Japan-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise – Jimex 2022 (GS Paper 3, Defence)
Why in news?
- Recently, the sixth edition of Japan India Maritime Exercise 2022 (JIMEX 22) hosted by Indian Navy commenced in the Bay of Bengal.
Key Highlights:
- As part of the two phases of JIMEX, which involves exercises at sea and a harbour phase in Visakhapatnam, Japan was represented by two of its Maritime Self-Defense Force Ships (JMSDF) — Izumo, a helicopter carrier, and Takanami, a guided missile destroyer.
- India, meanwhile, brought three of its indigenously-built naval warships, two of which are Anti Submarine Warfare Corvettes in Kadmatt and Kavaratti, and a multi-purpose stealth frigate in the Sahyadri.
Significance:
- The sixth edition of JIMEX is not only significant due to India and Japan’s involvement in the Quad.
- This edition marks the 10th anniversary of JIMEX, which began in Japan in 2012.
- It also coincides with the 70th anniversary of establishing of diplomatic relations between India and Japan.
Way Forward:
- JIMEX 22 seeks to consolidate the high degree of interoperability that exists between maritime forces of the two countries, through complex exercises in the surface, sub-surface and air domains.
Initiatives as run up to the International Year of Millets 2023
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, a series of pre-launch events and initiatives have been organised by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on the MyGov platform as run-up to the International Year of Millets 2023 to create awareness and a sense of participation in the country around the ancient and forgotten golden grains.
Key Highlights:
- A contest for designing a comic story, with the theme ‘India's Wealth, Millets for Health’ has been launched on 5th September 2022, and is intended to showcase the health benefits of millets to raise awareness among the masses.
- The Millet Startup Innovation Challenge has been launched on 10th September 2022. This initiative encourages young minds to offer technological/ business solutions to the existing problems in the millets ecosystem.
- The Mighty Millets Quiz was recently launched with questions based on millets and its benefits.
- A competition for an audio song and documentary film on the importance of millets, is also to be launched shortly.
Background:
- The United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. This was adopted by a United Nations Resolution for which India took the lead and was supported by over 70 nations.
- This will help to create awareness throughout the world of the importance of millets, its role in sustainable agriculture, and its benefits as a smart and super food.
- India is poised to become the global hub for millets with a production of more than 170 lakh tonnes and producing more than 80 % of the millets produced in Asia.
- Earliest evidence for these grains have been found in Indus civilization and were one of the first plants domesticated for food.
- It is grown in about 131 countries and is the traditional food for around60 crore people in Asia & Africa.
- India is the largest producer of millets with 37.5% of the total global output followed by Sudan and Nigeria.
MeitY Startup Hub and Meta launch XR Startup Program to create next Generation Startups in Extended Reality Technologies
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- To create next-generation startups in extended reality (XR) technologies, MeitY Startup Hub (MSH), an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and Meta, has launched an accelerator programme to support XR technology startups across India.
Focus:
- This initiative will focus on skilling and building technological capabilities for the metaverse and will help shape the ecosystem for these emerging technologies, including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the country.
Key Highlights:
- The program will support 40 early-stage start-ups working in XR technologies with a grant of Rs 20 lakhs each.
- Further, the Grand Challenge will encourage early-stage innovators in sectors like education, learning and skills, healthcare, gaming and entertainment, agri-tech and climate action, and tourism and sustainability.
- The innovators will be providedsupport to upscale from the R&D phase to developing workable products and services.
- At first 80 innovators will be shortlisted to attend a boot camp, out of which, a total of 16 innovators will be provided grants of Rs 20 lakhs each and further support to help them develop Minimum Viable Product (MVP)/ prototypes.
Stakeholders:
- The XR Startup Program will be implemented by four institutions - International Institute of Information Technology – Hyderabad Foundation, Hyderabad, Telangana (CIE IIIT-H); AIC SMU Technology Business Incubation Foundation (AIC-SMUTBI), Rangpo, Sikkim; Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), Ahmedabad, Gujarat and Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi, New Delhi.
- The XR Startup Program is supported by Meta’s XR Programs and Research Fund.
Way Forward:
- An important milestone in the area of Metaverse, the initiative can also fuel the growth of investments in future technologies in line with the government vision for making India a trillion-dollar economy by 2025
- Young Indian Startups, especially from tier 2/3 cities, will play a significant role in emerging tech areas like Web 3.0, blockchain, AI, Metaverse, and will shape the future of technology and the internet for India and the world.
PashuAadhaar & Lumpy Skin Disease
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- The Central government is creating a numerical database for dairy animals. PashuAadhaar will be like Aadhaar cards for humans.
- The government aims to track the population and health of livestock by assigning them a unique identification number. The creation of database will be done with the help of biometric identification.
What is PashuAadhaar?
- PashuAadhaar aims to expand the dairy sector in India. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is developing the Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH), which will be known as PashuAadhaar.
- As part of the scheme, all animals will be given an ear tag which will contain a bar-coded 12-digit unique identification number.
- INAPH will have all the data related to the animals registered, including their species, breed, and pedigree. It will also consist of information regarding calving, vaccination, and milk production.
Background:
- Establishing PashuAadhaarwas first proposed in 2015 by a government committee to prevent cattle smuggling.
- The committee's recommendation came after a Supreme Court order on a plea against cattle trafficking.
How will PashuAadhaar be beneficial for animals?
- Apart from monitoring the health of the livestock, the database is expected to help government to check the outbreak of lumpy skin disease, which has killed over 67,000 cattles in more than eight states in India.
What is lumpy skin disease?
- It is a contagious viral disease which causes fever and nodules on the skin of the animals, thereby impacting the milk production.
- India, the world's largest milk producer, had a cattle population of 192.5 million in 2019, as per the 19th Livestock census.
- Some of the worst affected states by lumpy skin's outbreak are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The total cattle population is around 200 billion and Rajasthan is witnessing as many as 600-700 deaths in a day.
The government is developing an indigenous vaccine for the disease, however, it is likely to take three-four months. Meanwhile, many states are using the 'goat pox' vaccine to treat lumpy skin disease in animals.
