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.

A specialized Teacher Training Workshop convened at CSIR-CSIO in Chandigarh on November 20th, 2023 marked a significant milestone in the realm of science education. The workshop, organized as part of Knowledge and Awareness Mapping Platform (KAMP)'s third Continuous Professional Development (CPD) program for educators in collaboration with the CSIR – Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), brought together over 40 enthusiastic teachers from diverse schools.

The central theme of the workshop, "Nano Quest – A Journey of Exploration through Nanoworld," underscored the commitment of educators to enhance their knowledge and teaching skills in the field of science education. The diverse training modules covered various facets of science education, providing a unique opportunity for educators to learn from esteemed scientists and experts associated with CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh.

The 2-week Capacity Building Programme (CBP) for civil servants of Arunachal Pradesh unveiled at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) Mussoorie on 20th November, 2023. This is in furtherance to further improve the governance and public service delivery in North-East and Border States as per the guidance and directions of Honorable Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. An MoU was signed with NCGG in 2022 to train 500 officers of Arunachal Pradesh over the next five years. As part of the agreement, NCGG has already imparted training to 113 officers including the 30 participants of the ongoing 4th Capacity Building Programme.

The two-week capacity building programme has been scientifically tailored by the NCGG team and included the exchange of vast information, knowledge, new ideas, and best practices that promote citizen-centric governance. The sessions for each training programme were firmed up by the NCGG faculty based on the need of the state and in consultation with Government of Arunachal Pradesh. This capacity-building programme will help the civil servants in putting up dedicated efforts to fill in the gaps between policies and implementation in their respective work places.

Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) began today in Goa. The 25 Feature films and 20 Non-Feature films will be screened in this section. The opening film of Indian Panorama section was Malayalam movie Aattam, directed by Anand Ekarshi. ‘Andro Dreams,’ a Manipuri documentary directed by Longjam Meena Devi, was the opening film in the Non-Feature film section.

Other movies to be showcased in the Indian Panorama section include Vivek Agnihotri directed Hindi film ‘The Vaccine War’, Sudipto Sen directed The Kerala Story, Kannada film Kantara directed by Rishab Shetty and Bengali film Ardhangini directed by Kaushik Ganguly. Since its inception in 1978, the Indian Panorama is devoted to showcasing the best Indian films of the year distinguished by cinematic, thematic and aesthetic excellence.