Prelims Factoids
PM inaugurates the curtain raiser activities of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' India@75

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' (India@75).
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister flagged off the ‘Padyatra' (Freedom March) from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad and inaugurated the curtain raiser activities of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' (India@75).
• The PM also launched various other cultural and digital initiatives for the India@75 celebrations.

Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav

• Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav is a series of events to be organised by the Government of India to commemorate the 75^th Anniversary of India's Independence.
• The Mahotsav will be celebrated as a Jan-Utsav in the spirit of Jan-Bhagidari.
• The launch of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' 75 weeks before 15 August 2022 which will continue till 15 August, 2023.
• The Prime Minister reiterated five pillars i.e. Freedom Struggle, Ideas at 75, Achievements at 75, Actions at 75 and Resolves at 75 as guiding force for moving forward keeping dreams and duties as inspiration.
• Azadi Amrit Mahotsav means elixir of energy of independence. It means elixir of inspirations of the warriors of freedom struggle; elixir of new ideas and pledges and nectar of Aatmnirbharta.

Miscellaneous
PM addresses fourth Global Ayurveda Festival

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Global Ayurveda Festival)
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister addressed the fourth Global Ayurveda Festival through virtual mode.
• Organised by - Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA)
• Supported by - Ministry of Ayush

Global Ayurveda Festival

• The Fourth Edition of GAF has been organized in a high end virtual space from 12th to 19th March 2021, carrying all the components we originally planned - International Seminar, Exhibition and Business Meet and all other regular integral events.
• GAF 2021 - will be a virtual space of organizations, associations, institutions, statutory bodies and individuals in the field of Ayurveda to meet, to know, to share and to grow together.
• Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA), in association with the Governmental and Non-Governmental bodies, is organizing this Global Ayurveda Festival.
• As in the previous Festivals, we are bringing together the best for the Ayurveda fraternity- to learn, to experience, to collaborate, to progress and to expand. It will be an event that meets the needs of all - from students to scientists, from practitioners to policy makers and from educationalists to entrepreneurs.

Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA)

• CISSA had 20 founder members consisting of doctors, engineers, scientists, teachers, social workers and journalists who shared a passion for saner environmental and Developmental interventions.
• Now CISSA has a large network of members working on voluntary principles from disciplines like Environment, Development, Food & Agriculture, Clean Energy Alternatives, Traditional Indian Sciences like Ayurveda and Yoga, Public Health and Disaster Management.
• A group of full time professionals and support staffs assists in day to day activities.

Steps taken by the Ministry to promote Ayush

• The National AYUSH Mission has been started to promote AYUSH medical systems through cost effective AYUSH services.
• It is also working to strengthen educational systems and facilitating the enforcement of quality control of Ayurveda, Siddha Unani & Homoeopathy drugs and ensuring sustainable availability of raw-materials.
• The Government is undertaking various quality control measures as well. "Our policy regarding Ayurveda and other Indian systems of medicine is already aligned with the Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 of World Health Organisation.
• The WHO has also announced the setting up of the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India
• There is a need to promote food items relating to Ayurveda and food items that further good health.
• The United Nations declaring 2023 to be the International Year of Millets.

Agriculture
APEDA organizes first ever virtual trade fair to boost export potential of India's agricultural and processed food products

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about APEDA's first Virtual Trade Fair (VTF).
What's the NEWS

• In a first of its kind initiative for boosting export potential of India's agricultural and processed food products during COVID19 pandemic, APEDA launched its first Virtual Trade Fair (VTF).

Virtual Trade Fair (VTF) - highlights

• The fair with a theme ‘India Rice and Agro Commodity', will focus on showcasing the exports potential of various agricultural commodities. Importers as well as exporters will be key participants of the VTF.
• The potential buyers or importers and visitors will get to explore a wide range of food products presented by the exporters through this virtual fair.
• The key products which would be displayed through VTF include - basmati rice, non-basmati rice, millets, wheat, maize, groundnut and coarse grains. So far 135 Exhibitors have registered for the VTF.
• Further 266 Indian and international buyers have registered at the starting of the events.
• The buyers have been generated with the support of Indian Embassies abroad. An aggressive campaign of Virtual Trade Fair is running on Social media.
• Through VTF, the exporters and importer meetings can be held with no interruption via audio as well as video sessions.
• The fair provides the facility workshops, product launches, live streams and webinars. The virtual meet will have facilities for private meeting rooms, personalized meeting provisions.
• The online interactions between exporters and importers and data exchanged during such interaction will be secured and can be accessed only by parties concerned.
• Such virtual events also provide cost effective and productive platforms where the buyers and sellers could negotiate or discuss trade face to face giving a feel of real time exhibitions or fairs.
• APEDA has been pioneer in taking IT initiatives in the past in terms of making its process system online, Implementation of traceability and adoption of advanced technology.

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)

• It is an Apex-Export Trade Promotion Active government body set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India under the Agriculture and Processed Food products Export Development Authority.
• The Act was passed by Parliament in December 1985. It was formed and came into effect from 13 February 1986 by the notification issued in the Gazette of India.

Prelims Factoids
Digitization of 4.5 Crore pages of Records

Relevance IN - Prelims (about digitization of Records + about National Archives of India)
What's the NEWS

• On the occasion of the 131st Foundation Day of the National Archives, the Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism inaugurated the digitization of 4.5 Crore pages of Records and Exhibition based on "Mahatma Gandhi& the Cooperation Movement"

Digitization Records.

• The National Archives initiated the digitization Records.
• The National Archives currently has a collection of over 18.00 crore pages.
• Public records include files recognized by the President of India, volumes, maps, bills, treaties, rare manuscripts, ancient records, personal papers, cartographic records, important collections of gazettes and gazetteers, census records, Parliamentary and Assembly debates, literature, travelogue etc.
• The exhibition on 'Mahatma Gandhi and the Non-Cooperation Movement' is based on the original documents. This exhibition will run till 15 April 2021.

National Archives of India

• The National Archives of India is the custodian of the records of enduring value of the Government of India.
• Established on 11 March, 1891 at Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department, it is the biggest archival repository in South Asia.
• It has a vast corpus of records viz., public records, private papers, oriental records, cartographic records and microfilms, which constitute an invaluable source of information for scholars-administrators and users of archives.
• The Director General of Archives, heading the Department has been given the mandate for the implementation of the Public Records Act, 1993 and the rules made there under, the Public Records Rules, 1997 for the management, administration and preservation of public records in the Ministries, Departments, Public Sector undertakings etc.of the Central Government.
• The Department functions as an Attached Office of the Ministry of Culture and has one Regional Office at Bhopal and three Records Centres at Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Puducherry.
• The Department celebrated its 125^th year of the foundation during 2015-16.

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