India & World Current Affairs
President Mukherjee Visited China
- President of India, Pranab Mukherjee was on a State visit to the People’s Republic of China on May 24 to 27, 2016. Pranab Mukherjee began his visit by arriving in the highly industrialised Chinese city of Guangzhou; the city which has strong business links with India has an economy of over $1 trillion.
- Guangdong province accounts for 20 % of bilateral trade and 40 % of Indian nationals in China. He is the first Indian leader to visit Guangzhou.
- He visited the Hualin Temple, which marks the arrival of Indian monk Bodhidharma to China in 6 century AD and stands testimony to the close cultural and historical linkages that bind our two countries together.
- There he gifted to the Peking University 350 books on Indian culture and literature including books in Sanskrit.
- Moreover, 10 MoUs providing the enhanced faculty and student exchanges as well as collaboration in research and innovation were concluded between the higher education institutions of the two countries and exchanged in the presence of him.
India’s First Integrated Web Portal Launched
- Minis try of Power and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) May 27, 2016 launched India’s first integrated web portal (www.nzeb.in) designed to promote and mainstream Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) in India.
- The portal provides complete information about Net Zero Energy Buildings which generate as much energy as they use as well as how to achieve near-zero energy status through the use of efficient lighting and equipment, integration of renewable energy technologies, and best practice design strategies.
- In addition, the portal hosts the NZEB Alliance, an, industry-wide body set-up to drive the Indian markets toward highly energy-efficient buildings.
ISRO and the UAE Space Agency Signed Moll
- A Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) signed between ISRO and the UAESA on May 25, 2016 for cooperation in the exploration and user of outer space for peaceful purposes.
- It would set-up a Joint Working Group with members from ISRO and UAESA, which will further work out the plan of action including the time-frame and the means of implementing this MoU.
- Promoting space cooperation between India and the UAE was highlighted during Prime Minister’s visit to the UAE in August, 2015 and also at the 11th meeting of India-UAE Joint Commission for Economic and Technical Cooperation held at New Delhi in September, 2015.
