Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with its National Agricultural Higher Education Project and Crop Science Division is organizing a hackathon 'Kritgya 3.0' on promoting speed breeding for crop improvement.

 

In line with National Education Policy-2020, this program will provide an opportunity to students, faculties, entrepreneurs, innovators and others to showcase innovative approaches and technology solutions to promote innovation for crop improvement.

 

According to Dr. Rakesh Chandra Agrawal, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education) and National Director, National Agricultural Higher Education Project  (NAHEP), the definition of KRITAGYA is: KRI for Krishi meaning Agriculture, TA for Taknik meaning Technology and GYA for Gyan meaning Knowledge.

 

The registration for the event is open till 26 September 2022..

Source : Economic Times

Chinese President Xi Jinping on 16 September 2022 appealed to Russia, India, and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to cooperate with each other in order to prevent foreign powers from destabilising their countries by inciting “colour revolutions”.

 

Colour revolutions refer to a series of uprisings that first began in former communist nations in Eastern Europe in the early 2000s, but are also used in reference to popular movements in the Middle East and Asia.

Most have involved large-scale mobilisation on the streets, with demands for free elections or regime change, and calls for removal of authoritarian leaders.

Orange Revolution : It refers to a series of protests that occurred in Ukraine between November 2004 and January 2005. The movement was in response to reports from international and domestic observers that claimed that the country’s 2004 Presidential election runoff between Viktor Yushchenko, an ally of the West, and then incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by Moscow, was rigged in favour of the latter.

Tulip Revolution : Also called the First Kyrgyz Revolution, the movement led to the ouster of Kyrgyzstan’s President Askar Akayev in early 2005. These protests were in response to the parliamentary elections in February, in which Akayev’s allies and family members won.

Jasmine Revolution : The popular uprising that occurred between December 2010 to January 2011 in Tunisia was in response to the underlying corruption, unemployment, inflation and lack of political freedoms in the country.

The immediate catalyst for the movement was the self immolation of a young vegetable vendor in front of a government building in the town of Sid Bouzid after his wares were confiscated by the police.

Ethereum, the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency, has completed a significant software overhaul which promises to ramp up security of the cryptocurrency while claiming to cut down on its carbon footprint, nearly entirely.

 

The revamp, known as ‘The Merge,’ will cast aside the need for crypto miners and gigantic mining farms, who had previously driven the blockchain under a mechanism called ‘proof-of-work’ (PoW).

Instead, it has now shifted to a ‘proof-of-stake’ (PoS) mechanism that assigns ‘validators’ randomly to approve transactions and earn a small reward.

The move to PoS will reduce ethereum’s energy consumption by nearly 99.95 per cent.

 

Ethereum is still a decentralised platform, but under the new concept, it would not need miners and mining farms to authenticate transactions anymore.

Instead, a validator will be randomly assigned using an algorithm from a pool of people who ‘stake’ their coins, which essentially means pledging at least 32 Ethereum tokens on the network.

This would entirely eliminate the need for miners on the Ethereum network.

Hence both statements are correct..

Source : Indian Express

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has declared Andaman and Nicobar Islands as India's first Swachh Sujal Pradesh. Speaking at a function in Port Blair, he handed over the certificate to Lieutenant Governor Admiral DK Joshi.

 

Now, all villages of Andaman and Nicobar Island have been certified as Har Ghar Jal and verified as open defecation free - ODF plus. Mr Shekhawat congratulated all the islanders for this major achievement and highlighted people participation to complete this journey.

 

He said, being remotely located from the mainland the achievement of the islands will prove to be a source of inspiration for rest States and Union Territories. This is the best gift for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday, he added..

Source : News on Air

The country has witnessed many kinds of leagues from cricket to kabaddi. 17th Sep 2022 has been a league with a difference – The Indian Swachhata League – an inter-city competition ‘played’ on the parameters of swachhata powered by the youth of the city. 

 

The first edition of the ISL witnessed a record of sorts with more than half a million youth joining hands for clean beaches, hills and tourist spots. 

 

The Indian Swachhata League kick starts the Swachh Amrit Mahotsav, a fortnight of activities to galvanize action around swachhata from 17th Sept. 2022, Seva Diwas, till 2nd Oct. 2022, Gandhi Jayanti.

 

https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/image/image001P1M1.jpgThe day began with whole-hearted participation and presence of highly motivated youth teams carrying with pride their own team identity.  Teams of Puri Saviours, Aizwal Clean Avengers, Gazab Ghaziabad, Swachhata Warriors, Swachh Vishakha Warriors, Bemisal Bhopal, Swachhata Warriors Jhansi represented their cities in cleanliness displayed the passion to achieve the vision of Garbage Free Cities.

