Science and Technology/GSIII/Education/GSII
Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog releases ‘Innovations For You' & ‘The Ingenious Tinkerers'

What's the NEWS

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) NITI Aayog released the second edition of - ‘Innovations for You'- a compendium of innovations focused on agriculture featuring 70 startups supported by Atal incubation Centers (AICs) of AIM and ‘The Ingenious Tinkerers' - a compendium on the innovations on technology featuring 41 innovations from Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) of India.

• Both the books are celebration of the success stories of young innovators of India.
• The ‘Innovations For You' is a compilation of successful innovations by the entrepreneurial minds of India solving problems of present for future, while as ‘The Ingenious Tinkerers' is a compilation of the top innovations created by young student innovators who participated in the ATL Marathon - which invites school students to address a problem that they see or face on a day-to-day basis.
• ‘The Ingenious Tinkerers' leveraged the up-and-coming technologies available at ATLs to devise a solution.
• The ‘Innovations For You' in its second edition, focuses on the startups and innovations in field of Agriculture and Allied services. The book is a compilation of 70 Ag-Tech startups, incubated at Atal Incubation Centres spread across the country.
• These startups are leveraging frontier technologies such as AI, IoT, ICT and others to provide socially relevant solutions to problems of modern farming.
• The first edition of this book was focused on innovations in Health Care, which was launched in October, this year.

• AIM is the Government of India's flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
• AIM's objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.

• Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem-solving mindset across schools in India.
• Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class start-ups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.
• Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
• Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
• Atal Community Innovation Centre- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

• India's first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine for COVID-19, CORBEVAXTM, developed by Biological E Limited, has received the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approval for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and its Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), have supported Biological E's COVID-19 vaccine candidate from pre-clinical stage through Phase III clinical studies.
• The vaccine candidate was provided financial support under COVID-19 Research Consortium, through the National Biopharma Mission, for pre-clinical toxicology studies.
• Later support was provided under Mission COVID Suraksha for clinical development.
• CORBEVAXTM is a 2-dose vaccine administered intramuscularly and can be stored at 2ºC to 8ºC.
• The recombinant protein sub-unit vaccine developed from the Receptor Biding Domain (RBD) of the spike protein on the viral surface is adjuvanted with Dynavax's CpG 1018 and alum.
• Comprehensive Phase III clinical trials involving more than 3000 subjects between the ages of 18 and 80 at 33 study sites across India, demonstrated the vaccine to be safe, well tolerated and highly immunogenic.
• The Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), an Autonomous Institute of DBT, provided key immunogenicity data for the Phase II/ III studies.
• The EUA to CORBEVAXTM is yet another example of a successful academia-industry collaboration.

• A receptor-binding domain (RBD) is a key part of a virus located on its 'spike' domain that allows it to dock to body receptors to gain entry into cells and lead to infection

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science & Technology, promotes and accelerates the development of biotechnology in India, including growth and application of biotechnology in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, animal sciences, environment and industry.

• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

• Biological E. Limited (BE), a Hyderabad-based Pharmaceuticals & Biologics Company founded in 1953, is the first private sector biological products company in India and the first pharmaceutical company in Southern India.
• BE develops, manufactures and supplies vaccines and therapeutics.
• BE supplies its vaccines to over 100 countries and its therapeutic products are sold in India and the USA.
• BE currently has 8 WHO-prequalified vaccines in its portfolio.
• In recent years, BE has embarked on new initiatives for organisational expansion such as developing generic injectable products for the regulated markets, exploring synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as a means to manufacture APIs sustainably and developing novel vaccines for the global market.

• COVID Suraksha Program's endeavour to accelerate vaccine development played a crucial role in the initial development, the mechanism that was setup with the support of Department of Biotechnology and DBT-Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) allowed vaccine manufacturer to scale up to a capacity of about 1.2 billion doses per annum making the dream of accessibility - affordability and supply - a reality."
• The COVID-19 Vaccine development Mission with end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards an accelerated product development.
• The important objectives of the fund will be accelerating pre-clinical& clinical development; licensure of COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are currently in clinical stages or ready to enter clinical stage of development

What's the NEWS

• In order to preserve this important event in history, a Sankalp Smarak was dedicated to the nation by the Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN), exactly 78 years after Netaji's arrival on 29 Dec 2021 at 11:30 am.
• The Smarak is a tribute not only to the resolve of the soldiers of the Indian National Army and their innumerable sacrifices but also reminds us of the values enshrined by Netaji himself.

