International Organisations
G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about G-33 Ministerial meeting) + Mains ( GS II international organisations - regional grouping )
What's the NEWS

• The G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting organized by Indonesia was held recently, to discuss the Agricultural Priority Issues of G33 and the Way Forward for the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduled to be held from 30th November to 3rd December 2021.
• The Informal Ministerial Meeting was chaired by the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia
• Out of a total of 47 G-33 Members, representatives from 21 Member countries, including India, took the floor to make brief intervention.

India's intervention -highlights

• India emphasized that as part of the trust-building exercise for MC 12, G-33 must strive for positive outcomes on permanent solution to Public Stockholding (PSH) for food security purposes, finalization of a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) quickly and a balanced outcome on Domestic Support.
• Agreement on Agriculture at the WTO was riddled with deep imbalances, which favour the developed countries and have tilted the rules against many developing countries and therefore as a first step in agriculture reform, the historical asymmetries and imbalances must be corrected in order to ensure a rule-based, fair and equitable order.
• The meeting concluded with the adoption of the G-33 Joint Ministerial Statement reaffirming commitment for expeditious resolution of the WTO's mandated issues in agriculture.
• The meeting also called for satisfactorily addressing the development issues of developing countries and LDCs with Special and Differential Treatment as an integral part of international trade negotiations.

The G33 (or the Friends of Special Products in agriculture) -47 members

• It is a coalition of developing countries, established prior to the 2003 Cancun ministerial conference, that have coordinated during the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, specifically in regard to agriculture.
• Dominated by India, the group has "defensive" concerns regarding agriculture in relation to World Trade Organization negotiations, and seeks to limit the degree of market opening required of developing countries.
• When rich governments can afford to heavily subsidize their agriculture, predatory dumping can undermine a poorer country's agricultural economy.
• Developing countries aim to balance power through tariffs, in order to manage their own food security, stabilize of the livelihoods of their farming populations, and strengthen rural development.
• The group has advocated the creation of a "special products" exemption, which would allow developing countries to exempt certain products from tariff reductions, and also a "special safeguard mechanism" which would permit tariff increases in response to import surges.

Defence
Exercise Surya Kiran

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Surya Kiran)
What's the NEWS

• 15^th Edition of Indo - Nepal Joint Military Training, Exercise Surya Kiran between Indian Army and Nepali Army is commencing from 20 September 2021 at Pithoragarh (UK).
• During this exercise, an Infantry Battalion from Indian Army and an equivalent strength from Nepali Army would be sharing their experiences gained during the conduct of various counter-insurgency operations over a prolonged period in their respective countries.
• The exercise is part of an initiative to develop inter-operability and sharing expertise between the two nations.
• Last edition of Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019.

Governance
Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture Project (MeghEA) launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about MeghEA initiative) + Mains ( GS II governance + GS III infrastructure development)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology launched Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture Project (MeghEA)

Know! about MeghEA initiative

• The MeghEA initiative is spread across 6 pillars i.e. Governance, Human Resources, Entrepreneurship, Primary Sector, Infrastructure and Environment, and envision to make Meghalaya a high income state by 2030.
• The project aims to improve service delivery and governance for the people using power of Digital technologies.
• Implementing agencies - Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Information Technology Department of state
• The Digital India revolution is transforming India into a digitally empowered nation as envisioned by Prime Minister.
• With the notification of India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) in 2018, design and implementation of integrated, nationally portable and scalable digital platforms have gained a new momentum.
• During the launch of the North East vision document in Aug 2018, Meghalaya was selected as the pilot first pilot State for preparation of Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA) and design and implementation of MeghEA integrated Finance Solution Architecture.
• In line with the above National e-Governance Division(NeGD), MeitY engaged with the Meghalaya State Government to build State Government capacities and initiate the project.

Information Technology
Phase 2 of Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, launched Phase II of Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme to promote research in 42 emerging technologies in Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and Information Technology (IT)/ Information Technology Enabled Services(ITES) virtually

Know! about Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme

• It was initiated by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2014 with the approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) with an objective to enhance number of PhDs in ESDM & IT/ITES sectors.
• PhD seats were allocated to 97 institutions (IITs, NITs, Central & State Universities etc.) in 25 states and 4 Union Territories.
• At present 492 Full-time & 268 Part-time PhD Fellows are pursuing while 422 Full Time & 43 Part Time PhD have submitted thesis or completed PhD.
• During the event achievements of Phase I of the Visvesvaraya PhD scheme were also celebrated.
• Phase II of the scheme aims to support 1000 Full Time PhD Candidates, 150 Part Time PhD Candidates, 50 Young Faculty Research Fellowships and 225 Post-Doctoral Fellowships.
• Many dignitaries from academia and Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) graced the event.

