 The 5th edition of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit 2020 to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in the month of September 2020. The summit will be preceded by the 17th Ministerial Meeting and 21st Senior Officials Meeting by the end of 2020. During the meet, it was decided that Sri Lanka will lead the science, technology, and innovation sector in BIMSTEC. Sri Lanka is the Chair of BIMSTEC between 2018 and 2020 and it will hand over the chairmanship to Thailand by the end of 2020. Even though Sri Lanka had hosted 3 Working Committee meetings earlier, this summit will be the first one under the new Administration. |
 The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) announced that Pune will host the annual session of 108th Indian Science Congress on January 3-7, 2021. The theme of the ISCA is “Science and Technology for Sustainable Development with Women Empowerment” and focus on economic growth, environmental protection and social inclusion of all communities using science and technology. It will also see deliberations on providing equal opportunities to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) while achieving sustainable development. This will be the fourth time that the city will host the prestigious meet in the last 100 years. Dr Vijay Laxmi Saxena has been elected general president of the Indian Science Congress, 2021. The science congress had commenced in 1914 from then Calcutta with 105 members. Currently, the association has more than 60,000 members from various streams of science like agriculture, archaeology, biochemistry, earth system science among others. |
 The 19th edition of World Productivity Congress (WPC) will be held from May 6 to May 8, 2020, in Bengaluru, Karnataka. World Productivity Congress is the world’s largest convention for productivity development that shape future productivity growth. The theme of 19th World Productivity Congress is “Industry 4.0: Innovation and Productivity”. The theme represents the Fourth Industrial Revolution that amalgamates the capabilities of humans and machines. India is hosting the conference after a gap of 45 years. Before this, the country hosted the WPC in the year 1974. |
 The International Judicial Conference was held in New Delhi. The Conference was addressed by PM Modi. The theme of the conference is “Gender Just World”. The topic of the one-day conference is “Judiciary and The Changing World”. The conference discussed the changes made by GoI to bring gender equality including recruitment of women in military service, changes in the selection process of fighter pilots, and the freedom to work at night in the mines. The synergy of artificial intelligence (AI) and human conscience is expected to give further impetus to judicial processes in India. Centre has established National Judicial Data Grid, in order to make court procedures easier. The Conference also focused on the need for technology to deliver rapid justice. The initiative “E-Court Integrated Mission Mode Project” of GoI, to integrate every court of India with the E-Court system was highlighted. |
 National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has organized a 3-day international conference on Ensemble Methods in Modelling and Data Assimilation (EMMDA) in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The conference was organized to have a concrete discussions and deliberations on the present status, future prospects as well as optimum use of Ensemble Prediction System (EPS). The Ensemble Prediction System has been developed by leading weather forecasting centres of the world to quantify the forecast uncertainty and to probabilistic forecasting of weather. |
 NITI Aayog is organizing Sustainable Development Goals Conclave 2020: Partnerships, Cooperation and Development of North Eastern states in Guwahati, Assam. The event will see representations from the North-Eastern states, Central Ministries, academia, civil society and international development organizations. The conclave is to focus on SDG localization in the northeastern region. It includes climate adaptive agriculture, sustainable livelihoods, education, health and nutrition, skill development, connectivity, entrepreneurship, infrastructure development. Every session is to chaired by respective field specialist. NITI Aayog has the mandate of overseeing the adoption and monitoring of SDGs at the national and sub-national level. Progress in the northeast region is crucial in this decade of action for the country to achieve the SDGs by 2030. This conclave is part of the NITI Aayog’s continuous efforts towards fostering partnerships at the sub-national level. |
 A brainstorming session “Chintan Shivir” was held at Kevadia in Gujarat. The session aimed to focus on the future prospects of the coal sector. The session was chaired by Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri Pralhad Joshi and he stated that India will put an end on importing thermal coal by the Financial Year 2023-24. |
Some key highlights of the “Chintan Shivir”:
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 The Government of Telangana hosting Bio-Asia Summit 2020 in Hyderabad between February 17, 2020, and February 19, 2020. The main objective of the summit is to explore the capabilities of Life Science Companies and their investments. The theme of the Summit is Theme: Today for Tomorrow. The summit will be attended by researchers, investors, conglomerates, start-ups and health care representatives. They will focus on the needs of the evolving Life Science industry. |
 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 43rd Governing Council meeting was held in Rome, Italy. The 43rd sessions will focus on the overarching theme “Investing in sustainable food systems to end hunger by 2030″. The theme highlights how IFAD’s role and experience in supporting sustainable, inclusive, nutritious and efficient food systems uniquely place it in a position to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2). During the meet, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stated that the sequences of climate change and its impacts on agriculture will push around 100 million people to poverty by 2030. |
 National Security Guard (NSG) has organised the 20th International Seminar on “Comprehends the Evolving Contours of Terrorism & IED Threat-Wayahead for the Security Community” at Manesar, Haryana. The seminar was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy. Senior Police and security officers, and delegates from various countries are participating in the Seminar. A wide spectrum of Counter Terrorism and Counter-IED issues in wil be covered in the two-day seminar. During the seminar, the MoS for Home Affairs appealed to the Global community to join hands to form a united front against the common enemy i.e. terrorism. He also emphasized the importance of improving the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detection and to enhance our capabilities to prevent such attacks. He also presented the Counter-IED Innovators awards and released the 30th volume of “The Bomshell”. |
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