National
National Metallurgist Award 2021
⇒ The Union Steel Minister, Shri Ram Chandra Prasad Singh presented the National Metallurgist Award -2021 in New Delhi. The Ministry of Steel Presented the National Metallurgist Award to recognize metallurgists in Iron and Steel Sector.
National Metallurgist Award 2021:
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Sri Hemant Madhusudan Nerurkar
- National Metallurgist Award: Sri B S Murty
- Award for R&D in Iron & Steel Sector: Sri Gnanaprakasam Balachandran
- Certificate of Excellence (R&D in Iron & Steel Sector): Sri Pratik Swarup Dash
- Young Metallurgist (Metal Science) Award: Sri Ashok Kamraj
- Young Metallurgist (Metal Science) Award: Ms Minal Shah
About Award:
- The Ministry of Steel has instituted the National Metallurgist Award after extensive deliberations with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) regarding rationalisation of the awards in line with the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister. Earlier, this award was known as National Metallurgist Day Award.
- These Awards have been instituted to recognize outstanding contribution of Metallurgist who are working across value chain of Iron and Steel Industry covering areas of Manufacturing, R & D, Design, Waste Management, Education, Energy Conservation. Finally, those who are working towards making the steel sector ‘Atmanirbhar’.
Colombo Security Conclave
⇒ The Colombo Security Conclave Virtual Conference on Sharing of experiences in investigation of terrorism cases was organized by the National Investigation Agency of India on 19 April 2022.
Participants:
Panellists and participants from India, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh participated in the virtual conference.
The conference was one of the engagement activities identified in the Colombo Security Conclave’s Roadmap for Cooperation and Activities for 2022-23 agreed by member countries at the 5th NSA level Meeting held in Maldives on 9-10 March 2022.
Discussion:
Participants discussed the various challenges related to terrorism in their respective countries and shared experiences on prosecution of terrorism cases, strategies to deal with foreign fighters and countering the misuse of internet and social media.
‘NATPOLREX-VIII’
⇒Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar inaugurated the 8th edition of two-day National Level Pollution Response Exercise, ‘NATPOLREX-VIII’ on April 19, 2022.
- It was conducted by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) off Mormugao harbour, Goa.
Participants:
The event was attended by more than 85 participants from 50 agencies, including 29 observers from 22 friendly foreign countries & International Organisations and two Coast Guard ships from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Objective:
The objective of NATPOLREX-VIII is to enhance the preparedness and response capability of all the stakeholders in combating marine spills.
- It aims at validating the procedures and guidelines as contained in the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP) at the national and regional levels under the aegis of SACEP MoU to which India is a member state.
» During this exercise, 13 ships and 10 aircraft of ICG, one C-131 aircraft of Indian Air Force, two ships from SACEP member states – Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and one Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) of ONGC, assets of Shipping Corporation of India and tugs from Mormugao Port Trust are included.
- They demonstrated containment cum marine spill recovery by side sweeping arms, deployment of booms and skimmers, streaming of single ship operated containment cum recovery system, firefighting drill, rescue operation, and demonstration of surface and air oil spill dispersant systems.
» Besides NATPOLREX, ICG concurrently conducted a capacity building professional training course in Marine Oil Response and Preparedness for 45 international participants from 18 countries including member states from Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) at Chennai from April 18-29, 2022.
IPPB launches ‘Fincluvation’
⇒ India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a 100% government owned entity under Department of Posts (DoP) announced the launch of Fincluvation– a joint initiative to collaborate with Fintech Startup community to co-create and innovate solutions for financial inclusion.
About Fincluvation:
» Fincluvation will be a permanent platform of IPPB to co-create inclusive financial solutions with participating start-ups.
» Fincluvation invites startups to Participate, Ideate, Develop and Market intuitive and tailored products and services that can be taken to the customers.
Startups are encouraged to develop solutions aligned with any of the following tracks:
- Creditization – Develop Innovative & Inclusive credit products aligned with the use cases of target customers and take them to their doorsteps through Postal network.
- Digitization – Bring convenience through convergence of traditional services with Digital Payment Technologies such as making the traditional Money Order service as Interoperable Banking service.
- Any Market-led solutions that can help solve any other problem relevant to IPPB and/or DoP in serving the target customers.
About IPPB:
- India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by Government of India.
- IPPB was launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018.
International
Collaboration between NITI Aayog and UNICEF to develop India’s first report on ‘State of India’s Children'
⇒ NITI Aayog and UNICEF India signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on children.
The SoI seeks to formalize a framework of cooperation to launch the India’s first report on the ‘State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development’.
The collaboration between NITI Aayog and UNICEF India will draw up the methods, technical analysis, reporting, and action planning for the first report on the ‘Status of India’s Children’, with a focus on the multidimensional aspects of child development.