Current Affairs 19 January 2022

We are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 19 January 2022, which have unique updates of Latest Current Affairs 2021 events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, Business Standard and all Government official websites.

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

NeGD organizes 26^th CISO Deep Dive Training Program under Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative

The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is organizing a 6-day long 26th CISO Deep Dive Training program under Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative on January 17-22, 2022.

• It is for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT (Information Technology) officials from various Ministries & Departments, Government & Semi-Government organizations from Central and State Governments, PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), banks, among others.

Aim of Training Program:
To provide better understanding of emerging cyber threat, and best practices in cyber security
What will be done under the Training Program?
This program will cover topics such as Governance Risk and Compliance and Data Privacy, Network Security, End Point Security, Application and Data Security, Cloud Security, Mobile Security, Cryptography, Cyber Security related provisions in IT Act, 2000.
About Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative:
Launched by MeitY in 2018, it is the first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) of its kind to utilize the expertise of the IT industry in cybersecurity. It was launched in cooperation with NeGD and various industry partners in India like Microsoft, Intel, WIPRO, Redhat and Dimension Data.

• It aims to raise awareness about cybercrime and its safety measures through training sessions and awareness programs.
• It envisages to train 1200 CISOs and frontline IT officials across all government departments.

Nitin Gadkari Inaugurates ‘Madhavbaug’s Power MAP’ India’s 1^st Intelligent Chronic Disease Patients Habit Tracking System

On January 15, 2022, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) inaugurated Madhavbaug’s (Vaidya Sane Ayurved Labs Ltd), Power MAP, during a virtual ceremony. It is India’s first Intelligent Chronic Disease Patients Habit Tracking System.
What is Power MAP?
It is a cost effective medical analytics application for doctors which provides patient’s clinical parameters to reverse their chronic diseases effectively. It integrates various medical services like pathology labs, dietitians, exercise experts, stress counsellors and other specialized consultants through mibPULSE, an all-in-1 health monitoring app built for patients.

• This integration provides in-depth medical analysis of a patient’s current health status and its comparison with historical data through interactive visualizations and medical intelligence capabilities.
• Doctors can quickly create PHR (Digital Patient Health Records) which makes their practice paperless, hassle-free yet highly effective.

Madhavbaug is a medical service institution that treats chronic ailments like cardiac disease, diabetes, hypertension and obesity by amalgamating technology with Ayurveda.

NIRDPR & NCGG Signed MoU to Promote Good Governance Across All Programmes and Schemes

The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR), Hyderabad has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), New Delhi to promote inclusive good governance, strengthen local institutions and effective implementation of government programmes.
The MoU was signed in a virtual ceremony in the presence of Dr G Narendra Kumar, Director General of NIRDPR and V. Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG), Government of India & Director General of NCGG along with teams of officials from NCGG and NIRDPR.
Purpose:
To focus on various collaborative activities by drawing upon the strengths of NIRDPR & NCGG to bring better good governance mechanisms into practice across all programmes and schemes.
Features of the MoU:
i.The MoU will help in the application of good governance principles and will also ensure the effective implementation in terms of transparency and accountability in the utilisation of public funds in an intended manner for delivering services to benefit rural communities.
ii.Under this MoU, various key mutual areas of interest were identified as actionable points. iii.This includes leveraging e-governance at the panchayat level, documenting good governance models at the panchayat level, simplification of forms among others and best practices of rural governance.
iv.NCGG has suggested identifying the benchmark of the indexing of Rural Governance at the panchayat level.

