• President Droupadi Murmu  will give away the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards for the year 2021, at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 30th of this month.
• The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, on Wednesday announced the National Adventure Awards for the year 2021.
• The award will be given in four categories, Land Adventure, Water Adventure, Air Adventure and Life Time Achievement.
• Group Capitan Bhawani Singh Samyal will be conferred with Life time Achievement award, Shubham Dhananjay Vanmali with Water Adventure, and Naina Dhakad with Land Adventure.
• They will receive statuettes, certificates and award money 15 lakh rupees each.
• Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards are given every year to recognize the achievements of persons in the fields of adventure, to encourage young people to develop the spirit of endurance, risk-taking and to provide incentive to the young people for getting exposed to adventure activities.

• Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Ministry announced the National Gopal Ratna Awards 2022.
• The awards will be given to the winners on 26th of this month which will be celebrated as National Milk Day.
• The Award has been given in three categories. These categories are, Best Dairy Farmer Rearing Indigenous Cattle and buffalo Breeds, Best Artificial Insemination Technician and Best Dairy Cooperative, Milk Producer Company, Dairy Farmer Producer Organization.
• The award consists of a cash prize of 5 lakh rupees for first rank, 3 lakh rupees for second rank and 2 lakh rupees for third rank.
• National Gopal Ratna Award is one of the highest National Awards in the field of livestock and dairy sector.

• A pre-launch of India’s year-long grand celebration of ‘International Year of Millets 2023 will be held in New Delhi. External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will be attending the event.
• During the event, the two Ministers will share the vision of the government for successful celebration of International Year of Millets 2023.
• High Commissioners and Ambassadors to India from more than 60 countries are expected to attend the pre-launch celebration.
• The key objective is to spread awareness about Indian millets and engage with other nations for a successful global celebration of International Year of Millets 2023.
• Recently at G-20 summit in Bali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the benefits of millets saying that millets can solve the global malnutrition and hunger problem.
• He has also highlighted that India is promoting natural farming and re-popularising nutritious and traditional food grains like millet for sustainable food security. He had urged all to celebrate the International Year of Millets with great enthusiasm next year.
• The year 2023 will be celebrated as International Year of Millets. The primary aim of this initiative is to increase the awareness of millet’s health benefits among the public.
• According to the United Nations estimates, the global population is projected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050. In such a situation, there is a need for more production of food grains, especially millet, to meet the food needs of the rapidly growing global population.
• Estimates show that more than 90 million people in Africa and Asia depend on millet for their diets.
• Millets are being increasingly recognized as climate-smart crops with enormous nutritional and health benefits.
• Millets are a rich source of protein, fiber, minerals, iron, and calcium.
• India is a major producer of Millet, accounting for 80 percent of Asia’s production and 20 percent of global production.

• Russia for the first time became the biggest fertilizer supplier to India in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal year by offering discounts over prevailing global prices, cornering more than a fifth of the market share, government and industry sources said.
• India’s fertilizer imports from Russia surged 371% to a record 2.15 million tonnes in the first six months of the year started on April 1.
• In value terms, India’s imports during the period spiked 765% to $1.6 billion, he said. In the last entire fiscal year India imported 1.26 million tonnes from Russia.
• Fertilizer prices jumped in the world market from March onwards after Western countries-imposed sanctions on the fertilizer shipments from Russia and Belarus, key exporters, in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Combined, Russia and Belarus accounted for more than 40% of global exports of potash last year.
• Russia accounted for about 22% of global exports of ammonia, 14% of the world’s urea exports and about 14% of monoammonium phosphate (MAP) – all key kinds of fertilizers.
• In June, India secured di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) from Russia at $920-925 per tonne on a cost and freight basis (CFR), when other Asian buyers were paying more than $1,000, industry officials said.
• The surge in Russian supplies halved China’s exports to India to 1.78 million tonnes in the first half of 2022/23.
• Exports from other destinations such as Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates also fell. In the 2021/22 financial year Russia’s share in Indian imports was around 6%, while China cornered 24%.
• Russia’s market share jumped to 21% in the first half of 2022/23, surpassing China as the biggest supplier to India, the official said.
• Indian buying from Russia has not only helped local farmers, but also other import-dependent countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, and Indonesia by curbing a rally in global prices, said another New Delhi-based industry official.
• Global prices could have rallied more had India also moved away from Russia to other suppliers such as China and Morocco, which have limited supplies for exports, he said.
• India’s total fertilizer imports in the first half of 2022/23 fell 2.4% from a year ago to 10.27 million tonnes, although in value terms imports during the period surged 59% to $7.4 billion, the government official said.

