Home » Current Affairs Date: 04 January 2023

Current Affairs Date: 04 January 2023

National

Conference on Industry 4.0: Challenges Ahead and Way Forward

⇒ Union Minister for Heavy Industries Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey inaugurated ‘Conference on Industry 4.0: Challenges Ahead and Way Forward’, on 07 October 2022 at Kevadia Gujarat.

Organised by:

The Conference was organised by Ministry of Heavy Industries

Aim:

The Conference was aimed at sensitising industrial sectors in the country to adopt digital manufacturing processes and to promote automation and innovation in the industry.

» The Conference brought together the industry, academia and government to discuss best practices and strategies to be adopted in manufacturing under Industry 4.0 revolution.

» On the Occasion, Union Minister for Heavy Industries Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey and MoS Heavy Industries Sh. Krishan Pal Gurjar flagged off 175 e buses (from Gujarat and Karnataka under FAME Scheme).

    • ‘Model Smart Factory and Assessment Tools’ was also inaugurated on the occasion.
    • During the conference, CMTI, IISC Bangalore, IIT Madras, BHEL and C4i4 presented the steps taken by them towards Industry 4.0.

23rd Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence- 2022

⇒ The Vice President, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar presented the 23rd Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence to eminent educationist and economist, former Director of IIM, Ahmedabad, Dr. Bakul Dholakia at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas on 08 October 2022.

Congratulating Dr. Bakul Dholakia, a Padma Shree awardee for being selected for the 23rd Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence- 2022, Shri Dhankhar said that “with significant contribution as an exalted educationist and economist, his tenure as IIM Ahmedabad Director was highly impactful”.

» Former IIM Ahmedabad Director and Padma Shri Dr. Bakul Dholakia has been conferred with the 23rd Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of management.

About Award:

» The award presented by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi, carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, a memento, and a citation.

DBT-NIPGR-Pandit Jaiwant Ram Upmanyu Science Museum

⇒ Union Minister for Science and Technology and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated a Science Museum at Aspirational District of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh on 08 October 2022.

Linking it to Start-Ups, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the state-of-art institution in this hilly region will inspire young children to discover their potentials and use their innovative skills to find a source of livelihood in later life.

Set up by:

» The “DBT-NIPGR-Pandit Jaiwant Ram Upmanyu Science Museum” set up by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, at Government Boys Senior Secondary School (GBSSS), Chamba will help infuse scientific temper among the school children.

    • National Institute of Plant Genome Research is an autonomous institute of Department of Biotechnology.

International

2nd meeting of the High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy

⇒ Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar addressed the Second meeting of the High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy on 07 October 2022 virtually from Nirman Bhawan.

The first High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy was convened by the WHO Director-General in 2019 with the goal of strengthening the cooperation between health and energy sectors, increasing political momentum, spurring investments, mobilizing public support, and driving practical solutions.

Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar stated that “India firmly believes that these are the most critical areas which need more active discussion along with the identification of concrete actions to accelerate clean cooking and improve the electrification of healthcare facilities in the countries.”

    • Highlighting Government of India’s vision of attaining 450GW of renewable generation by 2030, she stated that “constantly moving towards health centre electrification by combining health-related policies and energy-related policies with a target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022.”
Discussion:

During the meeting, members of the Coalition discussed and identified concrete actions to accelerate clean cooking and electrification of health-care facilities in countries, building on the priorities identified in the Strategic Roadmap on Health and Energy.

The meeting focused on the following objectives:
    • Showcase concrete in-country support initiatives, with the leadership of WHO and members of the Coalition
    • Share resources to advocate energy access and increase awareness about clean cooking and health-care facility electrification
    • Identify priorities and cooperation opportunities to maximize the benefits for public health and gender equity as well as minimize negative impacts for the environment and vulnerable communities
    • Synergize efforts to mitigate climate change, build the resilience of the health system, all the way protecting public health now

» Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO, Director General, Dr Naoko Yamamoto, WHO, Assistant Director General, Dr Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate and Health, WHO and Dr Kandeh Yumkella, Member of Parliament, Sierra Leone were also present in the meeting.

Important Day

World Cotton Day 2022

⇒ World Cotton Day is observed every year on 7 October. 2022 marks the third-anniversary celebration of the international event.

World Cotton Day creates awareness of the need of market access for cotton and cotton-related products from least developed countries, fosters sustainable trade policies and enables developing countries to benefit more from every step of the cotton value chain.

Theme:

The theme for World Cotton Day 2022 was “Weaving a better future for cotton”.

    • The theme looks at sustainable farming of cotton to help improve the lives of cotton workers, such as labourers and smallholders and their families.
History:
    • The initiative of World Cotton Day was born in 2019, when four cotton producers in sub-Saharan Africa– Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, known as the Cotton Four -proposed the World Trade Organization a World Cotton Day celebration on October 7.
    • On 7 October, the World Trade Organization (WTO) hosted the first World Cotton Day (WCD) in Geneva.

Source: PIB & Other News Reports

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