Indian Army Signs 1st Contract with Anadron Systems Pvt Ltd Under Make-II for Maneuverable Expendable Aerial Target

The Indian Army has signed its first contract with Anadron Systems Pvt Ltd under Make-II for Maneuverable Expendable Aerial Target, for Army Air Defence and Indian Air Force.
The contract worth Rs 96 crore is the first contract with the private sector aimed at Atmanirbhar Defence’.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Global Unemployment to reach 207 million in 2022: ILO WESO Trends 2022

i.On January 17, 2022, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) released a report namely ‘World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) Trends 2022’ projecting global unemployment at 207 million in 2022, surpassing its 2019 level (186 million) by 21 million.
ii.This rise is due to slow economic recovery and the spread of new COVID-19 variants viz. Delta and Omicron.
iii.The global unemployment rate is projected to reach 5.9% in 2022. This figure shows an improvement from 6.2% in 2021 and 6.6% in 2020, but it is still above 5.4% in 2019 (pre-pandemic level).
About International Labour Organisation (ILO):
Director-General– Guy Ryder
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland
Member Nations– 187
>> Read Full News

BANKING & FINANCE

SEBI Amended Settlement Proceedings; cuts Timeline for Filing Settlement Applications to 60 Days

In January 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) amended the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, 2018, called the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022 and has reduced the timeline for filing settlement applications to just 60 days from the current 180 days to make the system more efficient.

• Thus, a settlement application can be filed within 60 days of the date of receipt of the show-cause notice. An additional 120 days could be availed by the applicants in case they pay an additional 25 percent over the settlement charges.

Other Amendments:
i.The time period for submission of revised settlement terms form, after the internal committee (IC), has been rationalised to 15 days (from the date of the IC meeting).
ii.SEBI has rationalised the proceeding conversion factor (PCF) values range as 0.40 to 1.50 to encourage the filing of settlement applications.
iii.SEBI Amended the FPIs norms: SEBI has amended SEBI (Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI)) Regulations, 2019 called SEBI (FPI) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022.
iv.SEBI may suo motu or on an application made by an FPI, for reasons recorded in writing, grant relaxation from the strict enforcement of any of the provisions of those regulations.
About Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI):
Establishment – 1992
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairman – Ajay Tyagi
>> Read Full News

Snapdeal, BOB Financial & NPCI Launches Contactless RuPay Credit CardE-commerce platform Snapdeal has partnered with Bank of Baroda (BOB) Financial Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of BoB, and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch a co-branded contactless RuPay credit card.

• Aim – To popularise the adoption and usage of credit cards among the online buyers from India’s smaller cities and towns.

About Contactless RuPay Credit Card:
i.The Snapdeal-BoB co-branded contactless card, powered by RuPay, will be rolled out to users by March 2022.
ii.It provides reward points and other benefits to the cardholders while they shop on Snapdeal and also when they use the card at other online and offline transaction points.
Additional info: Snapdeal receives more than 86 percent of its orders from outside metro cities, with more than 72 percent buyers from Tier 2+ cities & towns, each with a population of less than 1 million.
About Snapdeal Limited:
President – Himanshu Chakrawarti
Establishment –2010
Headquarters – Gurugram, Haryana
About Bank of Baroda (BOB) Financial Solutions Limited:
It is the credit card arm of BoB
Establishment – 1994
MD & CEO – Shailendra Singh
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra

Canara Bank Partners with Lendingkart to Offer Loans Online for MSMEs 

On 18th January 2022 Fintech company Lendingkart announced a co-lending partnership with Canara Bank to provide low-cost business loans of up to Rs. 10 lakh to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Aim – To broaden the support provided to the MSME borrowers for enhancing financial inclusion under the Reserve Bank India’s (RBIs) Priority Sector initiative.
About Co-Lending agreement:
i.The Co-Lending agreement with Lendingkart Finance Limited bears the credit needs of MSMEs falling under the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) category.
ii.The loans will be originated and sanctioned through the digital platform ‘Lendingkart 2gthr’ using ‘zero touch’ technology.
iii.Under the agreement, Canara Bank will leverage Lendingkart platforms ‘xlr8’ to originate and distribute MSME loans and ‘cred8’ to underwrite those loans.
About RBI’s priority sector initiative:
i.The Government of India and RBI has considered specific sectors in India as important for the development of the basic needs of the country and given priority to them over other sectors i.e. PS (Priority Sector).