• The Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission(HPSSC) got three new members of the governing body.
• The three positions in the five-member commission were vacant for a long time and a chairman and a member were running it. The appointment of members was done with prior permission of the election commission.
• All three members, namely Prof PK Vaid, Piar Chand Akela and Rakesh Bhardwaj, were administered the oath of office at the HPSSC.
• Prof PK Vaid had served in Himachal Pradesh University for over 32 years before retirement. Piar Chand Akela, a retired HAS officer, had served the Himachal Government on various positions like Deputy Commissioner, ADC and the administrative officer at the PGI, Chandigarh. Engineer Rakesh Bhardwaj had served with Satluj Jal Vidhut Nigam Limited for over 34 years.
• Dr Sanjay Thakur, chairman of the commission, administered the oath of office to all three members. Deputy Commissioner Deba Sweta Banik, SP Akriti Sharma, Additional DC Jitender Sanjta and Secretary of the HPSSC Jitender Kanwar were present on the occasion.

• For the first time in history, ‘natti’ of Himachal Pradesh was performed in Canada at Parliament Hill in Ottawa by the Himachali Pravasi Global Association (HPGA) during celebration of Hindu Heritage Month.
• Sanjay Verma, High Commissioner of India to Canada, attended the event that was facilitated by Canadian MP Chandra Arya.
• ‘Natti’ is the folk dance of Himachal Pradesh.
• The HPGA is a non-profit organisation with an aim to help the Himachal-based immigrants and students to understand the culture of the new country which they have chosen as their new home.
• Also, it aims to promote Himachali and Indian culture and contribute to the development of the diaspora.

• Two girls from the Union Territory of Ladakh are among eight tribals who have been conferred Samvaad Fellowship 22 by the Jamshedpur-based Tata Steel Foundation’s Samvaad.
• Sarah Batool and Rashida Kousar, received the prestigious Samvaad Fellowship. This is the first time that the coveted fellowship was conferred on girls from Ladakh.
• Sara Batool from Turtuk along the LOC represents the Balti tribe of Ladakh. She will work on the “revival and preservation of ethnic Balti cuisine in Ladakh”.
• Similarly, Rashida Kousar’s proposed area of research is “Study of Traditional kitchen (Thab-tshang/Byan-sa) and ethnic foods in Ladakh”.
• This year drew more than 2,000 participants of 200 tribes from 23 states and four union territories. Outstanding tribal artists, healers, home cooks, cultural crusaders, experts, and leaders from various tribal communities around the country are among the participants.
• In an era of rapid development and industrialisation, Samvaad, which is observed since 2014, has developed into an ecosystem where tribal tribes from throughout the nation come together to celebrate their cultures and start discussions about issues that are important to their communities.
• Over the past five years, the Samvaad Fellowship has been conferred to 30 fellows from 13 states and 27 tribes in India. This year, the organizers received 176 applications from 68 tribes throughout 22 states and 3 UTs. These applications were scrutinized and evaluated internally, after which 28 of them were given to the jury members, who scored them and chose the top 18 to present their projects to the panel. Eight candidates have been chosen by the jury members after two days of pitches.
• The Samvaad Fellowship is an initiative that was launched in 2017 to address one of the ecosystem’s core objectives “to document and hence, preserve a body of knowledge and a world view that runs the risk of being obliterated”. The Fellowship envisions supporting initiatives and ideas which are aligned towards conservation of lesser-known indigenous practices from tribal cultures which are vulnerable and are not part of a large conservation effort and thus run the risk of being lost.
• Sonam Wangchok, founder of the Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation (HCHF) and one of the jury members for the Samvaad Fellowship, has thanked the Tata Steel Foundation for establishing the fellowship in order to inspire youth from tribal communities to work for the urgent  need of revitalizing, preserving, and promoting their cultural and natural heritage.

