# Weight of school bags

• The Directorate of education has issued a circular asking schools to follow the new “school bag policy”, 2020.

• This new school bag policy has been released by the National council of educational research and training (NCERT).

• According to circular, school teachers should inform the students in advance about the books and notebooks to be brought to school on a particular day.

• The weight of school bags as per policy, should be 1.6 to 2.1 kg for students of classes 1 and 2, 1.7 and 2.5 kg for classes 3,4,5 and 2.5 to 4 kg for class 7 and so on.

# Loan giving apps

• The probe into app based instant loan companies harassment of borrowers has widened.

• Google has been asked to take down these apps as these companies were found harassing and defaming borrowers.

# Budget session of parliament

• The budget session of parliament is expected to be held under strict covid-19 restrictions.

• The parliament is expected to be convened in the fourth week of january.

• There is no clarity on whether the question hour wiil be conducted or not. The question hour was suspended in the monsoon session.

# Republic day parade

• A 122 member tri-service contingent of the bangladesh armed forces will participate in the republic day parade.

• This coincides with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh.

# Vietnam buys Indian rice

• Vietnam, the world’s third biggest exporter of rice has started buying the grain from rival India for the first time in decades.

• This comes after the local prices jumped to their highest in nine years amid limited domestic supplies.

# Sugar export

• Sugar exporters have started entering into contracts for sugar exports.

• According to Indian sugar mills association, the contract for export of 10 lakh tonnes of sugar has been finalised.

• This comes after government started providing subsidies of 6000 rupees per tonnes for export of sugar to promote exports amid huge buffer stocks.