PM Modi announces ‘Aarogya Maitri’ for medical supplies to developing nations

PM Modi announces ‘Aarogya Maitri’ for medical supplies to developing nations

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new ‘Aarogya Maitri’ project under which India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crisis.
• India will also establish a ‘Global-South Center of Excellence’ to undertake research on development solutions or best-practices of any developing nation, which can be scaled and implemented in other members of the Global South.
• PM also said that during the Covid pandemic, India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative supplied made-in-India vaccines to over 100 nations.
• ‘Vaccine Maitri’ Initiative was an initiative by the Ministry of External Affairs. It was a humanitarian initiative taken by the government of India to supply the COVID-19 vaccine to foreign countries.

Right to Sight, Rajasthan Becomes first state to implement Blindness Control Policy

• Under its campaign of Nirogi Rajasthan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has implemented the policy for Blindness Control with the objective of ‘Right to Sight’.
• With this, Rajasthan has become the first state to have such a policy. This policy has been brought with an aim to bring light in the lives of more than 3 lakh people suffering from visual impairment in the State. 
• The prevalence rate of blindness in the country was 1.1% in 2020 and the initiatives under the Blindness Control Policy will help to bring it down to 0.3 percent.
• Under the policy for Blindness Control, the state government will mandatorily run Keratoplasty Centre and Eye Bank in all the government medical colleges. 
• The government funded private organizations and NGOs that are collecting cornea will have to provide the collected cornea to the government institutions on priority.

Invitation to Egypt Presidentfor Republic Day celebrationis truly historic

• Security of the Suez Canaland the Red Sea connectsEgypt with India and theIndian Ocean laying out thenew strategic partnershipemerging between the twosides.
• The upcoming visit of President Abdel Fateh el­Sisi,Ambassador Wael Mohamed Awad Hamed saidthe invitation to the President for the Republic Day celebration was a “truly historic moment”.
• Mr. Hamed also appreciated New Delhi for whathe described as India’s “independent” position onthe Ukraine crisis.
• “We are starting a new strategic partnership, which is first of all basedon the defence and security pillar. When we speak about India and its position in the world, we have to remember that India is the major country in the Indian Ocean and the security of the Indian Ocean starts from the Red Sea in the west and for Egypt, security of the Suez Canal begins with the security ofthe Red Sea. So, we bothare linked together,” Mr.Hamed said.

Captain Surbhi Jakhmola becomes 1st woman officer to be posted at BRO

• Captain Surbhi Jakhmola of the Indian Army’s 117 Engineer Regiment will be the first woman officer to be posted on a foreign assignment at the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). 
• The officer will be sent to Bhutan as part of Project Dantak. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is an executive road construction force in India that supports the Indian armed forces.
• The BRO’s deployment comes just days after the Indian Air Force deployed woman fighter pilot squadron leader Avani Chaturvedi to Japan for the exercise Veer Guardian 2023, which will take place from January 16 to 26 at the Hyakuri Air Base and its surrounding air space in Omitama, as well as the Iruma Air Base in Sayama in Japan.