📰 World Toilet Day is observed on 19 November
•World Toilet Day is observed as an official United Nations international day across the world on 19th November 2021. The day is observed to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. The day is observed to inform, engage and inspire people to take action toward achieving the goal of improving sanitation and aims to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. World Toilet Day 2021 theme: “valuing toilets”.
📰 World Antimicrobial Awareness Week: 18-24 November
•World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) is celebrated every year from 18-24 November. The purpose of the week is to increase awareness of global antimicrobial resistance, encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policymakers to avoid the further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.
•World Antimicrobial Awareness Week Theme 2021 is Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance. The theme calls on One Health stakeholders, policymakers, health care providers, and the general public to be Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness champions. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been declared as one of the top 10 global health threats by the World Health Organization (WHO).
📰 National Newborn Week 2021: 15-21 November
•In India, the National Newborn Week is observed every year from 15 to 21 November. The main purpose of the week is to reinforce the importance of newborn health as a key priority area of the health sector and reduce the infant mortality rate by improving healthcare conditions for babies in the neonatal period.
•The theme of National Newborn Week 2021 is ‘Safety, quality and nurturing care – the birthright of every newborn’. In 2014, India became the first country to launch the India Newborn Action Plan (INAP), in alignment with the Global Every Newborn Action Plan towards eliminating preventable deaths of newborns and stillbirths.
📰 552nd Guru Nanak Jayanti is observed on 19 November 2021
•Guru Nanak Jayanti is observed every year as the birth anniversary of the Sikh founder, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. This year marks the 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, also known as Prakash Utsav or Guru Purab, as it marks an important festival for the Sikh community. Guru Nanak is the first of the ten Sikh gurus who is considered as the one who brought enlightenment to the world. He was born in 1469 in a village named Talwandi, which is currently located in Nankana Sahib, Pakistan.
📰 Centre To Roll Back 3 Farm Laws
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that his government will repeal the three contentious agricultural laws and requested protesting farmers to go back to their fields and homes. The announcement came on the Gurupurab/Prakash Utsav festival, when Sikhism founder Guru Nanak’s birthday is celebrated in the country. The decision comes just ahead of state polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh where the farm protests were predicted to dent the BJP’s electoral fortunes. Last year, in September, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent for the three bills passed by the Parliament.
📰 India re-elected to UNESCO Executive Board for 2021-25 term
•India has been re-elected to the Executive Board of UNESCO for the term 2021-25. India received 164 votes to get re-elected to a four-year term of office. Apart from India, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Cook Islands and China have also been elected in Group IV Asian and Pacific States category. UNESCO Executive Board consists of 58 member-states each with a four-year term of office.
📰 PM Modi virtually delivers keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered the keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue, via video conferencing. PM addressed the event on the theme ‘India’s technology evolution and revolution’. The Sydney Dialogue has been organised from November 17-19, 2021 by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
•The event will bring together political, business and government leaders to debate, generate new ideas and work towards common understandings of the opportunities and challenges posed by emerging and critical technologies. The Sydney Dialogue is an annual summit of cyber and critical technologies to discuss the fallout of the digital domain on the law and order situation in the world.
📰 Uttar Pradesh’s first Anti-Air Pollution Tower inaugurated in Noida
•The Union Minister of Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey has inaugurated the first air pollution control tower of the state of Uttar Pradesh in Noida. The Air Pollution Control Tower (APCT) prototype has been developed by state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel). The indigenously developed APCT is set up between the DND flyway and the slip road to Noida Expressway. The tower will help to mitigate the rising air pollution problem in the city.
•The tower will clean the polluted air around it and release purified air. Equipped with intake and exhaust fans, the tower will initially run with the help of electricity. The authority, however, plans to run the tower with the help of solar energy later.
📰 President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurates Adarsh Village ‘Sui’ in Haryana
•The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind visited Sui village in the Bhiwani district of Haryana, to inaugurate various public facilities in the village. This village is being developed as Adarsh Gram (Model village) by Mahadevi Parameshwaridas Jindal Charitable Trust under the Swa-Prerit Adarsh Gram Yojana (SPAGY) scheme of the Haryana Government.
