Air Services Agreement
- Air services agreements are signed bilaterally to improve seamless air connectivity between two sovereign nations.
- Union cabinet has recently approved the revised air services agreement between India and Morocco.
- Under the agreement, both countries designate one of more airlines.
- These designated airlines of either country
- Have the right to establish offices in the territory of the other country for the promotion end sale of air services.
- Can enter into cooperative marketing arrangements with the designated carriers of same party, other party and third country.
- Can operate any number of services to/from the six points specified in the Route Schedule to the agreement.
O-SMART
- Ocean Services, Technology, Observations, Resources Modelling and Science (O-SMART) is an umbrella scheme for the development of ocean activities.
- It encompasses a total of 16 sub-projects addressing ocean development activities by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- Its implementation period is from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
- It aimed at stepping up ocean research and setting up early warning weather systems.
- The important deliverables under the scheme are,
- Strengthening of ocean observations, modelling, ocean services for fishermen,
- Setting up marine coastal observatories for tracking marine pollution in 2018,
- Setting up Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant (OTEC) in Kavaratti in Lakshadweep.
- Setting up of the state-of-the-art Early Warning Systems to deal with ocean disasters like tsunami, storm surges.
- The technologies developed under this Scheme will help in harnessing the vast ocean resources of both living and non-living resources from the seas.
Exercise KAKADU
- It is a multilateral regional maritime engagement exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Navy and supported by the Royal Australian Air Force.
- It is held biennially in Darwin and the Northern Australian Exercise Areas (NAXA).
- The 14th edition of the exercise is going to be held in Darwin this year.
- It would see participation from 25 different countries.
- Exercise derives its name from Kakadu National Park, which is a protected area in the northern territory of Australia.
- Indian ship Sahyadri is going to participate in this exercise.
International Energy Agency
- Ministry of Science and Technologyand the International Energy Agency (IEA) has recently signed a MoU on Enhancing Innovation for Clean Energy Transition.
- It seeks to deepen co-operation in support of clean energy innovations to accelerate the R&D of clean energy technologies in India.
- The agreement will be coordinated by Mission Innovation India Unit set up by Department of Biotechnology.
- IEA is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework ofthe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- Only OECD member states can become members of the IEA.
- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Singapore and Thailand are the associate members of IEA.
- The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with non-member countries,especially China, India, and Russia.
- Its flagship releases are World Energy Outlook and Key World Energy Statistics.
Krishna Kutir
- Krishna Kutir is a special home for 1000 widows set up in Uttar Pradesh by the Ministry of Women & Child Development under SwadharGreh scheme.
- It is the largest ever facility of its kind created by a government organization.
- The construction will be funded by union government and managed by U.P government.
SwadharGreh
- SwadharGreh scheme envisages providing shelter, food, clothing and health as well as economic and social security forwomen victims.
- Women victims of difficult circumstances who are in need of institutional support for rehabilitation arebeing given help so that they could lead their life with dignity.
- It focuses on establishing one SwadharGreh in each district.
ARIIA
- Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) is a new annual ranking of higher educational institutions.
- It will be based on innovation and will be launched on October 15, the birth anniversary of former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
- It will work parallel toNational Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) published annually.
- NIRF focuses on research (New knowledge) and ARIIA focuses on innovation (Puts the new knowledge to use).
- ARIIA takes in to account innovation ecosystems supported through teaching and learning, innovative solutions to improve governance of the institution, revenues generated and ideas of entrepreneurship.
Source: PIB, The Hindu
