Exercise Shakti is a series of joint military exercise between India and France.
It was commenced in the year 2011 and it is a biennial exercise.
It is conducted alternately in India and France.
This year exercise is going to be organised in the State of Rajasthan.
It will focus on Counter Terrorism operations in backdrop of semi-desert terrain under United Nations Mandate.
BASIC Ministerial Meet
The 29thministerial meeting of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) countries on Climate Change was organised at Beijing, China recently.
The meeting has called for "comprehensive" implementation of the Paris climate deal amid threats by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from it.
The meeting worked out priorities and issues as a group to be highlighted at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Chile in December 2019.
The Chile meeting will discuss the implementation of the Paris deal to cut the greenhouse gas emissions as well as mitigation, adaption and climate finance.
UN Conference will discuss the implementation of the Paris deal to cut the greenhouse gas emissions as well as mitigation, adaption and climate finance.
IndiGen
It is a programme managed by the CSIR for a free mapping of whole genomes of a person.
CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) are part of this.
The objectives of this programme are,
To test if it’s possible to rapidly and reliably scan several genomes and advise people on health risks that are manifest in their gene and,
Understand the variation and frequency of certain genes that are known to be linked to disease.
A genetic test usually involves analysing only a portion of the genome that’s known to contain aberrant genes linked to disease.
A whole genome sequencing is more involved, expensive and generally attempted only for research purposes.
The human genome has about 3.2 billion base pairs.
Global Bio-India 2019
The Global Bio-India 2019 is one of the largest biotechnology stakeholders conglomeratewill be held for the first time in India at New Delhi.
Ministry of Science & Technology along with its Public Sector Undertaking, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is organizing this event.
It is to bring together stakeholders to strengthen the indigenous research capabilities, bio-entrepreneurship, investments and last-mile-delivery of technology across rural India and tier-2, 3 cities.
Kartarpur Sahib Corridor Agreement
India has signed the Agreement with Pakistan recently for operationalisation of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor at Zero Point, International Boundary, Dera Baba Nanak.
In November 2018, Union cabinet approved the building and development of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the International Boundary.
It is to facilitate pilgrims from India to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, round the year, in a smooth and easy manner.
Kartarpur Sahib is revered as Guru Nanak’s final resting place.
It was here that Guru Nanak assembled a Sikh community and lived for 18 years until his death in 1539.
Corridor - It is a long-standing demand from the Sikh community for easy access to the revered shrine across the border.
The Kartarpur corridor was first proposed in 1999 when PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore.
It is now conceived as a visa-free corridor for Sikhs from India to Pakistan’s Kartarpur Sahib.
It will be developed from Dera Baba Nanak village in Gurdaspur, Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur.
The length of the corridor is about 4 km, 2 km on either side of the International Border.
The government also asked Pakistan to develop a corridor with suitable facilities in its territory.
It comes at the time of the start of 550th birth anniversary year of Guru Nanak.
The Pakistan government responded that it has already decided to open the corridor for the anniversary.
ChenaniNashri tunnel
Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has recently approved renaming of ChenaniNashri Tunnel on NH 44 in Jammu & Kashmir as Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel.
It is a 9 km tunnel and the longest such state of art tunnel in the country, connecting Udhampur to Ramban in Jammu.
The tunnel incorporates India’s first fully integrated mechanism to externally control everything from the movement of vehicles to the inflow and outflow of air, and even the evacuation of passengers or vehicles in distress.
It is located at an altitude of 1,200 metres (nearly 4,000 feet) in difficult Himalayan terrain.
It will reduce the travel time on NH 44 between Jammu and Srinagar by about 2 hours by shortening the distance between the cities by 30 km.
