• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC)appointed former Punjab Director General of Police (DGP), Dinkar Gupta as the Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
• He is the 1987 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Punjab cadre.
• According to the order, Gupta will hold the post of NIA chief till March 31, 2024, that is the date of his retirement or till further orders, whichever comes earlier.
• Gupta has held the post of Director General of Police, Intelligence, Punjab, which involved the direct supervision of Punjab State Intelligence Wing, State Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Organized Crime Control Unit (OCCU).

• First Bharat Gaurav tourist train connecting places associated with the Ramayana Circuit in India and Nepal was flagged off from the Safdarjung Railway Station in New Delhi.
• The Bharat Gaurav train carrying 500 tourists from India will arrive at the Janakpur Dham railway station in Nepal.
• The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC)18-day Shri Ramayana Yatra special tourist train will take pilgrims to sacred places associated with the life of Lord Ram.

Speciality of Bharat Gaurav tourist train:

• The train with 11 third AC class coaches has an accommodation capacity of around 600 passengers. The total cost for the first trip on Ramayana Circuit, is around Rs 62,370 per person for 18 days and is all inclusive.
• Every coach of the train has been designed as a kaleidoscope of ‘Pride of India’ highlighting the various facets of India such as monuments, cuisines, attires, festivals, flora and fauna, folk art etc.
• The Ramayana Circuit is one of the 15 thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Ministry of Tourism of India.
• The train has 14 coaches and the exteriors of some of the coaches also promote various classical and folk-dance forms, attires, popular festivals, delicacies of the country.

• Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated the India pavilion at the technology exhibition Vivatech 2020, held in Paris, France.
• Europe’s biggest startup conference, “Vivatech 2020”has recognized India as the “country of the year.”
• This is due to the contribution of the Indian startups to the world.
• Indian start-up ecosystem has been growing very fast. It has been innovating at a rapid pace. There are over 100 unicorns which reflects the scale and recognition of Indian ecosystems.
• Around 65 start-ups from India participated in Vivatech 2022 with government support.

• The G20 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Jammu and Kashmir will host the 2023 meetings of the G20, an influential group of the world’s major economies.
• J&K government has set up a five-member high-level committee for overall coordination of G20 meetings to be held in the Union Territory.
• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was appointed as India’s Sherpa for the G20 in September 2021.
• According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will hold the G-20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and convene the first G20 leaders’ summit in 2023.

• Delhi Airport or Indira Gandhi International Airport has become the first airport in the country to run entirely on hydro and solar power from this month in a major step toward achieving the ambitious goal of becoming a Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport by 2030. 
• Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a GMR Infrastructure Limited-led consortium, which manages and operates the Delhi Airport, has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Himachal Pradesh-based hydropower producing company for the supply of hydroelectricity for the airport until 2036.

Key points:

• Approximately 6 percent of the airport’s electricity requirement is met from the onsite solar power plants while as much as 94 percent of the total demand is now being met through renewable energy use from the hydropower plant.
• DIAL has been working relentlessly towards environmental sustainability and has set its target to make Delhi Airport a Net Zero Carbon Emission airport by 2030, way ahead of the global target of 2050.
• To achieve this, DIAL has adopted a Green Transportation program recently and now achieved another milestone of the Green Energy Program.
• In 2015, the Cochin International Airport in Kerala became the first airport in the world to run solely using solar energy.

• According to, State Chief Information Commissioner Narinder Chauhan, around 90,000 applications are received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act every year in the state.
• The RTI Act was playing an important role in strengthening public participation in the democratic process and ensuring transparency and accountability in governance and administration.
• The service providers had also been sensitised and people were also getting benefits of the Act.
• The Documents available in the office should be listed in a systematic manner. The compliance of various financial rules and office manuals should be ensured in office document management.
• He also replied to queries and addressed doubts about various aspects related to the Act while interacting with the officers. He asked them to ensure timely disposal of applications received under the RTI Act.
• The officers were instructed to avoid the tendency of unnecessary secrecy. People should be aware of all decisions that affect their lives.

