Current affairs 15 January 2023

Piyush Goyal to Launch MAARG Portal for Startup Mentorship.

The MAARG (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth) platform will be launched by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
The commerce ministry said that MAARG, a portal to facilitate mentorship for start-ups across various sectors and geographies will go live on January 16.
The Minister will also award outstanding start-ups and supporters, which have demonstrated exceptional potential not only in terms of financial gain, but also for measurable impact on society.
The winning start-ups will be given a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.
An exceptional incubator and an accelerator will receive a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh each.

Over 1,000 Indian peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have been awarded the prestigious United Nations Medal at an award ceremony.
The parade was led for the first time by a woman officer of the Indian Army.
At a special award ceremony in Upper Nile, 1,171 peacekeepers from India deployed with the UN mission in South Sudan were honoured with UN medals for their exemplary service.
For the first time, a female officer of the Indian Army, Major Jasmine Chattha, led the parade of the large Indian contingent, comprising infantry, engineers and medical officials, at the award ceremony in Upper Nile.

Digital India Startup Hub, through the Software Technology Parks of India, shall set up India’s first Centre of Excellence in Online Gaming at Shillong by March 2023.
This was announced by Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, at a function in Meghalaya’s capital.
The Minister announced another initiative of MeitY to set up a state-of-the-art facility under the National Institute of Electronics and IT (NIELIT) to provide training on cutting edge Digital Skills at Shillong.
A 10-acre campus shall soon be ready for this purpose which shall cater to the skilling requirement of youth in the North East Region.

The Saharsh initiative is aimed at empowering children to learn with happiness.
The state government has trained 204 schools for the Saharsh curriculum while 200 more will be trained in the future.
30 assistant headmasters from different districts of Tripura were also selected to work as Saharsh implementation ambassadors.
A similar program, which was found to be effective in social and economic development in research studies of Harvard and Columbia Universities is being contextualized with local realities of India before being implemented in Tripura.

Startup firm IG Drones, which was born out of the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) campus in Odisha’s Sambalpur has developed a 5G-enabled drone.
It is capable of vertical take-off and landing.
As it’s a VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing), it can be operated from any terrain without the need for a conventional runway.
The drone named Skyhawk can be used in defence and medical applications, among other sectors.
The drone can carry a 10 kg payload and has an endurance of around five hours.
With Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) providing 5G services in the country, these drones can be controlled with much more precision and can be controlled from the command centre directly rather than being on the field.