• \The Himalaya Sahitya Sanskriti and Paryavaran Manch has decided to honour Dr Krishna Lal Sehgal with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his outstanding contribution to the field of Himachali folk music.
• The honour will be conferred on him at a folk music event in the state capital. “This programme of Himachali folk music will be especially dedicated to Dr Sehgal.
• Sehgal had devoted his whole life to Himachali folk music and was still active at the age of 73 years.
• “He has sung more than 100 of his own compositions through Akashvani, Doordarshan and many other mediums. Many audio and video cassettes of his songs have also been released.
• He has been honoured with the district and state-level honours by many organisations. His book titled ‘Geet Meri Mati Re’ containing folk songs of Sirmaur district in ‘Swaralipi’ was published recently.
• Sehgal was a PhD in vocal music and had obtained the degrees of Sangeet Visharad in Vocaland Instrumentation from Prachin Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, and Sangeet Praveen in Vocal Music from Allahabad.
• Sehgal is one of the top performers of the All India Radio, Shimla, and Doordarshan. He retired as an Associate Professor of Vocals from the Himachal College Cadre in 2008.
• Senior writers who have been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the organisation include Srinivas Shrikant, Dr Mouluram Thakur, Saroj Vashisht, Satyen Sharma, Ramdayal Neeraj, Sundar Lohia, Ramesh Chandra Sharma and Om Prakash Handa.
• This is the first time that the honour will be given to a Pahari folk artiste.

• The record polling percentage of 75.60 in Himachal Pradesh’s recently concluded Vidhan Sabha Elections.
• Despite the two main parties, who were locked in a direct contest for political supremacy in the hill state, claiming victory post-polling, the fact remains that both are apprehensive of the outcome.
• The present polling percentage of votes cast through EVMs stands at 75.6, but with an additional 2 per cent postal ballots yet to be received, this figure is likely to go up further,” said Maneesh Garg, Chief Electoral Officer.
• The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
• Himachal has 68 Assembly segments, including 17 reserved for the Scheduled castes and three for the Scheduled Tribes. Two Independents had won in the 2017 poll.
• Initial reports have indicated that some of these rebels such as Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Indu Verma (Theog), Sanjay Prashar (Jaswan Pragpur), KL Thakur (Nalagarh), Tejwant Negi (Kinnaur), Gangu Ram Musafir (Pachhad) and Jagjivan Pal (Sullah) may win.
• Interestingly, the polling percentage in most of the segments which are witnessing a multi-cornered or triangular contest, invariably due to the presence of a rebel from either of the two parties, has been very high. This is visible in Nalagarh (81.40), Pachhad (78.30), Sundernagar (77.80), Bilaspur (76.48), Arki (75.17), Theog (74.96), Mandi (74.0) and Kinnaur (72.56).
• Former CM Virbhadra Singh had formed a minority government for a mere 18 days with the support of Independent MLA Ramesh Dhawala in 1998. However, Dhawala, a BJP rebel, chose to return to the BJP, resulting in the Congress government falling within a few days.
• Following this, the BJP formed a coalition government with the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), an outfit floated by former Congress leader Sukh Ram. The HVC had managed to win five seats in the 1998 poll and thus helped in formation of the BJP-HVC combine in which Dhawala also became a minister. As such, a situation where Independents could play a crucial role in government formation in case no party gets a clear majority, cannot be ruled out.

• World Pneumonia Day is a global event observed every year on 12 November to spread awareness and educate people to combat Pneumonia disease, which is a world’s biggest infectious killer of adults and children, responsible for the majority of death of children below five around the world.
• The day is also focused on creating ample opportunity and encourage for the global action mainly in the low- and middle-income countries to fight the toll due to pneumonia and other respiratory infection.

