I extend my best wishes on the auspicious occasion of Basant Panchami and Saraswati Puja. According to the Hindu calendar, Basant Panchami is celebrated on the fifth day of the month of Maagh and thus, the name ‘Panchami’.Saraswati Puja is dedicated to the goddess of music, wisdom, arts, and knowledge.

Port Blair, Feb 15: Campus Bird Count is an international event organised by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology based in United States of America. This year CBC 2021 was conducted between 12th to 15th February. This event was conducted in a successful manner by the Andaman Avian Club in 6 campuses of Andaman Nicobar Islands. Andaman Nicobar Police Training School, Science Centre, DBRAIT and CARI were the campuses covered in South Andaman District whereas in Middle Andaman and North Andaman, Forest Nursery Parnashallah and Agriculture Nursery Keralapuram were covered respectively by our club members and friends. This is the first attempt by the club to expand the Campus Bird Count to the other districts of Andaman.

Port Blair, Feb 15: Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojna (DDU-GKY) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development that aims to skill the underserved, rural youth in order to provide them with a regular source of income. DDU-GKY is a skilling and placement initiative with the objective to “transform rural poor youth into an economically independent and globally relevant workforce”.

Port Blair, Feb 15: The Food Safety Department, Andaman & Nicobar Administration in its relentless efforts to ensure the availability of safe and hygienic food to the islanders and tourists, has started Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) programme at Port Blair.

Port Blair, Feb 15: The website link at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) site www.ignou.ac.in is open to pay the Re-Registration fee for January, 2021 session. In IGNOU, the Re-registration is the process of payment of fees for the subsequent year of study for a particular academic programme. The students are advised to log on to IGNOU site for timely payment of their 2nd year or 3rd year fees. Similarly BCA, MCA student are advised to pay the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th semester fees through online. To facilitate the student the IGNOU has made a tie up with Common Service Centre (CSC) though out the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at over 50 locations. The list of CSC is available at Regional Centre, Port Blair. The internet charges / services charges for Re-Registration will be Rs.30/- at CSC. The last date of online Re-Registration is extended upto 28th February, 2021.