 

Cricketer Kuldeep Sen, actors like Rahul Dev, Mughda Godse and veteran actor Jeetender, plogger Ripu Daman Bevli joined the movement supporting their city teams. Trap shooter R. Prithviraj Tondaiman, the ambassador of Trichy Rockers led from the front to keep his city clean..

Source : PIB

* India scripted a new world record of maximum number of blood donations in a single day on the occasion of the 72nd birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under 'Raktdaan Amrit Mahotsav'.

 

* This was the largest country-wide Blood Donation Drive. The campaign was aimed at increasing awareness regarding regular non-remunerated voluntary blood donations and ensure that blood or its components are available, accessible, affordable and safe.

* As per 2021 statistics, India’s annual requirement is around 1.5 crore units.

* In India, the regulatory framework for blood donation and blood bank management rests with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, while technical bodies like the National Blood Transfusion Council and National AIDS Control Organisation formulate guidelines and recommendations for transfusion medicine and blood bank management.

Hence both statements are correct.

Source : News on Air

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Anupriya Patel, attended East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting on Saturday(17th Sep 2022) in Siem Reap City of Cambodia. 

 

The meeting saw representation from all 10 ASEAN countries as well as eight partner countries including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.

 

The East Asia Summit (EAS) is the Indo-Pacific's premier forum for strategic dialogue.

 

The EAS has 18 members - the ten ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. ASEAN leads the forum, and the chair position rotates between ASEAN Member States annually.

 

The EAS calendar culminates in the annual Leaders' Summit, which is usually held alongside ASEAN Leaders' meetings in the fourth quarter of every year.

 

In addition to the Leaders' Summit, meetings of EAS Foreign Ministers and Economic Ministers are held annually..

Source : News on Air

The city of Varanasi has been nominated as the first-ever SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital during the period 2022-2023 at the 22nd Meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 16, 2022. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had participated in the Summit.

 

* The nomination of Varanasi as the first ever SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital will promote tourism, cultural and humanitarian exchanges between India and the SCO member Countries. It also underlines India’s ancient civilizational links with Member States of SCO, especially the Central Asian Republics.

 

* Under the framework of this major cultural outreach program, a number of events will be hosted in Varanasi during 2022-23, for which guests will be invited to participate from SCO Member States. These events are expected to attract Indologists, scholars, authors, musicians and artists, photo journalists, travel bloggers and other invited guests.

 

* The regulations for nomination of the SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital were adopted at the Dushanbe SCO Summit in 2021 with an objective of promoting cooperation between the SCO Member States in the field of culture and tourism..

Source : MEA

The Prime Minister, "Shri Narendra Modi" launched the National Logistics Policy (NLP) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 17th Sep 2022.

 

* National Logistics Policy that seeks to address challenges facing the transport sector and bring down the logistics cost for businesses from 13-14% to a single digit.

 

* The policy is aimed at bringing down the time & cost of transportation of industrial products. It will also prevent damage to agricultural products by providing faster transportation.

 

* The Unified Logistics Interface Platform will bring all digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal, freeing the exporters from a host of very long and cumbersome processes.

 

* Under the policy, a new digital platform - Ease of Logistics Services - has also been started.

 

* PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan will work in tandem with the National Logistics Policy.

 

* The Policy, which focuses on re-engineering, digitisation and multimodal transport, will further boost ‘ease of doing business for all industries and stakeholders..

Source : PIB

15th Sep 2022, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) appointed Vanessa Nakate, a 25­-year­-old climate activist from Uganda as the Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Her collaboration with the organisation and recognising her outstanding global advocacy for climate justice for current and future generations.

 

Nakate began her activism in January 2019, at the age of 22 with a protest with her siblings and cousins on the streets of Kampala, inspired by Greta Thunberg. She continued to protest every week, becoming a well-known face in a movement of young people “striking” for the climate around the world. In 2020 she came to further global prominence when she was cropped out of a news photo she appeared in alongside Thunberg and other white climate activists.

Nakate’s response to the incident, in which she said the news outlet “didn’t just erase a photo, you erased a continent”, made international headlines.

 

Notably : Globally half the world’s 2.2 billion children live in one of the 33 countries, classified by UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index as “extremely high­risk” of the impacts of climate change. According to UNICEF, the top 10 countries are all in Africa..

Source : UNICEF