Excellence by Saikat Sir: 10/24/20

October 23 is celebrated as World’s Snow Leopard Day every year to protect and conserve snow leopards and other wildlife of the Himalayas.
These are distributed across 12 countries in central Asia and are usually found in high, rugged mountain landscapes at elevations of 3,000–4,500m. Thus they are also called the ‘ghost of the mountains’.

World Polio Day is celebrated on October 24th. World Polio Day was established by Rotary International to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
Thetheme for 2020 is “A win against polio is a win for global health.”

The United Nations’ (UN) World Development Information Day is annually held on October 24 to draw attention of worldwide public opinion to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them.
The main aim of this day is to collect information and mobilize public opinion, especially among new generation, in order to draw their attention and create awareness of the problems surrounding development, promoting efforts in the field of international cooperation for growth and development.

The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945.24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948.
The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and its founding Charter.

AYUSH Minister Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated the Regional Raw Drug Repository at All India Institute of Ayurveda in New Delhi through a virtual function.
This RRDR is the second in the series of repositories proposed by National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB).
AYUSH Ministry has stated that there is an increased demand for the natural healing and herbal products across the globe which has been further pushed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to document the diversity in the genetics and chemistry of medicinal plants, eight RRDR and one NRDR have been proposed by Ministry of AYUSH.
Out of them, three Regional Raw Drug Repositories have already been developed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate three projects, including ‘Kisan Suryodaya Yojana’ for the farmers in Gujarat, via video conferencing.To provide day-time power supply for irrigation, the Gujarat Government under Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had recently announced the Kisan Suryodaya Yojana.
Under this scheme, farmers will be able to avail power supply from 5 AM to 9 PM. The state government has allocated a budget of 3,500 crores for installing transmission infrastructure under this scheme by 2023.The Prime Minister will also inaugurate Paediatric Heart Hospital attached with the UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre and a Mobile Application for tele-cardiology at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.
The UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology is undergoing expansion at the cost of Rs.470 crores. The number of beds will increase from 450 to 1251 after the completion of the expansion project.
The Institute will also become the biggest single super speciality cardiac teaching institute in the country and one of the biggest single super speciality cardiac hospitals in the world. He will launch the Girnar ropeway in which initially, there will be 25-30 cabins, with a capacity of 8 people per cabin.
A distance of 2.3 km will now be covered in just 7.5 minutes through the ropeway. In addition to this, the ropeway will also provide a scenic view of the lush green beauty surrounding the Girnar mountain.

The Indian Railways launched a Freight Business Development Portal amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to boost the freight business. As per a statement, the aim of the new portal is to motivate new customers to transport goods through railways and provide better facilities to existing customers.
The portal, which has been specially designed and developed on the principle of ‘Customer First’, shows the complete timetable of all goods trains, routes, distance from one station to another and freight fares. Stakeholders can also make suggestions and seek help on the portal. Real-time monitoring of all the suggestions received on the portal by Indian Railways has been arranged.
Additionally, it will provide a channel to establish contact with railway authorities and to remove the hassles faced by freight customers. It is also expected that this portal will be divided into division and headquarter business development units to reach potential freight customers.

Europe’s Andorra formally joined the International Monetary Fund, becoming the crisis lender’s 190th member state as the tourism and trade-dependent principality struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.
IMF’s Membership allows the Andorran government to benefit from IMF policy advice, especially as the country tackles the crisis caused by COVID-19 and can now receive an annual review or “health check” of its economy by the IMF, tap technical assistance, and access IMF lending if needed.

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