Lonar Lake and Keetham lake of India added to Ramsar sites

NATIONAL NEWS

Lonar Lake and Keetham lake of India added to Ramsar sites

• The Lonar Lake in Maharashtra and Keetham Lake in Uttar pradesh added to the Ramsar sites, reveals the Union Minister of Environment.
• A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
• The Ramsar convention is for the convention on wetlands, an intergovernmental environmental treaty signed in 1971 by UNESCO to preserve the ecological character of wetlands which of international importance.
• Lonar Lake in Buldana District of Maharashtra is the only crater lake of the country and Keetham Lake is a sur sarovar (scenic lake) in Uttar Pradesh.
• There are totally 2400 Ramsar sites around the world.

Fact: UNESCO headquarters - Paris, France

         Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change – Prakash Javadekar

Nitish Kumar to be sworn-in as Chief Minister of Bihar for the 7th term

• Nitish Kumar is to be sworn-in as Chief Minister of Bihar for the seventh term.
• He was unanimously elected leader of the NDA at a meeting of its newly elected MLAs in Patna.
• The NDA secured absolute majority by winning 125 seats in the recently held Bihar Assembly elections.

Fact: Governor of Bihar - Phagu Chauhan

PM Modi to unveil ‘Statue of Peace’ to mark 151st birth anniversary of Jainacharya Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil ‘Statue of Peace’ to mark the 151st Birth Anniversary celebrations of Jainacharya Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj virtually.
• The 151 inch tall statue has been made from Ashtadhatu - 8 metals, with Copper being the major constituent.
• The statue is installed at Vijay Vallabh Sadhana Kendra, Jetpura, in Pali, Rajasthan.
• Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj who lived during 1870-1954, led an austere life as a Jain Saint.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

8th BRICS STI Ministerial Meeting held virtually

• The 8th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial meeting held virtually to discuss Science & Tech cooperation among the member countries.
• The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia organized the meeting, Russian Federation being the Chair for 12th BRICS Summit.
• The BRICS STI Declaration 2020 was unanimously adopted at the meeting.
• Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan represented India at the meeting.

Fact: BRICS member countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa

Bangladeshi teen wins International Children’s Peace Prize

• A Bangladeshi teen Sadat Rahman has been awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize for his work to stop cyber bullying of teens.
• The prize given away by the international children’s rights organization KidsRights to a child who fights courageously for children’s rights.
• He has created the anti-cyber bullying app ‘Cyber Teens’ to help teenagers who are sufferers of cyber bullying.
• KidsRights launched the prize during the 2005 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome, chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party wins majority in Myanmar election

• Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party wins majority in the General Election 2020 and forms the government for the second term.
• Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's first term as the first State Counsellor of Myanmar.
• Suu Kyi's National League has won 346 seats of the total 412 seats that have been declared.

Fact: Capital of Myanmar – Naypyitaw

AWARDS & HONOURS

Doreen Malambo wins UN Woman Police Officer award for 2020

• Chief Inspector Doreen Malambo, gender adviser at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has won the prestigious UN Woman Police Officer of the year award for 2020.
• Malambo, is from Zambia and spent 24 years with her country’s police service, has been posted with UNMISS since 2019.
• The UN Woman Police Officer of the Year award was established in 2011 to recognize the exceptional contributions that women police officers make to UN peace operations and to promote the empowerment of women.

OBITUARY

Actor Soumitra Chatterjee passes away at 85

• Legendary Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee passed away on Sunday afternoon after battling with COVID-19.
• The Dadasaheb Phalke award-winning actor is best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films.
• Soumitra Chatterjee is also the first Indian film personality conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest award for artists.