• About 50,071 water bodies have been rejuvenated ahead of schedule against the aim of building 50,000 ‘Amrit Sarovar’ by August 2023, under the Mission Amrit Sarovar.
• Mission Amrit Sarovar was launched in 2022 with an objective to develop at least 75 Amrit Sarovar in every district of the country with a view to conserve water for the future.
• Nodal ministry– Ministry of Rural Development.
• It aims to construct or renovate the ‘Amrit Sarovar’ in such a way that they become the centre of local community activities.
• A user group is being formed for each Amrit Sarovar as there should be community ownership for their maintenance, so that their long-term conservation can be ensured.
  • So far 59,282 user groups have joined Mission Amrit Sarovar for maintaining the Sarovar and generating their livelihood from it.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the SAKSHAM:LMIS.
• It has been developed by the National Institute of Health & Family Welfare (NIHFW), New Delhi.
• Currently SAKSHAM: LMIS is hosting more than 200 public health and 100 clinical courses through online mode.
• Health professionals can register themselves for these courses on the portal and get the certification after undergoing requisite training and qualifying the required assessment criteria.
• SAKSHAM is a dedicated and unified platform for providing online training and medical education to all health professionals in the country.
• It will ensure inclusive capacity building of health professionals from primary health centres located in rural and remote areas all the way up to tertiary care and corporate hospitals in metropolitan cities.

• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways recently launched ‘Harit Sagar’, the Green Port Guidelines.

About Harit Sagar Guidelines

• Aim: To minimize waste through Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle to attain zero waste discharge from port operations and promote monitoring based on Environmental Performance Indicators.
• It envisages ecosystem dynamics in port development, operation and maintenance
• It aims at minimizing the impact on biotic components of the harbour ecosystem.
• Some benchmarks
  • Ports must meet at least 60% of electricity needs via renewables by 2030 and 90% by 2047.
  • Ports Must have at least one LNG bunkering station by 2030.
  • Setting up electric vehicle charging stations in and around port areas by 2025.
  • Provisions for adopting global Green Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard.
  • It also covers aspects of the National Green Hydrogen Mission pertaining to ports.

About Global Reporting Initiative

• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international not-for-profit organisation, with a network-based structure.
  • To enable all companies and organisations to report their economic, environmental, social and governance performance, GRI produces free Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
• The guidelines are currently in their fourth generation (“G4”).
• GRI was founded in the US in 1997 by CERES (a United States non-profit organisation) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and was originally based in Boston, Massachusetts. I
• In 2002, GRI moved its secretariat to Amsterdam.
  • GRI also has regional ‘Focal Points’ in Australia, Brazil, China, India and the USA.

• It was launched recently by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD).
  • MoWCD had set up a 22-member high level task force on ECCE chaired by former IAS officer Sanjay Kaul.
• The scheme will focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)e. first six years of child’s life at anganwadis across the country.

Important highlights:

• The National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) has been roped in for the training of Anganwadi workers
• It targets children’s development in every domain mentioned in the National Curriculum Framework, like physical and motor development, cognitive development
• It will focus on promoting holistic and quality early stimulation and pre-primary education for children.
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
  • It refers to providing care including health and nutrition as well as early learning opportunities to all young children.
  • EECE is a crucial component of Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0) and it was foreseen under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

Other info

• Anganwadi centers in India are established under Integrated Child Development scheme (1975).
• Almost 39 million operational Anganwadi centers across the country are providing supplementary nutrition and early care and education to more than 8 crore children under the age of 6 years.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the US for an official state visit from June 21 to 24, where he will be hosted by US President Joe Biden at the White House.
• This will be Narendra Modi’s first state visit to the US during his nine-year long reign as prime minister.
  • The last state visit to the US by an Indian was by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from November 23 to 25, 2009.
• While PM Modi has visited the US multiple times during his tenure, none of the visits were categorised as a state visit, which is the highest ranked visit according to diplomatic protocol.

About state visits

• State visits are visits to foreign countries led by a head of state/government, acting in their sovereign capacity.
• They are, therefore, officially described as a “visit of [name of state]” rather than “visit of [name of leader]”.
• State visits to the US only occur on the invitation of the president of the United States, acting in their capacity as the head of state.
• State visits are typically a few days long and comprise a number of elaborate ceremonies, subject to the schedule of the visiting head of state.
• In the US, these ceremonies include,
  • A flight line ceremony (where the visiting head of state is greeted at the tarmac after landing),
  • A 21-gun salute white house arrival ceremony,
  • A white house dinner,
  • Exchange of diplomatic gifts,
  • An invitation to stay at the blair house (the us president’s guesthouse across the pennsylvania avenue) and
  • Flag streetlining.

• Chief Minister has recently said that that the cancer prevalence rate in Himachal was 2.2 per cent against the national average of 0.6 per cent, which was very worrisome.
• He added that his government would make efforts to provide best cancer treatment facilities as around 8,500 cases were detected in the state every year.
• CM held a meeting with prominent oncologist Dr GK Rath, Prof Emeritus, Department of Radiation and Oncology and Head of the National Cancer Institute, (NCI), AIIMS, New Delhi.

• Recently, India and Myanmar jointly inaugurated the Sittwe Port in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, marking an important milestone in enhancing bilateral and regional trade while also contributing to the local economy of the state.
• The port’s operationalization is expected to provide greater connectivity and leads to employment opportunities
• Aims to provide an alternative connectivity route for Mizoram with Indian ports through the Kaladan River in Myanmar.
• It includes segments such as shipping from Haldia to Sittwe port, inland water transport from Sittwe to Paletwa via the Kaladan River, road transport from Paletwa to the Indo-Myanmar border, and further road transport to NH.54 in India.
• The Sittwe Port is part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, funded by the Indian government, and will play a crucial role in linking India’s East Coast to the North-eastern states through waterways and roads.

• Watsonx, launched by IBM, is a new artificial intelligence (AI) and data platform to help companies integrate AI in their business.
• It provides self-service access to high-quality, trustworthy data, enabling users to collaborate on a single platform.
• It helps facilitate the entire data and AI lifecycle, from data preparation to model development, deployment and monitoring.

• Neeraj Chopra clinched the top spot in the javelin event of the Doha Diamond League with a throw of 88.67 m.
• The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field competitions.
• It was started in 2010 as a replacement for the previous IAAF Golden League and IAAF World Athletics Final events.
• The Diamond League is organised by World Athletics (formerly IAAF or International Association of Athletics Federations), the international governing body for athletics.

• Maharana Pratap, one of the greatest warriors and rulers in medieval India.
• Maharana Pratap was born on May 9, 1540, in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan, and his bravery and valour are still celebrated today.
• He was a Rajput King who belonged to Sisodiya clan of Rajputs.
• He was the ruler of Mewar, a province in modern day Rajasthan.
• He was the eldest son of Uday Singh II, founder of Udaipur.
• The Battle of Haldighati was fought between the forces of Maharana Pratap and Akbar’s army on June 18, 1576, which he lost.
• Chetak was the loyal horse of Rana Pratap with whom he shared a deep bond.