The Daily Brief – 24th December 2019

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks on the Sino-India boundary issue on 21^st December, 2019 under the framework of the Special Representatives dialogue. The two sides have held 21 rounds of talks under the framework of the SR dialogue, which was set up to find an early solution to the border dispute. The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control.

Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India Prof. K VijayRaghavan launched EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India with the specific focus of increasing research, knowledge and awareness of the Indian ecology and the environment was launched on 19^th December, 2019 in New Delhi. The EChO Network would develop a national network to catalyze a new generation of Indians, who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts and tackle real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology and technology.

Ethiopia’s first-ever satellite ‘Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite’ (ETRSS) has been launched into space by China from the Shanxi Province in China. The earth observatory satellite is designed to help the East African nation gather data for agricultural, mining and environmental protection. The 72 kilogram satellite took three years and incurred a total cost of $8 million. This launch makes Ethiopia the 11^th African country to put a satellite into space while Egypt was the first in 1998.

The Government of India on 20^th December, 2019 signed a $490 million loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for public-private partnership (PPP) project to upgrade about 1,600 km of state highways and major district roads (MDRs) from single-lane to two-lane widths in Madhya Pradesh. An additional $286 million investment will be mobilized through private sector participation under the PPP modality. This new project will further open a new partnership by introducing PPP through hybrid-annuity model (HAM). Established in 1966, the ADB is a regional development bank.

The Indian Army organised the 5^th edition on ARTECH on ‘Technologies for Non-Contact Warfare’ in New Delhi on 23^rd December, 2019. The seminar is the flagship event of the Indian Army, which sets the agenda for focus areas of harvesting indigenous capabilities in the defence sector. Launched in 2016, the ARTECH Seminar is a part of the overall vision of ‘Make in India’ and is conducted every year as a part of the events leading to the Army Day celebrations.

The National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan formally recognized the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) to become the first country in the world to recognize IP pursuant to the efforts of the Department of Commerce and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. IP is an officially recognized book of standards as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 there under. The IP specifies the standards of drugs manufactured and marketed in India in terms of their identity, purity and strength.

Wipro has partnered with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) to launch the FutureSkills platform for 10,000 students from over 20 engineering colleges in lndia. This is a part of Wipro’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, TalentNext, which aims to enhance the quality of engineering education. It is a platform, built to bridge the industry-academia skill gap and help students keep pace with the emerging technologies – Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity and Internet of Things.