Home » Current Affairs Date: 14 July 2022

Current Affairs Date: 14 July 2022

National

India's biggest Drone Festival - Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022

⇒ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s biggest Drone Festival – Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on 27 May 2022.

He also interacted with Kisan drone pilots, witnessed open-air drone demonstrations and interacted with startups in the drone exhibition centre. The Prime Minister also gave away 150 drone pilot certificates.

About Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022:
    • Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 was a two-day event and held on 27th and 28th May 2022.
    • Over 1600 delegates comprising government officials, foreign diplomats, armed forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private companies and drone startups etc. participated in the Mahotsav. More than 70 exhibitors displayed various use cases of drones at the exhibition.
    • Mahotsav also included virtual distribution of Drone Pilot certificates, product launches, panel discussions, flying demonstrations, display of a Made in India Drone Taxi prototype, among others.

Indian Business Portal - An International Trade Hub for Indian Exporters and Foreign Buyers

⇒ Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Smt Anupriya Patel launched the Indian Business Portal – An International Trade Hub for Indian Exporters and Foreign Buyers on 27 May 2022.

Designed and developed by:

FIEO in partnership with GlobalLinker, has designed and developed the “Indian Business Portal”, an International Trade Hub for Indian Exporters and Foreign Buyers.

» This is a B2B digital marketplace to empower SME exporters, artisans and farmers to identify new markets for their products and grow their sales globally.

About the Portal:

Indian Business Portal is the only such marketplace that is exclusive for exporters registered in India and is custom-built to support exporters with a range of bespoke features and relevant partners integrated to build this ecosystem.

Strategic objectives of Indian Business Portal:
    • Digitizing Indian Exporters and help them become discoverable online
    • Promoting exports from all Indian States
    • Showcasing India’s strength in wide range of Products & Services
    • Encouraging virtual meetings between buyers and sellers
    • Providing a trusted network of Indian Exporters to Foreign Buyers

» 14000+ SMEs are registered on the FIEO GlobalLinker platform and of those 2000+ have already joined with over 40,000+products and services listed on Indian Business Portal for the pilot before launch.

AAROHAN 4.0

⇒ Two days meet of senior functionaries of Postal Department and India Post payments Bank (IPPB), AAROHAN 4.0 held on 26-27 May 2022 in Shimla.

    • The agenda of the meeting was to discuss and deliberate ways to further deepen Financial Inclusion drive in the country and to provide banking solutions to every citizen of India.
About India Post Payments Bank:
    • India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by Government of India.
    • IPPB was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018.
    • The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India.

International

World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2022

⇒ The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum was held on 22-26 May 2022 in Davos, Switzerland.

Theme:

The 52nd World Economic Forum’s annual meeting was held on the theme “Working Together, Restoring Trust”, aimed at bridging the economic, environmental, political and social fault-lines arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WEF annual meeting took place physically in the Swiss town of Davos after two years, under the theme ‘History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies’.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles led the team India at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos from 23-25 May 2022.

Shri Goyal, who was accompanied by two Union Ministers, viz Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Shri Hardeep Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya addressed sessions on ‘Unlocking the Power of Digital Health’ and ‘Closing the Vaccines Gap’ at World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, Davos.

Highlights:
    • This year coincides with the World Economic Forum’s 50th anniversary and 35 years of the Forum’s collaboration with India which provided an opportunity for India to showcase its unified presence including the centre and states.
    • This event helped reinforce India’s position as an important and relevant stakeholder in shaping the global narrative, particularly as India assumes presidency of the G-20 in 2023.
    • The WEF also a platform to project India as an attractive investment destination in view of its robust economic growth and stable macroeconomic indicators.
    • In line with the Government of India’s priorities, sessions were organized at the India Lounge keeping in mind India’s strategic advantage, existing and upcoming incentive architecture, industry investment potential and market opportunity.
Discussion:

The key topics that were addressed during the sessions include-

Policy and ease of doing business reforms, energy transition, digital economy, opportunities in National Monetization Pipeline, India as an entrepreneurial destination shaping the unicorn story, growing talents in the digital space, emphasis on innovation and research in the healthcare ecosystem.

78th session of the ESCAP

⇒ The 78th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was held in a hybrid modality from 23 to 27 May 2022 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok and online.

Guided by the theme “A common agenda to advance sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific”, the annual session was an opportunity to discuss and shape the future of regional cooperation centred around a new form of multilateralism and regional cooperation.

Side Event of India on Strategic Priorities for Adoption of Emerging Technologies in the Energy Sector for Climate Change Mitigation:

Emerging technologies and their innovative applications in the energy sector offer advantages such as efficiency improvement, emissions reduction and cost optimization, among others. Enabling policies and strategies are essential to facilitate transfer and diffusion of emerging technologies across the Asia-Pacific region.

To discuss and identify strategic priorities for adoption of emerging technologies in the energy sector, a virtual side event was organized on 24 May 2022 during the 78th Commission Session of UN-ESCAP.

    • The event was jointly organized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) of ESCAP.

Source: PIB & Other News Reports

Also Read: