National
'Pilot Project for Skilling Tribal Youth - Rural Tribal Technical Training'
⇒ ‘Pilot Project for Skilling Tribal Youth – Rural Tribal Technical Training’ was launched at the Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance CRISP, Bhopal on 13 May 2022.
» During the launch, Minister of State, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Sankalp starts with the empowerment of rural youth.
- The road to Atmanirbhar Bharat travels through Atmanirbhar Villages.
- Launch of the Rural Tribal Technical Training Program is a small step in this direction.
About Project:
- The pilot project envisages training for about 250 beneficiaries of 17 clusters of 17 districts selected from 6 states of India – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Odisha and will be organized at Vikas Bharti, Gumla, Jharkhand.
- Training will be provided to the beneficiaries in 5 disciplines- electrical and solar energy, agricultural mechanization, e-governance, plumbing and masonry, two-wheeler repair and maintenance.
- This training will also enable the youth to start their own business, thus generating more employment opportunities for other youth as well.
35 million years old rare snake fossil from Ladakh Himalaya
⇒ Scientists have reported spotting of the fossil of a Madtsoiidae snake from the molasse deposits of Ladakh Himalaya for the first time indicating their prevalence in the subcontinent for much longer time than previously thought.
Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun in association with Scientists from Panjab University Chandigarh, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, and Comenius University Slovakia have reported for the first time a Madtsoiidae snake from the late Oligocene of India or the molasse deposits of Ladakh Himalaya.
The occurrence of Madtsoiidae from the Oligocene of Ladakh indicates their continuity at least to the end of the Paleogene.
- The Oligocene is part of the Tertiary Period in the Cenozoic Era, and lasted from about 33.7 to 23.8 million years ago.
- The Paleogene is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago.
About Madtsoiidae:
- Madtsoiidae is an extinct group of medium-sized to gigantic snakes, firstly appeared during the late Cretaceous and mostly distributed in the Gondwanan landmasses, although, their Cenozoic record is extremely scarce.
- From the fossil record, the whole group disappeared in the mid-Paleogene across most Gondwanan continents except for Australia where it survived with its last known taxon Wonambi till late Pleistocene.
National Data & Analytics Platform
⇒ NITI Aayog launched the National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) for open public use on 13 May 2022.
- The platform aims to democratize access to public government data by making data accessible, interoperable, interactive, and available on a user-friendly platform.
- It hosts foundational datasets from various government agencies, presents them coherently, and provides tools for analytics and visualization.
NDAP follows a use-case based approach to ensure that the datasets hosted on the platform are tailored to the needs of data users from government, academia, journalism, civil society, and the private sector. All datasets are standardized to a common schema, which makes it easy to merge datasets and do cross-sectoral analysis.
11th Chief Minister of Tripura
⇒ Shri Manik Saha, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP took oath as the 11th Chief Minister of Tripura on 15 May 2022 at Raj Bhawan, Agartala.
Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath of secrecy to Saha at a ceremony at Raj Bhawan. Manik Saha replaced Biplab Kumar Deb as the chief minister of Tripura.
Param Vishisht Seva Medal to Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande
⇒ Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande received the Param Vishisht Seva Medal from President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The President of India presented the Gallantry Awards (2022 Phase) at the Defence Investiture Ceremony on 10 May 2022.
About Medal:
- The Param Vishisht Seva Medal is a military award of India which was constituted in 1960.
- It is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order and may be awarded posthumously as well.
- All ranks of the Indian Armed Forces including Territorial Army, Auxiliary and Reserve Forces, Nursing officers and other members of the Nursing services and other lawfully constituted Armed Forces are eligible for the award.
World’s largest passenger elevator
⇒ Kone Elevators, the subsidiary of Kone Corporation India, has installed the world’s largest passenger elevator at Jio World Centre, Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.
About Elevator:
- The 16-tonne, 5-stop elevator has a floor space of 25.78 sq. metres.
- It can carry more than 200 people together at a time.
- The elevator uses KONE technology to carry users between five stops smoothly and efficiently.
International
7th Japan-India ICT Joint Working Group Meeting
⇒ The 7th Japan-India ICT Joint Working Group meeting was held on 13 May 2022 on a virtual platform under India-Japan ICT Comprehensive Cooperation Framework.
Participation:
The participants of 7th JWG meeting included Government officials, Industry and academia stakeholders from India and Japan.
Discussion:
- The JWG discussions were focused on enhancing further cooperation in various fields like 5G, Open RAN, Telecom Network Security, submarine cable systems, and Quantum Communications.
- The meeting deliberated on the best practices and experience on Open RAN, Massive MIMO, Quantum Communications, Connected Cars, 5G Use cases and 6G Innovation.
» The 7th JWG agreed to enhance cooperation in these areas under the framework of Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between India and Japan.