National
40th meeting of the National Capital Region Planning Board
⇒ The 40th meeting of the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) was held on 31 August 2021.
The meeting was chaired by the Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Geo-Portal for NCR:
With optimum utilization of Remote Sensing and GIS technology, “Pariman”, a web NCR Geo-Portal developed by NIC for NCR Planning Board was launched in the meeting.
This Geo-Portal covers details of various sectors like Land Use, Transport, Industries, Water, Power, Health, Shelter, Heritage & Tourism, Disaster Management, etc. presented as Line, Point & Polygon features.
World’s first ‘Plant based’ smart air-purifier “Ubreathe Life”
⇒ Budding scientists of Indian Institutes of Technology, Ropar and Kanpur and Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University have developed a living-plant based air purifier “Ubreathe Life” that amplifies the air purification process in the indoor spaces.
These indoor spaces can either be hospitals, schools, offices and homes.
Developed by:
IIT Ropar’s startup company, Urban Air Laboratory, that has developed the product claims it to be world’s first, state-of-the art ‘Smart Bio-Filter’ that can make breathing fresh.
It has been incubated at IIT Ropar, which is a designated iHub – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India.
Technology:
The novel technology used in this product is ‘Urban Munnar Effect’, which exponentially amplify the phytoremediation process of the plants by “Breathing Roots”. Phytoremediation is a process by which plants effectively remove pollutants from the air.
‘Ubreathe Life’ is a specially designed wooden box fitted filter made from specific plants, Ultra Violet (UV) disinfection and composite using Pre-filters, Charcoal Filters and High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA).
It effectively improves indoor air quality by removing particulate, gaseous and biological contaminants while increasing the oxygen levels in the indoor.
Fit India Quiz on Fitness & Sports
⇒ Recently, Union Minister of Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Anurag Singh Thakur and launched the Fit India Quiz, which is the first-ever quiz on fitness and sports, in New Delhi.
This Fit India Quiz is part of the central government’s ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ initiative to celebrate 75 years of India’s Independence.
Aim:
The nation-wide quiz is aimed at creating awareness about fitness and sports among school-going children.
The winners of the Preliminary Round will then take part in the State Round in the month of December and the winners of the state round will then go on to participate at the National level in January – February 2022.
International
Maiden Exercise between Indian Navy and Algerian Navy
⇒ As part of her ongoing goodwill visit to Europe and Africa, INS Tabar took part in a Maritime Partnership Exercise with Algerian Navy ship ‘Ezzadjer’ at the Algerian coast, on 29 August 2021.
As part of the exercise, diverse activities including co-ordinated manoeuvring, communication procedures and steam past were undertaken between the Indian and Algerian warships.
8th Meeting of Agriculture Experts of BIMSTEC Countries
⇒ India hosted the 8th Meeting of Agriculture Experts of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Countries virtually on 31 August 2021.
Experts:
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education, and Director General, ICAR chaired the day long meeting.
Experts of Agricultural Ministries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand participated in the meeting.
Discussion:
» The Chairman highlighted the UN Food System Summit 2021 and the transformations that are happening in the agriculture and food systems globally.
» He also emphasized addressing biosafety and biosecurity concerns and promoting digital agriculture along with the trade of technologies for developing resilient agriculture, food systems and value chains.
» The cooperation in the areas of high impact transboundary diseases of livestock and poultry, aquatic animal diseases and bio-security in aquaculture and digitalization to promote precision farming was also discussed in the meeting.
About BIMSTEC:
The BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South and South-East Asia with 5 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia.
The BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 with an ambition to pursue mutual trade, connectivity and cultural, technical and economic development in the region.
Important Day
World Coconut Day 2021
⇒ World Coconut Day is celebrated on every year on 2 September.
Theme for World Coconut Day 2021:
The theme for the 23rd World Coconut Day is “Building a safe, inclusive resilient and sustainable coconut community amid Covid-19 pandemic and beyond”.
World Coconut Day in India:
Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare celebrated World Coconut Day to commemorate the foundation day of the International Coconut Community (ICC), an intergovernmental organization of coconut producing countries under the aegis of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
On this occasion, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said:
» India is at the fore in production and productivity and ranks third in the world.
» The production of coconut in the country stood at 21207 million nuts during 2020-21, which is 34% of the global production.
» The productivity is 9687 nuts per hectare, which is the highest in the world.