ART AND CULTURE                                                                           

1. Shirui Lily Festival                                                                                              

2. 10th Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav 2019                                                            

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Joint Committee Meeting under 2nd Memorandum of Cooperation signed on healthcare                                                                                                           

2. DNA Technology Regulation Bill referred to parliamentary standing committee                                                                                                                           

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                          

1. India-Philippines Business Conclave and 4th Asean-India Business Summit   

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019                                                        

SECURITY                                                                                             

1. IMNEX-2019                                                                                                       

ART AND CULTURE

Shirui Lily Festival  

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture has inaugurated the Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul district,Manipur.

Shirui Lily festival:

• Shirui Lily Festival is an annual five-day State festival celebrated in Ukhrul district,Manipur.

• The festival seeks to spread awareness about the endangered Shirui Lily and promote the district of Ukhrul as a tourist destination in Manipur.

• It also demonstrates age-old traditions and culture of the inhabitants of district of Ukhrul.

                                                                                                                 Source ;- Indian Express ; AIR

10th Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav 2019

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Context :

• Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav (RSM) 2019, will be concluding after visiting, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.

Sanskriti Mahotsav :

• The festival began in 2015.

• It showcases the rich cultural heritage of India.

• It includes classical and contemporary handicrafts, painting, arts-folk, sculpture, etc.

• It covers the fusion of folk art forms from 22 states and will offer the best chance to experience the emerging virtuosity.

• For Five years consistently, the festival has been receiving continuous acclaim for playing a major role to effectively connect the conglomeration of state audiences to the rich, diverse and undiscovered culture of India under the umbrella of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

• The festival brought together more than 400 performers to perform over various folk dance forms and showcased handicrafts created by master craftsmen from all over India clubbed with, diverse cuisines prepared by traditional chefs, all under one- roof.

Significance :

• The aim is to promote the engagement of different states and UTs to enhance mutual understanding and bonding between people of diverse culture.

• This will secure stronger unity and integrity of India.

                                                                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Joint Committee Meeting under 2nd Memorandum of Cooperation signed on healthcare

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare co-chaired the 1st Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) in Tokyo under the 2nd Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) signed on Healthcare and Wellness in 2018.

Memorandum of Cooperation :

• The MoC covers the following areas of cooperation:

  • Promoting specific projects in the field of acute medicine, surgery and trauma care including a focus on new areas of competency in each field.

  • Establishing an advanced joint testing laboratory for clinical examination and a Japanese language education centre for trainee candidates of care workers.

  • Developing of Infrastructure for a centralised management healthcare distribution centre, India-Japan Innovation Hub in India, establishing manufacturing units in India under “Make in India” for high-end medical devices.

  • Developing human resource, research and project promotion for health self-management.

  • Any other areas as may be mutually decided upon to promote the synergies between AYUSHMAN Bharat Programme and other initiatives and AHW

More in the news:

• The Joint Committee reviewed the status of ongoing activities under the MOC and noted with satisfaction the progress on activities.

• During the meeting, Japan presented specific projects between public/private agencies of both countries in the area of

  • healthcare logistics,

  • utilization of ICT (Information and communication technology) in tertiary hospital care

  • human resource exchange in the field of emergency medical care and trauma care

  • establishment of healthcare innovation network between India and Japan.

• India presented various collaboration project proposals for consideration of Japan including collaboration in

  • Human Resource Development and cooperation amongst tertiary care centres between India and Japan

  • building Hospital infrastructure through JICA

  • The field of traditional medicine, especially to recognize Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia

  • Developing high standard generics and medical devices with a focus on establishing manufacturing units in India under the ‘Make in India’ programme

  • cooperation in skill development in the area of geriatric care

                                                                                                                                         Source :- PIB

DNA Technology Regulation Bill referred to parliamentary standing committee

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The DNA Technology Regulation Bill, which seeks to control the use of DNA technology for establishing the identity of a person, has been referred to a parliamentary standing committee for examination.

More in the news :

• The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Bill of 2019 was introduced in and passed by the Lok Sabha in January this year, but lapsed before it could be taken up by the Rajya Sabha.

•  It was reintroduced in July 2019 and is now pending in the Lok Sabha.

• It has been referred to a parliamentary standing committee for examination.           

                                                                                                                                                                    Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

India-Philippines Business Conclave and 4th Asean-India Business Summit

GS PAPER  - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Context :

• Recently, the President of India addressed the India-Philippines Business Conclave and the 4th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Business Summit in Manila, Philippines.

India-Philippines Business Conclave :

• Both countries aim to integrate India’s “Make in India” with the Philippines’ “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure initiative to create immense opportunities for companies and investors on both sides.

• The bilateral trade between the two countries has shown continuous progress, though the IT-BPO segment has remained an important sector in overall trade.
   

  • The India-Philippines trade has risen to nearly $2.5 billion, also the presence of Indian companies in the Philippines is rising.

• In recent years, India-Philippines have seen two-way investment growth in infrastructure and energy sectors.
   

  • The Indian investment in the Philippines has grown especially in concrete projects like LNG pipelines, waste management solutions and airport terminals

• Both the countries also agreed to sign a Tourism Promotion Agreement to bring the people of the two countries further closer.

• There is scope to enhance partnership in several areas - from trade, investment, services, agriculture, engineering to new technologies like digital devices, Artificial Intelligence etc.
   

  • The Indian pharma and healthcare sectors offer immense value to the Philippines.

4th ASEAN-India Business Summit :

• ASEAN- India Business Summit aims to upgrade economic and business relations between each and every ASEAN country and India.
   

  • ASEAN-India relations are to be of utmost importance as India’s “Act East” policy puts the region at the centre of its engagement with the Indo-Pacific.

• Though ASEAN-India trade has increased significantly in the past few years, both parties aimed to reach the target of US$ 200 billion by 2022.

                                                                                                                                     Source :- PIB

ECONOMY

World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Awareness and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Context :

• World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) has released the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019.

Key Highlights :        

• In 2018, patent filings around the world exceeded by around 3.3 million, representing a 5.2% growth over 2017 figures.

• The global growth in IP filings was driven by China which accounted for over 50% of IP filings including patents, trademarks and design.

• The US was ranked second as it witnessed a 1.6% fall in patent filings, which is the first decline for the country in the previous decade.

• India was among the top ten countries of the total (resident and abroad) Intellectual Property(IP) filing activity by origin.

• India saw over 20% growth in trademark filing whereas in respect of industrial design filing activity, it witnessed a 13.6% rise.

                                                                                                                                                   Source :- Economic Times  

SECURITY

IMNEX-2019

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• The India Myanmar Naval Exercise called IMNEX-2019 is being organised in Visakhapatnam from 19 to 22 October.

IMNEX-2019 :

• IMNEX is a bilateral annual naval exercise between India and Myanmar.

• The first edition of the exercise was held in 2018.

• The joint exercise will encompass a variety of operations including anti-air and surface firing exercises, flying exercises using integral helicopter and seamanship evolutions at sea.

• The exercise consists of 2 phases :

  • The harbour phase will include visits to Indian Naval units, training and maintenance facility at Visakhapatnam.

  • The sea phase of the exercise includes Indian Navy’s INS Kuthar and INS Ranvijay carrying out a joint exercise with Myanmar ships UMS Tabinshwehti in the Bay of Bengal.

                                                                                                                              Source :- The Hindu

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