Daily Current Affairs: 11th November 2022

Table of Contents

2nd BIMSTEC Agriculture Ministers Meeting 2022

Recently, India hosted the Second Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

The 2nd BIMSTEC Agriculture Ministerial Meeting adopted the Action Plan for Strengthening BIMSTEC Agricultural Cooperation (2023-2027).
An MoU between the BIMSTEC Secretariat and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been signed and approval has been given to bring Fisheries and Livestock sub-sectors under the Agricultural Working Group.
BIMSTEC member countries appreciated India’s efforts to strengthen cooperation in agricultural research and development and for awarding six scholarships each for postgraduate and PhD programmes in agriculture.
Agriculture ministers of India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the BIMSTEC meeting 2022.

The BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 to provide a unique link between South and South-East Asia with 5 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia.
Cooperative areas: The countries came together as one platform for cooperation in 14 key economic and social sectors of the economy.
- Initially, six sectors- trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries were included for sectoral cooperation which was later expanded to 14 areas of cooperation.
BIMSTEC Headquarter: BIMSTEC headquarters at Kathmandu, Nepal.
BIMSTEC New Secretary General: Tenzin Lekphell.
Objective: To pursue mutual trade, connectivity, and cultural, technical, and economic development in the region.
BIMSTEC 2022 Summit: The 5th BIMSTEC Summit was hosted in virtual mode by Sri Lanka, the current chair of BIMSTEC.
- BIMSTEC 2022 Theme: The 5th BIMSTEC Summit’s theme is “Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, Healthy People”.

The 11th Session of the India-Belarus Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation was held in November 2022 in New Delhi.

Participation: Shri Som Prakash, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, led the Indian delegation and H. E. Mr Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, led the Belarusian delegation.
The Intergovernmental Commission reviewed the results of bilateral cooperation that took place after the tenth session of the Commission in 2020.
While expressing satisfaction at the progress made in regard to some projects, the Commission also directed concerned Ministries and Departments to focus on key sectors in the trade & investment spheres to finalise concrete outcomes.
On the economic front, there has been substantial progress with expanding cooperation across all sectors of focus.
India and Belarus reiterated their strong desire to further broaden their cooperation with emphasis on key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, financial services, science and technology, heavy industries, culture, tourism, and education.
The two ministers directed their respective business communities to engage with each other in these sectors to further mutually beneficial cooperation.

India and Belarus are strategic partners since 1991.
The two countries cooperate on several areas including economy, trade, culture and geo-poltical level.
This visit was an opportunity to review the existing relationship and find out ways and means to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Recently, Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu launched the mascots Toofan and Toofani for Fit India Movement’s Fit India School Week initiative for the year 2022.
The 4th edition of Fit India School Week will kick off on 15 November 2022 wherein for a month various schools across India will celebrate fitness and sports in various forms for 4 to 6 days and reaffirm its importance amongst the school fraternity.

Background: Fit India Movement was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the year 2019.
About: The annual ‘Fit India School Week’ programme was kicked off in December 2019. All three previous Fit India School Week editions of the programme have been a huge success among the students.
Mandate: Fit India School Week initiative is dedicated to encouraging schools in inculcating fitness habits and increasing awareness about fitness and sports among students.

To make the initiative more popular among the younger generation, the 4^th Fit India School Week edition has added two mascots called “Toofan and Toofani” to its flagship.
- “Toofan and Toofani” representsIndia’s fittest superhero & superwoman.
To make the mascots more connected to sports, they have been given superpowers like running fast as wind (Athletics), lifting cars (weightlifting), and Superb focus skills (Chess).
- They also engage with people by telling them various stories about sports and fitness and inspire, educate and encourage them in the process.

The Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India has launched a Nation-wide Campaign for Promotion of Digital Life Certificate for Central Government pensioners.

In November 2021, Dr. Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of State (PP) had launched the milestone Face Authentication Technique of submitting Life Certificate through any Android Mobile Phone.
Now the Department is launching a special nation- wide campaign for promoting the Life certificate through Digital mode and popularizes the Face Authentication technique.
All the registered Pensioners Associations, Pension Disbursing Banks, Ministries of Government of India and CGHS Wellness Centres have been directed to promote the Digital Life Certificate/Face Authentication Technique for submitting Life Certificate by organising special camps for ‘Ease of Living’ of pensioners.
All pensioners can visit the Centre for submitting their Life Certificates through Digital means.