National
IFFCO Nano Urea Liquid Plants in Uttar Pradesh
⇒ Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the IFFCO Nano Urea Liquid Plants at Aonla and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh on 14 February 2023.
- Addressing the event, Dr Mandaviya said that Nano Urea, in the coming times will ensure the progress of the farmers, increase their income. In this way it will change the future of our farmer.
- Dr Mandaviya also said that it is an alternate fertiliser. We for the years, used urea and DAP to increase the productivity. When we use urea, only 35% Nitrogen (Urea) gets used by the crop and the unused affects soil.
International
India launched Operation Dost
⇒ India launched Operation Dost to aid in search-and-rescue in Turkey and Syria following deadly earthquakes that struck on February 6, 2023 and claimed over 46,000 lives to date.
Emergency Relief Material comprising life-saving medicines, protective items and critical care equipment valued at over Rs 7 crore arranged and promptly dispatched to Turkiye and Syria.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya played an important role in sending humanitarian medical assistance to quake-hit Syria and Turkiye.
Key Points:
- On 6th February, 2023 when two powerful earthquakes hit Syria and Turkey, 3 truck load of relief materials were arranged at Hindon airbase consisting of life saving emergency medicines and protective items within 12 hours.
- On 10th February 2023, a bigger lot of relief materials was arranged for both Turkiye and Syria. The consignment for Syria consisted of 72 critical care drugs, consumables and protective items of 7.3 tons, valued at Rs 1.4 crore.
- Relief materials sent for Turkiye included 14 types of medical and critical care equipments, valued at Rs 4 crore.
- Under Operation Dost, India sent search and rescue teams, mainly three teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), a field hospital, materials, medicines, and equipment to Turkey and Syria.
- Army medical team was deployed in Türkiye under Operation Dost.
- 99-member self-contained team successfully set up and ran a fully equipped 30-bedded Field Hospital in Iskenderun, Hatay, attending nearly 4,000 patients.
2nd G20 EMPOWER Meeting
⇒ The 2nd G20 EMPOWER meeting took place in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on April 5-6, 2023. The meeting was a pivotal stepping stone towards creating a G20 partnership for actions for women-led development.
- It involved active participation from 18 participants from 8 G20 countries (Mexico, Saudi Arabia, USA, Japan, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, and France), 9 participants from 6 Invitee Countries (Bangladesh, Oman, Spain, UEA, Netherlands, and Nigeria) and 9 participants from 6 International Organisations (UN Women, World Bank, IMF, UNICEF, World Trade Organisation and ILO).
Theme:
The theme of the G20 EMPOWER 2nd Meeting is “Women’s Empowerment: A Win-Win for Equity and Economy”.
- India’s G20 Presidency is inclusive, equitable, ambitious, decisive and action-oriented pushing forward transformative changes towards women’s economic empowerment.
- This second G20 EMPOWER meeting followed on from the first meeting on 11th and 12th of February 2023, where five Working Groups were set up to deliberate upon Financial Inclusion & Business Acceleration, Mentorship, STEM, Corporate Women Empowerment and Digital Inclusion.
- With G20 EMPOWER being a partnership between government and the private sector, the working groups developed recommendations for private sector commitments as well as suggested actions for governments. These recommendations comprise of core actions that G20 EMPOWER is envisaged to take to direct women-led development.
Day 1:
Inauguration of Exhibition
- MoS Dr Munjpara inaugurated the exhibition which showcased Kerala’s rich culture and women’s crucial role in preserving and contributing to it.
- It highlighted women’s impact on the economy and traditional enterprises and was curated by the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
Mentorship platform
- Under India’s presidency, G20 EMPOWER has discussed a Mentorship Platform which has been proposed to promote women’s leadership at all levels by enhancing and enabling access to mentorship and capacity building through an e-platform.
- It would serve as a global mentoring and capacity-building portal that facilitates structured knowledgeexchange among women mentees and mentors of G20 nations.
- It will also serve as an aggregator of existing subject-specific mentorship portals targeting areas such as STEM, business leadership, and entrepreneurship.
- Through the mentorship, networking, knowledge sharing, capacity building and best practices provided through this platform, women entrepreneurs across small, medium and large enterprises as well as grassroots leaders would achieve accelerated success.
Digital Inclusion Platform
- It has been developed as an education and up skilling portal that will enable women across various geographies to get gain digital, technical and financial knowledge that will be crucial for the jobs and entrepreneurship in future.
