• The Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) has conferred its highest honour, the Fellow of the Association, on Pradeep K. Sinha, the Director of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)- Naya Raipur (NR) in Chhattisgarh.
• Considering Dr. Sinha’s contributions to the advancement of Science and Technology and Technical Education, the Executive Board of the AAIA decided to bestow the honour upon him after recognizing him among the top scientists of the world with outstanding achievements in the area of Distributed Computing.
• Sinha played a vital role in introducing new B. Tech. and M. Tech. programs in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) in IIIT-NR, in the year 2019, making IIIT-NR one of the first institutes in the country to have such a program.
• Sinha’s professional career spans more than thirty-five years, during which his technical contributions include building premier academic institutes; building supercomputing systems and facilities; developing healthcare products and solutions; innovating ideas leading to international patents; and authoring six books in the area of Computer Science & Engineering.

About AAIA:

• Based in Hong Kong, the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) is an academic, non-profit and non-governmental organization voluntarily formed by a large group of academicians worldwide.
• It aims to build a broad AI industry, bringing together scientists and entrepreneurs related to AI applications to develop AI industries, including the AI Ocean, AI Transportation, AI Computing, AI Communication, AI Robot, AI Education, AI Agriculture, AI Finance, AI Medicine, AI Energy, and dozens of AI application fields.
• The main mission of the AAIA is to strengthen scientists in the field of AI and other fields worldwide to promote the development and application of AI through academic research, academic exchanges, science education, science exhibitions, academic conferences, academic publications, summer/winter camps and other activities.
• The fellows of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) include some of the world’s eminent academicians who come from Stanford University, Princeton University, MIT, California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Columbia University, University of Oxford etc.

• Delhi will be the first in the country to bring a food truck policy on the lines of US and the UK.
• The government is in the process of finalizing the hotspots where food trucks will be allowed to park for the public.
• Even though business related to food trucks is not new to India, no state in the country has, however, made any policy to streamline this business and increase employment opportunities in this sector.
• He asserted that Delhi will be the first to do so on the lines of US and UK.
• In its Rozgaar Budget, Delhi govt. has announced various projects that can foster growth of the economy and generate 20 lakh jobs in the next five years.
• Of them, Delhi Shopping Festival and Food Truck Policy are two priority projects which will be launched soon.
• While the shopping festival will be a big opportunity for traders, shopkeepers, tourism and hospitality industry to increase their business and revenue.
• The Food Truck Policy will open avenues for growth of the capital’s night time economy.
• The Delhi Shopping Festival which is scheduled to be held from January 28 to February 26, 2023.

• India’s first nocturnal zoo will be set up in Kukrail forest area as the U.P. government has decided to set up a night safari and biodiversity park on the lines of Singapore in the state capital.  There are 13 day safaris in the country but no night safari.
• The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting held at Lok Bhawan under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
• Minister of Tourism and Culture Jaiveer Singh said the night safari would be developed in 350 acres in the Kukrail forest area, spread over 2027.46 hectares. The zoological park will be set up in 150 acres.
• Train and jeep rides with local guides will also be provided at the night safaris. Apart from this, facilities like canopy walk, camping activity, mountain bike track, wall climbing, tree-top restaurant, nature trail and food court will also be developed
• There are plans to make a leopard safari in 75 acres of land, bear safari in 60 acres area and tiger safari in 75 acres. The animals will not be kept in a cage but will roam free as they do in the wild.
• It will be an open-air nocturnal zoo which will be open only at night. A modern theme park will be built for tourists during the day.
• In setting up the zoological park and night safari, only open areas which are not currently in use will be used without impacting the existing flora and fauna. The Kukrail forest area will be connected to the outside world with four-lane roads so that there is no inconvenience to the tourists.

• NASA’s giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks.
• It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program — America’s quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
• Artemis 1is aiming to send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon using a combination of the never-flown Space Launch System rocket, along with the once-flown Orion spacecraft.
• It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon, and the spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.
• Starting in 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again set foot on the Moon.
• The SLS rocket, in development for more than a decade, is 98 meters (322 feet) tall.
• The Orion capsule will fly to the Moon and 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) beyond it — further than any previous crewed spacecraft.
• On the way back through Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at 40,000 km per hour (25,000 mph), Orion’s thermal shield will have to withstand a temperature that is half that of the surface of the sun.
• Liftoff for the Artemis 1 mission is scheduled for August 29 at 8:33 am (1233 GMT). If it has to be postponed due to bad weather, the backup dates are September 2 and 5.
• After the 42-day trip, the capsule is supposed to splash down in the Pacific and be picked up by a US Navy vessel.
• In 2024, an Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to take astronauts up to orbit the Moon but without landing on it and Artemis 3, a mission scheduled for 2025 at the earliest.
• The last time people walked on the Moon was with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
• While the Apollo program featured only white male astronauts, NASA says the Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

About

• NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after thetwin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
• Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
• It is the first in a series of increasingly complex missionsthat will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
• Space Launch System (SLS) rocket:It is the most powerful rocket in the world — and travels 2,80,000 miles from the earth for over four to six weeks during the course of the mission.

