1. 3-day International Tourism Mart begin in Mizoram
Tags: place in news State News
The three-day International Tourism Mart (ITM) began in Mizoram on November 17, 2022.
Important facts
It is the 10th edition of the International Tourism Mart, jointly organised by the Ministry of Tourism, GOI and the state tourism department.
State Commerce and Industries minister Dr. R Lalthangliana inaugurated the event.
The event will focus on "G20 Priorities for Tourism Track", as India will assume the upcoming G20 Presidency for one year starting from 1st December 2022.
The Mart was inaugurated at R Dengthuama Indoor Stadium in Mualpui, Aizawl in the presence of Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of State for Tourism Ajay Bhatt and Chief Minister Zoramthanga.
On the occasion, a mega exhibition and food court pavilion was inaugurated at the Assam Rifles Ground in Aizawl by State Commerce and Industry Minister Dr. R. Lalthangliana.
The exhibition has hundreds of stalls set up on local food processing, cuisine, handloom and handicrafts and tourism.
It will have business-to-business sessions and panel discussions between buyers, sellers, government agencies and other stakeholders.
About International Tourism Marts
International Tourism Marts are organised on rotation basis in the North-Eastern States.
Mizoram is hosting this Mart for the first time.
The earlier editions of this mart have been held in Guwahati, Tawang, Shillong, Gangtok, Agartala, Imphal and Kohima.
The objective of the event is to showcase the tourism potential of the North-Eastern Region in the domestic and international markets.
2. Month-long Kashi Tamil Sangam begins in Varanasi
Tags: place in news State News
The month-long Kashi Tamil Sangam began on 17 November 2022 in Varanasi.
Important facts
The Sangam is being organised by the Government of India as a part of the 'Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' and to uphold the spirit of 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat'.
This Sangam will bring together people from two different regions at the level of language.
Delegations from Tamil Nadu will visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Ayodhya Temple and the famous Ganga Aarti of Varanasi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the event.
It aims to bring the two knowledge and cultural traditions closer, build upon and understand our shared heritage and deepen people-to-people bonds between the regions.
BHU and IIT-Madras are the knowledge partners for the event, and the Ministries of Culture, Tourism, Railways, Textiles and Food Processing have been included as stakeholders, apart from the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Varanasi Administration.
Sangamam was proposed by academician Chamu Krishna Shastri, chairman of the Indian Language Committee under the Ministry of Education.
History of ties between Kashi and Tamil Nadu
The connection between Kashi and the Tamil region is deep and old.
King Adhiveer Rama Pandian, after returning from a pilgrimage to Kashi, built a Shiva temple at Tenkasi in the 19th century.
Saint Kumara Gurupara of Thoothukudi district had negotiated with the princely state of Kashi to get a place for the installation of Kedarghat and Vishveswaralingam in Varanasi.
He also composed Kashi Kalambagam, a collection of grammar poems on Kashi.
3. UP government to build Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddhist circuits under the New Tourism Policy
Tags: place in news State News
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet in a meeting held on 16 November 2022 and chaired by the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved the New Tourism policy for the state on 16 November 2022. The government will focus on developing the Ramayana ,Krishna, Buddhist and Mahabharata circuit to promote religious tourism in the state .
Under the Ramayana circuit the places associated with Lord Rama will be developed . It will include Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Bithoor and other places of significance during the Ramayana period.
Under the Krishna Circuit the places associated with Lord Krishna will be developed. Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul, Govardhan, Barsana, Nandgaon, and Baldev will be included in the Krishna circuit.
Under the Buddhist circuit Kapilvastu, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Kaushambi, Shravasti, Ramgram and other places associated with lord Buddha will be developed .
The Mahabharata circuit will include Hastinapur, Kampilya, Echhatra, Barnawa, Mathura, Kaushambi, Gonda, Lakshagriha.
Under the Shaktipeeth circuit Vindhyavasini Devi, Ashtabhuja to Devipatan, Naimisharanya, Maa Lalita Devi, Maa Jwala Devi, Shakumbhari Devi from Saharanpur to Shivani Devi, Chitrakoot and Sheetla Mata, Mau will be developed.
To boost spiritual tourism in the state, Gorakhpur, Balrampur, Mathura, Sant Ravidas Sthal, Maa Parameshwari Devi, Azamgarh, Bighu Ashram of Ballia, Bateshwar of Agra, Hanuman Dham Shahjahanpur have been included.
To boost wildlife and ecotourism,the government will focus on developing sanctuary and forest reserves.
Under the new tourism policy the government will develop places associated with the freedom struggle like Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Kakori and Chaurichaura will be developed as a tourist place .
To boost tourism in the Bundelkhand area the government will focus on districts like Charkhari, Chitrakoot, Kalinjar, Jhansi, Deogarh, Lalitpur, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, and Jalaun.
