24-Jun-2018: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs(UNOOSA) celebrates 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful uses of Outer Space

The international community gathered in Vienna to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space with a dedicated event UNISPACE+50. It provided a great opportunity for the international community to convene and consider the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.

UNISPACE+50, the first United Nations Global Space Summit of the 21st Century, is a milestone opportunity to further demonstrate the broad societal benefits of space as an area of innovation, inspiration, interconnectedness, integration and investment, and to strengthen unified efforts at all levels and among all relevant stakeholders of the space sector in addressing the overarching long-term development concerns of society with concrete deliverables pertaining to space for development.

UNISPACE+50 consisted of two main parts: A UNISPACE+50 Symposium, aimed at the broader space community, on 18 and 19 June; and A special UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment of the 61st session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) on 20 and 21 June.

In addition, a UNISPACE+50 exhibition consisting of around 40 exhibitors was held in the Rotunda of the VIC from 18 to 23 June.

26-Feb-2018: International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels 2018

The two day international conference on Sustainable Biofuels is jointly being organized by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and Biofuture platform. The event is bringing experts and delegates from 19 countries together in Sustainable Biofuels sector to take stock of current knowledge, share information and best practices, and build consensus on the actions most needed to move forward.

This event will enable different countries to exchange their experience and share best practices for development and commercialization of advanced biofuels. Collectively all member countries have pledged to work together to meet the objective of producing at scale affordable advanced Biofuels. This is the largest Multilateral Platform to promote Research, development and Demonstration in Clean Energy.

Use of fossil fuels for transportation contributes significantly to global greenhouse gases (GHG) emission. The sustainable biofuels have ability to reduce the GHG emission load and this consideration led to establishment of Sustainable Biofuel Innovation Challenge (SBIC) under Mission Innovation (MI).

Advanced or second-generation biofuels produced from non-food biomass materials and specially grown high yielding plants or algae, if managed sustainably can contribute to significantly reduce emissions. However, many of the advanced biofuels still remain in pre or an early commercial stage of development and need innovations and breakthrough for low cost sustainable production. The sustainable biofuel innovation challenge aims to accelerate research, development and deployment of low cost, high GHG impacting advanced biofuels.

The sustainable biofuel innovation challenge will build on existing knowledge of individual participating countries and international institutes like IEA, IRENA and in collaboration of Biofuture Platform coordinated by Brazil as program Secretariat. A major aim of this cooperation is to avoid duplication of efforts and define clear areas of collaboration for speeding up of innovations in this area.

This event aims to provide a common platform to Government policy makers, industry, investors and research community to exchange experiences and challenges related to development and scaling of advance biofuels. Besides this the conference is focusing on concerns of the private sectors to speed up large scale production of sustainable biofuels.

About 50 international delegates including country representatives from mission innovation member countries, IEA, Biofuture Platform member countries, IRENA are attending the conference. All co-leads of sustainable biofuel challenge - China, Brazil, Canada and India are very well represented in the conference. These country representatives will present the status of biofuel development in their countries. About 20 companies and organizations have put up stalls in exhibition to show case their activities in the area of sustainable biofuels

The conference will seek to a clear understanding of the development in bio-economy made by participating countries, increase awareness of policy makers about the challenges faced by the industry-investor for commercial scale up of advanced biofuels. The need for collaboration-cooperation to speed up commercialisation and focus on latest R&D in advanced biofuels will be the expected outcomes of this International event.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology as a nodal agency coordinating and steering the activities of Mission Innovation in India by Government of India.  Mission Innovation India unit has been set-up last year by DBT at ICGEB, New Delhi. DBT has in past taken lead in ushering R&D in advanced biofuels and has set up four large Bioenergy Research Centres.

21-July-2017: India to Host Global Conference on Cyber Space 2017

India will be hosting the 5th Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) in 2017, one of the world’s largest conference on Cyber Space and related issues.

