NITI Aayog has recently constituted the Himalayan State Regional Council.
It is to ensure sustainable development of the Indian Himalayan region.
The council is chaired by a member of NITI Aayog.
The members of the council are Chief Secretaries of the Himalayan States as well as the Secretaries of key Central Ministries, senior officers of NITI Aayog as well as special invitees.
It will be the nodal agency for the Sustainable development in the Himalayan Region.
The region consists of the twelve States namely J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, 2 districts of Assam and West Bengal.
It has been constituted to review and implement identified action points based on the Reports of five Working Groups.
It shall monitor the implementation of action points for Central Ministries, Institutions and 12 Himalayan State Governments.
Indian Health Fund
It is an initiative led by Tata Trusts, in collaboration with The Global Fund.
It endeavours to leverage the power of collective impact to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025 and malaria by 2030 from India.
It supplements the government’s efforts to fight the epidemics.
Tata Trusts is a section 8 company registered under the Companies Act, 2013.
The Global Fund is an international financing organisation which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
It focuses on accelerating the additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
India contributes to 27 per cent of the global TB burden and 68 per cent of all malaria cases in the Southeast Asia region.
Recent development – India Health Fund has recently announced that it has chosen 4 innovators to effectively tackle eradicate the diseases.
Draft Resolution on Death Penalty
United Nations General Assembly has recently approved a resolution on death penalty.
It was approved with a recorded vote of 123 in favour, 36 against and 30 abstentions.
India has voted against the draft resolution saying it goes against the statutory law of the country where an execution is carried out in the "rarest of rare" cases.
Singapore has introduced an amendment on behalf of 34 countries.
The amendment reaffirmed the countries' sovereign right to develop their own legal system, including determining appropriate legal penalties, in accordance with their international law obligations.
India voted in favour of this amendment.
Young Champions Award
NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and UNICEF India have announced “Young Champion Award”.
The awards were presented to the top six most innovative solutions which were shortlisted through the Atal Tinkering Marathon.
The marathon was launched by Atal Tinkering Labs established under AIM.
It is a nationwide challenge across 6 different thematic areas - clean energy, water resources, waste management, healthcare, smart mobility and agri-technology.
It is to encourage students to observe community problems and develop innovative solutions.
Sahakar-22
It is a mission launched by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
The objective of the mission is to double the farmers’ income through providing new employment opportunities generated through cooperatives.
It focusses on strengthening the farmers economic condition by augmenting their income and fast track the pace of development in the State.
