1) National Youth Day- 12 January
•The National Youth Day has been celebrated every year on 12 January. This is the day when Swami Vivekananda,one of the greatest social reformers, thinkers, and philosophers of India, was born. The Indian government had declared back in 1984 that Swamiji’s birthday would be celebrated as the National Youth Day.
•The main aim behind this is to make sure that the students across the country can be encouraged to learn about the life, the ideas and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and apply them in their lives.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Youth Festival in Greater Noida through Video conferencing. The five-day event will provide a platform to bring the youth of the country together and opportunity to showcase their talents in various activities. The Theme of the Festival is 'Sankalp Se Siddhi'. Culture Minister Dr Mahesh Sharma will be the guest of honour on the occasion.
2) ISRO's Successful Launch of 42nd PSLV
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its 42nd Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The PSLV-C40 is to place 31 satellites, originating from seven countries, across two orbits.
•Its primary payload was the fourth satellite in the advanced remote sensing Cartosat-2 series. The satellite's design life is five years. ISRO successfully sent up a rocket carrying India's 100th satellite along with 30 others.
3) Bhopal Becomes India’s 1st Railway Station to Have ‘Happy Nari’ Pad-Vending Machine
•Bhopal railway station has become the first railway station in the country to have a sanitary napkin vending machine. The machine dispenses two sanitary napkins at the cost of Rs 5 only.
•The sanitary pads vending machine has been named ‘Happy Nari’. This is the first railway station in India to have a sanitary napkin vending machine.
4) 5th Bilateral Meeting Between India and Malaysia Held in New Delhi
•The 5th Bilateral Technical Meeting on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine between Govt. of India and Malaysia was held in New Delhi. It was a part of the agreement signed between both countries in 2010.
•The Meeting had discussed the following agenda:-
1.Establishment of Ayurveda Chair in University of UTAR, Malaysia,
2.Professional training in Panchakarma therapy for Malaysian experts in India,
3.The evaluation of safety and efficacy of combination Ayurvedic/ traditional products for clinical trials.
4.Safety evaluation of Ayurvedic products based on Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)
5.Bilateral MoU between National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH and Malaysia for Cooperation in the field of Medicinal Plants.
5) UN Environment and WHO Agreed to Major Collaboration on Environmental Health Risks
•UN Environment and the World Health Organization have agreed a new, wide-ranging collaboration to accelerate action to curb environmental health risks that cause an estimated 12.6 million deaths a year.
•Mr Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, signed an agreement to step up joint actions to combat air pollution, climate change and antimicrobial resistance, water quality, and food and nutrition issues, in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.
6) India Tops Domestic Air Traffic Demand at 16.4% in November: IATA
•India's domestic air passenger traffic grew by 16.4 percent in November 2017, topping the growth chart worldwide, according to the global aviation body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
•Globally, the total revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) increased 8 percent compared to November 2016. The available seat kilometres (ASKs) or capacity grew by 6.3 percent. The ASK for India was at 10.4 percent, second only to China where capacity grew by 12.9 percent, according to the IATA's monthly data.
