National
India’s First-ever SAI National Centre of Excellence
⇒ The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Youth Services and Sports department of the Government of Himachal Pradesh is set to build India’s first-ever SAI National Centre of Excellence to train athletes in Mountain Terrain Biking and Bicycle Motocross in Shimla.
- The NCOE is being set up to provide world-class training facilities to Indian cyclists so that they can compete for the 18 Olympic medals in the disciplines of MTB and BMX.
About SAI National Centre of Excellence:
- NCOE will have the capacity to train around 200 cyclists for Olympic-level preparations.
- This centre, one of the best high-altitude training facilities in the world, at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level.
- It will have world-class infrastructure, a state-of-art sports science high performance centre, Olympic-level track and coaches of international repute, where India’s best cyclists and local sporting talent can train.
- It will be equipped with 1 XCO Olympic level track, 1 training track with specialized features, 1 BMX track, 1 state-of-the-art indoor gymnasium, an indoor setup with virtual trainers, hostel facilities for 100 athletes, coaches and support staff.
- There will be a High-Performance Center for Sports Science with state-of-the art facilities such as indoor recovery pool, stream and sauna, strength and conditioning hall, a biomech lab, physiotherapy, anthropometry.
4th Poshan Pakhwada
⇒ The Ministry of Women and Child Development celebrated the 4th Poshan Pakhwada from 21st March to 4th April, 2022.
Nodal Ministry/Department:
Ministry of Women and Child Development was the nodal Ministry for coordinating activities during the Poshan Pakhwada. In the States / UTs, Department of Women & Child Development / Social Welfare Department was the nodal department for Poshan Pakhwada.
About Poshan Pakhwada:
For the celebration of Poshan Pakhwada, emphasis was on two broad areas within the thematic areas around Poshan MITRA (Modern, IT based, Traditional & Regional Activities).
Two broad areas are:
- Identification & celebration of Healthy Child
- Integration of modern and traditional practices for healthy India
Under the theme for integration of modern and traditional practices, special focus was on the following:
- Measurement of Height and Weight of Children under 6 years who are beneficiaries in the Anganwadi Centres
- Activities focused around Gender Sensitive Water Management and generating awareness in women about the importance of water conservation and promoting rainwater harvesting structures including in Anganwadi Centres
- Test Treat and Talk Anaemia and
- Promote traditional food for healthy mother and child especially in Tribal Areas
» POSHAN Abhiyan launched by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on 8th March 2018 has reached a long way in ensuring wider people’s participation.
Sports
Gainward German Open 2022
⇒ The Gainward German Open 2022 was a badminton tournament held in Mülheim, Germany from 8 to 13 March 2022. The tournament was organized by the German Badminton Association.
- The 2022 German Open was the 4th tournament of the 2022 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour. It was part of the German Open championships, held since 1955.
Winners:
Men’s Singles:
- Winner: Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand)
- Runner up: Lakshya Sen (India)
Women’s Singles:
- Winner: He Bingjiao (China)
- Runner up: Chen Yufei (China)
Important Day
World Tuberculosis Day 2022
⇒ World Tuberculosis Day is observed every year on March 24 to raise public awareness about Tuberculosis (TB).
Theme:
The theme of World TB Day 2022 – “Invest to End TB. Save Lives.” – conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.
History:
- On this day in the year 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacteria that causes TB. It paved the way for diagnosis and cure of this deadly disease.
- World Tuberculosis Day was first celebrated on March 24th, 1982.
Celebrations In India:
» Step-Up to End TB – World TB Day Summit:
In an event to celebrate World TB Day 2022, Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Smt Anandiben Patel virtually inaugurated the “Step-Up to End TB – World TB Day Summit” in presence of Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.
The event aims to reiterate India’s commitment to eliminating the high-burden infectious disease by 2025, five years ahead of the global goal of SDG 2030.
The Summit provided a forum to showcase the National TB Elimination Programme’s learnings and successes and frame it in a manner that inspires more forward-looking policies across infectious diseases, and not just TB alone.
» Data-Driven Research to Eradicate TB:
Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced the launch of Data-Driven Research to Eradicate TB -“Dare2eraD TB” by the Department of Biotechnology, M/o Science & Technology.
Dare2eraD TB is the umbrella TB program of DBT comprising of following key initiatives:
- InTGS – Indian Tuberculosis Genomic Surveillance Consortium;
- InTBK Hub- Indian TB Knowledge Hub- Webinar Series;
- Host Directed therapies against TB and developing an evidence-based regimen for treating extra-pulmonary Tuberculosis.
- InTGS is proposed on lines of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG).
- The InTBK Hub will be a Webinar series starting from World TB Day that will create Academia- Industry connect to discuss challenges and exchange ideas and carry forward open innovations between all TB stakeholders.