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The Indian Coast Guard has conducted the Regional Level Marine Oil Pollution Response Exercise titled ‘Clean Sea – 2018’ at sea off Port Blair on December 6. Coast Guard ships Viswasth, Vijith, Rajveer, Rajshri, 4 interceptor boats and its air assets Dornier and Chetak helicopters participated in the exercise.The preparedness of all agencies during the exercise was conducted under observation of Inspector General Maneesh V Pathak, Commander Coast Guard Region (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and was overseen by Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Administration Shri Chetan B Sanghi, who embarked onboard Coast Guard Ship Vijith.

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Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched National Challenge for Youths ‘Ideate for India – creative solutions using technology’ at New Delhi on December 6. The aim of this National Challenge is to give school students across the country a platform and opportunity to become solution creators for the problems they see around them and their communities. It is open to students of classes 6 – 12 all across the country – all 29 States and 7 Union Territories and aims to reach out to at least 1 million youth over the next 3 months. “Ideate for India” will help inculcate innovation skills in youth and equip all students to utilise technology for the betterment of their communities and the society at large. Simultaneously, this will prepare them to contribute towards the realization of Digital India goals. The challenge has been designed and launched by the National e-governance Division in collaboration with Intel India, with support from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) of Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD).

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Kenyan distance runner Eliud Kipchoge, and Colombian long & triple jumper Caterine Ibarguen have been named male and female world athletes of the year at the IAAF Athletics Awards 2018. The pair were honoured by the IAAF at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

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Preeti Saran, a former senior Indian diplomat, has been elected unopposed to an Asia Pacific seat on the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) for a four-year term beginning on the 1st of January 2019. Members of the CESCR serve in their personal capacities as experts and do not represent their countries even though they may have been nominated by their own nation. All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially within two years of accepting the Covenant and thereafter every five years. The committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of concluding observations. The panel meets in Geneva and holds two sessions per year. The other Asian member is Shiqiu Chen of China, whose term ends in 2022.

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In a bid to transform rural Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched a unique initiative called “SMART”, which stands for State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation. This World Bank assisted project aims to revamp agricultural value chains, with special focus on marginal farmers across 1,000 villages. The initiative will support post-harvest value chain and bring efficiency to benefit economy at large. Stimulating small and medium enterprises within the value chain, the project seeks to establish partnership between the various stakeholders in the agri-business segments including farmer organisations, start-ups, SMEs and large corporates along with women’s self-help groups. The project will entail an investment of $300 million of which World Bank would contribute $210 million. Almost 50 MoUs, involving top corporate houses like Amazon and Tata were signed on the occasion.