Daily Current Affairs and GK | 19 November 2021

Topic: Important Days

1. International Men's Day: 19 November

• International Men's Day is celebrated every year on 19 November.
• It is mainly celebrated to protect men from discrimination, exploitation, oppression, violence, and inequality.
• It is celebrated in 80 countries with the support of UNESCO. It is mainly celebrated to create awareness about the health of men.
• International Men's Day was founded in 1999 by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh.
• International Men's Day was first celebrated in India on 19 November 2007.
• The theme of this year’s International Men’s Day is "Better relations between men and women."

Topic: Important Days

2. World Toilet Day: 19 November

• World Toilet Day is celebrated annually on 19 November to aware the world of the global sanitation crisis.
• It will help in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which promises sanitation for all by 2030.
• World Toilet Day was started on 19 November 2001 on the foundation of the World Toilet Organization.
• UN General Assembly adopted the World Toilet Day on 24 July 2013.
• It is celebrated to raise awareness about the benefits of Sanitation and to felicitate districts/states for their contribution towards Swachhata.
• Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without proper sanitation and around 673 million people practice open defecation.
• UN-Water is the official convener of World Toilet Day. This year’s World Toilet Day theme is ‘Valuing Toilets’.

Topic: National News

3. Union Minister Piyush Goyal launches India's first Food Museum in Thanjavur.

• India's first Food Museum has been launched by Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Thanjavur.
• The Food Security Museum showcases India's Agri revolution from dependency to self-sufficiency.
• The food museum has been set up by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) along with the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum of Bengaluru.
• The museum has been set up at a cost of Rs 1.1 crore. The museum will display the grains of India and explain the food culture of the different parts of the world.
• At present, India is the fifth largest agricultural exporter in the world.

Topic: Art and Culture

4. Conservation work of Sabz Burj completed in Delhi.

• Conservation work of the Sabz Burj monument has been completed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
• The Conservation work has been funded by Havells through CSR intervention. The four-year long conservation project restored the tiles of the dome and decorative plaster patterns.

Topic: Books and Author

5. Vice President released the book ‘Srimadramayanam’ in Hyderabad.

• Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu has released the book ‘Srimadramayanam’ in Hyderabad.
• It has been written by Sasikiranacharya. It is about the leadership, good governance, and rule of law of Lord Rama.
• Vice President said that youth should take inspiration from Lord Rama’s life in fulfilling their duty towards the motherland.
• He also stressed on the need to protect one’s mother tongue. He urged people for protecting and promoting Indian languages.
• He also underlined the need to popularize literary works and poetic works of various Indian languages among the youth.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Indian Polity

6. Skin-to-skin contact not essential for POCSO offence: Supreme Court.

• In the landmark verdict, Supreme Court said that sexual intent is the important ingredient of sexual assault under Section 7 of POCSO.
• Supreme Court said that skin-to-skin contact with the victim is not the necessary condition for the sexual assault under POCSO.
• Supreme Court added that mandating 'skin to skin' contact would amount to a narrow and absurd interpretation of the sexual assault.
• The Supreme Court's order came on petitions filed by Attorney General KK Venugopal against the judgment passed by the Bombay High Court.
• Previously, the Bombay High Court in order held that pressing the breast of a 12-year-old child without removing her top will not fall within the definition of 'sexual assault'.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Awards and Prizes

7.  Hema Malini and Prasoon Joshi to be given Indian Film Personality Award for the year 2021.

• Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur has announced that Hema Malini and Prasoon Joshi will be given Indian Film Personality Award for the year 2021.
• The minister said that the award will be given in the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. IFFI will run from 20 to 28 November.
• Hema Malini made her acting debut with the Tamil film Idhu Sathiyam. She entered Hindi cinema as the lead actress of Sapno Ka Saudagar in 1968.
• Prasoon Joshi is a poet, writer, lyricist, screenwriter and communication specialist.
• He entered Indian cinema as a lyricist in 2001 with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja. He got National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice for his work in Taare Zameen Par and Chittagong.
• He was awarded Padma Shri in 2015 for his contributions towards the field of Arts, Literature and Advertising.
• Information and Broadcasting Minister said that Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to two international talents (Istvan Szabo and Martin Scorsese). 
• He said clips of popular series from the over-the-top (OTT) platform will be shown for the first time in the festival.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: State News/Manipur

8. Beryl Thanga receives 12th Manipur State Award for Literature.

• Beryl Thanga received 12th Manipur State Award for Literature for his novel ‘Ei Amadi Adungeigi Ithat’.
• Manipur Governor La. Ganesan conferred the award on 65 year old writer for his novel published in 2015.
• The awardee (Beryl Thanga) was selected for the year 2020 by a Board of Eminent persons set up by the Government.
• The Governor said that Manipuri language is one of the 22 scheduled languages under the Constitution of India.
• It is regarded as the most advanced of the Tibeto-Burmese languages spoken in India.