Theme 2022:

• This year 2022, World Pneumonia Day theme is based on the Worldwide Pneumonia Awareness Campaign – “Pneumolight 2022”,with a theme and slogan “Pneumonia Affects Everyone”, with an aim to amplify the effect of awareness campaigns by illuminating monuments worldwide.
• This year 2022, with the support of 42 countries 228 monuments will be illuminated to mark the World Pneumonia Day, with an intention to raise visibility of World Pneumonia Day, 2022 globally.

• Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that the Odisha government aims to make Odisha slum-free by the end of 2023. The CM of Odisha has launched a survey using drones to facilitate a process to provide land deeds to slum-dwellers in five municipal areas across Odisha.
• The land survey was taken in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, and Sambalpur civic body areas under the state government’s ‘Jaga Mission program.

Odisha to be made slum-free by 2023 end- Key Points

• Naveen Patnaik has declared Hinjili and Digapahandi towns in the Gajman district as ‘Slum Free’ and dedicated 707 ‘Biju Adarsh Colonies’ in 33 urban areas.
• All the slums in Odisha will be converted into model colonies and Odisha will be made slum-free by December 2023.
• Naveen Patnaik also stated that land rights will be given to 2.5 lakh slum families in the state by the next year.
• The authorities of ‘Jaga Mission’ signed an MoU with Tata Steel Foundation to identify slum dwellers and areas under the jurisdiction of the five municipal corporations for the land survey of Odisha.
• Tata Steel Foundation will provide technical support for the purpose.
• Over 1.70 lakh families of slum areas in 105 cities and towns have so far been given land rights under the program.

About Jaga Mission

• The state government of Odisha launched the Jaga Mission in 2017 and the slum development associations have been assigned to manage the ‘Biju Adarsh Colonies’ a provision has been made to allocate 25 percent of the municipal budget to these bodies for the development of infrastructure.
• Jaga Mission in Odisha will also provide social and economic justice to the poor as they have an equal right to the benefits of development and growth.

• The 16th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Disease and Nutrition (ASCODD) was held at Kolkata.
• Theme: “Prevention and control of cholera, typhoid and other enteric diseases in low and middle-income countries through community participation: beyond the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic”.

Focus Areas:

• Epidemiology of cholera and typhoid
• Roadmap to end Cholera by 2030, Cholera vaccine development and rapid diagnostics,
• Contemporary perspectives of antimicrobial resistance of enteric bacteria: new Initiatives and challenges,
• Enteric bacterial infections, including Shigella spp, epidemiology, burden, and
• vaccines against other viral infections, including Hepatitis,
• Lessons learned about diarrhoea research during the COVID pandemic.

Achievements of India:

• India successfully ran a free vaccination program with record break vaccination of more than 219 crores.
• India provided vaccinations to other nations so that it can win over the pandemic together. Effective use of safe and affordable vaccines,
• Various Health initiatives under Digital India initiative:
  • Online Registration System,
  • eHospital for hospital management,
  • eSanjeevani telemedicine app

Diarrhoea

• Gastrointestinal infection leading to Loose, watery and possibly more-frequent bowel movements
• It is caused by a Variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms, Infection is spread through contaminated food or drinking-water, or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene.
• Associated with other symptoms: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or weight loss.

• Wangala Festival, also known as the festival of ‘100 drums’, is a harvest festival celebrated by the ‘Garo Tribes’ in Meghalaya.

About 

• The Wangala Festival is usually celebrated for two days but sometimes it can also go up to a week. The celebrations include serving local rice beer to the Sun God, dressing up in colourful traditional attires and dancing to the beat of 100 drums.
• The dance form has a popular pattern where two parallel lines are formed, one of the women, and the other of the men. With the beating of the drums, the lines move in rhythm.

History of Wangala Festival

• Wangala Festival is the winter harvesting festival for the people of the Garo Tribe in Meghalaya. During this festival, people pay their respects to ‘Misi Sanljong’ or ‘Pattigipa Ra’rongipa’ or the Sun God!
• The popular belief is that the dance form performed during the Wangala festival was initially performed by water creatures.

