RAJASTHAN

Delegates from 20 countries will take participate in a three-day international conference ‘Smart City Expo India 2018’ in Jaipur. The event will be organised from September 26 to September 28 at Jaipur Exhibition and Convent Centre (JECC) in Sitapura.

Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), Fira Barcelona International and Quantela Inc jointly will organise the event.

The objective is to provide a platform to interact, network, and take advantage of the technology showcased. As many as 6,000 delegates from Spain, Malawi, Hungary, Brazil, Egypt, Mauritius, South Africa, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Palestine and Lebanon are taking part in the event. The participants will also include global companies, experts as well as conceptual researchers.

The international event will also focus on highlighting the innovative measures being undertaken in the field of smart cities at a global level. It will encourage innovation in ongoing smart city projects in various cities – at the same time providing solutions by way of new products and solutions.

INTERNATIONAL

· India, US annual combat exerciseYudh Abhyas 2018to be held at Uttarakhand

The 2-Week long Yudh Abhyas 2018 exercise will be condcuted at Chaubatia in Uttarakhand from 16 to 29 September, 2018.
It will be fourteenth edition of exercise in Yudh Abhyas series which was started in 2004 under US Army Pacific Partnership Program.
Last year, Yudh Abhyas was held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the US.

· Nepal to join military drill with China after snubbing India

Nepal will take part in a 12-day-long ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2′military exercise with China. The exercise will be held from September 17 to 28 in China’s Chengdu
This comes after Nepal withdrew from the first-ever Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) military drill in India.

Scientists from the University of Manchester, England, have developed a non-antibiotic drug that can one day treat tuberculosis(TB) in humans effectively. The drug targets Mycobacterium tuberculosis’ defences rather than the bacteria itself.
In the study, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, animals with acute and chronic TB infection were treated with the compound. The results revealed that the compound does not kill the bacteria directly, but results in a significant reduction in the bacterial burden. It can also take out its increasingly commonly antibiotic-resistant strains. The scientists hope for clinical trials in humans up in four years.

NATIONAL

Giving a major boost to the pro-farmer initiatives of the Government and in keeping with its commitment and dedication for the Annadata, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved a new Umbrella Scheme “Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan’ (PM-AASHA).

The Scheme is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce as announced in the Union Budget for 2018.

This is an unprecedented step taken by Govt. of India to protect the farmers’ income which is expected to go a long way towards the welfare of farmers.

Government has already increased the MSP of kharif crops by following the principle of 1.5 times the cost of production.

It is expected that the increase in MSP will be translated to farmer’s income by way of robust procurement mechanism in coordination with the State Governments.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved continuation of the Capacity Development Scheme for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs 2,250 crore.

The overall objective of the scheme is to augment infrastructural, technical as well as manpower resources for making available credible and timely Official Statistics for policy makers and public at large.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Collaborative Research on Distributed Ledger and Block chain Technology in the context of Development of digital economy by Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank).

Distributed Ledger/Block chain technology holds potential for solutions to various challenges being faced in the financial sector space of the BRICS nations.

The MoU intends to enhance understanding of Distributed Ledger/Block Chain technology, through the joint research efforts to identify areas within respective business operations where it may have the potential for applications aimed at enhancing the operational efficiencies.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for introduction of Bill in Parliament for amendment of NID Act, 2014 to include the four new National Institutes of Design (NID) viz. National Institute of Design, Amaravati/Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh; National Institute of Design, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh; National Institute of Design, Jorhat, Assam and National Institute of Design, Kurukshetra, Haryana within the ambit of the National Institute of Design Act, 2014.

Establishing new NIDs as Institutions of National Importance in different geographical regions of the country will help produce highly skilled manpower in design which, in turn, will create job opportunities, both direct and indirect, by providing sustainable design interventions for crafts, handloom, rural technology, small, medium and large scale enterprises; and outreach programmes for capacity, capability and institution building.