Jaiveer Singh is the Minister of Tourism & Culture in the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
4. First Global Media Congress held in Abu Dhabi;Apurva Chandra represents India
Tags: place in news Summits Person in news
The three day (15-17 November) first World media Congress opened on 15 November 2022 at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The conference-cum-exhibition Congress is organised by ADNEC Group in partnership with Emirates News Agency (WAM).
Theme of the World Media Congress: Shaping the Future of the Media Industry
Over 10,000 delegates and media-related companies are participating in the launch edition of the Global Media Congress.
India was represented by the Secretary, Ministry of Information Broadcasting Apurva Chandra. Addressing the Global Media Congress Apurva Chandra said that India is a country with a traditional media comprising 897 television channels, of which over 350 were news channels, and over 80 thousand newspapers coming out in various languages.
United Arab Emirate (UAE)
It is a federation of seven Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Khaimah, Ajmain, Fujairah, and Umm -Al-Quwain. It is an Arabian country.
- Abu Dhabi is the largest of the emirates and is the centre of UAE oil business.
- It is situated in the West Asia /Middle East region of the world in the Arabian Peninsula.
- UAE in its present form came into existence in 1971.
Capital of UAE: Abu Dhabi
Currency: Emirati Dirham
President of UAE: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is the king of Abu Dhabi and the supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
5. Blackstone launches its Asian Data center business from India
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance Science and Technology
American multinational private equity investor Blackstone has started its data centre business in Asia from India. It plans to increase it to 600 MW over the next two years through presence in five locations in the country.
Blackstone launched its data center platform Lumina CloudInfra on 15 November 2022. The Lumina CloudInfra is owned and managed by Blackstone’s Real Estate and Tactical Opportunities funds.
Initially the data center will be set up in Mumbai and Chennai, and later on it will be set up in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Pune.
National Data Center
The government data center has been set up and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).The first Data Centre was launched in Hyderabad in 2008, followed by NDC Pune in 2010, NDC Delhi in 2011 and NDC Bhubaneswar in 2018.
It operates 37 small Data Centres at various State Capitals to provide services to the Government at all levels.
National Data Centre (NDC) at Bhubaneswar is a Cloud-enabled Data Centre which has been offering cloud services to Government Departments since its inception.
The National Data Centres form the core of e-Governance Infrastructure in India by providing services to various e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the Government of India.
What is a Data Center?
A data center is a facility that centralizes an organization’s shared IT operations and equipment for the purposes of storing, processing, and disseminating data and applications. Because they house an organization's most critical and proprietary assets, data centers are vital to the continuity of daily operations.
6. Indonesian President Joko Widodo handed over the G-20 presidency to Modi as the G 20 summit concludes in Bali
Tags: place in news Summits
The Indonesian President Joko Widodo formally handed over the G-20 presidency to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 November 2022 at the conclusion of the two-day (15-16 November) 17th G-20 Summit in Bali.
Prime Minister Modi said that India's presidency will be inclusive, ambitious, decisive, and action-oriented. He said that the country is taking the charge at a time when the world is grappling with geopolitical tensions, economic slowdown and rising food and energy prices.
India will officially assume the G-20 Presidency from 1 December 2022.
The 18th G-20 Leaders' Summit at the level of heads of state/government is scheduled to be held on September 9-10, 2023 in New Delhi.
Modi also listed India's priorities for the G-20.
- Over the next one year, India will strive to ensure that the G-20 acts as a global prime mover to envision new ideas and accelerate collective action,"
- The sense of ownership over natural resources is giving rise to conflict today, and has become the main cause of the plight of the environment. For the safe future of the planet, the sense of trusteeship is the solution.
- Modi noted that LiFE that is a 'Lifestyle for Environment' campaign can make a big contribution to this. "Its purpose is to make sustainable lifestyles a mass movement." The prime minister emphasised that the benefits of development are universal and all-inclusive.
- Modi said the G-20 has to convey a strong message in favour of peace and harmony.
- "All these priorities are fully embodied in the theme of India's G-20 Chairmanship -- 'One Earth, One Family, One Future'," he said.
During the G-20 summit meeting the Prime Minister held meetings with various world leaders like British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Macron, the American president Joe Biden and had a brief interaction with the Chinese President Xi Jingping. It was the first face to face between the Indian and Chinese leaders after the Galwan clash in June 2020 which led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and many Chinese soldiers.
Issue of Russia and Ukraine and call for “This Era is not of War”
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attended the meeting where the issue of Russia-Ukraine conflict divided the member countries of G-20. Western countries want an outright condemnation of Russia while others notably Indian and China are not in favour of condemning Russia.
However the final G-20 document which was issued later condemned “in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine” and demanded “its complete and unconditional withdrawal” from Ukrainian territory.
