The Daily Brief – 17th October 2019

Department of Telecommunications along with the Cellular Operation Association of India (COAI) organised the India Mobile Congress, the largest mobile technology event in South Asia, from 14^th to 16^th October, 2019. Being the largest networking event in India, it acts as a platform to spread knowledge about the ongoing research and development in the field. Started in 2017, the event envisions being the “leading platform for India’s start-up and technology ecosystem.”

Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer and Abhijit Banerjee

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer of the United States for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Esther Duflo is the second woman to win this prize after Elinor Ostrom (2009) of US. She is also the youngest-ever to win the prize. Officially known as The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, the award was created by Riksbanken, the Swedish central bank, in 1968.

Kais Saied, the former law professor, has been elected as the new President of Tunisia with 72.71% of votes against Nabil Karoui. The 61-year old Saied is an independent candidate. The poll was the second free Presidential elections in Tunisia since the 2010-11 uprising that toppled long-standing ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The elections followed the death of the first democratically elected President Beji Caid Essebsi in July 2019.

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released its annual report “The State of the World’s Children Report”. The report stated that despite the 40% drop in stunting of children in poor countries between 1990 and 2015, 149 million are still too short for their age. A third of world’s children under the age of 5, which is around 700 million, have nutrition problems. 14.42% of children, under 5 years of age, are obese or overweight. The US tops the UNICEF rankings with 41.86% of children being obese. Japan has the least Infant Mortality Rate.

The International Day of Rural Women is observed every year on 15^th October to recognize the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty. This year, the theme for the day was ‘Rural Women and girls building climate resilience’. The day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 62/136of 18^th December, 2007. The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on 15^th October, 2008.

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan released the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey, conducted by AIIMS, Delhi and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare between 2015 and 2019, at the 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare on 10^th October, 2019. The prevalence of blindness in India is 1.99%. Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh has the highest population suffering from blindness that is around 3.67% of the population is blind while 21.82% suffer visual impairment. India is the first country to launch a National Program for Control of Blindness in 1976.

Priyadarshan, noted director and producer of Malayalam and Hindi films, was conferred the National Kishore Kumar Samman for 2018-19 on 13^th October, 2019, the death anniversary of the playback singer and all-rounder, Kishore Kumar. Instituted by the Madhya Pradesh Department of Culture in 1997, it is awarded for excellence in cinematic achievements. The first recipient of the award was Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1997–98).