The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Tuesday, November 21, barred transgender cricketers from taking part in women’s cricket at the highest level. The apex board zeroed in on the new law after consulting the sport’s stakeholders over the last nine months.

As per the new rules, any cricketer who transformed from male to female won’t be able to play in women’s international cricket, regardless of any surgery or treatment that they may have undergone.

Shri Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, inaugurated the 8th Edition of the India Water Impact Summit (IWIS) on November 22, 2023, at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. The summit, organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Center for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga), spans three days from November 22 to 24, 2023.

The theme of IWIS 2023 is 'Development vis-à-vis Land, Water and Rivers,' aimed at uniting scientific experts, stakeholders, and government representatives to address dynamic challenges and opportunities in India's water sector.

As a part of the ongoing Extended Operational Deployment to Africa, Indian Naval Ship Sumedha arrived at Maputo, Mozambique on 21 November 2023. The port call is aimed at strengthening long standing diplomatic relations, reinforce maritime co-operation and boost interoperability between both the navies. Professional interactions, cross deck visits, planning conferences and Joint EEZ surveillance from 23-25 November 2023 are scheduled during the visit. Activities during the port call include Courtesy Calls by the Commanding Officer on various dignitaries and government officials of Mozambique including the Navy Commandant, Mozambique Navy and Mayor of Maputo City.

Mozambique and India have traditionally enjoyed warm and friendly bilateral relations, share common values of democracy, development and secularism. There have been regular high-level exchanges and interactions in numerous fields between both countries. Bilateral Defence Cooperation is also being progressed through regular Joint Defence Working Group (JDWG) meetings. Indian Naval ships are regularly deployed overseas as part of Indian Navy’s mission of building ‘bridges of friendship’ and strengthening international cooperation with friendly countries.

An Army Medical Corps Officer Col Sunita BS scripted history on November 21, 2023, by becoming the first woman to assume the role of Commanding Officer at Armed Forces Transfusion Centre, Delhi Cantt. Prior to this, she served in the challenging role of Commanding officer at a strategically important Field Hospital in Arunachal Pradesh, where she provided the best possible Combat Medical Support.

Graduating from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Rohtak, Col Sunita holds a Post Graduate degree (MD & DNB) in Pathology.

Currently, the officer has been given the responsibilities of managing the largest blood transfusion centre of the Armed Forces, AFTC which has state-of-the-art facilities in the field of Transfusion Medicine including Stem Cell cryopreservation, fully automated immune-hematology analyzers, gamma irradiation chambers, and Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) capabilities. AFTC is the first and the only licensed centre in the country to hold a Frozen Red Cell facility. Her unique blend of academic, administrative, and professional skills is crucial for her current role.

The DGAFMS Lt Gen Daljit Singh has congratulated Col Sunita BS on her new appointment and has wished her more laurels in the future.

The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (Divyangjan) took significant strides towards inclusivity through two groundbreaking Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) signed on November 20, 2023.

MOU with National Book Trust, New DelhiUnder the mentorship of the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, NIEPVD and the National Book Trust, New Delhi, formalized their commitment to fostering collaboration. The MOU paves the way for the establishment of a Universal Design Center for Reading in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. This center will showcase the National Book Trust's extensive collection of publications and learning materials in various accessible formats, including physical books, Braille books, e-books, and audio books. The collaboration aims to make reading materials more accessible to individuals with visual disabilities, ensuring equal opportunities for learning and education.

The MOU was signed by Er. Manish Verma, Director (Offg), NIEPVD, and Shri Yuvraj Malik, Director, National Book Trust India, marking a commitment to empower persons with visual disabilities and advance accessibility to reading materials.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Amazon Seller Services Private Limited (Amazon) for promoting cargo movement and transportation of customer shipments & products via inland waterways using river Ganga (National Waterway 1).

The ceremony was done in presence of the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) and Ayush, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal along with Secretary of MoPSW, Shri T. K. Ramachandran and Chairman of IWAI, Shri Sanjay Bandopadhyaya among other senior officials.

Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s novel ‘Fire Bird’, translated into English by Janani Kannan, won the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature, which was announced in New Delhi on Saturday. The book was published by Penguin Random House India. As neither Murugan nor Kannan were present at the award ceremony, publisher and author Manasi Subramaniam received the prize on their behalf.

The chair of the five-member jury of the JCB Prize, author Srinath Perur, said, “In ‘Fire Bird’, Murugan takes a universal story of lives that are tied to land and tells it with astonishing particularity. Janani Kannan’s translation carries into English the rhythms not only of Tamil but of an entire way of being in the world.”

NeevCloud, has today announced the launch of the country's first AI SuperCloud. The company aims to make India self-reliant on AI and Supercomputing and help users in resolving India's core challenges by deploying AI cloud infrastructure including 40,000 GPUs and storage worth $1.5 billion by 2026.

MeitY's India AI 2023 report expects AI to add USD 967 billion to the Indian economy by 2035 and $450-500 billion by 2025 accounting for 10% of the $5 trillion GDP target by 2027. MSMEs are expected to be the major contributors to the growth in India, however there are challenges in terms of affordability, billing, transparency, and personalized support.

NeevCloud aims to solve these challenges and democratize access to AI and supercomputing for all enterprises, startups by introducing 'AI Supercomputing as a Service' model and providing the world's lowest prices for Cloud GPUs at $1.69/hour reducing costs by up to 50%. It can enable companies to leverage Generative AI and deploy Large Language Models (LLM) across various use cases capable of solving India's unique challenges.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial agents. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents become ineffective and infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

The World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign to raise awareness and understanding of AMR and promote best practices among One Health stakeholders to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections. WAAW is celebrated from 18-24 November every year.

The theme for WAAW 2023 will remain "Preventing antimicrobial resistance together", as in 2022. AMR is a threat to humans, animals, plants and the environment. It affects us all.

That is why this year's theme calls for cross-sectoral collaboration to preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials. To effectively reduce AMR, all sectors must use antimicrobials prudently and appropriately, take preventive measures to decrease the incidence of infections and follow good practices in disposal of antimicrobial contaminated waste.

The platform, consisting of comprehensive information on incubators and accelerators, will help start-ups navigate an uncertain entrepreneurial ecosystem.

IIT Madras’ Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) has developed India’s first information platform on incubators and accelerators in collaboration with YNOS, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up.

According to a press release, the AI-powered platform consists of comprehensive information on incubators and accelerators, which play an important role in helping start-ups navigate an uncertain entrepreneurial ecosystem. The primary objective of the platform is to enable entrepreneurs to identify, compare, and analyze the incubator most suitable for their start-up.