1.National Award to Teachers, 2019

Why in News?

• The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind conferred the National Award to Teachers-2018 in New Delhi on 5^th

About the Award:

• The National Award to Teachers are given away by the President of India on 5th September (Teacher’s Day) Every Year.
• It’s given-on account of the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India.
• It is to give public recognition to meritorious teachers working in primary, middle and secondary schools.
• Instituted in 1958, the award carries a Silver Medal, Certificate and Rs.50,000/- as award money.

Scheme of the Award:

• Online self-nominations from teachers are invited by Ministry of Human Resource Development
• All regular teachers are eligible and no minimum years of service is required, enabling meritorious young teachers to apply.
• The number of awards has been rationalized to 45 from earlier count of 300+
• No State, UT or Organization has a quota in the final selection
• An independent Jury at the National level makes the final selection.

2.Nuakhai Juhar

• Nuakhai Juhar is harvest festival of Odisha.
• It an important social festival of Western Odisha and adjoining areas of Simdega in Jharkhand.
• Nuakhai is a combination of two words, ‘nua’ meaning new and ‘khai’ means eat, it thus signifies “eating of new rice”.
• It is celebrated on ‘Panchami tithi’ of the Odia month of Bhadraba.

Rituals:

• Nuakhai is understood to have nine colours and as a consequence nine sets of rituals are followed as a prelude to the actual day of celebration.
• People offer the newly harvested crop called Nabanha to their respective presiding deities. After offering the Nabanha, people relish different types of delicacies prepared from the newly harvested crop.
• The Nuakhai Juhar is a major ritual of the festival. It is an exchange of greetings with friend relative and well-wishers.

3.Mount Kun:

Why in News?

• An Indian Army mountaineering team scaled the challenging Mount Kun peak in the Ladakh region.

About Mount Kun :

• The Nun Kun mountain massif consists of a pair of Himalayan peaks: Nun, 7,135 m (23,409 ft) and its neighbor peak Kun Peak, 7,077 m (23,218 ft).
• Nun is the highest peak in the part of the Himalayan range lying on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Location:

• The Nun Kun massif is bounded
• To the north – by the Suru valley and the Zanskar range.
• To the east, by the Suru valley and the Pensila
• To the South lies the Kishtwar National Park and the Krash Nai River.

4.Kaushalacharya Samadar 2019

• In a bid to motivate and incentivize more trainers to join the Skill India Mission, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) today organized Kaushalacharya Samadar 2019 to felicitate trainers from different sectors for exceptional contribution towards creating a future-ready and skilled workforce.
• The Ministry also announced the “Kaushalacharya Awards” which would be an annual event to recognize the contribution made by skill trainers in the vocational training ecosystem.
• By 2022 it is estimated India will need about 2.5 lakh trainers across the skilling ecosystem.
• The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has introduced programs to for effective utilization of capacity and infrastructure across the network of National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) to achieve greater convergence between long-term and short-term skill ecosystem.
• Organisations like NIMI, NSTI, Central Staff Training and Research Institute (CSTRI) are working closely toward strengthening of trainers.