National
PM flags off Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat Train
⇒ The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi flagged off two Vande Bharat trains at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai on 10 February 2023.
The two trains are Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat and Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat.
- Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat Train is the 9th Vande Bharat train in the country. The new world-class train will improve connectivity between Mumbai and Solapur and will also facilitate travel to important pilgrimage centers like Siddheshwar in Solapur, Akkalkot, Tuljapur, Pandharpur near Solapur and Alandi near Pune.
- Mumbai-Sainagar Shirdi Vande Bharat, the 10th Vande Bharat train in the country will improve connectivity to important pilgrimage centers in Maharashtra like Nashik, Trimbakeshwar, Sainagar Shirdi, and Shani Singanapur.
» Prime Minister also dedicated two road projects to the nation – the Santacruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) and Kurar underpass project to ease road traffic congestion and streamline the movement of vehicles in Mumbai.
- The newly constructed elevated corridor from Kurla to Vakola and from MTNL Junction, BKC to LBS Flyover at Kurla will enhance much-needed East-West connectivity in the city. These arms connect the Western Express Highway to the Eastern Express Highway thereby connecting eastern and western suburbs efficiently.
- The Kurar underpass is crucial to ease traffic on the Western Express Highway (WEH) which connects Malad and Kurar sides of WEH. It allows people to cross the road with ease and also vehicles to move without having to get into the heavy traffic on WEH.
» Prime minister also inaugurated the new campus of Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah (The Saifee Academy) at Marol, Mumbai.
- Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah is the principal educational institute of the Dawoodi Bohra Community.
- Under the guidance of His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, the institute is working to protect the learning traditions & literary culture of the community.
Successful flight of SSLV
⇒ Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) successfully launched three satellites into their intended orbits on 10 February 2023.
» In its second developmental flight, the SSLV-D2 vehicle placed EOS-07, Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 satellites into their intended 450 km circular orbit with an inclination of 37 degrees.
- It took-off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
About SSLV:
- SSLV is the new small satellite launch vehicle developed by ISRO to cater the launch of small satellites up to 500 kg to Low Earth Orbits on ‘launch-on-demand’ basis.
- It is configured with three solid stages 87 t, 7.7 t and 4.5 t respectively. SSLV is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter vehicle having a lift-off mass of 120 t.
- A liquid propulsion-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) achieves desired velocity for the insertion of the satellites into the intended orbit. SSLV is capable of launching Mini, Micro, or Nanosatellites (10 to 500 kg mass) to a 500 km orbit.
- It provides low-cost access to Space, offers low turn-around time, facilitates flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites and demands minimal launch infrastructure.
About SSLV-D2:
- In its first developmental flight on August 7, 2022, SSLV-D1 had marginally missed to place the satellites. SSLV-D2 implemented the recommendations made by the expert committee that analysed the shortcomings of SSLV-D1 flight.
- SSLV-D2 carried EOS-07, a 153.6 kg Earth Observation Satellite realised by ISRO; Janus-1, a technology demonstration satellite weighing 10.2 kg belong ANTARIS, USA; and AzaadiSAT-2, an 8.8 kg satellite realised by Space Kidz India by integrating various scientific payloads developed by 750 girl students across India.
- With this successful launch India has got a new launch vehicle which was aimed to commercialise the small satellite launches through Industry on demand basis.
International
2nd G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting
⇒ The 2nd G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting under India’s ongoing G20 Presidency took place from April 1 – 3, 2023 at Siliguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal.
- This meeting took forward discussions from the previous G20 Tourism Working Group meeting held at Rann of Kutch, Gujarat in February 2023.
Participation:
Over 130 participants, including delegates from G20 members, guest countries, invited International Organisations, industry partners and local tour operators took part in the meeting.
Day 1:
Day 1 of the 2nd Tourism Working Group Meeting under G20 began with a side event of a panel discussion on ‘Adventure Tourism as a Vehicle for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals’.
- Among other topics, discussions were held on promoting Adventure tourism, and presentations on the Global and Indian scenarios of Adventure tourism were given.
