24 Aug 2022: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers Meet
2. Stockholm World Water Week, 2022
3. Azadi Quest

1. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers Meet

Syllabus – GS 2, International Relations; Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India

Prelims – SCO Defence Ministers Meet.

Context – SCO Defence Ministers Meet at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

• The Defence Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh held bilateral meetings with his Uzbek, Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts. During the meetings, the whole spectrum of defence cooperation with these countries was assessed, and ways to enhance defence cooperation with the three countries were discussed. 
• Addressing the SCO Defence Ministers meeting, the minister said that terrorism is one of the major threats to global peace and security. He asked SCO members to collectively fight terrorism in all its forms.
• The meeting proposed to host a workshop in India, 2023 on the theme “Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief – Risk Mitigation and Disaster Resilient Infrastructure” for the Defence Ministers of SCO member states. He also recommended an annual seminar on “Topic of Interest” among the think tanks of SCO.
• The minister expressed his full support for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. He urged that the land of Afghanistan must not be used to train terrorists and support their activities by financing them. He emphasised the importance of UNSC (United Nations Security Council) resolutions to establish a broad-based and representative political structure in the country.
• He also stated that India supports talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the crisis in Ukraine and has extended support to the UN Secretary-General, UN agencies and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to provide humanitarian assistance.
• In 2023, India will take over the presidency of the SCO from Uzbekistan.

2. Stockholm World Water Week, 2022

Syllabus – GS 3, Environment; Conservation

Prelims – Stockholm World Water Week, 2022 (August – September).

Context – NMCG organised a virtual session on the first day of Stockholm World Water Week, 2022.

Details –

• Director General, NMCG gave the keynote address on Arth Ganga: Model for Economic River-People Connect for Sustainable River Rejuvenation using Economic Bridge’. He explained in detail the Arth Ganga Model and the interventions made so far.
• Arth Ganga was conceived by the Honourable PM during the first National Ganga Council meeting in 2019 in Kanpur. 
  • The main objective is to link people and Ganga through the Bridge of economics in line with the slogan “Banking on River Ganga”. 
  • Arth Ganga Model aims to contribute at least 3 percent of the GDP from the Ganga Basin itself.
• The important aspect of Arth Ganga is Zero Budget Natural Farming which proposes chemical-free farming for 10 km on either side of the river thereby generating more income per drop and GobarDhan for farmers. It was announced that NMCG plans to launch 75 Jalaj kendras to generate livelihood sources for the people over there, and 16 have already been launched.

About World Water Week –

• World Water Week, organised each year by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), brings together experts, professionals, innovators and entrepreneurs from various sectors and countries with the aim of developing solutions for water-related challenges.
• The theme of this year’s event is “Seeing the Unseen: The Value of Water”.
• The event has been held since 1991.

3. Azadi Quest

Syllabus – GS 3, Science and Technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology

Prelims – Launch of Azadi Quest.

Context – Azadi Quest – a series of online education-based games on India’s Freedom Struggle.

Details –

• The Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting launched Azadi Quest – an online educational mobile game based on India’s Freedom Struggle, in collaboration with Zynga India which has developed some of the most popular game franchises across mobile and web.
• This application will serve as an educational tool to learn about India’s Freedom Struggle and at the same time will entertain and engage the users. Game-based learning provides lifelong education, beyond the boundaries of classrooms and age.
• The Azadi Quest games are available for Android and iOS devices in English and Hindi and will be available across the world from September 2022.
  • Azadi Quest: Match 3 Puzzle is the first game in the series which depicts India’s Independence journey from 1857 – 1947.
  • Azadi Quest: Heroes of Bharat is a quiz game to assess the knowledge of the player about India’s Freedom Struggle.

Read previous PIB here.

August 24th, 2022, PIB:- Download PDF Here