Joint Coast-Guard exercises conducted by Japan and India: Sahyog-Kaijin 2016

On January 15 ^th 2016, Japan and India’s coast guards successfully conducted their joint exercise for the 15 ^th time across Chennai’s coast. This bilateral training named Sahyog-Kaijin 2016, deployed Samudra Pehredar which is one of the best coast-guard vessel from India and Echigo, Japan’s premier vessel off the Chennai port, for exclusive vessel training. The major highlight of this joint training was combating piracy. Apart from that, emphasis was also given on areas such as interoperability between Japan and India’s forces as well as rescue and search operations. This training also involved other coast-guard ships from India such as Vishwast, Rajtarang, Rajkamal, C-415, C-417, Hovercraft, Dornier as well as a Chetak helicopter.

On 15 ^th 2016, India celebrated its Army day for the 68 ^th time

India celebrated its Army Day for the 68 ^th time on 15 ^th January 2016. This day is celebrated annually for commemorating that day when K M Cariappa (Lieutenant General and later, Field Marshal) became independent Indian Army’s first Commander-in-Chief. Cariappa took over the regime from FRR Bucher (General) on January 15 ^th 1949, where the later was the last Commander-in-Chief of British Origin. In order to mark this occasion, Gen. Dalbir Singh who is the Chief of Army Staff reviewed the Army Parade at the Delhi Cantonment’s Parade Ground.

Reports from World Bank says India saves 1 Billion dollars annually by Using Aadhaar

On January 12 ^th 2016, the World Bank made a remarkable announcement that almost 1billion dollars were saved by India annually by the usage of Aadhaar. This information was being published in the World Bank official magazine WDR (World Development Report) 2016. The magazine published was titled ‘Digital Dividends’ and go released in the city of Washington DC. According to the reports presented in this issue, fuel subsidy transfer to bank accounts by using Aadhar based DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) resulted in savings of around 1 billion annually. According to the report, it is also estimated that the Aadhar scheme has potential of saving more than 11 billion dollars per year if this DBT scheme can be expanded to various other subsidiary schemes.

Ankita Anand, a Delhi-based write wins the LNM (Lorenzo Natali Media) Award for her work

Ankita Anand, an independent writer from Delhi area, surprised came into limelight on 14 ^th January 2016, when she won the LNM (Lorenzo Natali Media) prize 2015 in the Asia-pacific amateur category. The LNM is a prestigious European Commission’s award.  She grabbed this award for her penetrating portrayal of the life of young women who face enormous risk because of the khap panchayat’s diktat across the Haryana region. Equator Linel published her work.

This year’s Pylee Award to be given to Dr Jancy James

On 15 ^th January 2016, Dr. Jancy James was selected for Prof (MV) Pylee Award. This award is given every year for distinguished academician across India. Dr. James is Kerala’s first ever woman Vice-Chancellor. This award has been instituted by CU (Cochin University) in MV Pylee’s name. He was an educationalist, Indian scholar, management guru and recognised as father of Kerala’s management education. This award is presented for outstanding work in research, teaching as well as contribution to the academic community. A sum of Rs. 1 lakh is given as prize money.