World Children's Day was first established in 1954 as Universal Children's Day and is celebrated on 20th November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.
November 20 is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since 1990, World Children's Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the Declaration and the Convention on children's rights.
Africa Industrialisation Day
Within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1991-2000), the United Nations General Assembly, in 1989, proclaimed 20th November as "Africa Industrialisation Day" (A/RES/44/237). Since then, the United Nations System has held events on that day throughout the world to raise awareness about the importance of Africa's industrialization and the challenges faced by the continent.
Since 2018, the Africa Industrialisation Day has been successfully commemorated with weeklong events. The Africa Union Commission hosted the 2020 Africa Industrialisation Week celebrations from on 16-20 November 2020, under the theme "Inclusive and sustainable industrialisation in the AfCFTA and COVID-19 era".
India-Luxembourg Virtual Summit
India and Luxembourg held the first stand-alone summit in two decades.
Both the countries appreciated the launch of four Luxembourg satellites by Indian Space Research Organisation in 2019. India welcomed Luxembourg's decision of joining International Solar Alliance. Luxembourg has agreed to extend its full support to India during its term in United Nations Security Council (2021-22).
Luxembourg is the third largest source of Foreign Portfolios after US and Mauritius. The country accounts to 8.5% of FPI of India.
Nov 19, 2020
World Toilet Day
World Toilet day is an official United Nations international observance day on 19th November.
World Toilet Day celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
On 19th November 2001, the NGO World Toilet Organization (WTO) was founded by Jack Sim, a philanthropist from Singapore. He subsequently declared 19th November as World Toilet Day. The name "World Toilet Day" and not "World Sanitation Day" was chosen for ease of public messaging, even though toilets are only the first stage of sanitation systems.
The theme for the World Toilet Day 2020 is "Sustainable sanitation and climate change".
International Men's Day
International Men's Day is an annual international event celebrated on 19th November. The objectives of celebrating an International Men's Day are set out in 'The Six Pillars of International Men's Day'. It is an occasion to celebrate boys' and men's achievements and contributions, in particular for their contributions to nation, society, community, family, marriage, and childcare.
Every year International Men's Day has a theme and the theme for the International Men's Day 2020 is "Better health for Men and Boys".
Nov 18, 2020
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting
The members of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held a ministerial meeting virtually. During the meeting, the members committed to pursue free and open trade and investment towards the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting was chaired by Malaysia. This ministerial meeting comes ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders Meet that is to be held on November 20, 2020. The Bogor Goals of APEC is one of its flagship initiatives and the deadline set for the goals was 2020.
In 1994, when the leaders of APEC met at the Bogor town of Indonesia, they adopted a long term free and open trade and investment. The deadline to achieve the Bogor Goals was set as 2020. The Bogor Goals did not target specific nations. However, it provided guidance to member countries to implement bilateral, multilateral and unilateral policies. The policies adopted were consistent with the rules of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and also with those of the successors of GATT (of World Trade Organisation).
Twelfth BRICS Summit
During the 12th BRICS Summit, the members adopted counter terrorism strategy. The main objective of the strategy is to deal with terrorism.
The Counter Terrorism Strategy is based on the following principles:
Respect sovereignty of participating countries, commit to international laws, recognise coordinating role of the United Nations, consider member countries' priorities and national interests and adopt comprehensive approach to combat terrorism
The goals adopted in the strategy are: Implement United Nations Security Council resolutions, to broaden counter terrorism operations with G20 and FATF, to counter global threats based on UN Charter and to increase information sharing about terrorist organisations as listed by the UNSC.
Nov 17, 2020
National Epilepsy Day
National Epilepsy Day is observed on November 17 and was originally observed by the Epilepsy Foundation in India to reduce the prevalence of this disease in the country. This day chiefly characterises conducting various seminars, debates, stage events, etc. to create awareness and educate people about the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures of epilepsy.
According to the survey conducted by the World Health Organisation, currently, approximately 50 million people are suffering from epilepsy all over the world.
Nov 15, 2020
Jharkhand Foundation Day
The state of Jharkhand came into existence 20 years ago on 15th November 2000. Bihar was divided and a new state called Jharkhand was created. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee played an important role in its construction. After the creation of the new state, Prabhat Kumar and Babulal Marandi got the privilege of becoming the first Governor and Chief Minister respectively. After the formation of a separate state, the Foundation Day is celebrated every year on 15th November. It has an area of 79,710 km2 (30,778 sq mi). It is the 15th largest state by area, and the 14th largest by population. Hindi is the official language of the state. The city of Ranchi is its capital and Dumka its sub capital.
Jharkhand suffers from what is sometimes termed a resource curse: it accounts for more than 40% of the mineral resources of India, but 39.1% of its population is below the poverty line and 19.6% of children under five years of age are malnourished. Jharkhand like its neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh, is primarily rural with about 24% of its population living in cities. Jharkhand is amongst the leading states in Economic growth as compared to the neighborhood states. In 2017–18, the GSDP growth rate of state was at 10.22%.