The second Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group meeting under India's G20 presidency has begun at Gandhinagar in Gujarat today. The meeting commenced with the G20 member countries making a presentation on best practices on water resources management. Around 130 delegates from G20 member countries along with 11 invitee countries and 14 international organizations are participating in the three-day event. The meeting focuses on thematic areas like arresting land degradation, accelerating ecosystem restoration and enriching biodiversity, Encouraging resource efficiency and Circular economy, and Promoting a sustainable and climate-resilient Blue economy.

Renowned writer, director and ad filmmaker, Pradeep Sarkar passed away in Mumbai on Friday. He was 67 years old and had been suffering from kidney disease. His famous Bollywood movies included ‘Parineeta', Laga Chunari Mein Daag', Mardaani and Helicopter Eela.

Mr Sarkar had also worked on several web series like ‘Cold Lassi Aur Chicken Masala’, ‘Forbidden Love’ and ‘Arranged Marriage’. The founder of Apocalypso Filmworks, Sarkar had also worked on more than 3000 ad films, including iconic campaigns like Cadbury’s “Pappu Paas Ho Gaya”, Eveready’s “Give Me Red” and Catch Masala’s “Chinese Whisper”.

Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala has said that India is the third largest fish producing country, contributing eight percent to the global fish production.
 
Mr Rupala said, this in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha yesterday. He said, the overall fish production in the country has shown an increasing trend, since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana. The Minister said, the country has registered a fish production of over 162 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 from around 141 lakh tonnes in 2019-20.

Central government has increased the Dearness Allowance by four per cent, taking the total to 42 per cent of the Basic Pay for central government employees and pensioners. Briefing media in New Delhi on 24th March 2023, Friday after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said, this will benefit over 47 lakh Central Governments employees and more than 69 lakh pensioners.

He said, Union Cabinet has given its approval to release an additional installment of Dearness Allowance to Central Governments employees and Dearness Relief to Pensioners with effect from 1st January this year. Mr Thakur said, the combine impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief will be over 12 thousand 815 crore rupees per annum. The Minister said, this increase in the Dearness Allowance is in accordance with the accepted formular which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah laid the foundation stone of Sahakar Samridhi Soudha and inaugurated various development works worth 1400 crore rupees in Bengaluru on 24^th March 2023. He laid the foundation stones for a 67-acre market yard for agriculture produce, a market for the flower growers at a cost of 11 crore rupees in Binnypet APMC yard and a multi-level car parking in Yeshwantpur APMC at a cost of eight crore rupees.

He inaugurated different buildings of Karnataka Milk Federation, a 100 MW Group Captive Solar power plant built at a cost of 430 crore rupees a cattle feed plant at Chikballapur and Piriyapatna at a cost of  190 crore rupees, packaging plant at a cost of 95 crore rupees and hostel for students at Belagavi. 

Konkan 2023, a joint maritime exercise, was conducted between the Royal Navy of Britain and the Indian Navy from the 20th of March to the 22nd, off the Konkan coast in the Arabian Sea. The joint drill by the two navies demonstrated operational readiness, enhancing interoperability and improving the ability to conduct joint operations. The exercise will go a long way in bolstering the combined efforts of the Indian Navy and Royal Navy to strengthen maritime security and uphold a rules-based order in the region.

INS Trishul, a guided missile frigate, and HMS Lancaster, a Type 23 guided missile frigate, participated in this edition and undertook multiple maritime drills to enhance interoperability and imbibe best practices. The exercises covered all domains of maritime operations, air, surface, and subsurface.

The Second G-20  framework working group of the finance track will begin in Chennai today. The meeting will be chaired by  India's Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran and co-chaired by Chief Economic Advisor of the UK treasury, Clare Lombardelli. The two-day meeting will discuss global macro economic issues which impact food and energy insecurity, climate change, and transition pathways. Deliberations will take place on framing policies at an international level to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth. The outcome of the discussions will be recommended to the  G 20 finance ministers and Central Bank Governors who will be meeting in Washington DC on April 12 and 13 this year. Over 80 delegates from G 20 member countries and various international and regional organisations will participate in the meeting.

Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati fearlessly propagated "swadharma, swabhasha and swaraj" in the pre-independence era when talking about these was prohibited.

Speaking at the 148th Foundation Day of Arya Samaj, Mr Shah said Maharshi Dayanand awakened the soul of the country by establishing the Arya Samaj. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, government has decided to celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of Maharishi Dayanand. He added that Mr Modi is working to awaken the country, and the basic concept has been taken from the life and works of Maharishi Dayanand.

The Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO will launch OneWeb India-2 mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on March 26. Under a commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited, ISRO will launch 72 satellites of the UK-based Network Access Associates Limited and place them in low Earth orbits.  

NewSpace is the commercial wing of ISRO. The first set of 36 satellites was launched on October 23 last year by the LVM3 M2 launch vehicle. In the second mission on March 26th, the remaining 36 satellites weighing about 5805 kgs will be placed in 450 km circular low Earth orbit by LVM3 M3 launch vehicle. The LVM3 had five consecutive successful missions, including the Chandrayaan 2 mission. The satellites offer space based broadband internet services to the corners of the world. After the launch, Access Associates Limited will have over 600 satellites in space offering internet from space services in various countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area office and Innovation Centre in India in New Delhi today afternoon. ITU is the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies and its Headquarters is in Geneva.

India had signed a Host Country Agreement in March last year with ITU for the establishment of Area Office. The Area Office in India also envisaged to have an Innovation Centre, making it unique among other area offices of ITU. The Area Office, which is fully funded by India, is located on the second floor of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) building at Mehrauli in the national capital. The programme will witness the participation of IT and Telecom Ministers of various Area Offices of ITU, the Secretary General and other senior officials of ITU, Heads of United Nations and other international bodies in India, Ambassadors, Industry Leaders, Start-up and MSME, leaders of Academia, students and other stakeholders.