12-11-22 Daily-Haryana-HPSC Current Affairs

The state government approved the proposal to set up an extension campus of IIT-Delhi in Jhajjar,where 50 acres has been earmarked for researchers and students to focus on medical technologies and scientific breakthroughs in healthcare.

Conceived in 2013 but marred by delays, the extended campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Delhi) will be built in Badhsa village. It is expected to take at least three to five years for facilities to open in a staggered manner.

The state government aims to make the campus the first in India to focus on precision medicine and a place for experts to develop bioengineering solutions in healthcare.

India has improved its position by six slots and is now placed at 61^strank as per the Network Readiness Index 2022 (NRI 2022) report released recently. In its latest version of 2022, the NRI Report maps the network-based readiness landscape of 131 economies based on their performances in four different pillars: Technology, People, Governance, and Impact covering a total of 58 variables. The report has been prepared by the Portulans Institute, an independent non-profit, nonpartisan research and educational institute based in Washington DC.

India has not only improved its ranking, but also improved its score from 49.74 in 2021 to 51.19 in 2022. It is noteworthy that India leads in several indicators. The report states that India secured 1^strank in AI talent concentration, 2^ndrank in Mobile broadband internet traffic within the country and International Internet bandwidth, 3^rdrank in Annual investment in telecommunication services and Domestic market size, 4^thrank in ICT Services exports, 5^thrank in FTTH/Building Internet subscriptions and AI scientific publications.

NRI-2022 report states that India has a greater network readiness than would be expected given its income level. India is ranked 3^rdout of 36 in the group of lower-middle-income countries after Ukraine (50) and Indonesia (59). India has a score higher than the income group average in all pillars and sub-pillars.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated Kashi Tamil Sangamam – a month-long programme being organised in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.The objective of the programme is to celebrate, reaffirm and rediscover the age-old links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi two of the countrys most important and ancient seats of learning. More than 2500 delegates from Tamil Nadu will be visiting Kashi. During the programme, the Prime Minister also released a book Tirukkural along with its translation into 13 languages. He also witnessed a cultural programme followed by aarti.

Throwing light on the connection between Kashi and Tamil Nadu, the Prime Minister said that on one hand, Kashi is the cultural capital of India whereas Tamil Nadu and Tamil culture is the centre of India’s antiquity and pride. Drawing an analogy to the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, the Prime Minister said the Kashi-Tamil Sangam is equally holy which engulfs endless opportunities and strength in itself. The Prime Minister congratulated the Ministry of Education and the Government of Uttar Pradesh for this momentous gathering and thanked central universities like IIT, Madras and BHU for extending their support to the programme. The Prime Minister especially thanked the students and scholars of Kashi and Tamil Nadu.

The Prime Minister underlined that Kashi and Tamil Nadu are timeless centres of our culture and civilisation. He informed that both Sanskrit and Tamil are one of the most ancient languages that existed. The Prime Minister exclaimed, In Kashi, we have Baba Vishwanath, while in Tamil Nadu we have the blessings of Lord Rameshwaram. Both Kashi and Tamil Nadu are immersed in Shiva. Be it music, literature or art, the Prime Minister remarked that Kashi and Tamil Nadu have always been a source of art.

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) announced setting up theInfrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund(IRAF) with allocation of $50 million to support global action to build robust infrastructure, especially in developing countries and small island developing nations, that can withstand the impacts of climate change.

It will be a multi-donor trust fund, managed by UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, New York. Supported by India, the UK, Australia and theEuropean Union, the IRAFs multi-pronged programme will offer customised technical assistance, capacity building, research, knowledge management, and advocacy across the infrastructure life cycle for countries at all stages of development.

The CDRI, launched byPM Narendra Modiin New York in 2019, is a partnership of national governments, UN agencies and multilateral development banks that aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.