International Organisations/GSII
India's G20 Presidency

What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting structures, which will be responsible for implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed for steering India's forthcoming G20 Presidency.
• India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in 2023.
• G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation that plays an important role in global economic governance.

• As per practice, a G20 Secretariat is being established to handle work relating to substantive / knowledge / content, technical, media, security and logistical aspects of India's G20 Presidency.
• It will be manned by officers and staff from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and other relevant line Ministries / Departments and domain knowledge experts.
• The Secretariat will be functional till February 2024.
• The Secretariat will be guided by an Apex Committee headed by Prime Minister, and comprising Finance Minister, Home Minister, External Affairs Minister, and G20 Sherpa (Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister), to provide overall guidance to India's G20 Presidency.
• Further, a Coordination Committee will also be set up to oversee all G20 preparations and report to the Apex Committee.
• The G20 Secretariat will enable long term capacity building, including knowledge and expertise, for India's leadership on global issues in multilateral fora.

• Prime Minister will deliver the inaugural address at The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) World Sustainable Development Summit at around 6 PM on 16th February, 2022

• The theme for this year's Summit is ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future'.
• The Summit will discuss a wide range of issues including climate change, sustainable production, energy transitions, global commons and resource security.
• The three day summit starting 16th February will be attended by Deputy Secretary General, United Nations, heads of various intergovernmental organisations, Ministers/ Envoys from more than a dozen countries and delegates from over 120 countries.

• It is a research institute in New Delhi that specializes in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development.
• It is an independent, multi-dimensional organization, with capabilities in research, policy, consultancy and implementation.
• Established in 1974, it was formerly known as the Tata Energy Research Institute. In 1984, it moved to Delhi
• As the scope of its activities widened, it was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003.
• TERI initially began its operations in the Bombay House, Mumbai, headquarters of Tata.
• TERI has a global presence with many centres in India and abroad.

• In a historic and landmark visit, the Commander of the Royal Saudi Land Forces, Lieutenant General Fahd Bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair, arrived in India on 14 February 2022.
• This is the first ever visit by a serving Royal Saudi Land Forces Commander to India and marks a deepening bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.
• General MM Naravane had visited Saudi Arabia in December 2020 in a historic visit which marked the first time that an Indian Army Chief had visited Saudi Arabia.
• The aim of the visit is to bolster bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.
• The relationship between India and Saudi Arabia has grown owing to common interests in economic prosperity, eliminating the scourge of terrorism and mitigating the effects of climate change.
• Defence diplomacy forms one of the major tenets of the overall relationship.

• The Government of India, in partnership with the Government of Australia and the Government of Singapore, conducted an international workshop on combating marine pollution focusing on marine plastic debris on February 14-15, 2022.
• The workshop, held virtually, bought together the world's leading experts, scientists, government officials with policy expertise, and representatives from industry, innovation and informal sectors.
• It aimed to discuss research interventions toward monitoring and assessing marine litter and plausible sustainable solutions to address the global marine plastic pollution issue.

1. the magnitude of the marine litter problem-monitoring program and research on plastic debris in the Indo-Pacific Region
2. best practices and technologies solutions to prevent plastic pollution
3. polymers and plastics
4. technology and innovations and opportunities for regional collaboration to remediate or stop plastic pollution.

• It is the premier forum for discussions on important strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific and a leading confidence-building mechanism.
• Since its inception in 2005, the EAS has been advocating regional peace, security, closer regional cooperation and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.
• The EAS is uniquely placed to share expertise and lessons learned between regions and sub-regions faced with interlinked and similar challenges to develop sustainable transboundary solutions.
• EAS countries recognise the coastal and marine plastic pollution challenge.
• The Prime Minister of India, had announced the agenda of promoting maritime cooperation in the wider Indo-Pacific region at the 14th EAS held in Bangkok in November 2019.
• India, Singapore, and Australia are committed to implementing the EAS decisions.

