In recognition of country’s tireless efforts to combat Measles and Rubella, India has been bestowed with the prestigious Measles and Rubella Champion Award by The Measles and Rubella Partnership at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington D.C., USA on March 6th, 2024. Ambassador Sripriya Ranganathan, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Washington D.C. received the award on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

The Measles and Rubella Partnership comprises a multi-agency planning committee, including the American Red Cross, BMGF, GAVI, US CDC, UNF, UNICEF, and WHO, all dedicated to reducing global measles deaths and preventing rubella illness.

This accolade celebrates India's unwavering commitment to public health and its outstanding leadership in curbing the spread of these infectious diseases among children. It further recognizes India for providing regional leadership to the measles & rubella elimination programme by using ‘measles as a tracer’ to strengthen routine immunization under country’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP). Despite facing numerous challenges, India has demonstrated remarkable progress in reducing measles and rubella cases and preventing outbreaks through a series of comprehensive interventions.

India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA on Sunday signed a free trade agreement under which New Delhi has received an investment commitment of USD 100 billion over the next 15 years to facilitate the creation of one million jobs.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

The agreement was signed after a gap of almost 16 years as negotiations, started in 2008, but were put on hold in November 2013. Talks resumed in October 2016, and after 21 rounds of negotiations were held before its conclusion.

For the first time in the history of FTAs (free trade agreements), a legal commitment is being made to promoting target-oriented investment and the job creation.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Raising Day is an annual event held to commemorate the establishment of CISF. This year, it is being celebrated on March 10th. The CISF is a paramilitary security force. It is tasked with providing security to industrial centres, state-funded infrastructure projects, and public sector undertakings. It also protects other critical infrastructure points such as airports, nuclear power plants, sea ports, oil refineries, mines, and more.

Last year, CISF took over the security of the Parliament building from Delhi Police. Unlike the Indian Army or police departments, CISF is a compensatory cost force, meaning that it charges its clients for its service.

A school in Kerala has introduced India’s first AI teacher robot named ‘Iris’. This robot is developed in collaboration with Makerlabs Edutech. It aims to bring new innovations in the field of education by offering personalised learning experience for students. The AI teacher has been deployed at KTCT Higher Secondary School, Thiruvanathpuram

Built under the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) project initiated by NITI Aayog, this AI teacher robot, Iris, boasts a range of features aimed at revolutionising traditional teaching methods.

According to the developer, this AI robot has an in-built voice assistant and is powered by an Intel chipset. It uses an Android app interface to offer personalised learning experiences and interact with people. It is equipped with wheels and is designed to understand and speak different languages and complex problems across different subjects.

Canva, a visual communication platform, announced its partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to introduce visual communication to educators throughout CBSE-affiliated schools in India. The programme is aimed at enhancing digital creativity skills amongst principals and teachers and is expected to benefit over 840,000 teachers and over 25 million students across CBSE schools in India, according to a statement.

Canva for Education is a tool designed to enhance the learning experience for teachers, students, and staff alike. With over 70,000 educational templates, this platform offers a wide range of features that make it easy for educators to create visually engaging content for their lessons, presentations, and school materials.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined that the potential of content creators can take India's branding to a new height at the national and international levels. Speaking after presenting the first-ever National Creators Award at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi today, Mr. Modi highlighted the power of creativity and gave the example of visualizing excavated artifacts that have the potential to take the viewer back to the same era to experience it. He exhorted content creators to start a Create on India Movement to share India’s stories, culture, heritage, and traditions with the whole world. Mr Modi urged them to engage the global audience to create content that not only makes for maximum likes for the creator but also for the country. He said, content creators are the digital ambassadors of India all over the world and they are also the brand ambassadors of Vocal for Local. The Prime Minister suggested creating more awareness of serious issues of mental health and stress among children and also focusing on content creation in local languages. He also recommended creating content that highlights the negative effects of drugs on the youth. Mr Modi stated that the collaboration of content and creativity grows engagement, collaboration of content and digital brings transformation, and collaboration of content with purpose shows impact. He requested the content creators to bring inspiration through content. Mr Modi said, India’s power of creativity to become a catalytic agent for its development. He said, the country has witnessed a data revolution in the last ten years. He said, the Digital India Mission has created a new world of content creators.

Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto was this week declared winner of the 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest international award in the field, which is sometimes referred to as the “Architecture Nobel”. The prize has been awarded every year since its founding in 1979, and Yamamoto is the ninth laureate from Japan.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was instituted by Jay A Pritzker, the late founder of the Hyatt Hotels chain, and his wife Cindy, “to honour a living architect whose built work demonstrates talent, vision and commitment, who has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture”.

The Sustainable City - Dubai has unveiled "IMMERSEE," its new arts and cultural destination. The space is dedicated to advancing sustainability education, it was shared.

Located within SEE Institute -- the net zero emissions building -- the facility operates entirely on solar energy, harnessing the institute's capacity to produce 300 per cent of its energy requirements.

IMMERSEE combines art and technology, creating meaningful connections through thoughtfully curated content that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and artistic expression, inspiring individuals and communities to embrace sustainable lifestyles and enact positive change. Furthermore, it provides a unique backdrop for events, exhibitions, and activations.

“We are finally living at a time when a semiconductor engineer is also a Superhero — that itself tells you how far our country has come, how far we have progressed in the age of technology under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi ji,” Union Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar said while addressing students, researchers, industry leaders and members from ISRO in Kerala today at the 4th Semicon India FutureDesign Roadshow.

Here the Minister facilitated an MoU between IBM and C-DAC which will aim to accelerate India’s Processor Design and manufacturing capabilities for High Performance Computing. This event took place at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST).

He also announced that the upcoming Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre (BSRC) will have a regional centre at IIST, Thiruvananthapuram, catalysing the city’s startup and tech ecosystem.

To significantly boost the electronics, IT sector, and startup ecosystem in Kerala, the Union Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Jal Shakti Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar also inaugurated the new Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centres in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.

HSBC India has successfully concluded the annual HSBC India Business Case programme (HIBCP) aimed at empowering youth for career preparedness. In its 10th edition, the programme, which is designed specially for undergraduate students, witnessed participation from over 3,100 students from 72 undergraduate colleges across the country. The final national round, hosted in Mumbai today, was kicked off by HSBC India's CEO, Hitendra Dave and Aloka Majumdar, MD, Global Head of Philanthropy and Head of Sustainability, HSBC India. Two teams, Shaheed Sukhdev college of Business Studies, Delhi (winning team) and Jai Hind college, Mumbai (runner-up team) were selected after rigorous training to be a part of the HSBC Asia Pacific Business case programme, thus giving them an international business exposure.