INDIA-AUSTRALIA CIRCULAR ECONOMY HACKATHON
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the valedictory function of the India Australia Circular Economy Hackathon (I-ACE) via videoconferencing.
A circular economy implies reusing waste back into the production cycle to make new products instead of wasting such materials with embedded resources.
The I-ACE was jointly organized by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia. More than 200 participants in 39 teams from India and 33 teams from Australia took part.
Four key themes for the hackathon Innovation in packaging reducing packaging waste Innovation in food supply chains avoiding waste Creating opportunities for plastic waste reduction Recycling critical energy metals and e-waste
Objective: To enable the students and startups/MSMEs of both nations in fostering innovative solutions for the development of a circular economy across the food system value chain with the aim of increasing the long-term health and resilience of our planet, through innovative technology solutions.
I-ACE aims to accelerate the development of young and promising students and startups/MSMEs working towards the creation of a sustainable future.
HYDERABAD-TREE CITY OF THE WORLD 2020
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) and the Arbor Day Foundation have confirmed Hyderabad as the 2020 Tree City of the World.
Hyderabad is committed to the development and maintenance of urban forests, so it was awarded this honor.
This recognition is a testament to New York City’s ongoing and institutional efforts to plant trees, cultivate and celebrate trees.
In addition to the strategic planning and commitment to build healthy cities, it also marks the development of urban and suburban forestry operations. Other cities recognized by the organization include 120 cities from 63 countries/regions.
Most cities are from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. After receiving World Tree City recognition, the city of Hyderabad will join a network of like-minded cities that recognize the importance of trees.
PUDUCHERRY-LG ORDERS FLOOR TEST
The newly appointed Tamilisai Soundararajan (Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry), directed the Assembly Secretariat to convene the House on February 22.
A press release issued by Raj Nivas said the single agenda of the session should be to determine whether the Chief Minister enjoys the confidence of the House.
The minimum requirement is mainly to understand whether executives enjoy the confidence of the legislature. This is a constitutional mechanism under which the chief minister appointed by the governor can be required to prove a majority in the state legislative assembly.
According to the Constitution, the chief minister is appointed by the governor of the country. When a party gets a majority in the House of Representatives, the governor appoints the leader of the party as its chief minister.
If the majority is questioned, the leader of the party advocating the majority must shake the vote of confidence and prove the majority among those present and voting.
If the chief minister cannot prove that they have a majority in the House of Representatives, they must resign. This happened both in Parliament and in the State Legislative Assembly.
MANIKA BATRA WON NATIONAL TABLE TENNIS
Manika Batra won the 82nd National Senior Table Tennis Championship. She defeated Reeth Rishya at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula.
Batra will now participate in two WTT (World Team Tennis) contender competitions starting on February 28th. Next are the World Olympic Qualifiers and the Asian Olympic Qualifiers scheduled to be held in Doha on March 14th and 18.
Manika Batra: She is a table tennis player in India. As of November 2020, she is the highest-ranked female table tennis player. She is ranked 63rd in the world.
The player specializes in long-pimples on her backhand. Top players usually don’t play. In 2020, she also won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Achievements of Manika: She won a silver medal in the 2011 Chile Open (under 21) category. She also represented India in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
She completed the quarter-finals. She also participated in the 2014 Asian Games. In 2015, Manika Batra won three medals at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships. In 2018, she was the only Indian to receive the “Breakthrough Star Award” from ITTF.
Although in 2020, she was unable to get a position in the women’s team competition of the Tokyo Olympics in India.
Indian table tennis is a popular indoor leisure sport in the country. It mainly performed in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
The Indian Table Tennis Federation is the official sports organization of the sport. As of 2019, the Indian men’s team ranked 10th in the world and the women’s team ranked 22nd.
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER TONGUE DAY: 21ST FEBRUARY
Since 2000, an International Mother Tongue Day has been held on February 21 every year to promote the diversity of languages and cultures and the use of multiple languages.
The idea of celebrating International Mother Tongue Day is an initiative of Bangladesh. It was approved at the UNESCO General Conference in 1999 and has been observed all over the world since 2000.
UNESCO celebrates “Language without Borders” on International Mother Tongue Day 2020.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2008 as the International Year of Languages. 40% of the global population cannot receive education in a language they speak or understand.
However, in multilingual education based on mother tongue, especially in early education, people have gained more and more understanding of its importance, and progress is currently being made.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Development celebrates this day with educational institutions and language institutions because Matribhasha Diwas is in the country.
PM LAUNCHES MAHABAHU-BRAHMPUTRA IN ASSAM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has virtually launched ‘Mahabahu-Brahmaputra’ initiative in Assam. He laid the foundation stone for the Dhubri Phulbari bridge.
PM also perform the bhumi puja for the construction of Majuli Bridge in Assam. PM has announced the details stated that the landmark day in the development journey for Assam as Mahabahu-Brahmaputra initiative is going to be launched.
Mahabahu-Brahmaputra initiative is going to be marked with the inauguration of the Ro-Pax vessel operations.
The Ro-Pax vessel operations will be launched in between the Neamatighat & Majuli, Dhubri-Hatsingimari and North-South Guwahati. This initiative also includes the inauguration of the Inland Water Transport Terminal at Jogighopa.
The initiative will also be marked with the inauguration of various tourist jetties at four locations in order to promote the river tourism and employment across the state
CABINET APPROVES PLI SCHEME FOR TELECOM SECTOR
The Union Cabinet approved a Rs 12,195-crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for domestic manufacturing of telecom and networking products such as switches, routers, radio access network, wireless equipment and other IoT access devices.
Through this decision, the government aims to offset the imports of telecom equipment worth more than Rs 50,000 crore and reinforce it with “Made in India” products both for domestic markets and exports.
The support under the PLI scheme will be provided to companies manufacturers of specified telecom and networking products in India like Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON), base routers, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS/ IPMPLS) and 5G/4G radios.
The government will soon come up with a PLI scheme to encourage the production of laptops and tablet PCs.