International
Indra Mani Pandey to be India’s next ambassador to UN
- Indra Mani Pandey, an IFS officer of 1990 batch and presently additional secretary in the MEA, will be the next ambassador/permanent representative of India to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva, including WHO and UN Human Rights Council
- Pandey will lead India’s efforts to blunt Pakistan’s campaign to vilify India for alleged human rights abuses in J&K.
National
Former RBI Governor C. Rangarajan gets first Mahalanobis award
Former Reserve Bank of India Governor C. Rangarajan has been conferred the P.C. Mahalanobis Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to official statistics.
- The Mahalanobis International Award is sponsored by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Government of India. The award recognizes an individual for lifetime achievements in statistics in developing country or region.
Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020 launched
- Union Minister for Human Resource Development Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, and, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan today launched Drug Discovery Hackathon through online platform.
- hackathon is first of its kind national initiative for supporting drug discovery process.
- Hackathon will primarily focus on computational aspects of drug discovery and will have three Tracks. Track-1 will deal with computational modelling for drug design or identifying ‘lead’ compounds from existing databases that may have the potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 while Track-2 will encourage participants to develop new tools and algorithms using data analytics and AI/ML approach for predicting drug-like compounds with minimal toxicity and maximal specificity and selectivity. A third track, named Track 3 is a Moon-shot approach which will only deal with novel and out-of-the-box ideas in this field.
Work to begin shortly on Zojila tunnel
- Work will begin shortly on the strategic Zojila tunnel for all-year connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh regions.
- The tunnel project, stalled for about six years, holds strategic significance as Zojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National highway and remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfall, cutting off Ladakh region from Kashmir.