National
Maritime History Society holds its 43rd Annual Seminar
⇒ The Maritime History Society (MHS) organised its 43rd Annual Seminar on 15 November 2022 at the Agastya Auditorium at INHS Asvini, Colaba.
Theme:
The theme for the day-long seminar was “Exploring the Trajectory of India’s Sea Power”.
Key Points:
- With a coastline of over 7500kms, India has witnessed the sea being the medium of livelihood, exploration as well as annexation since prehistoric times.
- The seminar featured 10 presenters who navigated through the historical evolution and application of sea power in India and discussed its implications thereof.
- The seminar was intended to trigger the audience’s curiosity by providing a complete historical overview that might serve as a foundation for establishing a sustainable maritime doctrine, unified maritime policies, and a comprehensive national maritime development plan.
NMDC's 1st edition of Vigilance Magazine
⇒ To reinforce the NMDC’s commitment to fostering honesty and transparency among all stakeholders, NMDC vigilance department, released the first edition of its in-house vigilance magazine “Subodh”.
National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) released the vigilance magazine the on 09 November 2022 at the Head Office in Hyderabad. The magazine will be released every quarter.
International
2nd Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of BIMSTEC
⇒ India hosted the 2nd Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) on 10 November 2022 under the chairmanship of the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar.
- Shri Tomar appealed to participate in India’s initiative to promote Millet for a friendly agricultural food system and nutrition.
» Agriculture ministers of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the meeting.
Key Points:
- The 2nd BIMSTEC Agriculture Ministerial Meeting adopted the Action Plan for Strengthening BIMSTEC Agricultural Cooperation (2023-2027).
- An MoU between the BIMSTEC Secretariat and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been signed and approval has been given to bring Fisheries and Livestock sub-sectors under the Agricultural Working Group.
- BIMSTEC member countries appreciated India’s efforts to strengthen cooperation in agricultural research and development and for awarding six scholarships each for postgraduate and PhD programmes in agriculture.
About BIMSTEC:
- BIMSTEC was established in the year 1997.
- It includes five countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and two countries of South-East Asia – Myanmar and Thailand.
Important Day
7th India Water Week
⇒ The President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the 7th India Water Week at the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh on 01 November 2022.
Organized by:
Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India organized the 7th edition of India Water Week (IWW) from 1st to 5th November, 2022.
Partner country:
Denmark, Singapore and Finland were the partner country for IWW 2022.
Theme:
The theme of 7th India Water Week was “Water Security for Sustainable Development and Equity”.
Technical Sessions:
» During IWW- 2022, there were four Technical Sessions comprising of 10 seminars, 10 panels discussions, Events and side events.
- There were many side events organized by Young Professionals, World Bank, School Children, ICID, IWRS, NGOs etc. who are working continuously in direction of conservation and management of this precious natural resource. Also, a special side event was organized by Denmark.
- The five daylong events brought together experts, planners and stake holders from across the globe.
- A large group of international and national persons of eminence shared their experiences in the field of water management.
» The Plenary session was held later during the opening day. The deliberations emphasized the strategies for water development and its management in the evolutionary process, concern of water security, conducting serious reviews of water related security concerns after scientific analysis, implementation of action plan; so that water can be proved to be an agent for peace instead of water wars.
» Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti held Technical Session on “Rural WASH Partnerships – the way forward’ on the second day of the 7th India Water Week.
- Main emphasis, during one of the key sessions during the 2nd day, was to identify and find solutions to bottlenecks impeding greater progress on SDG6 acceleration. This was discussed threadbare during the session ‘Acceleration of SDG 6 Achievements through Multi-Stakeholders Partnerships’. A Panel discussion was also held on role of water in achieving sustainable development goals.
» On the 3rd day of IWW 2022, there were Panel discussions on role of water education, public awareness and role of media and decentralised solutions for water management.
» On the Day 4 of IWW 2022, There were 3 technical sessions viz.- Managing water related disasters-floods and drought, Establishing a collaborative water governance regime and Water for environmental livelihood. There were 4 panel discussions viz.- Challenges in urban water planning and management, Converging towards National Perspective – IBWT, Agriculture sustainability under unforeseen circumstances and Role of Hydropower for energy security respectively.
» The 7th India Water Week-2022 was culminated with the valedictory function on 05th November in the august presence of Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar. There was one Technical session on Reuse & recycle of waste water for water resilience & water market.
Key Points:
- The event addressed the issues of sustainability of water resources development and management in the line with sustainable development goals.
- A multi- disciplinary dialogue in form of a conference discussing around the theme of “Water Security for Sustainable development and Equity” was one of the major components of the event.
- The platform was used to elicit ideas and opinions from global level decisions makers, politicians, researchers, and entrepreneurs.
- The event was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Department of Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, various state Governments, Expert organizations, PSUs, key International Bodies and Private and Public business groups.