Union Minister for Culture, Tourism, and DoNER, Shri G.K Reddy delivered the keynote address at the side event.
- In his address, he said that India offers many avenues for adventure tourism across the four elements of land, water, sky, and air.
- He highlighted that India has in its possession 70% of the mighty Himalayas, more than 7,000 kilometers of coastline, 70,000 square miles of sand desert apart from the white salt desert in Kutch and cold desert in Ladakh, 700 sanctuaries and national parks including tiger reserves.
» The panelists gave presentations and held discussions highlighting the best practices, success stories prospects, opportunities, and issues in the field of adventure tourism.
Day 2:
Union Minister for Tourism, Culture, and DoNER, Shri G. Kishan Reddy, and Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Shri John Barla addressed the inaugural session of the 2nd TWG Meeting.
- In his opening remarks, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism, and DoNER Shri G.K Reddy said that the ideas discussed in the meeting will aid in developing tourism in mission mode.
- He announced that in order to give a boost to the uniqueness of Indian tourism, the country is observing ‘Visit India Year 2023′. ‘Visit India Year 2023′ is a unique, collective movement that invites the world to explore India in the historical year of India’s G20 presidency as well as, grand celebrations of 75 years of Indian Independence – India@75 Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
- The minister announced that the vision is to make India a one trillion-dollar tourism economy by 2047 – our 100th year of Independence.
All the G20 Member States (including Troika – Indonesia & Brazil) engaged in intra-session group activity and shared their comments/suggestions on the 1st Draft Outcome and the five priorities introduced by India which are Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills, Tourism MSMEs & Destination Management.
- In the second session of the day, Presentations were made on each priority area and each presentation was followed by open and detailed discussion among member countries, invitee countries, and international organizations.
» A side event was also organised on “Tourism in Mission Mode: Advantage Adventure Tourism.
- The presentations made by the participants highlighted the benefits, issues, and challenges in the promotion of adventure tourism. Ideas were discussed with respect to making India a globally competitive Adventure Tourism hub.
- The Model Law on Adventure Safety as well as ways of developing vibrant villages as adventure destinations were discussed.
2nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - Young Scientist Conclave (SCO-YSC)
⇒ India hosted the 2nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – Young Scientist Conclave (SCO-YSC) during 06 – 10 February 2023 in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an inter-governmental organization, with Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India as the member states.
As a part of the series of events organized by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, the 2nd SCO Young Scientists Conclave was hosted at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) campus.
Theme:
The theme of the 2nd SCO Young Scientist Conclave was ‘Shaping SCO- STI Partnership – Young Scientists Perspectives’.
Out of many challenges pervading the SCO Member States that deserve S&T interventions, the following thematic areas were chosen for this conclave to promote collaborative work in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) among these Member States:
- Agriculture and food processing
- Environmental protection and natural resource management
- Artificial Intelligence and big data research and application
- Sustainable energy and energy storage
- Disease Biology and Healthcare
- 10 technical sessions were organised on these thematic areas.
Key Points:
- This Conclave brought together the innovative young minds from SCO Member States on to a common platform to discuss issues like, ‘ways and means to bring in transformative changes to address the societal challenges through scientific and technological interventions.’
- This also facilitated the confluence of ideas to resolve specific problems of Member States.
- Thus, the Conclave seeded a SCO Scientific Identity through the establishment of a network of young talents across these Member States.
Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh delivered the inaugural address at the 2nd SCO Young Scientist Conclave in Bengaluru.
- Dr Jitendra Singh said that the growth of SCO depends on its success in science, technology and innovation sectors and there is a need to transform this landscape.
- He noted that India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, at the 19th Meeting of Council of Heads of State of SCO, had coined an acronym HEALTH (‘H’ for Health-care cooperation, ‘E’ for Economic cooperation, ‘A’ for Alternate Energy, ‘L’ for Literature and Culture ‘T’ for Terrorism free society, ‘H’ for Humanitarian Cooperation).
- The SCO consists of approximately 42% of the world’s population, 22% of its land area, and it contributes 20% to the global GDP. He said that the SCO countries have demographic advantage of having large number of young people.