Why in news?

• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) recently announced the initiation of the Open Data Week to encourage adoption of open data and promote innovation across India’s urban ecosystem.

About ‘Open Data Week’

• Leading up to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference scheduled to be held in Surat, during February 2022, the Open Data Week is part of a series of pre-event initiatives being undertaken by MoHUA to promote awareness and use of open data. It will be conducted during the third week of January, i.e., from 17th January 2022 to 21st January 2022.
• The Event will see participation from all 100 Smart Cities that will be publishing high quality datasets and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal. Presently, more than 3,800 datasets and more than 60 data stories are already available on the Portal to various stakeholders to analyse this data and uncover actionable insights.
• The Event aims to show the benefits of open data such as increased efficiency, transparency, a spur in innovation, and economic growth. It is divided into two segments – first, uploading of datasets, visualizations, APIs and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal from 17th January 2022 to 20th January 2022 and second, celebration of a Data Day by all smart cities on 21st January 2022.
• The Data Day will take place nationally across all smart cities and will include talks, seminars, hackathons, demonstrations, and trainings on different data tracks identified by the cities. The Day will see engagement of people from different backgrounds including government agencies, private sector enterprises, scientific and academic institutions, businesses, start-ups, civil society etc. The idea is to provide a platform that offers ample opportunities on how to continue creating and promoting the use of data that addresses complex urban issues, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Event has been designed to promote the use of and spread awareness about data. There are also many different groups of people and organisations who can benefit from the availability of quality data. New combinations of data can create new knowledge and insights, which can lead to whole new fields of application. This can help governments in solving some of the most common problems faced by the citizens of any city and replicating the successful ideas in other cities.

Why in news?

• Pt Birju Maharaj, storyteller who blurred gender norms to become one of the foremost masters of Kathak, passes away at 83

About Kathak

• Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance.
• The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in the of ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers.

Why in news?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar on Thiruvalluvar Day recently.

About Thiruvalluvar

• Thiruvalluvar is regarded as a cultural icon. His most popular work is a collection of couplets on politics, ethics, economy, and love, called “Thirukkuaaa”.
• To honour his contribution, Thiruvalluvar Day is observed either on January 15 or 16 as a part of the Pongal celebrations.
• While a lot is not known about the life of Thiruvalluvar, it is believed that he used to live in the town of Mylapore, which in today’s time is a neighbourhood in Chennai.

Why in news?

• Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, “Purple Revolution” is Jammu & Kashmir’s contribution to “Start-ups India”, an initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016
• Aroma/lavender cultivation has become a popular option in farming for agricultural Start-up in J&K: Dr Jitendra Singh

About ‘Purple Revolution’

• Briefing about the Aroma Mission launched by the Union Ministry of Science & Technology through the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), which has led to the well-known “Purple Revolution” in India , the Minister informed that the CSIR had, to begin with introduced high-value essential oil bearing lavender crop through its Jammu based laboratory, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM) for cultivation in districts Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and later also in the other districts including Ramban, Pulwama, etc. In a brief span of time, aroma/lavender cultivation has become a popular option in farming for agricultural Start-up, he said.

Why in news?

• Indian Navy’s indigenously designed and built guided missile destroyer, INS Kochi, exercised with Russian Federation Navy’s RFS Admiral Tributs recently in the Arabian Sea.

About the exercise

• The exercise showcased cohesiveness and interoperability between the two navies and included tactical manoeuvres, cross-deck helicopter operations and seamanship activities.

Why in news?

• Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated the 9th Women National Ice Hockey Championship at Kaza today. It is for the first time that the competition is being held in the state. Ice hockey is one of the most popular winter sports.

About the tournament

• The government has announced a high-altitude sports centre in Kaza at a cost of Rs 16 crore. Skate Boots have been provided by the Department of Youth Services and Sports for training players at a cost of Rs 27 lakh and ice rinks have been developed by the administration on a small scale in Lidang, Sagnam, Losar, Tabo and Hikmi,

Why in news?

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) will construct a tunnel beneath the Shinkula Pass to provide road connectivity to Leh from the Manali side. At present, there is only one route to Leh from Manali via the Baralacha Pass for the Army and civilians, which remains closed for months during the winter every year due to heavy snowfall.Due to a heavy flow of tourists on the Manali-Leh highway, the need for a bypass to ease traffic congestion between Manali and Keylong is being felt. To resolve the issue, the BRO will construct a double-lane bypass from Nehru Kund towards the tunnel beyond Manali.

All-weather connectivity the target

• Ever since the face-off with China in Galwan valley, the Centre is keen to explore the possibility of all-weather connectivity to Leh from Manali side, especially for military purpose.
• The Shinkula Pass receives heavy snowfall, blocking traffic movement on the under-construction Darcha-Padum highway.
• The highway will be connected at Nimmu from Padum ahead at the Kargil-Leh highway to provide connectivity to Leh via the Keylong-Darcha-Shinku La-Padum-Nimmu highway.

Why in news?

• The World Health Organization (WH0) has recommended two drugs, baricitinib and sotrovimab, for treatment of Covid-19.

About the drugs

• Baricitinib, which is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, has been “strongly recommended” for patients with severe or critical Covid-19 in combination with corticosteroids. It is part of a class of drugs called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors that suppress the overstimulation of the immune system. It is an oral drug, and provides an alternative to other arthritis drugs called Interleukin-6 receptor blockers, recommended by WHO in July 2021.
• Sotrovimab, developed by GlaxoSmithKline with US partner Vir Biotechnology Inc, is an investigational monoclonal antibody for use in treating conditions caused by coronavirus. The WHO has conditionally recommended its use for treating mild or moderate Covid-19 in patients who are at high risk of hospitalisation. These include patients who are older, are immunocompromised, and have underlying conditions like diabetes, hypertension and obesity, and are unvaccinated. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) too has approved an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the therapy for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in patients above 12 years.

Why in news?

• In a symbolic boost to India’s growing startup ecosystem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced that 16 January will be celebrated as National Startup Day.

About the National Start up day

• Interacting with over 150 startups during the Startup India Innovation Week organised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the EV charging infrastructure, defence manufacturing, chip manufacturing offer and drone industry.
• The startups, categorised under six groups, gave presentations to the Prime Minister on six themes — ‘growing from roots, ‘nudging the DNA’, ‘from local to global’, ‘technology of future’, ‘building champions in manufacturing’ and ‘sustainable development’.
• They shared ideas and inputs on various sectors including data collection mechanism in agriculture, making India a preferred agri-business hub, boosting healthcare through use of technology, tackling issue of mental health, promoting travel and tourism through innovations like virtual tours, ed-tech and job identification, space sector, among others.
• During the meeting, Modi also outlined the measures taken by the government to support startups in the country, including programmes like Startup India, removing problems of ‘angel tax’, simplification of tax procedure, arranging for government funding, allowing self-certification of nine labour and three environment laws and removal of more than 25 thousand compliances.

Why in news

• Recently, India got first BrahMos order worth $374 mn from Philippines

About the contract

• The contract is for purchase of shore-based anti-ship variant of the missile from India
• BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile system jointly made by India and Russia, has been selected by the Philippines under a $374.96 million deal, making it the first export order for the missile.
• The contract is for purchase of shore-based anti-ship variant of the missile from India. Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand are other South-East Asian countries that have shown interest in the system. BrahMos is capable of being launched from land, sea, undersea and air against surface and sea-based targets.
• The range of the missile was capped at 290 km as per Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) regulations. India entered the MTCR regime in June 2016 allowing extension in range beyond 300 km. India has already deployed a sizeable number of the BrahMos missiles in several strategic locations along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.