Current affairs 21 July 2023

Indian Building Surpasses Pentagon To Become World's Largest Office.

• Surat Diamond Bourse, a building in Surat has surpassed the Pentagon (headquarters of the US Army) to become the world’s largest office.
• Surat is known as the world’s diamond capital, where 90% of the precious stones are cut.
• Diamond Bourse was designed by Delhi-based Morphogenesis and is based on the concept of Panchtatva, the five elements of nature – water, fire, air, earth, and sky.
• The building will be officially inaugurated by Narendra Modi in November 2023.

President Droupadi Murmu to inaugurate "Festival of Libraries 2023".

• President of India, Droupadi Murmu would inaugurate the Festival of Libraries 2023, to be held on 5th - 6th August 2023 in New Delhi.
• Aims: To facilitate the formulation of action-oriented policies for the development of Model Libraries in India, right down to the village and community levels
• The launch of a crowd-sourced Directory of Libraries, the signing of a Tripartite MoU between 3 libraries, and the release of Cursive Writing Books in the 22 vernacular languages

India to host ASEAN Countries Conference on Traditional Medicines.

• India would host the ASEAN Countries Conference on Traditional Medicines in New Delhi
• In this conference, 10 ASEAN countries including Cambodia, and Vietnam will participate in it.
• Aims: To strengthen the platform between India and ASEAN countries to share their best practices and draw a roadmap for future cooperation in the field of Traditional Medicines.
• AYUSH has the potential for expansion of Act East Policy in traditional systems of medicine.

DG Rakesh Pal appointed as 25th Director General of Indian Coast Guard.

• DG Rakesh Pal has been appointed as the 25th Director General of the Indian Coast Guard.
• He was conferred with Tatrakshak Medal in 2013 and President Tatrakshak Medal in 2018 for his successful service and also holds the recognition of being the First Gunner of ICG.
• He has commanded all classes of ICG ships namely; ICGS Samarth, ICGS Vijit, ICGS Sucheta Kriplani, ICGS Ahalyabai, and ICGS C-03, two Coast Guard bases of the forward area in Gujarat - Okha & Vadinar.

Meta collaborates with Microsoft to launch Llama 2 AI language model.

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, the company is partnering with Microsoft to introduce AI large language model’s next generation and make technology known as Llama 2.
• It will be available for research and commercial use, enabling developers and businesses to hold the next generation of generative AI tools.
• Meta had already released the first iteration of Llama(Large Language Model Meta) in February 2023.