• In the saga of India's freedom struggle, 30 December 1943 holds a special place etched in time.
• It was on this day that a national flag was hoisted for the first time on Indian soil, at Port Blair.
• It is also significant is that Netaji escaped British surveillance from Kolkata on 16 Jan 1941 and stepped back on Indian soil after nearly three years, at Port Blair Aerodrome on 29 Dec 1943 at 11:30 am and unfurled a National flag the next day.
• Netaji's visit to the islands as the Head of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind and Supreme Commander of Indian National Army marked a symbolic fulfilment of his promise that the Indian National Army would stand on Indian soil by the end of 1943.
• This historic visit also marked a declaration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as the "first liberated territory of India".
• The location of Netaji's historic arrival on 29 Dec 1943 lies within the premises of what is now Andaman and Nicobar Command's Air Station INS Utkrosh, in close proximity to the present-day runway.
• Upon his arrival as the Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army by a Japanese Air Force Aircraft, Netaji was accorded a ceremonial guard of honour by soldiers of Indian National Army at the Air Field.

• It is the first and only tri-service theater command of the Indian Armed Forces, based at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India.
• It was created in 2001 to safeguard India's strategic interests in Southeast Asia and the Strait of Malacca by increasing rapid deployment of military assets in the region.
• It provides logistical and administrative support to naval ships which are sent on deployment to East Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

• The Army, with support from the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has recently established the Quantum Lab at Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow (MP) MCTE to spearhead research and training in this key developing field.
• Indian Army has also established an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Centre at the same institution with over 140 deployments in forward areas and active support of industry and academia.

• Training on cyber warfare is being imparted through a state of art cyber range, and cyber security labs.
• Ideation for Army's involvement in Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations was done in a seminar on Electromagnetic Spectrum and National Security organised in October last year.
• Since then, an impetus has been given to Indian Army's Technology Institutions for investing in AI, Quantum and Cyber.
• Research undertaken by Indian Army in the field of Quantum Technology will help leapfrog into next generation communication and transform the current system of cryptography in the Indian Armed Forces to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
• Key thrust areas are Quantum Key Distribution, Quantum Communication, Quantum Computing and Post Quantum Cryptography
• By undertaking a multi-stakeholder approach incorporating Academia (such as IITs), DRDO organisations, Research Institutes, Corporate firms, Startups and Industry players, this initiative is an apt example of Civil Military fusion with Atmanirbhar Bharat a key driving factor.

• BILCHAM was established on 25^th October 2006 under the Societies Registration Act 1983 as an Apex Federation at the District Level under West Garo Hills Community Resource Management Society/NERCORMP, funded by IFAD, DONER/NEC & Govt of India for the sustainability of the rural community.
• BILCHAM is now a strong women independent organization catering to the livelihood and credit for the poorest of the poor who were earlier devoid of all these facilities.
• BILCHAM gives services to the entire West Garo Hills and some parts of East and South Garo Hills independently through the SHG Federations who are also the members of the Board responsible for scrutinizing, sanctioning and recovery of the loans.

• Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievement 2021 award list was released by the government.
• ARIIA 2021 classifies participating institutions into two major categories; technical and non-technical.
• For the first time, ARIIA had a category for non-technical higher educational institutions.
• The other five categories are - centrally-funded institutions, state-funded universities, state-funded autonomous institutions, private/deemed universities, private institutions.

• The top position has been achieved by IIT Madrasas the most innovative educational institute of India in the technical category.
• IIT Madras has won this recognition for the third time in a row.
• Moreover, , IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IIT Hyderabad and IIT Kharagpur are among the top 10 institutions in the list.
• Other institutes like Panjab University and Delhi Technical University got top position in the 'University & Deemed to be University (Govt. & Govt. Aided) (Technical)' category.
• In the University & Deemed to be University (Govt. & Govt. Aided) (Technical) category, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Khordha and Chitkara University achieved first and second rank respectively.
• The 'Colleges/Institutes (Govt. & Govt. Aided) (Technical)' awards have been College of Engineering, Pune and PSG College of Technology.
• Under ‘non-technical institutions', the top central universities were Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.

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