• Categories under PS include Agriculture, Micro and Small Enterprises, Education, Housing, Export Credit & others.

ii.As per RBI norms, Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) are required to lend 40 percent of their previous year’s adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) or credit equivalent of off-balance-sheet exposures (CEOBE), whichever is higher, to the priority sector.
iii.As of March 31, 2021, regional rural banks and small finance banks are required to lend 75 percent of ANBC to the priority sector.
iv.In 2016, trading in priority sector lending certificates (PSLCs) was introduced, which will allow buying for the shortfall and selling for overachievement of PSL targets without a corresponding transfer of loan, cash flows or risk.
About Lendingkart:
Co-founder and CEO – Harshvardhan Lunia
Headquarters – Ahmedabad, Gujarat
About Canara Bank:
CEO & MD – L V Prabhakar
Establishment – 1 July 1906
Headquarters – Bangalore, Karnataka
Tagline – Together we can

MobiKwik & Bharat BillPay launch ClickPay Services for Bill PaymentsIn January 2022, MobiKwik, a mobile wallet Fintech company, partnered with  NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd. (NBBL) to launch ‘ClickPay’ service to its customers. With this, the customers of MobiKwik can pay recurring online bills, such as mobile, gas, water, electricity, DTH, insurance and loan EMIs using their mobile phone.
Highlights:
i.ClickPay is a two-factor authentication payment feature wherein the billers generate a unique payment link within the bill-pay message and  allow customers to make payments directly on the payment page.
Note – Previously, RBI has mandated two-factor authentication for every recurring payment of over Rs 5,000
About MobiKwik:
i.In 2019 MobiKwik received authorization from the RBI to operate as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit.
ii.It comprises more than 60 banks and non-banks on the Bharat Bill Payment Services platform.
Co-Founder and CEO-Chandan Joshi
NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd (NBBL):
CEO-Noopur Chaturvedi
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi

SIDBI sanctions financial assistance of ₹650 crore to AUSFB and JSFB

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) sanctioned financial assistance of around ₹650 crore to AU Small Finance Bank (AUSFB) and Jana Small Finance Bank (JSFB). The Small Finance Banks will use this assistance to support small-sized non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro finance institutions (MFIs) and micro entrepreneurs.
Highlights:
i.The move will help  to overcome covid-19 pandemic  impacted businesses of MSMEs and provide support to  income generation activities.
ii.The financial assistance will also boost the demand in the  informal MSME sector, especially new to credit businesses, small retail trade, micro credit and other small household businesses in the remote areas.
About Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI):
Chairman and MD– Sivasubramanian Ramann
Headquarters- Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Founded- 1990
About AU Small Finance Bank (AUSFB):
MD and CEO- Sanjay Agarwal
Headquarters- Jaipur, Rajasthan
About Jana Small Finance Bank (JSFB):
Headquarters- Bengaluru, Karnataka
Founded-2008
CEO-Ajay Kanwal

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

MoCI data on India’s Trade in December 2021: Exports rise to USD 37.81 billion; Trade Deficit Increase to USD 21.68 billion

As per the data of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) India’s merchandise exports in December 2021 increased to 38.91 percent on an annual basis to USD 37.81 billion, the highest-ever monthly figure.

• Imports in December 2021 also increased by 38.55 percent to USD 59.48 billion. The trade deficit was widened to USD 21.68 billion during December 2021.

Trade during December 2021 & April-December 2021:
i.Overall Trade in April-December 2021:

• Export: India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in April-December 2021 are estimated to be USD 479.07 Billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 36.31 percent over April- December 2020 and a positive growth of 20.25 percent over April-December 2019.
• Imports: Overall imports of India in April-December 2021 are estimated to be USD 547.12 Billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 57.33 percent over April- December 2020 and a positive growth of 18.57 percent over April-December 2019.

