CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
Global Handwashing Day
- Global Handwashing Day occurs on 15 October of each year.
- It is an international handwashing promotion campaign to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their handwashing habits.
- The theme of Global Handwashing Day 2020 is ‘Hand Hygiene for All’.
International Day of Rural Women
- International Day of Rural Women celebrated every year on 15 October.
- This day was created in 1995 by Civil society organizations at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and was declared an official UN Day in 2007 by the UN General Assembly.
- The theme for International Day of Rural Women 2020 is “Building rural women’s resilience in the wake of COVID-19.”
World Food Day
- World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
- This year World Food Day marks the 75th Anniversary of the founding of FAO, with a view to looking towards the future we need to build together and the theme “Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future.”
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Cabinet Decisions
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved a Special Package worth Rs. 520 crore in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh for a period of five years till FY 2023-24 and ensure funding of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) in the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh on a demand driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during this extended period.
- Cabinet approved MoU between India and Australia for collaboration in capacity building, research and development and making impact for sustainable groundwater management.
- Implementation of the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project with a total project cost of Rs 5718 crore with the financial support of World Bank amounting to US $ 500 million (approximately Rs. 3700 crore).
Dr Harsh Vardhan launches second phase of “Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna” for underprivileged thalassemic patients
- Union health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, launched the second phase of “Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna” for the underprivileged thalassemic patients, virtually from Nirman Bhawan.
- Launched in 2017, this scheme is a Coal India CSR funded Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) programme that aims to provide a one-time cure opportunity for haemoglobinopathies like thalassaemia and sickle cell disease for patients who have a matched family donor.
- The CSR initiative was targeted to provide financial assistance to a total of 200 patients by providing a package cost not exceeding 10 lakhs per HSCT.
About MoHFW
- Minister of Science and Technology, Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Earth Sciences: Dr. Harsh Vardhan
- Constituency: Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
Foreign Secretary inaugurates 1st edition of Lectures designed to introduce India to foreign diplomats posted in New Delhi
- The first edition of Lectures designed to introduce India to foreign diplomats posted in New Delhi was inaugurated by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
- It has been named as Sushma Swaraj Lectures
- MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated, 45 foreign diplomats are attending the lectures which will give them an introduction to Indian history, polity, culture and economy.
