• Union Education Ministry will organise ‘Kashi Tamil Sangamam’ – a month-long programme from 16th November 2022- to rediscover the centuries-old bond of knowledge and ancient civilisational linkage between Varanasi and Tamilnadu.
• Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that over 2400 tamil people in 12 groups from diverse sections of society, including academics, spiritualism, philosophy, trade and commerce, agriculture, entrepreneurship, arts and artisanship will visit Kashi for eight days to get familiarised with the ancient knowledge shared by these two ancient cities.
• On this occasion, Mr Pradhan also launched a website for the registration process for this month-long event.
• The programme will be organised under the framework of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• IIT-Madras and Banaras Hindu University will be the hosting partners of this mega event.

• The first conference on Akash Tatva – Akash for Life, will be held in Dehradun.
• The thrust of the conference is to attempt to explain one tatva, Akash, the ancient wisdom associated with it and how it connects to modern science.
• This conference will present Indian thought and classical concepts of ‘Akash Tatva’ on the global stage from modern scientific perspective.”
• The main aim of the conclave is to expose the youth of India to the wisdoms of ancient science along with modern scientific advancements.
• The conference would have themes such as: ‘Earth and atmosphere: interaction of Akash, Environment’ and ‘Climate change: the role of Akash, Impact of modern technology, adaptation and mitigation measures.
• The campaign ‘Sumangalam’ is being organised across the country for finding the solutions to the environmental problems like global warming and climate With an Indian perspective.

• A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam’s (SJVN) subsidiary Green Energy Limited (SGEL) and Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) at Guwahati for developing 1,000 MW floating solar power projects in Assam by incorporating a joint venture company.
• SJVN chairman Nand Lal Sharma said the project would generate 2,192 million units in the first year after commissioning and around 50,425 million units cumulative energy would be generated over 25 years.
• An investment of Rs 6,000 crore will be made by the SJVN for developing the project. During the construction and operation stages, approximately 4,000 persons will get direct and indirect employment.
• Carbon emissions’ reduction to the tune of 1,07,383 tonne for first year and 24,70,732 tonne for complete life span will be achieved from this project.
• Assam has the floating solar power generation potential of around 3,000 MW, out of which SJVN would develop 1,000 MW floating solar projects across the state, spread over 4,500 hectares of water area.
• “This will save approximately 2,500 hectares of land as floating solar power projects do not require any land levelling, removal of vegetation or any displacement.”
• Presently, the total portfolio of the SJVN is around 42,000 MW, out of which around 97 per cent is based on non-fossil fuel sources in India and neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan.

• Feature film “Amar Colony”, written and directed by Shimla lad Siddharth Chauhan, will be premiered at the prestigious 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival to be held from November 11 to 27 in Estonia.
• The 80-minute film is the only Indian film to make it to the competition this year. It will be screened in the “First Features Competition” category. O ther films in the competition are from Italy, Japan, Germany, the UK, Lithuania, Portugal, New Zealand, Norway, Brazil, Poland, Switzerland, Slovenia, South Korea, Israel, Slovakia, Canada and Spain.
• Shot in 30 days at the YWCA, the US Club, the Shimla General Post Office (Mall Road), St Thomas School, Oak Tree House (Bharari), Lower Bazaar, Sabzi Mandi and Baldeyan on the outskirts of the city, “Amar Colony” is a story of three women (neighbours) Devki (50), a widow confined to a wheelchair who demands respect for her pigeon, Meera (20), a lonely pregnant woman who is caught in a maze of desires and disappointments, and Durga (60), a religious fanatic, who begins to experience delusions living in a dilapidated building called Amar Colony.
• “As per the film festival team, ‘Amar Colony’ is a delicate and unique portrait of an exotic community that represents all of us. This film is a satire on mankind.”
• In the past, Siddharth has experimented with documentary and short films on fiction and realistic issues. His first film was “Zunie”, followed by “Peace is nowhere”, “Boys don’t wear nail polish”, “Infinite space”, “Papa”, Pahari film “Pashi” and “The flying trunk”.

• Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are expected to rise by just under 1% this year, as the expansion of renewables and electric vehicles outweighed coal demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA)
• CO2 emissions are on course to increase by nearly 300 million tonnes to 33.8 billion tonnes this year, a far smaller rise than their jump of nearly 2 billion tonnes in 2021, the agency said in a report.
• The rise this year has been driven by power generation and the aviation sector as air travel rebounds from pandemic lows.
• While that increase could have been much larger at possibly 1 billion tonnes with countries’ coal demand surging as gas prices soared due to the war in Ukraine, deployment of renewable energy and EVs have kept a lid on that rise.
• The global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a scramble by many countries to use other energy sources to replace the natural gas supplies that Russia has withheld from the market,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
• “The encouraging news is that solar and wind are filling much of the gap, with the uptick in coal appearing to be relatively small and temporary,” he added.

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) have come together to focus their efforts on enhancing the reach of financial solutions to large sections of society across India and enabling frictionless finance to a billion Indians. IPPB and RBIH will plan, design and execute innovative products and offerings to bridge the existing gap by bringing digitalised services at the customer’s doorstep.

The collaboration between IPPB and RBIH will explore projects which shall have impact on the masses by:

• Leveraging the deep rural reach of IPPB-Department of Posts (DoP) to take Rural Finance to a billion Indians.
• Enabling access to sustainable and secure finance services to every segment of the society, through research and innovation.
• Additionally, IPPB shall be an active participant and partner with RBIH on initiatives of national importance led by RBIH.

About RBIH

• The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up to promote and facilitate an environment that accelerates innovation across the financial sector.
• RBIH will provide the platform to anchor a shared vision among all financial ecosystem stakeholders and aid them in crafting forward-looking innovation strategies while addressing the most pressing issues in the Indian financial sector.
• The organisation serves as a focal point to position India as a global innovation hub for a network of financial services providers, fintech innovation hubs, policymakers, technologists, academia, and the investor community.
• The network will be empowered to ideate, incubate new capabilities, and enable access to sustainable, secure, and frictionless financial services for over a billion Indians.

About IPPB

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by the Government of India. IPPB was launched by the Prime Minister on September 1, 2018.
• The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India.
• The fundamental mandate of IPPB is to remove barriers for the unbanked and under-banked and reach the last mile leveraging a network comprising 160,000 post offices (145,000 in rural areas) and 400,000 postal employees.
• IPPB’s reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack – enabling Paperless, Cashless and Presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers’ doorstep, through a CBS-integrated smartphone and biometric device.
• Leveraging frugal innovation and with a high focus on ease of banking for the masses, IPPB delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in 13 languages.
• IPPB is committed to provide a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India. India will prosper when every citizen will have equal opportunity to become financially secure and empowered.

• Under an over ₹5,000 crore contract, over 6.1 lakh AK-203 assault rifles will be manufactured in India with technology transfer from Russia.
• The Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited was set up in 2019 to produce the Russian-origin Kalashnikov assault rifles in Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi district.
• AK203 is the advanced version of the Kalashnikov assault rifle family, the first of which was the AK-47.
• The AK-203 assault rifles will replace the INSAS rifles that have been in service for over three decades.
• The weapon fires 7.62×39 cartridges and weighs 3.8 kg without ammo.
• The modern version of the Russian-origin rifle has an effective range of 300 metres or more than three football fields, is lightweight and robust.

India-Russia Defence cooperation:

• As per a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India figures amongst the key arms importing destination globally.
• India has for decades been Russia’s largest arms importer, with Russian weapons accounting for nearly 70% of India’s military arsenal.
• The two nations have earlier collaborated to manufacture the BrahMos missiles, which are a key component of India’s missile defence systems.
• Furthermore, the defence trade between India and Russia has crossed $15 billion since 2018, in the backdrop of some big deals including the $5.43 billion S-400 long range air defence systems.