ii.Merchandise and Service Trade:

iii.Additional Info:
In December 2021, exports of engineering goods grew 38.41 percent to USD 9.8 billion, followed by petroleum products (151 percent to USD 5.88 billion), gems and jewellery (16.4 percent to about USD 3 billion), chemicals (26.86 percent to USD 2.66 billion) and ready-made garments of all textiles (22.63 percent to USD 1.46 billion).
The petroleum and crude oil imports increased by 67.89 percent to USD 16.16 billion and Gold imports expanded by 5.43 percent to USD 4.72 billion in December 2021.
About Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI):
Union Minister – Piyush Goyal (Rajya Sabha Maharashtra)
Minister of State – Anupriya Patel (Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh) ; Som Parkash (Hoshiarpur, Punjab)

MoCI Confirms India’s position to Achieve $650 Billion Exports in FY 2021-22Union Minister of Commerce & Industries (MoCI), Piyush Goyal chaired the review meeting of  all major Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), where he informed that India is set to achieve the targeted Export level of $650 Billion in the current financial year (FY) 2021-22. At present, Indian Merchandise exports have reached $300 billion in the first nine months of FY 2021-22, out of the total targeted $400 billion.
i.Out of the targeted $650 billion, $400 billion will be merchandise exports and $250 billion will be service exports.
ii.Merchandise exports were $37 billion and $16 billion for December and first half of January respectively.
Towards The Ease in the Growth of FY 2021-22:
i.MoCI with EPC’s and entrepreneurs took initiatives to obtain clearances through the National Single Window System (NSWS).
iii.Listening to new ideas, engage with industry at every level and work as an enabler, facilitator and partner.
iv.The government’s efforts will improve the ease of living and the ease of doing business, as it reduced more than 25,000 compliances.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS   

Overview of The Best FIFA Football Awards 2021 

On 17^th January 2022 The Best Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Football Awards 2021 ceremony was held as a virtual TV show from the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland.

• It has crowned Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski as Best FIFA Men’s Player 2021 and Barcelona’s Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas as Best FIFA Women’s Player 2021.

About The Best FIFA Football Awards 2021:
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) conducted the FIFA Football Awards 2021 virtually in Zurich, Switzerland for the 6th Time on 17th January 2022 and The first award ceremony was held in 2017.
About Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA):
President – Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino
Establishment – 21st May 1904
Headquarters – Zurich, Switzerland
>> Read Full News     

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS      

Narendra Kumar Goenka Took Charge as Chairman of AEPC; Succeeds Dr A Sakthivel

Narendra Kumar Goenka, Founder and Managing Director(MD) of Texport Industries Pvt Ltd took charge as the Chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), under the aegis of the Ministry of Textile, during its Executive Committee meeting held on 17th January 2022.
AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India.

• He succeeds Padma Shri Dr A Sakthivel, who has served as the AEPC Chairman since January 2020.
• Dr A Sakthivel is the Chairman and MD of Poppys Knitwear Pvt. Ltd.

About Narendra Kumar Goenka:
i.Narendra Kumar Goenka has been associated with the AEPC for around 20 years.
ii.He was elected to the Executive Committee of AEPC in 2001.
iii.He has also served as the Vice-Chairman of the AEPC, prior to his appointment as the Chairman of AEPC.
Apparel Export:
i.The export of apparel has increased by 22%, from USD 1.20 billion in December 2020 to USD 1.46 billion in December 2021.
ii.The exports in the first nine months of this fiscal are at USD 11.13 billion, 35% more than USD 8.22 billion in April-December 2020.
About Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC):
AEPC assists the Indian exporters as well as importers and international buyers.
Chairman– Narendra Kumar Goenka
Secretary-General– Dr L.B. Singhal
Incorporated in 1978
Head Office– Gurugram, Haryana

North Macedonia Elects Kovacevski as New Prime Minister

North Macedonian Parliament has voted for a new coalition government, with Dimitar Kovacevski, leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), elected as the new prime minister.

• The new coalition cabinet is composed of Kovacevski’s Social Democrats and two ethnic Albanian parties as junior partners.

