IIT MADRAS FOREIGN CAMPUS – INTERNATIONAL
News: India signs MoU with Tanzania to set up IIT
Madras global campus
What's in the news?
● In
a significant development that sets the ball rolling for IIT Madras global
campus to start operations this year, India signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania to establish
the first IIT branch abroad, in Tanzania.
Key takeaways:
● The
agreement was signed between India’s
Ministry of Education, IIT Madras and Tanzania’s Ministry of Education and
Vocational Training Zanzibar.
Features:
● The
campus is expected to open in October 2023, welcoming 50 undergraduate and 20
master’s students in its first batch.
● IIT
Madras is expected to launch four undergraduate and five postgraduate
programmes from the Zanzibar campus.
○ The
campus will offer Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees in Data Science and AI (Artificial Intelligence), along with M. Tech
programs in Energy Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems.
● The
state-of-the-art interdisciplinary degrees are expected to attract a diverse
cohort and will include students from Africa and other countries as well.
● Indian students are also
eligible to apply to these programs.
Go back to basics:
● Apart
from Tanzania, two more global campuses of IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur are set
to come up in Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur.
NATIONAL ANTHEM - POLITY
News: Standing
up for National Anthem: What the Supreme Court has ruled
What's in the news?
● The
executive magistrate in Srinagar has sent 11 men to jail after they were
detained for allegedly not rising for the National Anthem at an event on June
25 where J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha was present.
Bijoe Emmanuel case:
● The
law around alleged disrespect to the National Anthem was laid down by the
Supreme Court in its 1986 judgment in Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State of
Kerala & Ors.
● The
court granted protection to three children belonging to the millenarian
Christian sect Jehovah’s Witnesses, who did
not join in the singing of the National Anthem at their school.
● The
court held that forcing them to sing the Anthem violated their fundamental right to religion under Article
25 of the Constitution.
Shyam Narayan Chouksey case:
● The
Supreme Court revisited the matter in Shyam Narayan Chouksey vs Union of India
(2018).
● While
hearing the case, the court had, on November 30, 2016, passed an interim order
that “All the cinema halls in India shall play the National Anthem before the
feature film starts and all present in the hall are obliged to stand up to show respect to the National
Anthem.”
● The
court had also ordered that “entry and exit doors shall remain closed” when the
Anthem is played, and that “when the National Anthem shall be played…it shall
be with the National Flag on the screen”.
● However,
in its final judgment in the case passed on January 9, 2018, the court modified
its 2016 interim order.
● The
court said that "the order passed on 30th November, 2016, is modified to
the extent that playing of the National Anthem prior to the screening of
feature films in cinema halls is not
mandatory, but optional or directory".
Go back to basics:
National Anthem:
● Rabindranath Tagore,
a Nobel Laureate, composed India's National Anthem. He's also the author of Bangladesh's national anthem.
● The
National Anthem of India was written in the raga Alhaiya Bilawal, and it is still sung with minor changes to
the classical form of the raga.
● In
1911, at a conference of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta,
the first version of the 'Jana Gana Mana' was sung.
● The
first time 'Jana Gana Mana' was played (not sung) was in Hamburg in 1942.
● On
January 24, 1950, the Jana Gana Mana
was declared as India's national anthem.
● By
regulation, the official version of India's National Anthem should last 52 seconds.