Home » Current Affairs Date: 15 July 2022

Current Affairs Date: 15 July 2022

National

North India’s first Industrial Biotech Park Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu

⇒ Union Minister of State (I/C) Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Ministry of Earth Science; MoS of Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated North India’s first Industrial Biotech Park Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu on 28 May 2022.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the biotechnology park at Kathua has a potential to produce 25 startups in a year which will be among its great contributions to this region. He said that Kathua is, because of its resource richness with diversity as well as its geographical location, destined to be North India’s StartUp destination.

» This biotech park will carry out research on biodiversity, medicinal and aromatic plants of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and it will also promote green category businesses.

Funded by:
    • The work on the two Industrial Biotech Parks, one at Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu and other in Handwara, Kashmir jointly funded by department of Biotechnology, Govt of India, Ministry of Science & Technology and Jammu & Kashmir Science, Technology & Innovation Council. The Jammu & Kashmir Science, Technology & Innovation Council was started in February 2019.
    • CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, (CSIR-IIIM) Jammu has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of this project.
Key Points:
    • The Department of Biotechnology has established Biotechnology Parks/Incubators across the country to translate research into products and services by providing necessary infrastructure support.
    • These Biotechnology Parks offer facilities to Scientists, and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) for technology incubation, technology demonstration and pilot plant studies for accelerated commercial development of Biotechnology.
    • The Biotech Parks of J&K are among 9 Biotechnology Parks supported by Department of Biotechnology in various States.
    • The Biotechnology has made significant impact on the socio-economic developments worldwide with contributions in various sectors of biotechnology such as health care, agriculture, process industry, environment and service sectors. The Indian biotech industry is among the top 12 destinations in the world and ranks second in Asia after China.
    • The Government of India through the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, has taken a number of initiatives to accelerate the growth of biotechnology by promoting development of innovative technologies, infrastructure, human resources and industry. It has helped the sector to gain global visibility.

President of India visits Bhopal

⇒ The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind laid the foundation stone/ launched various health infrastructure projects of Government of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on May 28, 2022.

    • These include establishment of Regional Institute of Respiratory Diseases and Center of Excellence for Orthopedics under Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal. It also includes projects related to strengthen the health services in district hospitals and civil hospitals of Dewas, Sehore, Shajapur, Jabalpur, Indore, Morena, Ujjain and Bhopal etc.

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind also graced and addressed a function on the subject ‘One-Nation – One Health System is the need of Hour’ organized by the Arogya Bharati in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on 28 May.

Project ‘NIGAH’

⇒ The Chief Commissioner, Delhi Customs Zone, Shri Surjit Bhujabal inaugurated the project ‘NIGAH’ on 26 May 2022 at ICD Garhi Harsaru, Gurugram.

About Project:
    • Project NIGAH is an initiative to track container by using ICTM (ICD Container Tracking Module) which will help in better visibility of the container movement inside the ICD.
    • It will help Customs to expedite long standing containers and monitor timely clearances, thereby enhancing Ease of Doing Business along with ensuring lead preventive checks.
    • ICTM has been developed in collaboration with the Custodian M/s GRFL.

International

3rd IN–BN Bilateral Exercise ‘Bongosagar’

⇒ The third edition of Indian Navy (IN) – Bangladesh Navy (BN) Bilateral Exercise ‘Bongosagar’ commenced at Port Mongla, Bangladesh on 24 May 22.

Phases of the exercise:

The Harbour Phase of the exercise was conducted from 24-25 May followed by a Sea Phase in the Northern Bay of Bengal from 26-27 May.

    • The harbour phase of the exercise included professional and social interactions, and friendly sporting fixtures, in addition to the tactical level planning discussions on the conduct of the exercises at sea.
    • The sea phase of the exercise facilitated ships from both the navies to participate in intensive surface warfare drills, weapon firing drills, seamanship evolutions and coordinated air operations in a tactical scenario.
Participation of Ships:
    • Indian Naval Ships Kora, an indigenously built Guided Missile Corvette, and Sumedha, an indigenously built Offshore Patrol Vessel participated in the Exercise.
    • Bangladesh Navy was represented by BNS Abu Ubaidah and Ali Haider, both Guided Missile Frigates.
Aim:

Exercise Bongosagar is aimed at developing a high degree of interoperability and joint operational skills through the conduct of a wide spectrum of maritime exercises and operations between the two navies.

Sports

Khashaba Jadhav Sports Complex of the Savitribai Phule Pune University

⇒ Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Anurag Singh Thakur inaugurated Khashaba Jadhav Sports Complex of the Savitribai Phule Pune University in May 2022.

Union Minister has stressed on development of sports infrastructure in the country at all levels to facilitate Indian youth to compete and excel at national and international competition.

    • He complimented the Pune University for naming its state-of-the-art sports complex after India’s first Olympic individual medalist Khashaba Jadhav. Incidentally, the winner of the Bronze Medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Khashaba Jadhav was an alumnus of the Pune University.
About the Sports Complex.
    • The Khashaba Jadhav Sports Complex is spread over 27-acre land and it has synthetic athletic track, football, astro turf lawn tennis court, international standard shooting range, state of the art gymnasium.
    • Apart from this, the complex includes outdoor sports facilities like kho-kho, kabaddi, corf ball, hand ball.
    • There is a multipurpose indoor hall with facilities for badminton, basketball, volley ball, hand ball, judo, karate, net ball, table tennis, wrestling, weight lifting, boxing and gymnastics.
    • An international standard swimming pool, cricket and astro turf hockey arena would be built soon at the complex.

Source: PIB & Other News Reports

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