13th BRICS Urbanisation Forum
Context: The 13th BRICS Urbanisation Forum was inaugurated under India’s BRICS Chairship in 2026, hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
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- The Forum’s theme is “Cities for People: BRICS Cooperation for Inclusive and Resilient Urban Futures.”
- India is hosting the BRICS Urbanisation Forum for the fourth time, after editions in New Delhi (2013), Visakhapatnam (2016), and virtually (2021).
- India released a publication titled “India’s Urban Transformation: Stories of Change” during the inaugural session.
- A bilateral meeting between India and Russia discussed a proposed MoU on Sustainable Urban Development, covering urban planning, affordable housing, and municipal infrastructure.
About BRICS
- BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies, currently comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and UAE.
- India holds the BRICS Chairship in 2026.
BRICS Agriculture Ministers Conference 2026
Context: The two-day BRICS Agriculture Ministers Conference commenced in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, under India’s BRICS Chairship in 2026.
India’s Agricultural Achievements
- India’s agriculture sector registered an average annual growth of nearly 4.5% over the last decade.
- Total foodgrain production reached nearly 376 million tonnes (MT).
- Wheat production reached close to 118 million tonnes.
- Horticulture production crossed 378 million tonnes.
- Fish production exceeded 19 million tonnes.
- Approximately 43% of India’s workforce is associated with agriculture and allied sectors.
- Nearly 87% of India’s farmers belong to the small and marginal farmer category.
Key Government Initiatives Highlighted
- PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana provides direct financial assistance to crores of farmers.
- Kisan Credit Card and crop insurance programmes provide financial security to cultivators.
- Drone Didi initiative is enabling women to access modern agricultural technologies in rural India.
- Khet Bachao Abhiyan, launched from Madhya Pradesh, provides scientific guidance for natural farming at the grassroots level.
DigiDukaan
Context: DPIIT and ONDC convened a CPG Roundtable: Bharat Commerce Chintan Shivir on June 12, 2026 to discuss digital transformation of India’s General Trade ecosystem through DigiDukaan.
About DigiDukaan
- DigiDukaan is an ONDC initiative aimed at digitising kirana stores for B2B procurement across India.
- ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) is an open digital infrastructure initiative under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- India’s General Trade ecosystem comprises over 1.4 crore kirana stores, accounting for nearly 75 to 80% of FMCG sales.
- It enables kirana stores to improve margins through direct procurement, better scheme visibility, improved fill rates, and enhanced working capital management.
- For distributors, it facilitates wider market reach through order and collection digitisation without additional field costs.
- For brands, it provides direct access to retailer demand signals and more effective scheme deployment and tracking.
MoU on Leather and Footwear Sector
Context: The Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) signed an MoU to strengthen the quality, testing, accreditation, and skilling ecosystem in India’s leather and footwear sector.
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- The partnership covers key footwear clusters: Agra, Bahadurgarh, Ranipet, Chennai, Calicut, and Kanpur.
- The MoU envisages a multi-level worker assessment and personal certification framework, including Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pathways for semi-skilled and experienced workers.
- QCI will provide technical guidance on accreditation, quality management systems, and support awareness initiatives for MSMEs.
- FDDI will lead cluster-specific skilling and training programmes and support establishment of sample collection centres in underserved clusters.
About Quality Council of India (QCI)
- QCI is an autonomous, non-profit national accreditation body established in 1996 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
- It operates as a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
- DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry serves as the nodal department for QCI.
- It accredits laboratories, certification bodies, inspection agencies, medical labs, and testing facilities as per global norms.
- It leads the National Quality Campaign to empower citizens to demand quality goods and services.
Varya: An Indigenous AI Video Generation Model
Context: Avataar.ai launched Varya, India’s first indigenous AI video generation model, developed with support from the IndiaAI Mission under MeitY.
About Varya
- Varya is a distilled video model developed by Avataar, an AI-native company selected by the IndiaAI Mission to build indigenous foundation AI capabilities.
- It uses a distillation technique that reduces video generation from 50 steps to just 4 steps, making it 10 times more cost-efficient than leading global models.
- It can generate video at ₹0.48 per second, making high-quality AI video generation affordable at population scale.
- It is designed to generate culturally rich visual outputs across India’s regions, festivals, communities, and everyday life.
About Distilled Video Generation
- Distillation is a model compression technique where a compact “student” model replicates outputs of a larger “teacher” model, eliminating redundant computation.
- Standard video models iterate through over 50 noisy steps; distillation enables the student model to deliver comparable quality in just a few steps.
About IndiaAI Mission
- The IndiaAI Mission is an initiative under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to build indigenous foundation AI capabilities in India.
- It provides access to subsidised national AI compute infrastructure to support homegrown AI innovation.
