National
Natural Farming Conclave
⇒ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed a Natural Farming Conclave on 10th July, 2022 via video conferencing.
- The conclave was organised in Surat, Gujarat and witnessed the participation of thousands of farmers and all other stakeholders who have made adoption of Natural farming in Surat, a success story.
Key Points:
» As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister in his address at Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan in March, 2022 had exhorted at least 75 farmers in each village to adopt the Natural way of farming.
Guided by this vision of Prime Minister:
- Surat District undertook a concerted and coordinated effort to sensitise and motivate different stakeholders and institutions like farmer groups, elected representatives, talathis, Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees, Cooperatives, Banks etc, in the district to help farmers in adoption of Natural Farming.
- Consequently, at least 75 farmers were identified in each Gram Panchayat and were motivated and trained to undertake Natural Farming.
- The farmers were trained in 90 different clusters resulting in the training of more than 41,000 farmers across the district.
IAF Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence
⇒ The IAF Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence under the aegis of UDAAN (Unit for Digitisation, Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Application Networking) was inaugurated by Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, VCAS, on 10 July 2022 at Air Force Station Rajokri, New Delhi.
Key Points:
- A Big Data Analytics and Al Platform has been commissioned in the IAF’s Al Centre, for handling all aspects of Analytics, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks and Deep Learning algorithms.
- The high-end compute requirements would be undertaken by the latest Graphical Processing Unit powered servers.
National Emblem cast on the roof of the New Parliament Building
⇒ The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi unveiled the National Emblem cast on the roof of the New Parliament Building on 11 July 2022.
Key Points:
- The National Emblem is made of bronze with a total weight of 9500 Kg and is 6.5 m in height.
- It has been cast at the top of the Central Foyer of New Parliament Building.
- A supporting structure of steel weighing around 6500 Kg has been constructed to support the Emblem.
New Logo of Prasar Bharati
⇒ Prasar Bharati India’s public broadcaster, unveiled its new logo on 11th July 2022 & with that added a new chapter in its glorious history.
About Logo:
» The new logo of Prasar Bharti is replete with rich meaning. In the new logo symbol for Prasar Bharati, an autonomous statutory body under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security, and perfection for the common man.
- The organization started as All India Radio (AIR) in the past and Doordarshan (DD) was born to cater television services later and finally came Prasar Bharati (PB) by enactment of an act by the parliament, which is visualized in the logo identity as emerging and evolving from the centre.
» While the elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security and perfection to the Nation, its colour, ‘Dark Moderate Blue’ represents both the sky and the sea. It is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity.
- Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, and intelligence.
- The colour blue also pays tribute to the Indian ethos and traditions associated with religious figures, mythological characters found in the Indian miniature paintings.
About Prasar Bharti:
- Headquartered in New Delhi, Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament.
- It comprises of the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio (AIR), which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
‘Sanskar’ Award
⇒ The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu presented the ‘Sanskar’ award instituted by Aakriti, a cultural organization, to Shri Garikipati Narasimha Rao, eminent Telugu scholar and literary performer (avadhani) in Hyderabad on 13 July 2022.
- The Vice President lauded Shri Garikipati for his literary contribution to the Telugu language and for his spiritual teachings.
The Vice President stressed the importance of a holistic, value-based education for the overall development of children and in building a secure future for the nation. He called for shedding the mindset of ‘marks-focussed education’ and to look at education as ‘not mere letters and numbers, but as the learning of culture and values’.
Important Day
168th Annual Day of CPWD
⇒ The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) celebrated its 168th Annual Day on 12 July 2022.
About CPWD:
- The Central Public Works Department of India (CPWD), under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a premier Central Government authority in charge of public sector works.
- CPWD came into existence in July, 1854 when Lord Dalhousie established a central agency for execution of public works and set up Ajmer Provincial Division.
- Through the professional expertise in disciplines including Architecture, Engineering, Project Management coupled with comprehensive experience in building construction and maintenance CPWD has been serving the nation and has executed priority of works in difficult and demanding geographical and climatic conditions.
- It has now grown into a comprehensive construction management department, which provides services from project concept to completion, consultancy and maintenance management.
- It is headed by DG who is also the Principal Technical Advisor to the Government of India.