1) E-commerce cargo movement via National Waterway-1: Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and e-commerce company Amazon signed an MoU for customer shipments via inland waterways using the river Ganga (National Waterway 1).
- Ganga (National Waterway 1) stretch from Haldia (Sagar) and Prayagraj (1620 km)
- It was declared as National Waterway-1 (NW-1) in 1986.
- 24 waterways are already operational to date which are planned to be increased to more than 50 by 2047.
- Benefits of waterways: cost and fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly.
2) DESI (Digitalisation, Education, Sustainability and Innovation) Initiative: India and Finland hold talks on Finland’s DESI initiative.
- DESI initiative is a programme of Embassy of Finland to strengthen preferred partnership between Finland and India.
- It is Finland’s first export promotion programme with India that spans across sectors
3) Digital Twins: Genesys International (3D mapping company), and Survey of India (SoI) announced a partnership to create digital twins of major cities and towns.
- It will provide previously unavailable data layers, including high-precision 3D data, digital terrain models, digital surface models etc.
- Digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object, person, or process, contextualized in a digital version of its environment.
- It can help an organization simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing it to make better decisions.
- SoI is National Mapping Agency of country under Department of Science & Technology
4) Indian Green Building Council (IGBC): IGBC has introduced new green rating tools as part of its Net Zero mission to accelerate the uptake of green building projects in country.
- They include Net Zero Carbon Rating and upgraded rating systems – Green Existing Building Rating Version 1.0, Green Factory Rating Version 2.0, and Green Campus Rating Version 1.0.
- IGBC (HQ: Hyderabad) was established by Confederation of Indian Industry in 2001.
- It is India’s Premier Certification Body for Greening of Projects.
- IGBC vision: To facilitate India emerge as a global leader in green buildings and green built environment by 2025.
- IGBC is founding member of World Green Building Council discussing global issues at COP and similar global platforms