• Justice Amjad Ahtesham Sayed of the Bombay High Court has been appointed Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
• The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended his name on May 17, 2022.
• Born on January 21, 1961, Justice Sayed did LLB from Bombay University in 1984.
• He was an assistant government pleader, Bombay High Court, original side.
• He appeared in PILs related to mangroves, garbage dumping, free/concessional medical treatment for the poor in charitable hospitals, bio-medical waste and malnutrition on behalf of Union of India/state government.
• A keen sports enthusiast, he was on the panel of several public undertakings.
• Justice Sayed was appointed Judge of the Bombay High Court on April 11, 2007.

• Union Minister of State for M/o Food Processing Industries, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the National Conference on Millets on the theme ‘The Future Super Food for India’ in New Delhi, organised by industry body ASSOCHAM with the support of M/o Food Processing Industries.
• The conference has been organised to discuss opportunities and challenges in ensuring food and nutritional security.
• Millets have been among the oldest eatables in the country. It is a crop grown from small seeds which can be grown well in dry areas or even on lands with deficient and low fertility thus is known as the superfood of India.
• Due to their short growing season, millets can develop from seeds to ready-to-harvest crops in just about 65 days and this characteristic of the millets is of vital importance in thickly populated regions of the world.
• If stored properly, millets can keep well for two years or beyond. There is a need to mainstream millets to improve India’s nutrition outcomes.
• The Government of India has already revised the guidelines to facilitate the movement of the surplus production of millets to other states.
• The provision of inter-state transportation of surplus millets through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is incorporated to cater for advance demands placed by consuming states before the start of procurement.
• The major millets producing states in India include Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
• India is the 5th largest exporter of millets globally.
• The year 2023 will be the international year of millets that will create value generation and promotion of sustainable products in food choices.

• The Indian Air Force is conducting the first Warfare & Aerospace Strategy Program (WASP) culminating with a Capstone Seminar at Air Force Auditorium, New Delhi.
• Capstone seminars are interactive seminars based on peer-to-peer discussion and presentations.
• The seminar will be conducted under the aegis of College of Air Warfare and Centre for Air Power Studies.
• Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Air Staff, shall deliver the keynote address on the occasion which is being attended by senior officers from all three Services, air power scholars, academia from principal think tanks and premier colleges of the country.
• This Capstone Seminar aims to showcase the learning objectives of WASP and help the IAF leadership to validate the desired outcomes from the program.
• The participants shall present papers on contemporary topics concerning application of air power in recent conflicts and the changing doctrinal precepts that establish the dominant role of air power in national security.
• The WASP was conceptualised by the IAF with the purpose of creating a pool of mid-career air power practitioners with strategic acumen and a deep understanding of warfare history and theory.
• It aims to enhance the doctrinal vision of the participants and cultivate their aptitude for effective arguments on strategy. It will further hone the ability of the participants to link varied thoughts and theories about whole-of-government approach to statecraft.
• The course was organized at College of Air Warfare (CAW) which is IAF’s premier institute for Air Power Studies.

About the report: 

• The report is based on the data collected from over 100 million Coursera users from more than 100 countries who learned a new skill during the past year.
• The report benchmarks three of the most in-demand skill areas driving employment in the digital economy – business, technology, and data science.
• The Global Skills Report (GSR) 2022 by Coursera states that India’s proficiency in data science has reduced from 38% in 2021 to 26% in 2022, leading to a 12-rank drop. In terms of overall skills proficiency, India has slipped 4 places to be ranked 68th globally and 19th in Asia.
• However, the report reveals that India has improved its technology proficiency levels from 38 percent to 46 percent, improving its position by six spots.

Key points:

• West Bengal leads the Indian states in terms of skills proficiency with the state showing the highest levels of digital skills proficiency in the country.
• Andhra Pradesh is among the top three performing states with high proficiency in business and technology skills.
• For the second year in a row, Switzerland had the highest-skilled learners followed by Denmark, Indonesia, and Belgium.