Government Initiatives
MyGov launches Planetarium Innovation Challenge for Indian start-ups and tech entrepreneurs

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Planetarium Innovation Challenge)
What's the NEWS

• MyGov India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has launched the Planetarium Innovation Challenge for Indian start-ups and tech entrepreneurs
• The challenge aims to bring together the tech firms and Start-ups (based out of India) with the potential to build an indigenous planetariums system software using latest technologies including Augmented Reality (A.R.), Virtual Reality (V.R.) and Merged Reality (M.R.).

Know! more about the challenge

• The challenge invites applications from start-ups and tech entrepreneurs to develop state-of-the-art technology for our Planetariums.
• There is an opportunity for Planetariums in India to deploy new technologies (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Merged Reality), especially for smaller cities and rural areas, all Made in India.
• The Innovation Challenge is open to experts from all domains of Planetarium Technology
• The applicants may include Start-ups, Indian Legal Entities; even Individuals (or Teams) are welcome to submit ideas.

Environment
Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF)
What's the NEWS

• The Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, represented India at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) convened virtually by US President, Joe Biden, on September 17, 2021
• The virtual meeting built on the Leaders' Summit on Climate conducted in April 2021 and was aimed at enabling dialogue and discussion and building consensus before COP26, which will set a precedent for climate efforts in the years to come.

Remarks given by Environment Minister

• India's share of world population is 17% but the country's share in cumulative historical emissions is just 4% and even the current annual emissions are only 5.2% of the global emissions and the per capita emissions are about a third of the global average.
• It is clear that we are not a part of the problem, but we want to be a part of the solution to the climate crisis.

International Organisations
21^st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SCO + CSTO) + Mains ( GS II international organisations)
What's the. NEWS

• Prime Minister participated virtually in the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and through video-message in the Joint SCO-CSTO Outreach Session on Afghanistan.

Meeting Highlights

• The 21^st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State was held on 17 September 2021 in Dushanbe in hybrid format.
• The meeting was chaired by H.E. Emomali Rahmon, the President of Tajikistan.
• At Dushanbe, India was represented by External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar.
• The SCO Summit was followed by an Outreach session on Afghanistan between SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

Collective Security Treaty Organization

• It is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of selected post-Soviet states.
• The treaty had its origins to the Soviet Armed Forces, which was gradually replaced by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• However, on 15 May 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States-Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan-signed the Collective Security Treaty (also referred to as the Tashkent Pact or Tashkent Treaty).
• Three other post-Soviet states-Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia-signed the next year and the treaty took effect in 1994.
• Five years later, six of the nine-all but Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan-agreed to renew the treaty for five more years, and in 2002 those six agreed to create the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a military alliance.
• The CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force.
• Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all

Know! all about Shanghai Cooperation Organization

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation
• Created on - 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
• The founding countries, with the exception of Uzbekistan, were previously members of the Shanghai Five group, the precursor to the SCO, founded on 26 April 1996.
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St.Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002, and entered into force on 19 September 2003.
• This is the fundamental statutory document which outlines the organisation's goals and principles, as well as its structure and core activities.
• The historical meeting of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was held on 8-9 June 2017 in Astana.
• On the meeting the status of a full member of the Organization was granted to the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
• The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO.
• It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.
• The SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation's multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas
• The SCO's official languages are Russian and Chinese.
• The organisation has two permanent bodies - the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
• The SCO Secretary-General and the Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS are appointed by the Council of Heads of State for a term of three years.
• The SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• The SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Mongolia;
• The SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Prelims Factoids
Mahua Nutra

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Mahua Nutra )
What's the NEWS

• TRIFED has entered into a collaborative project with Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FIIT), a unit established by IIT Delhi and M/s Rusicaa Beverages Private Ltd, Purbi Singhbhum, Jharkhand to commercialize the production of Mahua Nutra beverage - A Heritage Drink in the State of Jharkhand.
• TRIFED, as the nodal agency working for the empowerment of tribals, has been focusing its efforts on finding new ways to improve the lives and the livelihoods of the tribal people.

Mahua nutra beverage

• It is a value added product made out of Mahua flowers in the state.
• TRIFED in association with FITT has developed this value added product Mahua nutra beverage made out of Mahua flower so that the tribals can benefit maximum from the value addition of MFPs and development of technologies.
• FITT acts as the interface to foster, promote and sustain commercialization of this technology
• The Mahua Nutra beverage in its improvised form is blended with Pomegranate fruit juice, which enhances the nutritional value and masks the flavour of Mahua beverage by improving its aroma and texture.

Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer

• It is a unit established by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) as an Industry interface body to foster, promote and sustain commercialization of research results in the Institute.
• FITT has been authorized by IITD for exploring commercialization and societal outreach.
• As a part of its various initiatives, especially the TRIFOOD project and the Van Dhan start-ups scheme, TRIFED has been focusing on enhancing the income of tribals through better utilization and value addition to the MFPs collected by the tribal forest gatherers.
  
  

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