1.National Education Day on November 11, the birth
anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to honor his contributions to
education in India. He served as the first Minister of Education of
independent India. Azad was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1992 for his contributions
towards the field of education.
2. India is likely to press Biden Administration for early
restoration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade privilege for
India. It is a U.S. trade program designed to promote economic
growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry for
up to 4,800 products from 129 designated beneficiary countries and territories.
The objective of GSP was to give development support to poor countries by
promoting exports from them into the developed countries.
3. Jharkhand government has passed a resolution to send the
Centre a letter to recognise Sarna religion and include it as a separate
code in the Census of 2021. It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire
country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a
code.
4. The government has brought “Over the Top” (OTT)
platforms or video streaming service providers under the ambit of
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This will give the government control
over the OTT platforms, which were unregulated till now. Currently, there
is no law or autonomous body governing digital content. An “over-the-top” media
service is any online content provider that offers streaming media as a
standalone product.
5. Madhya Pradesh’s Panna National Park has been
declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The UNESCO’s recognition cited PTR
as a critical tiger habitat.The idea of the biosphere reserve was
initiated by UNESCO in 1974 under the MAB with the objective of
obtaining international cooperation for the conservation of the biospheres. Launched
in 1971, UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an
Intergovernmental Scientific Programme that aims to establish a scientific
basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their
environments. The first of India’s reserves to make it to UNESCO’s list
was Tamil Nadu’s Niligiri Biosphere Reserve in 2000. Ken-Betwa river
interlinking project will be located within the tiger reserve.
6. India has made significant progress in its vaccination
coverage to prevent child pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths. India has also
completed the “100-day agenda” — an unprecedented national scale-up
of rotavirus vaccine. This landmark vaccine expansion will help protect 26
million children born each year against life-threatening cases of rotavirus
diarrhoea.
7. India and ASEAN countries said they would explore ways to
increase trade between them despite India’s exit from the 15-nation
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. The Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a free trade agreement originally
devised to consist of 16 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. The
pact looks to drop tariffs and duties between the members so that goods and
services can flow freely between them.
8. Indian Navy’s fifth Kalvari-class Diesel Electric
attack submarine INS Vagir was launched recently at Mazgaon Dock in
Mumbai. This class of submarines have Diesel Electric transmission systems and
these are primarily attack submarines or ‘hunter-killer’ type which
means they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.They can be
used in anti-warship and anti-submarine operations, intelligence gathering
and surveillance and naval mine laying.
9. 2018 report on “Vital statistics of India based on the
Civil Registration System”: The report was published recently by the
Registrar-General of India. It throws light on Sex Ratios of various
states in the country. State with best Sex Ratio: Arunachal Pradesh
(1084). Worst: Manipur (757).
10. The European Space Agency (ESA) has formally
adopted Ariel. Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet
Large-survey) will be launched in 2029. Ariel is the first mission of
its kind dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures
of hundreds of exoplanets.
11. PM Narendra Modi unveils `Statue of Peace` in Rajasthan.
To mark the 151st Birth Anniversary celebrations of Jainacharya Shree
Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj.