NEW DELHI: Google.org has funded 2 million USD to empower students and teachers by advancing the use of high quality, open source, video resources.

Google.org funded the amount in 2018 through a Central Square Foundation, a grant making organization and policy think tank, focused on improving the quality of school education, and learning outcomes of children from low-income communities in India.

Education gap persist in India, where 50 percent of students in 5th grade cannot read a 2nd-grade text or do a two-digit subtraction problem. Supplementary instruction or self-study through video has shown to be an effective tool to help students improve, and Indian students are eager to improve–roughly 85 percent of upper primary and secondary students receive some form of private coaching.

But a variety of barriers such as infrastructure, lack of curriculum alignment, and an insufficient amount of available content, has limited the role of video in helping Indian students learn key concepts.

Google is granting support from Google.org and technical volunteer assistance from YouTube employees. The Central Square Foundation will launch a video content accelerator to empower the next generation of educational video creators in India.

The accelerator will directly support more than 20 educators with the funding and training they need to produce more than 200 hours of quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content in Hindi and vernacular languages.

The accelerator will also work to scale its reach by developing a hub to share best practices such as tips on how to create engaging videos and guidance for aligning lessons with curriculum and standards with the sector at large.

The Coca-Cola Company has launched the 5by20 program to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs in 200 countries by 2020. The company has initiated 5by20 program in 2010 to enable the economic empowerment of the targeted number in the esteemed time.

“In collaboration with our partners, we aim to help women entrepreneurs overcome the barriers they face to business success”, Coca-Cola said.

The company is helping women who produce ingredients, supply goods, distribute beverages, own shops, recycle packaging and create products from packaging. “Women are a powerful global economic force, but they are consistently undervalued.

We wanted to do something to change that, so we made a global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of five million female entrepreneurs by 2020”, the company informed.

The company is helping women overcome the barriers they face when trying to succeed in the marketplace offering training, financial services and connections with peers and mentors.

The program is currently working in more than 40 countries including Brazil, South Africa, Philippines, India, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Haiti and Egypt.

The empowered women aspire to own their own businesses, provide a good education for their children, and create the best life possible for their families. The company aims to provide the tools and skills needed to act on those dreams.

GORKHA: The work of data collection in and around potential area to be covered by the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project has begun since yesterday.

The 1, 200 MW hydropower project is likely to affect places in Gorkha and Dhading districts.

Around 30,000 ropani land would be inundated at Gandaki rural municipality, Shahidlakhan rural municipality, Arughat rural municipality and Bhimsen Thapa rural municipality in Gandaki once the project comes into being.

The project’s Resettlement and Rehabilitation Unit has initiated gathering data related to house, sheds, physical structures, fruit plants and other trees situated in inundation-affected areas in Gorkha and Dhading districts from Wednesday.

Krishna Karki, chief of Project’s Resettlement and Rehabilitation Unit Siurenitar Office, shared that technicians of Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Building Division Office and Forest Office here have been mobilized for gathering data.

“Data collection has started at Ghyalchowk Baseri of Gandaki rural municipality in Gorkha and Salang in Dhading from Wednesday”, he informed. The technical human resource has been mobilized in a way to complete data collection within two months, he further said.

“An arrangement has been made so that the enumerators can collect data in the inundated areas through mobile apps”, office chief Karki shared.

The project has the target to complete the distribution of land compensation within coming mid-April and compensation related to house, sheds and fruit plants within mid-July.

LONDON : Japanese carmaker Nissan is cancelling plans to make the next model of its X-Trail sports utility vehicle in Britain, less than two months before the country is due to leave the European Union, broadcaster Sky News said on Saturday.

Nissan first said four months after Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU that it would manufacture a new model of the SUV in Britain, which was seen as a major vote of confidence in the country’s manufacturing future.

The main production plant for the current X-Trail is in Japan, while Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, northeast England, makes the smaller Qashqai SUV and other models. “Precise details of Nissan’s impending announcement were unclear this weekend, but sources said it was likely to initially involve abandoning the X-Trail production plans which had been announced in the autumn of 2016,” Sky reported.

A UK-based spokesman for Nissan declined to comment. Sky said the announcement due on Monday was not expected to lead to immediate job losses at the Sunderland plant, as the X-Trail is not currently made there, but would raise doubts about further Nissan investment in Britain.

As well as the X-Trail, Nissan said in 2016 it would build the next generation Qashqai SUV in Britain after receiving government assurances over Brexit, in what was seen at the time as a boost for Prime Minister Theresa May.

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However, the failure of Britain’s government so far to negotiate a smooth exit plan from the European Union has made car manufacturers less willing to use Britain as a European manufacturing center. Investment in Britain’s car industry halved last year, data showed on Thursday, and car production by Nissan in Britain fell by more than 10 percent.

Industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said leaving the EU on March 29 without a transition deal to preserve the smooth flow of parts and finished vehicles across EU borders would cause “permanent devastation” to the British car industry.

(Reuters)

General Motors Co said on Saturday it is negotiating “feasibility conditions” to invest 10 billion reais ($2.73 billion) in Brazil from 2020 to 2024, after having warned last month that new investments would depend on returning to profit. The automaker also said it is completing an investment plan of 13 billion reais between 2014 and 2019.

“As market leaders, we are taking on the responsibility of facing the challenges of competitiveness that the industry.

Valor reported that GM would invest in its product line until 2022, and then the following year, the company would start to enjoy tax rebates. Valor, which also reported that GM’s losses in Brazil last year totaled 1 billion reais despite being the country’s market leader, did not specify the exact amount GM would expect to generate in tax incentives. 

(REUTERS)