National
NTPC climbs up 52 positions to 433rd rank in Forbes’ “The Global 2000” List of top companies
⇒ NTPC Limited, India’s largest power generation company, has climbed 52 positions to secure the 433rd rank in Forbes’ “The Global 2000” List for 2023.
- Rising from 485th rank in the list in the year 2022, the climb of 52 positions in just one year demonstrates NTPC’s emergence as a strong force in the global market.
- It is evidence of the company’s steady expansion, sound financial condition, and persistent dedication to excellence.
» Considering Indian companies, NTPC has climbed up one place to secure the 10th rank among the largest Indian companies in the 2023 List. This ranking further solidifies NTPC’s status as a leading player in India’s corporate sector.
Some Indian companies ranked from the top:
Reliance Industries (45), State Bank of India (77), HDFC Bank (128), ICICI Bank (163), Oil & Natural Gas (226), HDFC (232), Life Insurance Corp. of India (362), Tata Consultancy Services (386), AXIS Bank (423), NTPC (433)
About “The Global 2000”:
- “The Global 2000” List recognizes the world’s largest companies based on four key metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value.
- The 20th anniversary edition of the Global 2000 ranking the world’s largest companies shows just how much has changed since the early years of the 21st century.
- The top three slots on the list in 2003 belonged to Citigroup, General Electric and American International Group.
First indigenously developed animal-derived tissue engineering scaffold for healing skin wounds with minimum scarring
⇒ The first indigenously developed tissue engineering scaffold from mammalian organs, an animal-derived Class D Biomedical Device that can rapidly heal skin wounds at low-cost with minimum scarring, has received approval from the Indian Drugs Controller.
- With this, the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) became the first institution in the country to develop Class D medical devices that satisfy all statutory requirements of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Government of India. Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) is an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Key Points:
- The concept of using animal-derived materials as advanced wound care products is not new. However, indigenous technology was so far not available for fabricating quality products that satisfy the requirements of the Drugs Controller General. Therefore, such products were imported making them expensive.
- Researchers of the Division of Experimental Pathology in the Biomedical Technology Wing of the institute developed an innovative technology for preparing tissue engineering scaffolds from mammalian organs.
- Investigations conducted in the division in the past 15 years under the leadership of Prof. T. V. Anilkumar decellularised pig gall bladder and recovered extracellular matrix.
- Membrane forms of the scaffold, identified as Cholederm, healed different types of skin wounds including burn and diabetic wounds in rat, rabbit, or dog faster than similar products currently available in the market with minimal scarring as proved by several in-depth laboratory investigations focusing Type I and Type III collagen.
- The team unravelled the probable mechanism of the healing reaction and showed that the graft-assisted healing was regulated by anti-inflammatory (pro-regenerative) M2 type of macrophages.
- Indeed, the scaffold modulated or mitigated the scarring reactions in subcutaneous, skeletal muscle, and cardiac tissues.
- In 2017, the technology was transferred to Alicorn Medical, a start-up biopharmaceutical firm in the technology incubation facility of the institute namely TIMed.
International
Gabon’s first Agri- SEZ Project
⇒ Union Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan flagged off Gabon’s first Agri- SEZ project from New Delhi on 14 June 2023.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan said that from Gajapati to Gabon, from Cheetahs to Climate Change, India-Africa relationship is going from strength to strength.
Implemented by:
The project will be implemented by AOM group with Centurion University as the technical and knowledge partner.
Key Points:
In the first phase of the program, 30 farmers and 20 B.Sc./M.Sc. Agri and B.Tech/M.Tech Engineering students from Gajapati district, which is an Aspirational district of Odisha, will be travelling together as agri-technical and technical consultants for the agriculture SEZ which is being developed under this project.
India to host IIAS Annual Conference 2025 at Kochi
⇒ India expressed its willingness to host the 2025 IIAS (International Institute of Administrative Sciences) Annual Conference at Kochi, Kerala, in February, 2025.
Theme:
In accordance with India’s governance model, the theme for 2025 IIAS Annual Conference at Kochi is proposed as “Next Generation Administrative Reforms – Empowering the Citizens and Reaching the Last Mile”.
» The decision of the Government of India was conveyed in the meeting of the Council of Administration by V.Srinivas, Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in a virtual meeting on 14 June 2023.
Participation:
The 2025 Annual Conference of IIAS would be attended by 30 Member Countries, 18 National Sections and over 50 IIAS Universities/ Institutes of Public Administration in Member Countries.
About IIAS:
- The IIAS established in 1930, is a federation of member States, national sections and academic research centres jointly elaborating public administration solutions to the policy challenges of the day with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
- The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is an institutional member of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences IIAS since 1998.
Important Day
World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) 2023
⇒ World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) is celebrated every year on 14 June.
World Blood Donor Day aims to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
Slogan:
The slogan or theme for 2023 World Blood Donor Day campaign is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.”
- It focuses on patients requiring lifelong blood transfusion support and underlines the role every single person can play by giving the valuable gift of blood or plasma.
History:
- Celebrating World Blood Donor Day on 14 June was initiated and established by “World Health Organization, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies” in 2004.
- In the 58th World Health Assembly, 2005 it was declared as an annual global event to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation.
- World Blood Donor Day is celebrated every year on the day of birthday anniversary of Karl Landsteiner on 14th of June in 1868.
- Landsteiner was Austrian American immunologist, pathologist. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1930 for his works on blood group and development of modern blood transfusion system.