• The Embassy of Japan, New Delhi, has filed an application seeking Geographical Indication (GI) tag for nihonshu/Japanese sake, an alcoholic beverage. It is learnt that this is the first time a product from Japan has filed for a tag at the Geographical Indication Registry in Chennai.
• According to details provided in the filing, in Japan, nihonshu is regarded as a special and valuable beverage made from fermenting rice. People traditionally drink nihonshu on special occasions, such as festivals, weddings or funerals, but it is also consumed on a daily basis. Thus, it is an integral part of the lifestyle and culture in Japan. The sake market (almost all are nihonshu) is the second largest brewed liquor (such as beer) market in Japan.
• For making nihonshu three main raw materials – rice, koji-kin (a type of fungal spore) and water – are required. The production of nihonshu follows an alcoholic fermentation method called parallel multiple fermentation and involves raw material treatment, koji making, starter culture making, mash making, pressing, heat sterilisation and bottling. The rice and koji used should originate in Japan.
• The Embassy of Japan, in the filing, also mentioned that in the past, the economy of Japan was based around rice, which was used as a sort of quasi-money before the establishment of a monetary economy in the Meiji period (1869-1912). As a result, nihonshu production was thoroughly under the government’s control.
• As nihonshu’s production became more industrialised in the Edo period (1603-1868), those who had special licences began hiring many farmers in the agricultural off-season. They gradually won a reputation as craftsmen, which resulted in the establishment of the hierarchical Toii system ( Toii is the person responsible for sake brewing), likened to an apprenticeship or guild system.
• The Toii has full authority for the production of nihonshu at breweries and leads all the workers. In addition, the Toii plays an important role in training young apprentices by imparting upon them their techniques and experience. Through this system, the techniques of making nihonshu are being passed on to the present day.
• A GI is a label that is applied to products that have a specific geographical origin and have characteristics that are related to that particular location.

• World Statistics Day 2022 is celebrated annually on October 20th to recognize the importance of statistics in our daily lives.
• The United Nations Statistical Commission has been at the forefront of advocating for the use of statistics to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Good data and statistics are essential for effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of progress towards the SDGs.
• The theme of Statistics Day, 2022 is “Data for Sustainable Development”.

History of World Statistics Day:

• The United Nations Statistical Commission proposed celebrating 20 October 2010 as World Statistics Day. The General Assembly adopted on 3 June 2010 resolution 64/267, which officially designated 20 October 2010 as the first-ever World Statistics Day under the general theme “Celebrating the many achievements of official statistics.
• In 2015, with resolution 96/282, the General Assembly decided to designate 20 October 2015 as the second World Statistics Day under the general theme “Better data, better lives,” as well as to celebrate World Statistics Day every five years on 20 October.

• Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., A Maharatna Oil Company, has been conferred with the prestigious ‘Dushyant Samman’ by Pasbaan-e-Adab for its pioneering work in the field of propagating the Hindi Language. The Award is instituted to honor one of the foremost Hindi Poets of the 20th Century, the Late Dushyant Kumar Tyagi.
• The Award was given by Padma Shri, Ashok Chakradhar noted Hindi Author & Poet; Famous Hindi Folk Singer of Kabir Bhajans, Padma Shri, Prahlad Tipaniya in the presence of Alok Dushyant, S/o Late Dushyant Kumar Tyagi and Kaiser Khalid (IPS), convenor of Pasbaan-e-Adab. The Award was received from HPCL by the Chief General Manager, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, and General Manager of Corporate Affairs & Official Language in a ceremony held in Mumbai on 16th October 2022.
• The award has been conferred to HPCL for its continuous unparalleled commitment to the cause of the promotion of Hindi throughout the Country by supporting & promoting various initiatives. HPCL has also taken giant strides in the implementation of Hindi across the organization in its day-to-day work.
• Pasbaan-e-Adab is a socio, cultural organization committed to the cause of spreading the values of the composite culture of this Country through Literature, Music & Art.
• The Award function was a part of ‘Anubhooti’, an excellent festival of Hindi art & literature, to felicitate and acknowledge the efforts of organizations & people who have made significant contributions towards the promotion & propagation of the Hindi language.