- It will be available in 120+international and Indian languages, and serve as an aggregator of global content and courses in the aforementioned areas. It will help guide, provide content, and match women with internships and jobs.
G20 EMPOWER Pledge
- The G20 EMPOWER Pledge was also discussed. India has proposed certain additional provisions to the Pledge to further support advancement of women to leadership positions.
- Under India’s presidency, the endeavour will continue to expand the network of G20 EMPOWER Advocates. Through these and several other commitments and initiatives, the G20 EMPOWER proposals will accelerate the creation of a world where women have the necessary skills, access to resources, supportive infrastructure and environment, and mentorship for a transformational shift towards women-led development.
Day 2:
Panel Discussion
Meeting witnessed engaging dialogues & exchange of ideas on themes ranging from “Market Access and Financing” to ” Enabling Leadership across all levels including Corporate Leadership and Leadership at the Grassroots”.
Closing Plenary Session
- Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Women and Child Development Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai addressed the plenary session of the second G-20 EMPOWER meeting.
- He said that women empowerment is essential for economic growth and that a sustainable financial model and online marketing system will be set up to encourage women-led business ventures.
Sports
YAI Sailing Championship 2023
⇒ YAI Sailing Championship 2023 was hosted by Army Yachting Node, Mumbai at Girgaum Chowpatty from 07-13 Feb 2023.
This event was the third trials for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled in China in Sep 2023 and a ranking event for both junior and senior classes.
Participation:
- 189 Participants from 16 different clubs from all over the country participated in the week-long event.
- There was introduction and participation of Formula Kite for the first time in the country.
- There were 14 classes of boats in this event i.e. ILCA 7, ILCA 6, 49er, 49erFX, 470 (mixed), NACRA 17 (mixed), RS:X (men & women), IQ Foil (men & women), Formula Kite (men & women) for senior classes and ILCA 4 (boys & girls) for junior classes with around 140 participants from 12 different training and sailing clubs across India.
Sailors of Army Yachting Node dominated the event winning five gold, five silvers and four bronze medals in total and booking a berth for Asian Games 2023 in Laser, Nacra 17, iQ Foil and RS-X classes with brother-sister duo of Vishnu Sarvanan and Ramya Saravanan both making the cut for Asian Games.
Final results of the event:
ILCA 4 Girls
- Gold – Neha Thakur (NSS Bhopal)
- Silver – Pearl Colvalcar (CESC)
- Bronze – Divyanshi Mishra (NSS Bhopal)
RS:X Women
- Gold – Ishwarya Ganesh (TNSA)
- Silver – Vidyanshi Mishra (NSS Bhopal)
ILCA 6
- Gold – Nethra Kumanan (TNSA)
- Silver – Ritika Dangi (NSS Bhopal)
- Bronze – Capt Sonal Goel (AYN)
iQ Foil Women
- Gold – Katya Coelho (GYA)
49er
- Gold – KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakar (TNSA)
- Silver – Anand Thakur and Satyam Rangad (INWTC Mbi)
- Bronze – Prince Noble and Mannu Francis (AYN)
49er FX
- Gold – Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma (NSS Bhopal)
470 mixed class
- Gold – Uma Chouhan (NSS Bhopal) and CHS Reddy (AYN)
- Silver – Kongara Preethi (YCH) & Sudhanshu Shekhar (INWTC Mbi)
- Bronze – Shraddha Verma and RK Sharma (INWTC Mbi)
Formula Kite
- Gold – Chitresh Tatha (TNSA)
- Silver – Ashish S Roy (AYN)
ILCA 4 Boys
- Gold – Adhvait Menon (INWTC Mandovi)
- Silver – Ekalavya Batham (NSS Bhopal)
- Bronze – Akshat Kumar (NSS Bhopal)
RS:X Men
- Gold – Hav Ebad Ali (AYN)
- Silver – Sep Ved Pathak (AYN)
- Bronze – Hav Mithlesh (EMESA)
iQ Foil Men
- Gold – Nb Sub Jerome kumar (AYN)
- Silver – Dayne Coelho (GYA)
- Bronze – Saurabh Kumar (AYN)
Nacra 17
- Gold – Doiphode and Ramya Sarvanan (AYN)
- Silver – Ekta Yadav (NSS Bhopal) and Karthik (AYN)
- Bronze – Lt Cdr Praveen Prabhakar (INWTC Mbi) and Jayalaxmi (TNSA)
ILCA 7
- Gold – Sub Vishnu Sarvanan (AYN)
- Silver – Hav Mohit Saini (AYN)
- Bronze – Hav Gitesh (AYN)