1) AAI observes Aviation Safety Awareness Week 2020
•Airports Authority of India (AAI) is observing the Aviation Safety Awareness Week 2020 from 23 November to 27 November 2020. The week-long celebration is being observed at all airports and ANS locations managed by AAI across India. Airport Directors will be organizing awareness programme in school/colleges on the role of local residents in aviation safety to make people of the surrounding community aware of their role in ensuring the safety of aircraft operating in the local airport.
•The Ministry of Civil Aviation aims to achieve long term objective of Zero fatality by the year 2030 as envisaged by ICAO in its Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP-2020-22) through better managed safety systems of stakeholders.
2) National Pharmacy Week 2020
•The 59th National Pharmacy Week (NPW) was celebrated throughout the country from November 16-22, 2020. The theme of the NPW 2020 is “Pharmacists: Frontline Health Professionals”.
•The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) organises NPW during the third week of November every year. The main aim to this week is to make all stakeholders aware of the presence of pharmacists in the society and to know the role played by registered pharmacists with respect to medicines, their usage, handling and dispensing.
3) India to host G-20 Summit in 2023
•India will host the Summit of the G20 Group in 2023. India was earlier slated to host the summit in 2022. India and Indonesia have swapped their respective hosting year of G20 as Indonesia would also chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2023. However, now the G20 Summit be hosted by Italy in 2021, Indonesia in 2022, India in 2023 and Brazil in 2024.
4) Malaysia hosted 2020 APEC Summit
•The 2020 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Malaysian Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. This was the first time that all 21 APEC Economic Leaders met virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The APEC 2020 ended with the adoption of the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 and the 2020 Kuala Lumpur Declaration. The APEC Summit 2021 will be hosted by New Zealand. This is the second time Malaysia hosted an APEC meeting, having hosted one in 1998.
•The theme of the APEC Malaysia 2020 was “Optimising Human Potential Towards a Resilient Future of Shared Prosperity: Pivot. Prioritise. Progress”.
5) India-Singapore Maritime Exercise SIMBEX-20
•The 27th edition of India – Singapore Bilateral Maritime Exercise SIMBEX-20 has been organised from 23 to 25 November 2020 in the Andaman Sea. Indian Navy (IN) is the host for the 2020 edition of SIMBEX. The SIMBEX series of exercises are being held between the Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), annually since 1994. The exercise aims at enhancing mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices from each other.
•From the Indian side, destroyer Rana with integral Chetak helicopter and indigenously built corvettes Kamorta and Karmuk, IN submarine Sindhuraj and P8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft will participate in the exercise. RSN will be represented by the ‘Formidable’ Class frigates ‘Intrepid’ and ‘Steadfast’ with integral S70B helicopter and ‘Endurance’ Class Landing Ship Tank ‘Endeavour’ in the exercise.
6) 1st cow hospital of Northeast inaugurated in Assam
•A cow shelter in Assam’s Dibrugarh inaugurated Northeast’s first-ever cow hospital, on the occasion of Gopashtami. The hospital, Surbhi Aarogyashala, is set up by Shree Gopal Gaushala at a cost of Rs 17 lakh. The hospital will provide services in 30 km radius. There are 368 cows in the shelter.
7) ISRO Chairman K Sivan receives Doctor of Science Honorary Doctorate
•Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala presented Doctor of Science honorary doctorate upon ISRO Chairman K Sivan. The Visvesvaraya Technological University has conferred the doctorate to him. The Governor highly praised the role of ISRO in defining our Space programme and the social role that it has played in the country.
