Dharmendra Pradhan Co-chaired 1st Australia India Education and Skill Council
Meet at IIT Gujarat
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Ministry of Education(MoE) and Ministry of Skill Development
and Entrepreneurship(MSDE) co-chaired the 1st Australia India Education and Skill Council (AIESC)
meeting with Australian Ministers- Jason Clare,
Education Minister and Brendan O’Connor, Skills
& Training Minister.
The meeting was held at the Indian Institutes of
Technology(IIT) Gandhinagar in Gujarat on 6th
November 2023.
Key Points:
- During the 1st AIESC meeting, 5 Memorandum
of Understanding (MoUs) were exchanged between
Indian and Australian Higher education institutions
(HEIs) to facilitate greater research collaborations
- Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
and Australian Education Minister Jason Clare
announced the opening of two Australian Universities campuses of Wollongong and Deakin University
in GIFT City(Gujarat International Finance Tec-City), Gandhinagar (Gujarat).
About Australia:
Prime Minister– Anthony Albanese
Capital– Canberra
Currency– Australian Dollar
1st INDUS-X Investors Meet held in Delhi and Gurukul Initiative, an INDUS-X
Educational Series Launched
Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) under the Department of Defence Production(DDP), Ministry
of Defence (MoD), Government of India and the United States Department of Defence (USDoD),
Government of the United States of
America(USA) organised the 1st India-US
Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS
X) Investors Meet on 8 November 2023 in
New Delhi, Delhi.
The meet was organised as a pre-cursor of
the 5th annual India-US 2+2 Ministerial
Dialogue held on 10th November 2023 in
New Delhi, Delhi.
The INDUS-X Educational Series
(Gurukul) was also launched during the
event
Key Points:
- In June 2023, the India-US Defense
Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) was inaugurated during the State Visit of Prime Minister (PM) of India
Narendra Modi to the USA.
- This initiative aims to fortify the strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation
between the two nations.
- INDUS X will be a defense innovation bridge that would inter-alia include Joint Challenges, Joint
Innovation Fund, investment by private entities in defense projects, niche technology projects, etc.
Uzbekistan’s Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services & University of Delhi
Established MoU to Enhance Academic Alliances
- Samarkand Institute of Economics and Services in Uzbekistan and the University of Delhi have
entered into a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU), to create
numerous opportunities for students,
faculty, and researchers from Samarkand
and Delhi.
- This partnership endorsed by both
institutions, aims to facilitate valuable
experiences for both students and faculty,
contributing significantly to global
education and research
- Within this dynamic partnership, the 2
educational institutions are aspiring to
initiate a transformative student exchange
program.
- This initiative is composed to provide students with invaluable experiences in both academic and cultural
realms, elevating their educational pursuits.
- This collaboration signifies a commitment to creating a robust educational environment to ignite
innovation and contribute substantially to the progress of knowledge
- It also outlined to include workshops and seminars, aims to create a space for meaningful conversations
and scholarly interactions, fostering intellectual dialogue.
Clean Energy Overtakes Fossil Fuels in Global Job Market: IEA WEE 2023 Report
- International Energy Agency (IEA) released the ‘2nd edition of the World
Energy Employment (WEE 2023) report stating clean energy jobs
surpassed fossil fuel jobs for the first time in 2021 at the global level.
- Clean energy sectors added 4.7 million jobs globally between 2019-2022
and stand at 35 million, while fossil fuels jobs recovered more slowly
after layoffs in 2020 and remain around 1.3 million below pre-pandemic
employment levels, at 32 million.
- Clean energy jobs now represent over half of all energy sector jobs
- The report was prepared by the World Energy Outlook Division of the
Directorate of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks of IEA
About International Energy Agency (IEA):
Executive Director– Dr Fatih Birol
Headquarters– Paris, France
Establishment– 1974
Federal Bank Introduces UPI Lite for Small-Value Digital Payments
Federal Bank Limited has launched Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Lite, a simplified version of the UPI
system which allows users to make small-value digital payments offline without entering a UPI PIN.
- The UPI Lite functionality was introduced by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September 2022.
- It is an ‘on-device wallet’ feature integrated into existing UPI mobile application.
- UPI Lite minimizes the burden on the core
banking system (CBS) by enabling direct
transactions between the user’s mobile device and
National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
IOC Awards Olympic Cup 2023 to
Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation
The International Olympic Committee (IOC)
awarded the 2023 Olympic Cup to the Taekwondo
Humanitarian Foundation (THF) in recognition of its long-term commitment to empowering refugee
athletes and refugees worldwide through taekwondo.
Thomas Bach, IOC President, presented the Olympic Cup to World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue
in a ceremony at the Olympic Museum in
Lausanne, Switzerland.
Key Points:
- The THF was founded by World Taekwondo
President Chungwon Choue at the United Nations
headquarters in New York(United States) in 2015
- THF aims to empower refugees worldwide
through taekwondo and helping them to improve
their quality of life, develop their life skills, learn
Olympic values, and pursue their dreams.
- THF is also one of the implementing partners of
Terrains d’Avenir, a programme co-financed by
the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) and the
French Sports Ministry. Terrains d’Avenir aims to
provide 7,000 young displaced people in the Île-de-France region with access to sport by 2025.
About International Olympic Committee (IOC):
President– Thomas Bach
Headquarters– Lausanne, Switzerland
Establishment– 1894
National Newborn Week 2023- November 15 to 21
National Newborn Week is annually observed across India from 15th to 21st November to create
awareness about the newborn care importance for child survival and development.
The observance also aims to highlight the importance of newborn care for child survival and development.
The annual observance in India is led by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
Key Points:
- In 2000, at the request of the National Neonatology
Forum (NNF), the Government of India agreed to
observe a National Newborn Week from 15th to
21st November each year
- The first ever Newborn Week was launched by the
then Prime Minister (PM) Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee
on 15th November 2000
- In 2014, India became the first country to launch the
India Newborn Action Plan (INAP), in alignment
with the Global Every Newborn Action Plan towards
eliminating preventable deaths of newborns and stillbirths.
- This aims to reduce the preventable newborn deaths and stillbirth to single digit, less than 10 per 1000 live
births by 2030, with intermediate targets for 2017(24 per 1000), 2020 (21 per 1000) and 2025(15 per
1000)
National Press Day 2023 – November 16
National Press Day is annually observed across India on 16th November to commemorate the day on
which the Press Council of India (PCI) started its function as the moral watchdog to ensure that the press
maintains high standards and is not fettered by any
form of influence or threats.
The theme for National Press Day 2023 is “Media
in the Era of Artificial Intelligence”.
Key Points:
- The 1st Press Commission held in 1954 concluded
that a statutory authority body with people
connected with the industry should be created to
maintain professional ethics in journalism
- Following this, the Press Council of India(PCI)
was established on 4th July 1966 under the Press
Council Act of 1978 and started its functions on
16th November 1966.
About Press Council of India(PCI):PCI is a statutory, quasi-judicial authority functioning as a watchdog of the press, for the press and by the
press
Chairman– Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi
Established in – 1966