Key Objective of Kovachevski’s government – To achieve higher and more sustainable economic growth, addressing the energy crisis, and advancing North Macedonia’s bid for European Union membership.
About Dimitar Kovacevski:
i.Kovachevski was appointed as the deputy finance minister after 2020 parliamentary elections succeeded Zoran Zaev, who resigned as the prime minister on December 2021, following the SDSM party’s defeat in municipal elections.
ii.In 2019, Macedonia added North to its official name, resolving a dispute with Greece that allowed the country to join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
About North Macedonia:
President – Stevo Pendarovski
Capital – Skopje
Currency – Macedonian Denar

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Russia’s first newly-built Tu-160M ‘White Swan’ Strategic Bomber performs Debut Flight

Russia’s first newly-built Tupolev Tu-160M strategic missile-carrying bomber nicknamed ‘White Swan’ recently performed its debut flight from the aerodrome of the Kazan Aviation Enterprise, a subsidiary of the Tupolev Company (part of the United Aircraft Corporation within Rostec).

• It performed its flight at an altitude of 600 meters that lasted about 30 minutes.
• It is the world’s heaviest supersonic military aircraft to date.

Key Points:
i.Tupolev Tu-160M has 80% of its equipment upgraded and can carry new, including breakthrough weapons.
ii.It is designated to strike enemy targets in remote areas with nuclear and conventional weapons.

Israel & US tested Arrow-3 Ballistic Missile System in Israel

On 18 January 2022, Israel & the United States (US) successfully conducted the flight test of the Arrow-3 ballistic missile interceptor outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

• It was developed in a joint project between Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the American Missile Defense Agency.

Highlights:
i.The  Arrow-3 weapon system was manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and it is able to  detect incoming threats and calculate launch trajectories for interceptors.
ii.It  is a part of a multi-layer defense system of Israel, which includes Iron Dome, a system aimed at intercepting short-range rockets from Gaza (Israel).
iii.The system is currently Israel’s most advanced long-range missile defense system  meant to intercept ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.
iv.It has the capabilities to take out the projectiles of nuclear, biological, chemical or conventional warheads closer.
About Israel:
Prime Minister (PM)- Naftali Bennett
Capital- Jerusalem
Currency- Israeli Shekel
About United States (US):
President-Joe Biden
Capital- Washington, D.C.

SPORTS

TCS becomes new Title Sponsor & Technology Partner of ‘Toronto Waterfront Marathon’

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) signed a partnership agreement  with Canada Running Series to become the new title sponsor & official technology consulting partner of Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Virtual Race through November 2026.
Key points:
i.Under the agreement TCS and Canada Running Series (CRS) aim to modernise marathon running in Canada through a new official race app.

• The app is equipped with AR (Augmented Reality) features and it will track the performance of both in-person and virtual runners on the same racecourse.

ii.It will also build the first of its kind ‘environmental impact calculator’ that will enable runners and spectators to track and offset their environmental impact.
iii.Both the organisations will also work together to create a hybrid and immersive race experience for runners and spectators.

• The organization includes Trans Canada Trail and Trees for Life Canada as the charity partners of TCS & CRS.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS):
CEO-Rajesh Gopinathan
Headquarters-Mumbai, Maharashtra

OBITUARY

Padma Shri Awardee Major Ahluwalia Passes Away

Founder of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) that was set up at Vasant Kunj, Delhi in 1993, a professional mountaineer, and Padma Shri recipient, Major HPS Ahluwalia (Retired)  passed away at the age of 85.
About HPS Ahluwalia:
i.At the age of 26, Major Ahluwalia was part of the first Indian expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1965, and he climbed the summit on May 29, 1965.
ii.He received an early discharge from the Army in 1968 with the honorary rank of Major.
iii.He was awarded the Padma Bhushan (2002) and Padma Shri (1965) for his contributions and received India’s second-highest sporting honour, the Arjuna Award (1965). He also received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award (2009).
iv.He has written over 13 books including his autobiography ‘Higher Than Everest’.

