Notes:
The International Mother Earth Day (IMED) is observed every year all over the world on April 22 with the message to protect environment. The day is celebrated worldwide to raise awareness among people that they have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature and to balance the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations. The campaign theme for 2017 is “Environmental and Climate Literacy”. The day was proposed at the UNESCO conference in 1969 and the first Earth Day celebrations took place in 1970.

Notes:
The General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) has become the first re-insurer to open an office at India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City). GIC Re is the wholly-owned by the government, which provide reinsurance support to life and non-life insurers in India and abroad. GIC Re’s foreign and domestic premium composition now stands at 45:55.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh will be awarded with the Union Government’s Krishi Karman Award for 2015-16 for wheat production. It is the fifth consecutive year that Madhya Pradesh will be conferred with the prestigious Krishi Karman Award. MP wheat production in 2015-16 stood at 184.10 lakh tonnes as against 171.03 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, a rise of 7.64%. The award instituted by the Union Agriculture Ministry carries a trophy, citation and cash prize of Rs. 2 crore. In addition, the cash reward of Rs. 2 lakh and a citation letter will be handed over to a woman and a male farmer as ‘best wheat producer’.

Notes:
The first-ever India Indonesia Energy Forum (IIEF) was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 20, 2017. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal and Indonesia Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan participated in the forum. The Energy Forum was preceded by 2nd Joint Working Group (JWG) on Oil and Gas, 4th JWG on Coal and 1st JWG on New and Renewable Energy. The reports of three JWGs were presented to two Ministers during the Energy Forum.

Notes:
India’s first-ever ‘village of books’ will open at Bhilar village in Maharashtra on May 4, 2017 to promote tourism and Marathi language. The village is roughly 8 km away from the hill station of Panchgani. As of now, all the books provided by the Maharashtra government are in Marathi. Soon, the books written in Hindi and English will be added to this collection. Author interactions, literary events and book-reading sessions will also be conducted in the village. The idea for this book village is inspired by Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town known for its book stores and literature festivals.

Notes:
Athens, the capital of Greece, has been designated as the UNESCO World Book Capital 2018 by Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, in Paris. The city of Athens was chosen for the quality of its activities, supported by the entire book industry. The proposed activity programme includes meetings with writers, translators and illustrators, concerts, thematic exhibitions, poetry readings and workshops for publishing professionals. Athens is the 18th city to become World Book Capital. At present, Conakry (the capital of the Republic of Guinea) is the World Book Capital for 2017.

Notes:
The Odisha government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the objectives of improving the lives of smallholder farmers and promoting inclusive agricultural transformation. The MoU will allow the government and the foundation to partner on agriculture projects including a project to improve data management, analysis and use within the department of agriculture. Other activities may include expansion of bio-fortified crops in Odisha, generating evidence on policy issues pertaining to farmer’s income, land, women in agriculture, and crop diversification and developing joint programmes on soil diagnostics and agronomic inputs targeting.

Notes:
The high-level UN Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (or UN Ocean Conference) will be co-hosted by the Governments of Fiji and Sweden at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States from 5 to 9 June 2017 to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. The theme of the Conference is ‘Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14’.

Notes:
At the 2nd edition of the Golf Industry Association (GIA) Awards, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia from India has won the award for the 2016 Men’s Player of the Year, while Aditi Ashok bagged the Outstanding achievement as a Player award. Apart from this Ali Sher, the Delhi Golf Club caddy-turned-pro-golfer, was feted for an Outstanding Playing Career.

Notes:
Nora Chopra (64), the veteran journalist and columnist, has recently passed away in New Delhi. She was widely admired and respected for her journalistic skills. Chopra had started her career with the Pioneer in Allahabad and later she worked for Northern India Patrika, The Sunday Guardian, the Asian Age and Tehelka.