India joins the World to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

Shankar School of Banking January 29 , 2021 766

NATIONAL NEWS

The Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) India Forum 2021, organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in a virtual format, concluded on the January 28, 2021.
The NCAVES India Forum will be organized in collaboration with United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), European Union and UN Environment.
The main objectives of this National Forum were:
- To present India’s achievements in the domain of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA)
- To prioritize the emerging opportunities for NCA in India
- To familiarize stakeholders with the work undertaken by the different international agencies in the area of NCA.
- To provide a platform to selected Research Institutions to present their research conducted in the valuation of ecosystem services.

India joins the world to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases on World NTD Day.
January 30, 2021 will mark the second annual World NTD Day, highlighting the global community’s commitment to ending Neglected Tropical Diseases that cause immeasurable suffering among the world’s most marginalized communities.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) can be defined as a diverse group of communicable diseases that prevail in tropical and subtropical conditions.
Ascariasis, Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dracunculiasis, hookworm infection, human African trypanosomiasis, Leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and trichuriasis are the 13 NTDs.
In 2014, Ebola was officially tagged as the Neglected Tropical Disease.

National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI), a Public Sector Enterprise under National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), celebrated 25 years of its establishment on 28^th January 2021.
During the celebration event, Union Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launched: TEJAS - A Visual Intelligence Tool, e-Auction India, Work from AnyWhere - Portal and NIC Products Portfolio.
NICSI was established in 1995 as a company under National Informatics Centre, for providing and procuring IT solutions for multiple e-governance projects undertaken by NIC, MeitY, Governments and Government Organizations.

Minister for Environment,Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar and Ms Barbara Pompili, the French Minister for Ecological Transition launched the Indo-French Year of the Environment in New Delhi ON January 28, 2021.
The basic objective is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development, increase the effectiveness of actions in favor of global environment protection and give them greater visibility.
The Indo-French Year of the Environment over the period 2021-2022 would be based on five main themes:
- environmental protection
- climate change
- biodiversity conservation
- sustainable urban development
- development of renewable energies and energy efficiency

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the World Economic Forum’s Davos Dialogue on 28^th January 2021, via video conferencing.
PM Modi delivered his speech on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution- using technology for the good of humanity”.
This is the 51^st annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The theme of the annual meeting was announced as ‘The Great Reset’
The Great Reset Initiative is the 50th annual meeting of WEF that was organised in June 2020. The initiative had brought together the high profile political and business leaders who were convened by WEF and Prince of Wales.

Facts on WEF:

PM paid tributes to Lala Lajpat Rai on his Jayanti on 28 JAN 2021.
Rai was a prominent, leading freedom fighter who had led a silent protest march against the Simon Commission in 1928.
Lala Lajpat Rai was a follower of Dayanand Saraswati and helped establish the nationalistic Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School.
He was also called as “Punjab Kesari”.
He was the founder of a bank, which is now known as the Punjab National Bank.

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