What's the NEWS

• The 9th Edition of the India - Kyrgyzstan Joint Special Forces Exercise which commenced on 25 Mar 2022 at Special Forces Training School, Bakloh (HP) culminated on 06 April 2022.
• Over the past two weeks, Special Forces contingents from India and Kyrgyzstan shared their expertise and best practices of tactics, techniques and procedures to counter existing and emergent threats across the entire spectrum of conflict.
• Besides sharing special skills and techniques between participating Special Forces contingents, the joint training further strengthened the existing bond between India and Kyrgyzstan that has fostered over years of mutual respect for strategic autonomy, democratic values and zero tolerance for terrorism.

Conservation/GSIII
India hosts Clean Energy Ministerial Senior Officials meeting

What's the NEWS

• India is hosting the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) senior officials meetings
• The meeting is being organised to review the work of various work streams in Clean Energy Policies.
• The meeting will also be used to prepare the agenda for the upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial Meeting in September 2022.
• The Government of the India and the United Kingdom lead the plenary dialogue on the future of Energy Transition.
• International Energy Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency and UN High Level Action Champions presented the emerging findings of the State of Sectoral Transitions (SoST) draft report, summarising chosen methodologies and the overall trajectory of their work.
• The second session was dedicated to "Scaling-Up Clean Energy Innovation and Actions - Investment Opportunities".

Miscellaneous
One Health pilot project

What's the NEWS

• The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD), Government of India has launched a pilot project in the state of Uttarakhand to implement the One Health Framework by One Health Support Unit.

• The key objective of the Unit is to develop a national One Health roadmap based on the learnings of the pilot project implementation.
• By developing the One Health Framework, India will successfully address the need for efficient disease reporting and response coordination, optimum utilization of resources, emergency preparedness, build capability to handle diseases of economic and zoonotic importance, and create public awareness on animal diseases of zoonotic and economic significance.
• Inter-ministerial One Health committee under the chairmanship of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has been established to lead the implementation of the One Health Support Unit.
• A Project Steering Committee (PSC) is constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary (AHD), GoI involving representatives from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, ICAR, civil societies, international development organizations and field practitioners.
• Based on the recommendations of PSC, State and district level one health committees need to be constituted by involving competent authorities from health, animal husbandry and environment ministries.
• The ‘One Health India' program initiated by the Department will work with stakeholders from various sectors to improve livestock health, human health, wildlife health, and environmental health through technology and finance.

Science and Technology/GSIII/Bilateral Relations/GSII
Indo-Israel bilateral workshop on Quantum Technologies

What's the NEWS

• A two-day Indo-Israel Bilateral workshop on Quantum Technologies (I2QT-2022), organised by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and DRDO-Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE), IIT Delhi has concluded in New Delhi

Quantum technology is an emerging field of physics and engineering, encompassing technologies that rely on the properties of quantum mechanics
Government Schemes/GSII

PM GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA

What's the NEWS

• International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded India's food subsidy program which prevented the increased prevalence of extreme poverty in the country during Covid-19.

Report Highlights

• The expansion of food transfers and subsidies make it an important instrument for poverty alleviation ,as stated by IMF in the report
• The report demonstrated that the program provided insurance to the poor and prevented an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty in the country.
• It stated that doubling of entitlements in 2020 during pandemic helped maintain extreme poverty at the low 0.8 percent level and with out any food subsidies, extreme poverty in the pandemic years would have increased by 1.05 per cent.
• The report said that poverty in the country declined the fastest during the period 2014 to 2019.
• Social safety net provided by the expansion of country's food subsidy program absorbed a major part of the pandemic shock.
• This illustrates the robustness of India's social safety architecture as it withstood one of the world's biggest income shocks.

Know! about PMGKY

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) is a food security welfare scheme announced by the Government of India on March 26 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
•  PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat per person and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.

Prelims Factoids
Agricultural Exports

What's the NEWS

• Exports of agricultural products, including marine, for the year 2021-22 have crossed the 50 billion dollar mark, which is the highest level ever achieved in it.
• As per the provisional figures released by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, DGCIS, the agricultural exports have grown by 19.92 percent during 2021-22.
• This achievement over the past two years will go a long way in realising the Prime Minister's vision of improving farmers' income.
• The highest ever exports have been achieved for staples like rice, wheat, sugar, other cereals and meat which resulted in benefiting farmers in many states.

Prelims Factoids
O. HENRY AWARD

What's the NEWS

Amar Mitra's short story titled Gaonburo, written way back in 1977, has fetched him the 1919-founded O. Henry Award, whose past winners include William Faulkner, Saul Bellow and Raymond Carver.

Know! about the award

• The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry.
• The award was first presented in 1919 and funded by the Society of Arts and Sciences.
• The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories is an annual collection of the year's twenty best stories published in U.S. and Canadian magazines.

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