Noted Bengali Cartoonist Padma Shri Narayan Debnath Passed Away 

Noted Bengali cartoonist Padma Shri Narayan Debnath has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. He was born on 25th November 1925, in Howrah, Bengal Presidency, British India

• The Rabindranath Tagore University had honoured him with a D.Litt degree. He is the first and the only comic artist in India who has received a D.Litt degree.

About Narayan Debnath:
i.Narayan Debnath is a comics artist, writer and illustrator.
ii.He was the creator of popular Bengali comic strips like Handa Bhonda (1962), Batul the Great (1965) and Nonte Phonte (1969).
iii.He holds the record for the longest-running comic by an individual artist for ‘Handa Bhonda’ comic series which have now completed 53 years.
Noted works:
His noted creations include Rabi Chobi– published to celebrate the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in May 1961 issue of Anandamela, a weekly magazine and Rajar Raja/Chobite Vivekananda in 1962, illustrated by Narayan Debnath and written by Bimal Ghosh to celebrate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda.
Awards and honours:
i.He was honoured with Padma Shri, the 4th highest civilian honours of India in 2021 for arts.
ii.The board of Sahitya Akademi has recognised Narayan Debnath’s Comics Samagra for Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2013.
iii.The government of West Bengal has also honoured him with the Banga Bibhushan Award in 2013.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Open Data Week – 17th to 21st January 2022The Open Data Week will be conducted during the third week of January, from 17th to 21st January 2022, by the Smart Cities Mission(SCM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to encourage the adoption of open data and promote innovation across India’s urban ecosystem.
The Open Data Week is undertaken by MoHUA to promote awareness and use of open data.
Aim:
To highlight the benefits of open data: Increased efficiency, Transparency, a spur in innovation, and Economic growth.
Background:
On 17th January 2022, The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced the initiation of the Open Data Week, a part of the series of pre-event initiatives leading up to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference which is set to be held in Surat, Rajasthan during February 2022.
Observance of Open Data Week:
The Open Data Week is observance is divided into 2 segments,
1st segment: 
This involves uploading datasets, visualizations, Application Programming Interface(API), and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal from 17th to 20th January 2022.
2nd Segment: 
This involves the celebration of Data Day on 21st January 2022. The Data Day will be observed nationally across all smart cities.
Events:
i.All the 100 smart cities of India will participate in the event and they will publish high-quality datasets and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal. 
ii.At present there are more than 3800 datasets and more than 60 data stories are available on the portal for various stakeholders to analyse this data and uncover actionable insights.
Data Day:
The Data Day will be observed with the engagement of people of various backgrounds including, Government agencies, private sector, enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, businesses, startups, civil society etc.

• 100 smart cities of India are prepared for the event, which makes this a collaborative effort toward making Indian cities ‘Data Smart’.

The events are designed to promote the use of data and to spread awareness about data.
Aim: To provide a platform to offer opportunities on how to create and promote the use of data that address complex urban issues, like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
About Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA):
Union Minister– Hardeep Singh Puri (Rajya Sabha    Uttar Pradesh)
Minister of State– Kaushal Kishore (Constituency- Mohanlalganj, Uttar Pradesh)

STATE NEWS

Odisha Partners with WFP to Improve Food Security, Farmers’ Resilience

The Government of Odisha and the United Nations(UN) World Food Programme(WFP) have partnered to improve the food security of small and marginal farmers of India by enhancing their resilience to climate change.

• The agreement in this regard was signed by Dr M. Muthukumar, Director Of Agriculture & Food Production,  Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha, and Bishow Parajuli, Representative and Country Director, WFP in India over a virtual ceremony.

Features of the partnership:
i.In a participatory pilot initiative, customised climate advisories will be made to enable the smallholder farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
ii.Smallholder farmers, who make up to 90% of farming communities in Odisha, will be able to choose the right farming and livelihood options to improve their food security and income.
iii.Under this partnership, WFP and the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’Empowerment will develop toolkits, modules, and guidelines during the project to provide climate services to smallholder farmers.
iv.This will support the farmers to make informed decisions to transform towards a productive and resilient agriculture system.

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