• The Chhattisgarh government has signed two MoUs (Memorandum of Understandings) at the Chhattisgarh Business Summit 2022 at India International Trade Fair-2022 in New Delhi.
• The MoUs were signed for setting up ethanol production plant and drone and an UAV manufacturing unit.
• Business delegates and entrepreneurs from across the country participated in the summit organised for business, entrepreneurs and exporters from electronics, minor forest produce and handicrafts and handloom.
• A MoU has been signed between the state government and Rajesh Gautam of NKJ Biofuel, Durg for setting up ethanol production plant in cooperative sector with an investment of Rs 140 crores, while another MoU was inked with Manish Bajpai of Daybest Research Private Ltd for setting up 4500 drone and UAV manufacturing units at the investment of Rs five crore.
• Labor Minister Shiv Dharaiya encouraged entrepreneurs to invest and said that Chhattisgarh is a progressive state full of possibilities. He maintained that under the new industrial policy of the state government, many types of concessions and facilities are being given to the entrepreneurs.
• The state government has provisioned special packages and concessions to prioritize agriculture and forest based industries as well as to create a better environment for investment. Besides, the rules for establishment and operation of industries have also been simplified.
• Government has come up with various exemptions, incentives and benefits to the manufacturers interested in setting up a unit in the state.

• In January this year, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s landmark visit to Saudi Arabia marked the highest level of contact between the two countries after the $20-million heist controversy, resuming full diplomatic ties.
• Now, Salman’s visit to Thailand came on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
• The crown prince said restoration of ties has benefits for both countries, as the two leaders inked agreements pledging to increase trade and investment.

The Blue Diamond Affair:

• Saudi Arabia downgraded its diplomatic relations with Thailand over the theft that led to a string of mysterious killings and became known as the Blue Diamond affair.
  • It all started with the theft of jewelry and other valuable gems from the palace of Prince Faisal bin Fahd, the eldest son of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, in 1989.
  • A Thai worker employed as a servant at the palace, stole precious gems worth $20 million from Prince Faisal’s home, which also included a rare 50-carat blue diamond, which is still missing.
  • The ensuing diplomatic repercussion was thus named after the gem.
• Present Saudi-Thailand relations:  Recent The high-level meeting also saw the two leaders agreeing on the appointment of ambassadors “in the near future” and to strengthen economic and trade relations
  • As the two countries turned a new page in their relationship, Saudi restarted direct flights to Thailand in February.
  • Since January 2022, many friendly exchanges have taken place between the two countries — one being an agreement between state-owned energy firms Saudi Aramco and Thailand’s PTT for cooperation in carbon capture and crude oil sourcing.

About:

• For effective pollution monitoring and response, the Indian Coast Guard will get two more new generation vessels from Goa Shipyards Ltd (GSL) by 2025. The keel laying ceremony for the two pollution control vessels, GSL Yard 1267 and 1268, took place at the Goa Shipyard.
• The vessel, with an overall length of 114.5 meters, breadth of 16.5 meters and a draft of 4.5 meters, is capable of carrying a of 129 personnel, 14 officers and 115 sailors, onboard. The vessel’s maximum speed will be 22 knots with an endurance of 6,000 nautical miles.
• These vessels have been designed for the first time in India.
• The GSL bagged the contract for two PCVs, which will be delivered by February 2025 and August 2025, through competitive bidding which saw participation from both, public as well as private shipyards.
• The ships will be capable of carrying out dedicated oil spill response operations for containment, recovery, separation and dispersal of pollutants. The vessel will be fitted with latest pollution control equipment including two flush type side sweeping arms enabling it to contain oil spill whilst in motion.
• An advanced software would assist in predicting the spread of the complex oil spill pattern and dynamic positioning system will enable the vessel to be maneuvered in restricted areas with precision.
• The vessel is being designed to recover the lightest to the most viscous oil at the rate of 300 tonnes per hour, and is also fitted with fire-fighting and salvage systems.
• Besides this, the GSL will hand over 8 Fast Patrol Vessels to the Coast Guard, from 2024 onwards. These specially designed FPVs are medium range weapon fitted surface vessels capable of operation in coastal waters and around island territories to protect offshore assets, said the GSL.