About International Day of Family Remittances:

• IDFR is a universally-recognized observance adopted by United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA).
• The custodian of IDFR towards these objectives is the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
• IFAD is a specialized United Nations (UN) agency that was one of the major outcomes of the World Food Conference 1974. Later in 1977, it was set up as an international financial institution.

KEY POINTS:

• The International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR)was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and is observed on 16 June.
• This year, the United Nations is continuing last year’s theme for International Day of Family Remittances: recovery and resilience through digital and financial inclusion.
• The IDFR recognizes more than 200 million migrant workers, women and men, who send money home to over 800 million family members.
• This day further highlights the great resilience of migrant workers in the face of economic insecurities, natural and climate related disasters and a global pandemic.

• The name BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, a group of emerging markets. It is home to more than 40% of the worldwide population and a quarter of the global economy.
• The BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR)Innovation Center and the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance bilateral cooperation and boost BRICS countries’ common development.

KEY POINTS:

• The Memorandum of Understanding was signed via video link at the port city of Xiamen, Fujian Province, East China.
• On behalf of the two parties, HuangWenhui, executive vice chairman of the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Center council, and Marcos Troyjo, president of the NDB, signed the MoU.
• The two sides will prioritise collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence, the industrial internet, energy conservation, and environmental protection, according to the MoU, through cooperative research, staff training, and information sharing on infrastructure and sustainable programmes.
• In December 2020, the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Center opened in Xiamen. The NDB was founded by the BRICS countries and is headquartered in Shanghai.

About the Bharat Gaurav Trains:

• Indian Railways had launched the operation of theme-based Bharat Gaurav train in the month of November 2021.
• The objective of this theme is to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and magnificent historical places to the people of India and the world, through Bharat Gaurav Trains.
• This scheme also aims to leverage the core strengths of the professionals of the tourism sector to run theme-based trains to tap the vast tourist potential of India.

KEY POINTS:

• The first train to be operated between Coimbatore and Shirdi by a private operator, under the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ scheme of the Indian Railways
• The train will cover several historical destinations on the route while giving the passengers an insight into the cultural heritage of the country.
• Indian Railways had launched the operation of theme-based Bharat Gaurav train in the month of November 2021.
• The objective of this theme is to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and magnificent historical places to the people of India and the world, through Bharat Gaurav Trains.

Other features of the train service are:

• There will be a Doctor on board to attend any emergency.
• There are Private securities engaged along with the Railway Police Force to protect the train from any kind of harm.
• There will be on board electricians and AC Mechanic and Fire and Safety Officers
• The train is maintained by branded housekeeping service providers who will clean the utility areas on frequent intervals and the caterers are experienced and rich in holding the traditional vegetarian menus.
• The coaches are fitted with high bass-sounding speakers and an on-rail Radio Jockey to keep the passengers entertained during the journey. There will be devotional songs, spiritual stories and live interviews to keep the journey pleasant.
• Completely Toxic-free and Smoke-free.

About the Global Startup Ecosystem Report:

• The GSER was released in the backdrop of the ongoing London Tech Week 2022, which brings together global governments and corporate leaders, inspirational start-up founders and investors to discuss the power of technology for societies.
• The report includes ranking of the leading 140 ecosystems, continental insights, and founder-focussed articles from thought-leading experts.
• Top Asian emerging ecosystems were measured on the basis of talent, experience, long-term trends over the most significant performance factors and the ability to generate and keep talent in the ecosystem.

KEY POINTS:

• Providing a boost for Kerala’s start-up ecosystem, the State has been ranked first in Asia in Affordable Talent in Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER).
• The State has also been ranked fourth in global ranking in the GSER, drawn up jointly by policy advisory and research organisation Startup Genome and Global Entrepreneurship Network.
• In the first GSER published in 2020, Kerala was ranked 5th in Asia and 20th in the world.

In cities category:

• As per the report released by the policy advisory and research firm Startup Genome, the city of Bengaluru has moved up to number 22 in the Global Startup Ecosystem ranking.
• Bengaluru’s tech ecosystem value is at $105 billion which is higher than that of Singapore at $89 billion and Tokyo at $62 billion.

• The Department of Industries, Himachal Pradesh organized an interaction of Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, Anurag Jain with the startup incubators in the state at Dharamsala.
• He also inaugurated an exhibition of Startups in the state, wherein 24 startups showcased their ideas, products, services from different sectors (IT, Health, Food Technology, biotechnology, tourism, environmental science and technology, etc.).
• The Secretary, DPIIT, along with the Director of Industries, Himachal Pradesh, interacted with a group of 8 nodal officers from state incubation centres.

• CM presided over the closing ceremony of Saranahuli Mela organised at Prashar in District Mandi.
• While addressing a gathering in the premises of Prashar Rishi temple, the CM said that Saranahuli Mela has immense importance from spiritual, tourism, entertainment and trade point of view.
• He announced to include Prashar area under Nai Rahein Nai Manzilein scheme.

• India’s javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra set a new national record as he threw 30 metres at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland. Neeraj Chopra won the silver medal with his throw at the event.
• Chopra’s earlier national record was07m.
• He had won the Tokyo Olympics gold with a throw of 87.58M in 2021.
• Neeraj Chopra is India’s first ever Olympic gold medallist in athletics and only the second individual gold medallist at Olympics.
• Finland’s Oliver Helander won the gold medal at the event with a throw of 83 metres.

Global Wind Day: History

• The First Wind Day was commemorated in2007 by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). In 2009 the EWEA collaborated with the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and made it a global event.
• Wind Europe and GWEC from then celebrate this day together.

THEME 2022

• Celebrate to enjoy the benefits of Wind energy and providing education to the individuals about the power and potential of wind energy to change the world.
• This day is dedicated to learn about wind energy and its potential to reshape energy systems, decarbonizing economies and boosting employment as well as growth. The purpose of this day is to increase public knowledge of wind energy and its uses.

• The Government of India’s Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN)initiative is a regional airport development programme that is part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for upgrading under-served air routes.
• Its purpose is to make air travel more inexpensive and ubiquitous, as well as to promote inclusive national economic development, employment creation, and the development of air transportation infrastructure in all of India’s regions and states.
• At the start of the project, 406 out of 486 airports were participating under-served airports, 27 out of 97 non-RCS airports were well-served airports, and 12 out of 18 participating under-served regional operational airports with regular fixed-wing scheduled flights were operational airports.
• According to analysts, UDAN is a gamechanger in the aviation business since it allows the average person to commute between smaller cities in minutes rather than hours and at a reasonable cost.
• Over 415UDAN routes connect 66 underserved/unserved airports, including heliports and water aerodromes, benefiting over 92 lakh people.

• The new snail has been described in latest issue of Molluscan Research, an international journal, by Amrut Bhosale, Tejas Thackeray of the Mumbai-based Thackeray Wildlife Foundation and Omkar Yadav of the Medha-based Amdar Shashikant Shinde Mahavidyalay.
• This species is endemic to Vishalgad Conservation Reserve in Shahuwadi tehsil of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur.
• It is named after the type locality of the species in the northern part of the Western Ghats, which is Sahyadri in Sanskrit.
• According to the study, the ‘Sahyadri snail’ is distinguished from other Indian and Southeast Asia’s Haploptychius in having a sub-oblique helical shell, low spire and presence of a strong parietal lamella.
• The species was placed in the genus Haploptychius based on the shell morphology and genital characters.