- Vande Bharat express: Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi flagged off the inaugural run of the new Vande Bharat Express from Amb Andaura, Una to New Delhi.In the Union Budget for 2022-2023, the Finance Minister has proposed the development and manufacture of 400 new Vande Bharat trains in the next three years. It is an indigenously designed and manufactured semi high speed, self-propelled train that is touted as the next major leap for the Indian Railways in terms of speed and passenger convenience since the introduction of Rajdhani trains.The Vande Bharat was India’s first attempt at adaptation of the train set technology.
- Exercise powerEX: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in collaboration with Power-CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams in Power sector), successfully designed & conducted the Cyber Security Exercise “PowerEX” for 193 invited Power Sector Utilities. The Objective of the exercise was to “Recognize, Analyse & Respond to Cyber Incident in IT & OT Systems”. Theme: “Defending Cyber induced disruption in IT & OT infrastructure”.
- Exercise Prasthan: An offshore security exercise, ‘Prasthan’ was conducted in the Krishna Godavari Basin Offshore Development Area (ODA) under the aegis of Headquarters, Eastern Naval Command. Conducted every six months, this exercise is an important element of ensuring offshore security and aims to integrate the efforts of all maritime stakeholders involved in offshore defence. Led by the Navy, the exercise saw participation from the various oil operators, like ONGC, RIL, Vedanta, and other stakeholders in the domain of maritime security in the Offshore Defence Area off Kakinada.
- Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme: The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is implementing a focused bilateral collaborative programme known as the Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme (VAP), jointly with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, since July 1987. The current five-year VAP Joint Statement has been extended till 2027, noting the Science and Technology Agreement between United States of America and the Republic of India, with due approval from the Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and the Ministry of External Affairs.
- Bulk drug park: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Bulk Drug Park at Una, Himachal Pradesh. The Union Cabinet has approved two schemes, namely the scheme on Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to promote domestic manufacturing of critical Key Starting Materials/Drug Intermediates. APIs, also called bulk drugs, are significant ingredients in the manufacture of drugs. The Hubei province of China is the hub of the API manufacturing industry. India is heavily import-dependent for APIs from China. India’s API imports stand at around $3.5 billion per year, and around 70% come from China.
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