National
NITI Aayog’s Fintech Open Summit
⇒ Union Minister for Railways, Communications, and Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated NITI Aayog’s Fintech Open Summit on 07 February 2022.
Organized by:
NITI Aayog, in collaboration with PhonePe, AWS (Amazon Web Services) and EY organized a three-week-long virtual summit, ‘Fintech Open’, from February 7–28, 2022.
Participants:
A first-of-its-kind initiative, Fintech Open brought together regulators, fintech professionals and enthusiasts, industry leaders, the start-up community, and developers to collaborate, exchange ideas and innovate.
Objective:
The aim of the Fintech Open was to create an immersive learning experience.
It had three objectives:
- Encourage an open ecosystem across the fintech industry
- Foster innovation and growth
- Ensure financial inclusion and leverage new models like Account Aggregator to unleash the next wave of fintech innovation
» The summit witnessed in-depth conversations, deep-dives, webinars, round-table discussions, etc., highlighting innovations and challenges undertaken by various start-ups.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0
⇒ The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya virtually launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 on 07 February 2022.
During the launch, the minister stated that “India is implementing the largest immunisation programme globally where we annually cover more than 3 crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore children through the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).”
Intensified Mission Indradhanush 4.0 will have three rounds and will be conducted in 416 districts (including 75 districts identified for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav) across 33 States/UTs in the country.
In the first round (Feb-April 2022), 11 states will conduct IMI 4.0.
These are- Assam, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Chhattisgarh.
The others (22 states) will conduct the rounds from April to May 2022.
These states/UTs include- Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Puducherry, Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Jharkhand, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, A & N Islands.
About:
- Prime Minister launched Mission Indradhanush in December 2014 to cover the partially and unvaccinated pregnant women and children in pockets of low immunization coverage, high-risk and hard-to-reach areas and protect them from vaccine preventable diseases”.
- Under Mission Indradhanush, all vaccines under Universal Immunization Program (UIP) are provided as per National Immunization Schedule.
- Mission Indradhansuh was also identified as one of the flagship schemes under Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (16,850 villages across 541 districts) and Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (48,929 villages across 112 aspirational districts).
Self-disinfecting ‘Copper-based Nanoparticle-coated Antiviral Face Mask
⇒ A team of Indian Scientists in collaboration with an industry partner have developed a self-disinfecting ‘Copper-based Nanoparticle-coated Antiviral Face Mask to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The mask is biodegradable, highly breathable and washable.
Developed by:
Scientists at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India, in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and Resil Chemicals, a Bengaluru based company have developed the self-disinfecting ‘Copper-based Nanoparticle-coated Antiviral Face Masks’.
This work has been done under the DST sponsored Nano-Mission project, to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
International
ASEAN-India High Level Conference on Renewable Energy
⇒ The ASEAN-India High Level Conference on Renewable Energy, was organized on 7-8 February 2022 by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the Ministry of External Affairs of Government of India.
Theme:
The High-Level Conference, over a period of two days, focused on the theme “Experience and Innovations for Integrated Renewables Market”.
» The ASEAN-India High Level Conference featured 5 technical sessions that facilitated peer to peer discussions between experts from India and ASEAN on themes of mutual interest.
» The Ministerial session was addressed by Energy Ministers and their senior representatives from the ASEAN member countries.
» The dignitaries talked about the renewable energy ambitions, progress made and priority areas for their countries and reiterated their commitment to taking India-ASEAN cooperation in the sector forward.
Sports
World's third-largest cricket stadium
⇒ The world’s third-largest cricket stadium is going to be built in Jaipur, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly laid the foundation stone of the project virtually on 05 February 2022.
This stadium is being built on the Jaipur-Delhi bypass. It will be the second-largest cricket stadium in India and the third-largest in the world. It will seat 75000 spectators.
Important Day
World Cancer Day 2022
⇒ World Cancer Day is celebrated globally on 4th February every year.
World Cancer Day is the global uniting initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
Theme:
The theme of the World Cancer Day 2022 is “Close the Care Gap”, is all about raising awareness of this equity gap that affects almost everyone, in high as well as low- and middle-income countries, and is costing lives.
A 3-year campaign for impact:
World Cancer Day 2022-2024 theme: Close the Care Gap
- 2022: Realising the problem
- 2023: Uniting our voices and taking action
- 2024: Together, we challenge those in power
Significance:
The World Cancer Day campaign seeks to raise awareness and remove the stigma surrounding the disease, which is now the second leading cause of mortality in the world.
The main goal is to reduce disease-related illness and mortality, as well as to stop the injustice of unnecessary suffering inflicted by it.
History:
The day was founded on February 4, 2000, during the World Cancer Conference for the New Millennium in Paris, France.
Death
Padma Shri awardee and social worker Ibrahim Sutar
⇒ Padma Shri awardee and social worker Ibrahim Sutar passed away in Karnataka on 05 February 2022. He was 82.
Fondly referred to as the “Kabir of Kannada”, Sutar was known for his work towards spreading social and communal harmony.
Ibrahim is popular among the public, especially in north Karnataka, for his spiritual discourses. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018.