Themed on Cyber4All: An Inclusive, Sustainable, Developmental, Safe and Secure Cyberspace, the GCCS 2017 will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India. To be held in India for the first time, the two-day conference will see participation of around 2000 delegates from senior Government officials, industry leaders, academia and civil society from over 100 countries. GCCS will congregate and deliberate on issues relating to promotion of cooperation in cyberspace, norms for responsible behaviour in cyberspace and to enhance cyber capacity building. Many of these delegations will be headed at Ministerial level delegates thereby making it an important forum of global consultation of various issues of cyber space.

The theme of this conference in a way reflect the changing architecture of India in the Digital space. Among the multiple transformative programmes under Digital India, the biggest thing that India brings about to the table is Digital Inclusion that makes it sustainable and developmental; which has been given utmost importance under the theme Cyber4All.

The Internet must be safe and secure, which necessitates a safe and secure digital space. This will remain a focal point throughout the conference. We are in consultation with the industry leaders, educational institutions and trade bodies to discuss the concerns related to cyber security and collectively works towards robust cyber security system. Through GCCS, we would like to show the international community how Indian digital ecosystem is becoming a beacon for development to the rest of the world.

The GCCS 2017 will take place on the 23rd and 24th of November, 2017 in Aero City, New Delhi. Multiple run-up events are planned across India and abroad to create awareness about GCCS 2017, along with 2 days of pre-event activities right before the conference.

GCCS is a prestigious international conference that aims at encouraging dialogue among stakeholders of cyberspace, which has been taking place since 2011. Incepted in 2011 in London, GCCS witnessed a participation of 700 global delegates. It helped in setting up rules and guidelines for the editions to follow. The second conference was held in 2012 in Budapest with focus on relationship between internet rights and internet security and was attended by 700 delegates from nearly 60 countries. The third edition of GCCS was held in 2013 in Seoul with participation from 1600 delegates. The conference built on the themes such as Economic Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Benefits, a Safe and Secure Cyberspace, Cybercrime and International Security.

The fourth version GCCS 2015 was held on April 16-17, 2015 in The Hague, Netherlands. Nearly 1800 members from nearly 100 countries participated in this conference and over 60 countries participated with delegations led at Ministerial level. The conference focused on Freedom, Security and Growth in cyber space. GCCS 2015 was a program designed as high level stock taking exercise and to generate input for other ongoing processes rather than an independent norm setting initiative. The launch of Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) was main deliverable of the conference for capacity building in cyber space.

‘Goal of GCCS 2017 is to promote an inclusive Cyber Space with focus on policies and frameworks for inclusivity, sustainability, development, security, safety & freedom, technology and partnerships for upholding digital democracy, maximizing collaboration for strengthening security and safety and advocating dialogue for digital diplomacy’. It will be an opportunity to showcase the “Digital India” program as a positive, sustainable and scalable model for use of ICTs for addressing developmental challenges and growth opportunities. It can help provide vision of inclusive digital society for inclusive growth, education, healthcare especially for developing world.

The plenary sessions and other activities during GCCS 2017 will be designed around the themes of Cyber4Inclusive Growth, Cyber4DigitalInclusion, Cyber4Security and Cyber4Diplomacy. During various sessions and activities focused around these themes, GCCS 2017 will bring forth the business, empowerment and developmental potential of Cyber space for realizing  the goals of sustainable development.

Cyber security will be one of the major focus areas in GCCS 2017 especially as the central government is in the process of setting up separate sector specific emergency response centres to ensure cyber security and strengthen technology infrastructure. The conference will be an ideal forum for the exchange of ideas with global think thanks and promote closer co-operation among the international community.

GCCS 2017 will be an excellent platform for Industry and its Associations, Civil Society, Academia, Governments and Think-tanks from across the world to deliberate on issues, opportunities and challenges faced in the cyber world and pave the way for a better digital future.  Indian start-ups will also get exposure to the global industry leaders and investors in GCCS 2017 to pitch their ideas through multiple seminars, side events and exhibitions.