Rapid Fire Current Affairs | 17 Feb 2023

Aadi Mahotsav

Recently, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the tribal festival "Aadi Mahotsav", a two-week-long exhibition in New Delhi.

The Mahotsav celebrates the spirit of tribal culture, crafts, cuisine, commerce and traditional art is an annual initiative of the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation Limited (TRIFED) under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

TRIFED was established in 1987 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 by the Government of India as a National level Cooperative body under the administrative control of the then Ministry of Welfare of India, with the basic mandate of bringing about socio-economic development of tribals of the country by institutionalizing the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) & Surplus Agricultural Produce (SAP) collected/ cultivated by them.

Snow Leopard

A snow leopard has been sighted for the first time at a height of about 11,120 feet in the Darma valley in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district.

Snow leopards are also known as “Ghost of Mountains”. They act as an indicator of the health of the mountain ecosystem in which they live, due to their position as the top predator in the food web. They are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. They are listed in appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

They have a vast but fragmented distribution across the mountainous landscape of central Asia, which covers different parts of the Himalayas such as Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim.

International Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF) 2023

The President of India inaugurated the International Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF) 2023 in New Delhi.

IETF is a platform for buyer-seller meets, international conferences and seminars, business networking, technology assessments, strategic partnerships, vendor development and is attended by visitors from around the globe. The event is not just a celebration of India’s growth story in the engineering and manufacturing sector, but also a testimony to the nation’s collaboration with the best in the world in advanced technologies.

IETF-2023 covers 11 areas of emerging technologies that would have a profound impact on our economy and society.

Exercise Dharma Guardian

The 4^th edition of the joint military exercise, Exercise Dharma Guardian, between India and Japan is being conducted in Japan from 17^th February to 2^nd March 2023.

The exercise is an annual training event with Japan and is crucial and significant in terms of security challenges faced by both nations in the backdrop of the current global situation.

The exercise will further enhance the level of defence co-operation between The Indian Army and Japanese Ground Self Defence Forces, furthering the bilateral relations between the two nations.

Other Military Exercises between India and Japan are JIMEX (naval), SHINYUU Maitri (Air Force) and Exercise Veer Guardian.