Asian Development Bank (ADB)

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Recently, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors unanimously elected Masato Kanda as ADB’s 11th President.

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• Masato Kanda currently serves as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Japan’s Minister of Finance.
• He will assume office on 24 February 2025, succeeding Masatsugu Asakawa (ADB’s 10th President who is also from Japan).
• Kanda will complete the unexpired term of President Masatsugu Asakawa, which ends on 23 November 2026.

President of the ADB

• President is the chairperson of the board of directors and manages ADB. 
• The president has a term of office lasting five years and may be re-elected.
• Takeshi Watanabe (Japanese Bureaucrat) was ADB's first President.
• In electing a President, Article 34 of the ADB Charter requires a majority of the total number of Governors, which must represent a majority of the total voting power of ADB members.
• The election of ADB’s President has two stages: nomination and election. The Board of Directors endorses the conduct of the election.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• ADB is a regional development bank established in 1966 to
• ADB has 69 shareholding members including 49 from the Asia and Pacific region.
• ADB's highest policy-making body is the Board of Governors, which comprises one representative from each member nation (currently 69).
• India is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its fourth largest shareholder.

Board of Governors

• ADB's highest policy-making body is the Board of Governors, which comprises one representative from each member nation – 49 from the Asia-Pacific and 20 from outside the region. 
• The Governors elect 12 members to form the Board of Directors, which performs its duties full time at the ADB headquarters in Manila, Philippines.
• The Board of Governors meets formally once a year during ADB's Annual Meeting.

10th International Conference on Traditional and Complementary Medicine (INTRACOM) 2024

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India highlighted its contributions to the global advancement of traditional medicine (TM) at the 10th International Conference on Traditional and Complementary Medicine (INTRACOM) 2024.

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INTRACOM 2024 was held at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Malaysia.

The conference was focused on the transformative role of digital technologies in modernising healthcare practices in Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM).

India highlighted the successful finalisation of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) Traditional Medicine 2 (ICD-11 TM2) module as a milestone in the systematic global documentation of traditional medicine practices.

• The ICD-11 TM2 module comprises 529 categories which revolves around TM disorders and patterns.

The conference also provided a platform for deliberations on transliteration, translation, and future maintenance of TM2 entities, along with mapping these with national standards like the NAMASTE Portal.

• The National Ayush Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Electronic Portal (NAMASTE) is a portal that provides standardized terminologies and morbidity codes for Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani systems of medicine.
• The portal was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on the occasion of the 2nd Ayurveda Day (17th October 2017) at All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi.

What is Traditional medicine?

• It is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.

Eklavya Platform

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Recently, the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) launched an online learning platform “Eklavya” for the Indian Army.

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This platform is in line with the Indian Army’s vision of a “Decade of Transformation” and also with the Indian Army’s theme for 2024 as the “Year of Technology Absorption.”

The Eklavya software platform has been developed under the aegis of Headquarters Army Training Command with Army War College as the sponsor agency.

It has been developed at zero cost through “Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics” (BISAG-N), Gandhinagar, along with support from the Directorate General of Information Systems.

The platform has been hosted on the Army Data Network and features a scalable architecture

There are three categories of courses hosted on the Eklavya platform. 

• Pre-Course Preparatory Capsules: study material for all offline physical courses being conducted at various Category ‘A’ training establishments.
• Appointment or specific assignment-related courses: It covers material on information warfare, defence land management, financial planning, discipline and vigilance, works, provost, veteran affairs etc.
• Professional Development Suite: It includes courses on Strategy, Operational Art, Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, Finance, Art of Reading, Power Writing, Emerging Technology etc.

Sabal 20 logistics drones

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In a significant move to bolster its logistical capabilities, the Indian Army received Sabal 20 Logistics Drones from EndureAir.

About Sabal 20 Logistics Drones

• Sabal is an electrical tandem rotor UAV specifically engineered and crafted to conduct aerial deliveries in diverse geographical terrains.
• It is an electric-unmanned helicopter based on variable pitch technology.
• Its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) technology, allows the drone to operate in confined spaces and difficult environments.
• With a payload capacity of up to 20 kilograms—about half of its own weight—the drone is capable of carrying supplies over long distances, a critical advantage for military forces operating in areas where traditional transport is difficult. 

EndureAir Systems 

• It is an unmanned aviation technology company founded in 2018 with the objective of providing world-class Drone Technology.