The Union Cabinet was apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health of Department of Health and Human Services, USA in September last year. The cooperation will be undertaken primarily in Chennai at the National Institute for Research on Tuberculosis of ICMR in the scientific area, including but not limited to, basic, translational, and applied innovative research, epidemiology, medicine, molecular biology, medical entomology, and virology. The focus on collaboration includes tuberculosis, parasitic infections, HIV AIDS, Allergic diseases, and immune system diseases.

Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal for amendment of Second Schedule of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 for specifying the rate of royalty in respect of Glauconite, Potash, Emerald, Platinum Group of Metals, Andalusite, Sillimanite, and Molybdenum.  

It will ensure auction of mineral blocks in respect of Glauconite, Potash, Emerald, Platinum Group of Metals, Andalusite, and Molybdenum thereby reducing the import of these minerals.  The approval will lead to import substitution in respect of many important minerals for the economy of the country thereby saving valuable forex reserves.  

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will address the valedictory function of the 3rd edition of National Youth Parliament Festival NYPF on Friday in the Central Hall of Parliament. Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur will address the inaugural session of National round of NYPF 2022 tomorrow. Minister of State of Youth Affairs and Sports Nisith Pramanik will distribute the certificates to the participants. The top three National Winners will also get an opportunity to speak before the Lok Sabha Speaker during the valedictory function. 

The objective of the National Youth Parliament Festival NYPF is to hear the voice of the youth, who will join various careers in coming years, including public services. NYPF is based on the idea given by the Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat Address on 31st December, 2017. Taking inspiration from the idea, the 1st edition of NYPF was organised from 12th January to 27th February 2019 with the theme, Be the Voice of New India and Find solutions and Contribute to Policy. A total of 88 thousand youth participated in the program.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has removed the upper age limit for appearing in the medical undergraduate entrance exam--NEET-UG examination. In a letter addressed to the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Commission asked the agency to remove the maximum age criteria from the information bulletin of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate (UG) examination.

The letter said, it has been decided in the 4th NMC meeting that there should not be any fixed upper age limit for appearing in the NEET-UG examination. Therefore, the information bulletin may be modified accordingly. It said, the process for official notification to suitably amend the regulations on Graduate Medical Eduction 1997 to this effect has been initiated.

The National Medical Commission is the top regulatory body of medical education in the country.

Aim to accelerate Flipkart’s digital transformation
Google Cloud and India’s homegrown e-commerce firm Flipkart have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership to help fast-track Flipkart’s innovation and cloud strategy.

“This partnership will propel Flipkart into its next phase of growth and advance its vision of onboarding India’s next 200 million shoppers and lakhs of sellers,” as per an official release.

‘Smoking is injurious to health’ is a tagline we have all seen growing up. Advertisements, awareness campaigns about the adverse effect of smoking have been everywhere, even covering 70 per cent of the packaging of the cigarette box, but nothing has been able to deter men from the habit. And hence to generate more awareness about the ill effects of smoking and motivate them to quit smoking, every year, No Smoking Day is celebrated on the second Wednesday of March. The day came into existence drawing inspiration from the United Kingdom’s No Tobacco Day.

The trans-Himalayan Indian Army Skiing Expedition (ARMEX-21) mission across rugged passes over 18,000 feet in the Great Himalayan Range has significantly augmented the military’s operational capability, Army Chief General Manoj Naravane said on Tuesday after presenting the MacGregor memorial medal to Major Ajay Kumar Singh from the Para Special Forces and three other personnel for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“Similarly the para jump from 24,000 feet above mean sea level has validated the operational capability of this parachute system, a feat that has never been attempted before,” said Gen. Naravane, also the officiating Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee, presenting the medal to Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Anshu Kumar Tiwari from the Indian Air Force.

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupendra Yadav has said that a total of 25 crore workers of the unorganised sectors have registered on the e-Shram portal.

Addressing the function in New Delhi after distributing Shram Awards to workers or a group of workers in an organization, Mr Yadav said that out of the total workers who have registered on the portal, 53 per cent of them are female workers.

He said, the government has made the provisions and ensured there will be no discrimination in terms of wages with regard to female workers.

Tourism has immense potential in generating employment and business opportunities: Shri G Kishan Reddy 

Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DONER, Shri G. Kishan Reddy launched the E-marketplace platform in an event organised at the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management(IITTM), Gwalior. Ministry of Tourism launched the digital platform (E-Marketplace) as part of a digital tourism solution for IITFs / IITGs, to provide Web and Mobile App based interaction mechanism, which is to be used by the tourists and certified tourist facilitators/Tourist Guides.

With Bhutan continuing to sit out the Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) of the sub-regional Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) grouping, a meeting of the other three countries was held to discuss the next steps in operationalising the agreement for the free flow of good and people between them.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Colombo at the end of March to attend the summit of another sub-regional grouping, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), which includes Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan as well.