Mrs. S. Radha Chauhan assumes charge as Chairperson, Capacity Building Commission

Mrs. S. Radha Chauhan assumed charge as the Chairperson of Capacity Building Commission, in New Delhi. She is a retired IAS officer of UP Cadre (1988 batch). She has served in various capacities in the State and Centre Government. She is also the former Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). She took charge from Shri Adil Zainulbhai, who served as Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission since April, 2021.

Constituted on 1st April 2021, by the Government of India, the Capacity Building Commission has been mandated to drive standardisation and harmonisation across the Indian civil services landscape. As the custodian of civil services capacity building reforms, the Commission’s role is central to the overall institutional framework of Mission Karmayogi.

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan assumes charge as the 47th Vice chief of the Naval Staff

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, AVSM, NM assumed charge as the 47th Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS). On assuming charge, the Flag Officer paid solemn homage to the Bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice in service of the nation, by laying a floral wreath at the National War Memorial, New Delhi.

An alumnus of the 71st course National Defence Academy, Pune, Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 Jan 1988. A specialist in Gunnery and Missile Systems, he has held a wide range of command, operational and staff assignments over his distinguished naval career spanning more than three decades.

At sea, the Flag Officer has served onboard various frontline warships, including as the Commissioning crew of the Guided Missile Destroyer INS Mysore, INS Nishank and pre-Commissioning crew of Coast Guard OPV ICGS Sangram. He also served as the Executive Officer of INS Mysore. He has commanded Coast Guard ship C-05, Missile Vessels INS Vibhuti and INS Nashak, Missile Corvette INS Kuthar and Guided Missile Frigate INS Sahyadri (Commissioning Commanding Officer). In Feb 2020, he took over as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, and led numerous operational deployments and exercises during a time of heightened maritime activity, post events at Galwan.

A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Naval War College, Goa and the prestigious National Defence College, New Delhi, the Flag Officer has also excelled in key strategic and policy-oriented Staff roles. His appointments at Naval Headquarters include Joint Director and Director of Personnel (Policy), Director Naval Plans (Perspective Planning) and Principal Director Naval Plans.

On promotion to Flag Rank in Feb 2018, he served as the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) prior to Commanding the Eastern Fleet. For his exceptional leadership and meritorious service of very high order, he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2021. Thereafter, he served as the Deputy Commandant of the National Defence Academy and later, in Dec 2021, he was appointed as Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command (ENC). In this capacity, he steered ENC's operational readiness, personnel development and infrastructure augmentation.

Cabinet approves the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the “Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana” for a period of six years, beginning with 2025-26 to cover 100 districts. Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana draws inspiration from NITI Aayog’s Aspirational District Programme and first of its kind focusing exclusively on agriculture and allied sectors.

The Scheme aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase adoption of crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices, augment post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels, improve irrigation facilities and facilitate availability of long-term and short-term credit. It is in pursuance of Budget announcement for 2025-26 to develop 100 districts under “Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana”. The Scheme will be implemented through convergence of 36 existing schemes across 11 Departments, other State schemes and local partnerships with the private sector.

100 districts will be identified based on three key indicators of low productivity, low cropping intensity, and less credit disbursement. The number of districts in each state/UT will be based on the share of Net Cropped Area and operational holdings. However, a minimum of 1 district will be selected from each state.

Committees will be formed at District, State and National level for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the Scheme. A District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plan will be finalized by the District Dhan Dhaanya Samiti, which will also have progressive farmers as members. The District Plans will be aligned to the national goals of crop diversification, conservation of water and soil health, self-sufficiency in agriculture and allied sectors as well as expansion of natural and organic farming. Progress of the Scheme in each Dhan-Dhaanya district will be monitored on 117 key Performance Indicators through a dashboard on monthly basis. NITI will also review and guide the district plans. Besides Central Nodal Officers appointed for each district will also review the scheme on a regular basis.

As the targeted outcomes in these 100 districts will improve, the overall average against key performance indicators will rise for the country. The scheme will result in higher productivity, value addition in agriculture and allied sector, local livelihood creation and hence increase domestic production and achieving self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat). As the indicators of these 100 districts improve, the national indicators will automatically show an upward trajectory.

16th Census to be Held in Two Phases Beginning from 1st October, 2026

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued the notification for 16th Census (Population Census-2027) to be conducted in two phases along with the enumeration of castes. The reference date for Population Census-2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2026.

It will be India's first digital Census (using mobile applications) and will include an enumeration of castes for the first time in Independent India. Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage. It will be the sixth national Census since its inception and the eighth since India's independence.

The phase one is House listing Operation, in which the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected. In the second phase which is Population Enumeration, the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected. In this Census, Caste enumeration will also be done. For Census activities, about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1-3 lakh Census functionaries will be deployed.

Prime Minister conferred with Namibia’s highest civilian award

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday was conferred with Namibia’s highest civilian honour, ‘The Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis’, during his one-day state visit to the African nation. The award was presented by the President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, at a special ceremony, marking a new milestone in the ties between the two nations. Accepting the award, the PM dedicated it to the 1.4 billion people of India and to the historic and enduring partnership between India and Namibia. “I accept this honour with deep gratitude, and I dedicate it to the people of India and the timeless bond our two countries share,” the Prime Minister said, expressing his heartfelt thanks to Nandi-Ndaitwah and the people of Namibia. PM Modi is the first Indian leader to receive this honour. Established in 1995, the award recognises distinguished service and leadership. It is named after the Welwitschia Mirabilis, a unique desert plant found only in Namibia that symbolises resilience, longevity and the enduring spirit of its people.

