National
Conference and Exhibition on the Indian National Calendar
⇒ The two-day Conference and Exhibition on the Indian National Calendar as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was held in Ujjain.
A two-day conference and exhibition on India’s National Calendar was arranged on Vaisakh 2 and 3, 1944 (April 22-23, 2022) at Ujjain and Dongla(a place on the tropic of Cancer).
On the first day, the inauguration of the exhibition was attended by representatives from the calendrical system of Tamil Panchangam, Gujarati Calendar, Nepali Panchangam, Vikram Samvatsar, Shalivahana Saka Samvatsar, and Bangabda and Tripuravada etc.
On the second day, a panel discussion on ‘Challenges and Opportunities for the National Calendar’ was also organized.
About Indian National Calendar:
The ‘Indian National Calendar,’ which was officially established by India’s Parliament in 1957, is a scientific statement of India’s identity. This was an act of reclaiming our identity after independence.
DefConnect 2.0
⇒ Innovations for Defence Excellence, Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO), under the aegis of Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence organised DefConnect 2.0 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on April 22, 2022.
- The event attracted a large number of innovators and investors from India’s leading industries in the defence sector.
- The DefConnect provided a unique opportunity for innovators associated with iDEX-DIO to showcase their capabilities, products and state-of-the-art-technologies to the target audience of the industry leaders.
Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh launched Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Prime and sixth Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 6) during DefConnect 2.0.
» The iDEX-Prime aims to support projects, requiring support beyond Rs 1.5 crore up to Rs 10 crore, to help ever-growing start-ups in the defence sector.
» The DISC 6 with 38 Problem Statements was also launched by the Raksha Mantri.
- DISC 6 witnesses the participation of newly-formed seven defence companies, Indian Coast Guard and organizations under Ministry of Home Affairs for the first time.
- The Problem Statements relate to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Advanced Imaging, Sensor Systems, Big Data Analytics and Autonomous Unmanned Systems and Secured Communication among others.
About iDEX:
The iDEX, launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2018, essentially provides a unified platform for various stakeholders in the defence and aerospace sectors.
International
Joint Statement on meeting between Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India and Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil
⇒ The Minister of Mines and Energy of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Mr. Bento Albuquerque paid an official visit to the Republic of India on April 19th -22nd, 2022.
The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri and Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil, Mr. Bento Albuquerque reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation across the entire spectrum of the energy sector.
Highlights of the Joint Statement:
» The two sides highlighted the importance of the bilateral trade in oil and its by-products, and expressed their willingness to expand this mutually beneficial trade.
- The Indian side expressed interest for sourcing crude oil under long term special contracts.
» The two sides agreed on the importance of strengthening the bilateral cooperation in bioenergy. To this end, the two sides agreed to work towards developing an Indian-Brazil Alliance for Bioenergy and Biofuels.
» The Ministers took note of the conclusions of the Joint Working Group on Bioenergy Cooperation, whose first meeting happened on 6 August 2021, and identified priorities for further bilateral cooperation in nine key areas as follows under two broad focus zones:
- Implementation and scaling up
- Technology and future fuels
» They committed themselves to hold, in the coming months, meetings of the Joint Working Group for Cooperation in Bioenergy, and with a view to promote exchanges and joint research between Indian and Brazilian agencies, companies and researchers in the development of an ethanol economy.
» The two Ministers stressed the importance of a constant engagement between the private and public stakeholders of both countries, in order to forge strong and dynamic cooperation in bioenergy and biofuels. In this context the two Ministers took note of the recommendations of companies of the two countries.
Some of the recommendations included:
- establishing a public policy to use ethanol as gasoline substitute to reduce external dependence, increase octane number of Otto cycle fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
- developing a roadmap to introduce flex-fuel and hybrid flex-fuel vehicles;
- joint development of ethanol and biomethane fuel cell vehicles; etc.
» They further agreed that a thriving international market for sustainable bioenergy and biofuels will be essential to the design of low-carbon global vehicle platforms, as well as to the development of new technologies and the establishment of economies of scale in the bioenergy sector.
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Important Day
International Mother Earth Day 2022
⇒ International Mother Earth Day is celebrated every year on 22 April. It is also known as Earth Day.
International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise global public awareness of the challenges to the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.
Theme:
The theme for the International Mother Earth Day 2022 was ‘Invest in our Planet.’
History:
- Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970.
- The UN General Assembly designated 22 April as International Mother Earth Day through resolution A/RES/63/278, adopted in 2009.
- In 2009, Earth Day was renamed International Mother Earth Day.