• The 9th India-Thailand Joint Commission Meeting concluded in Bangkok. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Don Pramudwinai, and India’s Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar.
• Both sides discussed advancing contacts in political, economic, security as well as defence, connectivity and health domains.
• Both sides also discussed cooperation within the ASEAN and BIMSTEC. Dr Jaishankar said that India and Thailand also shared their perspectives on the Indo-Pacific.
• S Jaishankar arrived in Thailand yesterday to attend India-Thailand Joint Commission Meeting.
• Both the countries are celebrating 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations. He began his Thailand visit by meeting the Indian community.
• Addressing the Indian community in Bangkok, Dr. Jaishankar said that India’s relationship with the ASEAN has emerged as a key cornerstone of India’s foreign policy.

• The Tibetan community led by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) celebrated Indian Independence Day at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in
• Kangra MP Kishan Kapoor was the chief guest of the celebrations organised by the Tibetan Settlement Office in Dharamsala.
• The Kangra Deputy Commissioner, SP, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, councillors and the regional members of the Indo-Tibetan Friendship Association attended the function.

About:

• The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA)is a premier institute that is entrusted with the responsibility of preserving and promoting Tibet’s ancient and unique culture including its rich musical heritage and arts.
• The institute was founded by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in August 1959.
• It was later shifted to McLoed Ganj in 1961. Earlier named as the Tibetan Music, Dance, and Drama Society, it was one of the first institutes established by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

• Himachal girl Dhritih Kandpal, daughter of Lt Col Divik Kandpal from Nahan in Sirmaur district, has made the state proud.
• She has been selected to represent India in Juniors and Seniors category in World Racketlon Championship scheduled in Vienna and Graz in Austria from August 19 to August 29, 2022.
• The 15-year-old squash player is presently studying in Class 10 at Army Public School, Ahemdabad, where her father is posted.
• Dhritih is No 1 ranked player in Gujarat in Women category and also a winner of the Gujarat State Squash Championship in Under-15 category as well as Women category in 2021.
• She has also been selected to represent Gujarat in Squash in 36th National Games. She had been ranked No 2 in Under-15 in India.

• FIFA, the apex football body today announced that it has decided to suspend the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect and the decision was taken unanimously by the Bureau of the FIFA Council.
• An official release issued by FIFA said that the decision has been taken due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes.
• The statement also mentioned that the suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee is repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs.
• The release further stated that the suspension means that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place in India on 11-30 October 2022, will not be held in India as planned.
• FIFA is also assessing the next steps with regard to the tournament and will refer the matter to the Bureau of the Council if and when necessary.

• In compliance with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, Ministry of Mines entrusted the responsibility for creation of individual portal to Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) through BISAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo informatics).
• So far, two data layers have been created. The first layer covers the spatial data of Mineral concessions which included existing mining lease and existing composite license granted through auction. The second layer includes mineral auction block which have been auctioned successfully but execution of mining lease is pending.
• Spatial data of around 3154 mining leases (both working and non-working including auctioned blocks) covering 297200 Ha area all over the country have been uploaded on the portal, which is being validated, a ministry of mines statement said.
• The process of validation is likely to be completed by the end of this month.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity, on 13th October, 2021.
• Infrastructure creation in India had suffered multiple issues including lack of coordination between different implementation agencies as well as information gap leading to cost and time over run-in implementation of projects.
• These issues not only led to public inconvenience but also deprived the country of having world class infrastructure.
• To address this, efforts were put in place to increase coordination between different agencies, make available all the available and required information for infrastructure creation on a web-based platform.
• Steps have also been taken to address other issues like time-taking approval process, multiplicity of regulatory clearances etc.

• The 75th Independence Day coincides with another milestone in the country’s history — it was on August 15, 1972, that the Postal Index Number (PIN) was introduced in India.

Why was the PIN code introduced?

• According to the Department of Posts, there were 23,344 post offices, primarily in urban areas, in India at the time of Independence. But the country was growing rapidly and the postal network had to keep pace.
• The PIN code was meant to ease the process of mail sorting and delivery in a country where different places, often, have the same or similar names, and letters are written in a wide variety of languages.

How does the PIN code work?

• The PIN is made up of six digits.
• The first number indicates the postal region — Northern, Eastern, Western, Southern; and number 9, which signifies the Army Postal Service.
• The second number denotes a sub-region,
• The third represents the sorting district.
• The remaining numbers narrow the geography further to the specific post office making the delivery.

The person behind the initiative:

• The person behind the initiative was Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications and a senior member of the Posts and Telegraphs Board.
• Velankar was also a Sanskrit poet of eminence who had been conferred the President’s Award for Sanskrit in 1996, three years before he died in Mumbai.
• Velankar was also the chairman of the World Philatelic Exhibition, called Indipex, which was held in New Delhi in 1973 and featured 120 countries.

Some parallel systems followed world over:

• Globally, in the US, the Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) code was introduced July 1, 1963, under the aegis of the Postal Service Nationwide Improved Mail Service plan to improve the speed of mail delivery.
• Japan created its postal code address system in July 1968.