PM Modi conferred Brazil's highest civilian award- Grand Collar of the National Order of the Southern Cross

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with Brazil’s highest civilian honour — the Grand Collar of the National Order of the Southern Cross. This marks the 26th international award received by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed office in May 2014. The award was presented by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in recognition of PM Modi’s contributions to strengthening bilateral ties and advancing India–Brazil cooperation across major global platforms.

Established in 1822 by Emperor Pedro I, the National Order of the Southern Cross (Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul) is Brazil’s highest honor bestowed exclusively upon foreign nationals. It recognizes individuals who have rendered exceptional service to Brazil or made significant contributions to strengthening Brazil’s international relations. The Grand Collar is the most distinguished rank within the order.

Over the years, the Grand Collar has been awarded to numerous eminent global leaders, including former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, former French President Charles de Gaulle, former Argentine President Juan Perón, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, former Spanish King Juan Carlos I, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

GenomeIndia

Government of India committed to fostering sustainable development through democratizing and disseminating this national genetic resource knowledge

The ‘GENOMEINDIA’, funded by the Department of Biotechnology of the Central Government has completed whole genome sequencing (WGS) database of over 10,000 individuals representing all major population groups, across the country. GenomeIndia data represents Government of India's commitment to scientific inquiry and is poised to reshape health and science in India and beyond, fostering sustainable development through democratizing and disseminating this national genetic resource knowledge.

The result oriented cumulative proactive actions taken by the Department towards setting up of IBDC, release of Biotech PRIDE Guidelines, formulation of FeED Protocols, transfer and storage of GenomeIndia Data in IBDC; followed by the announcements by the highest leaderships in the country indicate strong determination of the Government for sharing of this data with our researchers to analyze critical information, accelerating discoveries and advancements in biological sciences.

For the first time in the country, the department has established the Indian Biological Data Center (IBDC) in March 2020 with 96 TF computing capacity using 2912 CPUs, 39 TB of RAM, 865 TF computing capacity using 64 GPUs, 4 PB of parallel file system with the capability of writing 100GB of data every second and 1.5 PB of disk and tape to store backup copy of data. The Department has released the Biotech-PRIDE Guidelines, 2021 followed by formulation of ‘Framework for Exchange of Data (FeED) Protocols’ for responsible data sharing.

On 9th January 2025, during the ‘Genomics Data Conclave’, the 'GenomeIndia Data' was dedicated to the researchers by Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The Prime Minister stated that this national database encapsulates the extraordinary genetic landscape of India and will serve as an invaluable scientific resource to boost genetic and medical research for human health. Further, during the address to the nation on the evening of 25th January, 2025, Her Excellency, Smt. Draupadi Murmu, President of India said that GenomeIndia project marks a significant chapter in the history of Indian Science.

The department also announced the ‘Call for Proposals’ from researchers to exploit the opportunities of translational research using GenomeIndia data. To address the queries of the researchers, the Department issued the addendum mentioning the types and category of data that will be available for research, also “associated phenotype data” will be shared. It is clarified that access to GenomeIndia data is not limited to the ‘Call’ but independent requests for data access are being received by IBDC, under the ambit of Biotech PRIDE Guidelines and FeED Protocols.

As on date, this National Resource generated under the GenomeIndia project comprises of Fastq files of 9772 samples (~700 TB), gvcfs: 9772 (~35 TB), phenotypic data from 9330 samples and Joint call files (~3.5 TB) and is archived at IBDC, the National Repository.

To brief about the issue of phenotype data as mentioned in one of the news articles in a leading newspaper, it is stated here that curation and cleaning up of phenotypic data was performed on 9772 samples which underwent WGS and were used in joint calling. Out of these 9772 samples, phenotypic data from 9330 samples could be used because the data available for the rest of the samples (numbering 442) was not usable. Many phenotypic parameters had very high levels of missingness, so the data for the top 27 variables for 9330 samples is available for research. These 27 variables are Albumin, Alkaline_Phosphatase, ALT_SGPT, AST_SGOT, Basophils, Cholesterol, Creatinine, Direct_Bilirubin, Eosinophils, FBS_Fasting_Blood_Glucose, HB_Haemoglobin, HbA1C_Glycosylated_Haemoglobin, HDL, Indirect_Bilirubin, LDL, Lymphocytes, MCH_Mean_Corpuscular_Hb, Monocytes, Neutrophils, Platelet_Count, Protein, RBC_Red_Blood_Cell_Count, RBS, Total_Bilirubin, Triglycerides, Urea, WBC_Total_White_Blood_Cell_Count. The anthropometry data such as: Age, Gender, Height, Weight, Body Fat is also available.

Further, some of the news articles have also raised concern about making ‘No Access’ for FASTQ files. It is pertinent to mention here that the total size of FASTQ files is approximately 700 TB. The logistical and technical challenges of transferring these files are enormous. It is difficult to ensure the completeness and sanctity of downloads by requesters. Analyzing raw sequencing files often demands two- to three-times more computational capacity, leading to redundant workflows and wasted infrastructure at the national level. By providing equitable access to gVCF files (which amounts to ~35 TB) instead, data can be shared more quickly and computational resources conserved. The international leading data banks established for more than 2 decades also does not allow the downloading of data; data is provided by their cloud platform. Hence, ‘No Access’ to FASTQ files in the department’s ‘Call’ means that these files will not be available for download at present. This policy is in line with other global consortia. As IBDC will grow and expand in future, similar provisions may be incorporated.

Source: pib.gov.in