• India Post signed an MoU with Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and Tripta Technologies. The MoU facilitates operationalization of a portal called ‘Bharat EMart’, which will provide the facility of pick-up of consignments from the premises of traders and will ensure delivery at the doorsteps of the consignees across the country. It is believed that it will benefits eight crore traders associated with CAIT. India Post in the recent past has entered into similar agreements with Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Regional Centers of Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED), to provide pick-up and delivery of parcels at the doorsteps of the consignees. Shortly, India Post will onboard itself on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, being developed by Ministry of Commerce as a logistics service provider.
• The sixth India- Canada Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment (MDTI) will be held on 8th May 2023 in Ottawa. India-Canada bilateral trade in goods reached about US$ 8.2 billion in 2022, registering about 25% growth compared to 2021.
• In a major development, Ministry of Defence, Department of Military Affairs, has approved amendment to existing cadre management provisions for Women Officers of the Territorial Army (TA). Territorial Army had commenced Commissioning of Women Officers in TA since 2019. The Territorial Army is based on a Citizen Soldiers’ army concept and officers undergo Annual Training on basic military skills while remaining gainfully employed in civilian life.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced a new introductory-level online training programme called space science and technology awareness training (START). It is aimed at postgraduate and final-year undergraduate students of physical sciences and technology.
• The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Ministry of Railways jointly signed an MoU with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for ‘Station Area Development along Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail’ (Project-SMART).
• With an aim to promote Indian music at the grassroots level on a national scale by identifying and recognising the new and young talent in various singing genres, MyGov in collaboration with Ministry of Culture is launching a YUVA PRATIBHA – Singing Talent Hunt.
• With the scaled-up activities of National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), three capacity-building programmes (CBPs) for the civil servants of Bangladesh (59th batch with 45 participants) and Maldives (22nd & 23rd batch with 50 participants) commenced at the Mussoorie campus.