What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and Chemicals and Fertilizers chaired a meeting of the Technology Development Board working under the Department of Science and Technology which made a presentation that outlined the manner in which the Technology Development Board can develop mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers for Research and Development (R&D) activities.

• In the meeting, it was also decided that in order to promote Research and Development (R&D) works related to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the various departments of the two Ministries will hold regular meetings with the Technology Development Board and other stakeholders.
• They will explore opportunities to develop indigenous technology in the respective areas and will also identify areas with potential for mutual cooperation.

• The Technology Development Board was constituted by the Government of India under the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1996 with the objective of promoting the development and commercialization of indigenous technologies as well as to promote the process of adoption of imported technology.
• The Technology Development Board provides technical and financial assistance for these activities.

What's the NEWS

• The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment will launch the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED) on 16th February, 2022

• The De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes are the most neglected, marginalized and economically and socially deprived communities.
• Most of them have been living a life of destitution for generations and still continue to do so with an uncertain and gloomy future.
• De-notified, Nomadic and Semi- nomadic Tribes somehow escaped the attention of our developmental framework and thus are deprived of the support unlike Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• Historically, these communities never had access to private land or home ownership.
• These tribes used forests and grazing lands for their livelihood and residential use and had "strong ecological connections.
• Many of them are dependent upon various types of natural resources and carve out intricate ecological niches for their survival.
• The changes in ecology and environment seriously affect their livelihood options.
• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment took a decision in February, 2014 to constitute a National Commission for De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes for a period of three years.
• This National Commission was constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhiku Ramji Idate. This commission has given its report in December, 2017.
• In its report, the commission prepared draft lists of DNT/NT/SNT Communities. The details of the number of DNT/NT/SNT communities.
• Based on the National Commission's recommendations, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted the Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNCs) in 2019.
• The Board has been mandated to formulate and implement welfare and development programmes for these communities.
• A Scheme for empowerment of DNT communities have been formulated for families having income from all sources of Rs.2.50 lakh or less per annum and not availing any such benefits from similar Scheme of Centre Government or the State Government.

1. To provide coaching of good quality for DNT/NT/SNT candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
2. To provide health insurance to DNT/NT/SNT Communities.
3. To facilitate livelihoods initiative at community level to build and strengthen small clusters of DNT/NT/SNT Communities institutions.
4. To provide financial assistance for construction of houses to members of the DNT/NT/SNT Communities.

• The Scheme will be implemented through a portal, developed by the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment.
• The funds will be transferred directly to the beneficiaries in their account.
• The other implementing agencies are Ministry of Rural Development, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Health Authority (NHA).

• Indian Scientists have developed a first-of-its-kind tool for understanding the process of long-term memory consolidation in the brain by capturing the neural signals from rodent brain.
• Learning and memory are the fundamental processes of brain and are one of the most intensively studied subjects in the field of neuroscience.
• Learning is attributed to the acquisition of new data and memory.
• Retention of the acquired data leads to long-term memory (LTM) formation.

• The new tool which uses the behavioral tagging model is a novel one to study LTM consolidation through behavioral analysis.
• On a similar line, bio-signals are now being used to explore the latent features of memory consolidation by a technique called In Vivo Electrophysiology which can be utilized by capturing the neural signals from rodent brain under experimental conditions
• The researchers used the In Vivo Electrophysiology Facility established at the Department of Toxicology with the support of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India under the "Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE)" program for the capturing bio-signals for developing the behavioural tagging model.
• The facility is well equipped with several neurobehavioral apparatuses for rodents to assess parameters which are analyzed by using Any-MAZE software.
• For deeper understanding of behavioral aspects of brain functioning, Prof. Parvez and his group have established in vivo electrophysiology technique.
• The team is constantly making efforts for bridging the knowledge gap between memory formation and memory decline mechanisms by utilizing Behavioral Tagging phenomenon in combination with in vivo electrophysiology.

• The Lassa fever has claimed three lives in the United Kingdom, and the country's health officials have said that it has "pandemic potential".
• Eight cases of the Lassa fever have been reported in the UK since the 1980s, with the last two coming in 2009.

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