April 16th Current Affairs

1.UN Food Systems Summit 2021.

IN NEWS:

• India Holds National Dialogue on UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
• The United Nations Secretary General has called for the first ever UN Food Systems Summit to be held in September 2021.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• PURPOSE: To strategize the actions for positive change in Agri-food systems in the World to realize the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The Summit will focus on levers and pathways to shape food systems nationally and globally to accelerate progress in the SDGs.
• The Summit 2021 is planned to be essentially participatory and consultative for the five Action Tracks.
• To safe and nutritious food,
• Sustainable consumption patterns,
• Nature-positive production,
• Advance equitable livelihoods, and
• Resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.

India’s Contribution:

• India with close to 18% humanity on the Globe owes paramount stake in this Food System Summit.
• India has volunteered, but not limited to, to the Action Track 4: Advance Equitable Livelihoods for the UN Food System Summit 2021.
• To take the process further the Government has constituted ahigh level Interdepartmental Group under the Chairmanship of Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog along with the representatives from Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoAFW), Rural Development and others.
• The prime function assigned to this group is to conduct National Dialogues with all the stakeholders of agri-food systems for exploring national pathways towards creating sustainable and equitable food systems in India and suitably contribute to transformation in global food systems to meet the needs of present and future.
• The consultative processes shall culminate in the Food System Summit in September, 2021 in which Hon’ble Prime Minister is likely to participate along with other Global leaders.

SOURCE:PIB

2. National Startup Advisory Council.

IN NEWS:

• Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal  chaired the first meeting of National Startup Advisory Council(NSAC).
• Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had constituted the National Startup Advisory Council .
• OBJECTIVE:To advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

National Startup Advisory Council

Functions

• The Council will suggest measures to foster a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students, in particular, promote innovation in all sectors of the economy across the country.
• It will also suggest measures to facilitate public organisations to assimilate innovation with a view to improving public service delivery, promote creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights.

Composition of the Council

• Chairman: Minister for Commerce & Industry.
• Convener of the Council: Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
• Ex-officio Members: Nominees of the concerned Ministries/Departments/Organisations not below the rank of Joint Secretary.
• Non-official members, to be nominated by the Central Government, from various categories like founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, persons capable of representing the interests of investors into startups, etc. The term of the non-official members will be for a period of two years.
• Further, it will suggest measures to make it easier to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs, promote ease of access to capital for startups.

SOURCE:PIB

3. Three new initiatives/services of National Internet Exchange of India

IN NEWS:

Sh. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, IAS, Secretary Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) & Chairman NIXI today inaugurated three path breaking initiatives for National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The details of the three new initiatives are as below:

IPv6 Expert Panel (IP Guru) :

• IP Guru is a group to extend support to all the Indian entities who are finding it technically challenging to migrate and adopt IPv6.
• In addition to this the IPv6 expert group will help in identifying & hiring agency that will help end customer by providing necessary technical support to adopt IPv6.
• This panel will guide all such Indian entities and help in increasing the IPv6 adoption. It’s a joint effort of DOT, MeitY & community to promote IPv6.
• The expert panel group comprises members from government and private organizations.

NIXI Academy :

• NIXI Academy is created to educate technical/non-technical people in  India to learn and relearn technologies like IPv6 which are normally not taught in Educational Institutes.
• NIXI academy comprises an IPv6 training portal which is developed  with the help of various technical experts in order to provide mass training  to the community.
• Through this academy our Internet community will be able to learn from various technical modules.
• Successful candidates (after passing examination) can take a certificate from NIXI, which will be useful to find/upgrade jobs in the Industry.

NIXI-IP-INDEX

• NIXI has developed an IPv6 index portal for the Internet community.
• NIXI-IP-INDEX portal will showcase the IPv6 adoption rate in India and across the world.
• It can be used to compare IPv6 Indian adoption rate with other economies in the world.
• NIXI will populate this portal with web adoption in IPv6, IPv6 traffic etc. in coming days.
• This portal will motivate organisations to adopt IPv6, provide inputs for planning by technical organisations and research by academicians.

About NIXI

• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a not-for-profit organization (section 8 of the Companies Act 2013) working since 2003 for spreading the internet infrastructure to the citizens of India through the following activities:
• Internet Exchanges through which the internet data is exchanged amongst ISP’s, Data Centers and CDNs.
• .IN Registry, managing and operation of .IN country code domain and .भारत IDN domain for India.
• IRINN, managing and operating Internet protocol (IPv4/IPv6).

SOURCE:PIB

4. Eatsmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challenge Launched.

IN NEWS:

Shri Hardeep S Puri, MoS (I/C), Housing and Urban Affairs launched the EatSmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challengeat an online event.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

 The EatSmart Cities Challenge aims to motivate Smart Cities to develop a plan that supports a healthy, safe and sustainable food environment supported by institutional, physical, social, and economic infrastructure along with the application of ‘smart’ solutions to combat food related issues.

The Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge aims to develop digital solutions that will make public transport safe, affordable, comfortable, and reliable for all.

EatSmart Cities Challenge

• The ‘Eat Right India’ movement initiated by FSSAI under the aegis of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• Creating awareness amongst the people about eating safe, healthy and sustainably.
• The launch event of EatSmart Cities Challenge  was organized in association with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the aegis of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The EatSmart Cities Challenge is envisioned as a competition among cities to recognize their efforts in adopting and scaling up various initiatives under Eat Right India.
• This unique challenge, in partnership with Smart Cities Mission will create an environment of right food practices and habits, strengthen the food safety and regulatory environment, build awareness among the consumers.
• The challenge is open to all Smart Cities, capital cities of States /UTs, and cities with a population of more than 5 lakh.

Transport 4 All (T4All) Challenge

• Indian cities have the golden opportunity to invest in public transport as a social good, completely revamp informal transit services, and prioritise digital innovation to improve user experience.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Transport 4 All challenge in collaboration with ITDP.
• The Challenge aims to bring together cities, citizen groups, and start-ups to develop solutions that improve public transport to better serve the needs of all citizens.

SOURCE:PIB

5. World Population report 2021

In news

The United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) flagship ‘State of World Population Report 2021’ titled ‘My Body is My Own’ was launched.

Key takeaways

• This is the first time a United Nations report has focused on bodily autonomy.
• Bodily autonomy is defined as the power and agency to make choices about your body without the fear of violence or having someone else decide for you.
• Nearly half the women from 57 developing countries do not have the right to make decisions regarding their bodies, including using contraception, seeking healthcare or even on their sexuality.
• In countries where data is available, only 55% of women are fully empowered to make choices over healthcare, contraception and the ability to say yes or no to sex.
• Only 75% of countries legally ensure full and equal access to contraception.
• Some examples of violation of bodily autonomy include, child marriage, female genital mutilation, a lack of contraceptive choices leading to unplanned pregnancy, unwanted sex exchanged for a home and food
• Under its ambit also fall people with disabilities stripped of their rights to self-determination, to be free from violence and to enjoy a safe and satisfying sexual life.
• Women around the world are denied the fundamental right of bodily autonomy with the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbating this situation.

SOURCE:TH