IT Minister Launches National AI Portal of India- ‘www.ai.gov.in’

• Ravi Shankar Prasad launched India’s national Artificial Intelligence Portal called www.ai.gov.in.
• National e-Governance Division of Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal.
• This portal shall work as a one stop digital platform for AI related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, startups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies, and educational institutions related to AI in India.
• “Responsible AI for Youth”: –
  • It will empower the youth to become AI ready and help reduce the skill gap, while enabling youth to create meaningful social impact solutions.
  • The Program is designed to reach out to students from Government schools pan India and provide them with an opportunity to become part of the skilled workforce in an inclusive manner.

DST initiates COVID-19 National Supermodel for monitoring infection transmission

• DST has initiated a COVID -19 Indian National Supermodel to help monitor the future transmission of infection, thus aiding decisions involving health system readiness and other mitigation measures.
• It is imperative to bring in a robust forecasting model for predicting the spread and enhancing disease surveillance.
• Numerous mathematical models for Covid-19 forecasting and surveillance are being worked out by investigators funded by DST-SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board) and other agencies.
• Inspired by India’s history of using mathematical models for disaster management planning of metrological events, DST has initiated this exercise to create one model for the entire country that will be subjected to rigorous tests required for evidence-based forecasting
• The model will entirely rely only on the data that is relevant to COVID-19 and have an adaptive built-in component to learn from the newer trends in the data.
• It will aggregate successful evidence-based mathematical and statistical forecasting models and include the best predictive analytics for robust forecasting of infectious disease spread.

Establishment of 4 COVID-19 Bio Banks by the Department of Biotechnology

• NITI Aayog has recently issued guidelines for sharing of bio specimens and data for research related to COVID-19.
• ICMR has notified 16 biorepositories for collecting, storing and maintaining clinical samples of COVID-19 patients.
• The enlistment of 16 Bio Repositories are as follows: ICMR – 9, DBT – 4 and CSIR – 3.
• These designated facilities will develop uniform SOP for sample collection, transportation, aliquoting, storage, and sharing.
• The role of biobanks for COVID-19 samples would be development of a vaccine and treatments; guidance regarding handling, including nasopharyngeal swabs; and conditions under which the higher BSL-3 practices should be followed

2 MW Solar Power Plant inaugurated at INS Kalinga

• initiative of Govt of India to promote Solar Power and objective to achieve 100 GW of solar power by 2022 as part of the National Solar Mission.
• A 2 MW Solar Photovoltaic Plant was commissioned at INS Kalinga, and it is the largest in the ENC and has an estimated life of 25 years.
• INS Kalinga, has taken significant strides in Green Initiatives, including afforestation, numerous plantation drives, coastal cleanup drives, and protection of the Geo-Heritage site “Erra Matti Dibbalu”.

Lt. Gen. Manoj Pande takes over as Commander-In-Chief of Andaman & Nicobar Commander

• An alumnus of National Defence Academy, the General Officer was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.
• Current Commander-In-Chief Lieutenant General Podali Shankar Rajeshwar retired on 30^th May 2020.
• For his distinguished service, Lieutenant General Rajeshwar had been awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) on 26th January 2020 and appointed as an Honorary Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the President of India in November 2019.

COVID19 current update in India

QUIZ TIME

• Which recent sector has got a portal from the Central Government?
• Artificial Intelligence
• Augmented Reality
• Machine Learning
• None of the Above

Answer: A

• Who has been appointed as the Commander-In-Chief of Andaman & Nicobar Commander?
  • Lieutenant General Podali Shankar Rajeshwar
  • Lt. Gen. Manoj Pande
  • M. M. Narvane
  • None of the Above

Answer: B