add more new products, in the Forest Fresh and Organic range and enabling access to millions of tribal enterprises to larger market. More than 20 immunity products have been added to Tribes India range this week.A large number of immunity boosting products, produce in the Forest Fresh and Organics range and tribal arts and handicrafts have already been included by Tribes India in its range in the past two months.All the new products are available in 125 Tribes India outlets, Tribes India mobile vans and also on online platforms.Speaking on the occasion, Managing Director, TRIFED Pravir Krishna said, our endeavour has been to impact and transform tribal lives and improve their livelihoods.