Topic: National News

9. PM Modi has launched several development projects worth over ₹6250 crores.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the Uttar Pradesh districts of Mahoba and Jhansi and launched multiple development projects worth over Rs 6250 crore.
• Modi has inaugurated a number of projects in Mahoba as part of a major initiative to ease water scarcity in the region and provide help to the state's farmers.
• Arjun Sahayak Project, Ratauli Weir Project, Bhaoni Dam Project, and Majhgaon-Chilli Sprinkler Project are among the projects.
• These projects have a total cost of around Rs 3250 crore and will help irrigate around 65,000 hectares of land in the districts of Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda, and Lalitpur once fully operational, benefiting lakhs of farmers.
• In Garautha, Jhansi, Modi has laid the foundation stone for a 600-megawatt Ultra Mega Solar Power Park. The park is being built at a cost of around Rs 3,000 crore.
• PM has also inaugurated Atal Ekta Park in Jhansi. The park has been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the construction of this park cost around Rs 11 crore and it covers an area of about 40,000 square metres.
• The park has a house library as well as a statue of Vajpayee. The statue has been created by Ram Sutar, the same sculptor who created the Statue of Unity.

(Source: News on Air)

Topic: Important Days

10. Guru Nanak Jayanti 2021: 19 November

• Guru Nanak Jayanti is being celebrated with religious fervour across India and the world on 19 November 2021.
• Guru Nanak Jayanti is also known as Gurpurab.
• It commemorates the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Guru, who created the foundations of Sikhism.
• This year country is celebrating the 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Gurpurab is celebrated with aplomb in Amritsar's Golden Temple.
• Guru Nanak Dev Ji gave the mantra of ‘Ek Onkar’ to his followers, which means to treat all human beings equally without any discrimination. He has also given the message of ‘Naam Japo, Kirat Karo and Vand Chhako’.

(Source: News on Air)

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

11. PM Modi launched Ration Aapke Gram, Sickle Cell Mission for Janjatiya community.

• On the Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas Mahasammelan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the key initiatives for the Janjatiya community.
• The PM launched the 'Ration Aapke Gram' scheme in Madhya Pradesh. He also launched Madhya Pradesh Sickle Cell Mission, and laid the foundation of 50 Eklavya Model Residential Schools.
• ‘Ration Aapke Gram’ scheme has been launched for delivering the monthly quota of PDS Ration to beneficiaries from the janjatiya community in their own villages every month.
• PM Modi also reminded the Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare's contribution in connecting coming generations to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
• Madhya Pradesh Sickle Cell (Hemoglobinopathy) Mission has been launched to screen and manage patients suffering from sickle cell anemia, Thalassemia and other diseases.
• He said that the government has started many initiatives to promote the products of Tribals. Now, more than 90 forest products are being given MSP.

Topic: Banking System 

12. Karnataka Vikas Grameena (KVG) Bank declared Best Regional Rural Bank.

• Karnataka Vikas Grameena (KVG) Bank has been declared as Best Regional Rural Bank (RRB) under ‘Regional Rural Banks Category’ by ASSOCHAM, Mumbai.
• The bank has been declared as Best RRB in recognition of its initiatives in Digital Financial Services.
• R. Gurumurthy, RBI regional director, presented the award to KVG Bank chairman P. Gopi Krishna.
• KVG Bank chairman P. Gopi Krishna said that more than 40 villages had been converted into 100% digital villages by the bank.  In August 2021, KVG Bank had launched FRUITS portal.

Topic: Appointments 

13. Shombi Sharp of the United States appointed as United Nations Resident Coordinator in India.

• Shombi Sharp of the United States has been appointed as United Nations Resident Coordinator in India.
• United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made this appointment on November 15 after consultation with the Government of India.
• Shombi Sharp will serve as a representative of the Secretary-General for development in the country.
• He is 52-year-old American diplomat and a nominee for the United Nations Development Programme Administrator’s Award. He recently served as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Armenia.
• One of the roles of UNRC is to ensure system-wide accountability on the ground and coordinating UN support to countries in their implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Appointments

14.  Sourav Ganguly appointed as ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Chairman.

• Sourav Ganguly has been appointed as ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Chairman.
• He will replace Anil Kumble. Anil Kumble was appointed to the post in 2012.
• ICC Women’s Committee will be now known as the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee.
• Johnny Grave has been appointed to the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee. Johnny Grave is CEO of Cricket West Indies.
• Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja will be a part of the ICC Working Group appointed to review the status of cricket in Afghanistan amid recent political developments.
• Working Group comprises Imran Khwaja (Chair), Ross McCollum, Lawson Naidoo and Raja.