It also used the phrase “ This Era is not of War '' and called for an end to the war . This phrase was used by Prime Minister Modi while meeting Valdimir Putin during the SCO meeting in Uzbekistan in September 2022. The statement was well received in Europe, which regards India as a close strategic partner of Russia.
G-20 Group
- Group of 20 or G-20 is a multilateral organisation which was set up in 1999.
- It consists of the world's major developed and developing countries.
- It consists of 19 countries and the European Union. The member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
- Italy was the President of the G-20 in 2021. Indonesia is the President for 2022 and India will be the President in 2023.
- The first Summit meeting of the leaders of the G-20 was held in 2008 at Washington, United States.
- The G20 has no permanent secretariat.
- G-20 members constitute 60% of the world population, 80% of the World economy and 75% of world trade.
7. India hosts LeadIT Summit with Sweden at COP27, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Tags: Environment place in news Summits
India and Sweden hosted the LeadIT (Leadership for Industry Transition) Summit, on 15 November 2022 on the side-lines of Conference of Parties (COP) 27 being held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 6-18 November 2022. The initiative focuses on low carbon transition of the industrial sector which is a major source of carbon emission in the world.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav co-hosted the summit with the Swedish Minister for Climate and the Environment Ms. Romina Pourmokhtari.
Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT)
The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) was launched by the governments of Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 at New York City, United States of America.
It brings together countries and companies that are committed to action to achieve the 2016 Paris Agreement on reduction of carbon emission.
The LeadIT members are committed to achieving a net zero carbon emission.
8. Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal inaugurates international travelling Exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope”
Tags: Festivals place in news Science and Technology Person in news
Union Minister of State for Culture & Parliamentary Affairs Ajun Ram Meghwal inaugurated an international travelling exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” at the National Science Center, New Delhi on 15 November 2022.
The exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” has been organised by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and Science Museum Group, London.
The exhibition tells the story of the global effort to develop covid vaccine started on 15 November 2022 and will tour five cities of Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata till September 2025 and is expected to reach out to more than 2 million people.
The exhibition has sections on ‘The Arrival of New Virus’, ‘Designing a New Vaccine’, ‘Trials, Results and Approvals’, ‘Scaling Up and Mass Production’, ‘Vaccine Rollout’, ‘Living with COVID’.
Novel Coronavirus or Covid-19
The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan,China in December 2019 and was later declared a Public health emergency of International concern by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020 and a Pandemic on 11 March 2020.
The first case of the virus in India was confirmed in Kerala on 30 January 2020.
Bharat Biotech, Indian Council of Medical Research and National institute of Virology, Pune developed an indigenous corona vaccine called Covaxin.
The Covid vaccination in India was started on 16 January 2021.
National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)
It is an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture. It is a premier body in the field of science communication.
It popularizes Science and Technology through a network of science centers, Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) units that visit rural schools and organise various activities for public and students in particular.
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
9. Mehran Karimi Nasseri who lived in Paris airport for 18 years dies
Tags: place in news Person in news International News
The 77-year-old Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, whose ordeal inspired the 2004 movie “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones died on 13 November 2022, inside the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he had previously lived for 18 years.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri died around noon local time of a heart attack, a spokesperson for the Paris airport authority said on 14 November 2022.IR
Nasseri was born in 1945 in the Iranian province of Khuzestan. He left Iran in 1970’s to search for his British mothers. He was expelled from many European countries including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany for not having the correct immigration documents.
In 1988, French authorities stopped him at the Paris airport as he tried to pass through without identity papers. Caught in an immigration trap, he soon set up a makeshift home of his own in the airport and lived for many years in Terminal 1 of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.
He was offered a residence permit by France but was unable to adjust to life outside the airport. He eventually came back to the Airport’s Terminal 2F and died later.
10. The Pandemic Fund sponsored by World Bank and WHO officially launched at the G20 meeting
Tags: place in news International News
The Pandemic Fund sponsored by the World Bank and World Health Organisation was officially launched at Bali, Indonesia on 13 November 2022 at the sidelines of the G-20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers’ Meeting.
The high-level speakers included Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank Group President David Malpass, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen among others.
Pandemic Fund
The Pandemic Fund has been established by the World Bank in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in September 2022.
The fund has been set up to provide assistance to the low and middle income countries to strengthen their preparedness and response (PPR) to the future epidemics and pandemics.
The fund will be used to build and strengthen infrastructure in these countries so that they are better prepared to face the risks of future epidemics and pandemics like covid.
Till date according to the World Bank the fund has received a commitment of $1.4 billion from 24 donor countries including India.
Structure of the Fund
The World Bank will serve as the Pandemic Fund’s trustee and host the Secretariat, which will include technical staff seconded from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Governing Board of the Pandemic Fund will be advised by A Technical Advisory Panel headed by WHO. It will comprise leading experts to assess and make recommendations on the technical merits of proposals for funding, ensuring linkages to the International Health Regulations, as part of the broader global PPR architecture.