Significance of Wangala Festival

• The celebrations of the Wangala Festival honour the Sun God and also mark the end of the long harvest season.
• It also signifies the onset of the winter season. For the Garo tribe in Meghalaya, the festival of 100 drums is also a way of preserving and promoting their cultural identity. They also showcase their culture and traditions to the rest of the world during the Wangala Festival.

• The next round of talks between India and the European Union (EU) on a proposed free trade agreement, which aims at boosting trade and investments between the two regions, is scheduled to start from the end of this month, an official said.
• India and the EU on June 17 this year formally resumed negotiations on the proposed agreement, after a gap of over eight years.
• “The EU delegation will be here on November 28 for the third round of talks for India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement, including the Geographical Indications (GI),” the official said.
• The second round of negotiations were held in Brussels.
• India’s bilateral trade with the EU rose by 43.5 per cent to USD 116.36 billion in 2021-22.
• At present, the EU is India’s second largest trading partner after the US, and the second largest destination for Indian exports.
• According to the commerce ministry, the trade agreement with the EU would help India in further expanding and diversifying its exports of goods and services, including securing the value chains.
• Both sides are aiming for the trade negotiations to be broad-based, balanced, and comprehensive, based on the principles of fairness and reciprocity.
• A GI is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicrafts and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory. Typically, such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness, which is essentially attributable to the place of its origin.

• Astra, a rocket startup based in the US that went public last year, has fired 16 per cent of its staff as part of a wider strategy to increase the shrinking financial runway and decrease expenses.
• According to TechCrunch, the company mentioned that in order to expand its core businesses — namely, launch and spacecraft engines, it would reduce near-term investments in space services.
• With 237 committed orders for its spacecraft engines from companies like Maxar, OneWeb, and Astroscale, which represents an increase of 130 per cent from the previous quarter, Astra reported that this latter segment in particular has become a growing source of revenue.
• Astra is also developing Launch System 2, which includes a new rocket, software suite, and ground system, to replace the lightweight Rocket 3 vehicle, which experienced a number of launch failures this year.
• The company expects to conduct initial flight tests in late 2023, according to the report.
• The layoffs shine an unflattering light on Astra’s quick growth: CEO Chris Kemp told investors during a call that the company tripled in size in just a year, growing to more than 400 people.
• However, the company concluded the quarter with $151 million in cash.
• It reported a net loss of $199.1 million and $2.8 million in revenue from its spacecraft engines. Astra expects payroll savings from the layoffs to be realized in the first quarter of next year, said the report.

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs has planned nationwide celebrations to mark Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas on 15th of November.
• The Union Government has declared 15th November as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas to commemorate the contributions of tribal communities in the nation’s history and culture. It will inspire the coming generations for preservation of cultural heritage and national pride.
• 15th November is the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda who is revered as Bhagwan by tribal communities across the country. Birsa Munda was an iconic freedom fighter, social reformer and revered tribal leader of the country.
• President Droupadi Murmu will garland the statue of Bhagwan Birsa Munda at his birthplace at Ulihatu village.
• The State Tribal Research Institutes are also organizing various events.
• Tribal Freedom Fighters:
• Birsa Munda: 
  • He was born on 15^thNovember 1875. He belonged to the Munda tribe.
  • He spearheaded an Indian tribal religious Millenarian movement during British rule in the late 19^thcentury across the tribal belt of modern-day Jharkhand and Bihar.
• Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh: 
  • He is considered the Pride of Sonakhan in Chhattisgarh, he looted trader’s grain stock and distributed them amongst the poor after the 1856 famine.
  • The sacrifice of Veer Narayan Singh made him a tribal leader and he became the first martyr from Chhattisgarh in the independence struggle of 1857.
• Shri Alluri Seetha Ram Raju: 
  • He was born on 4^thJuly, 1897 in a village called Mogallu near Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh.
  • Alluri is best remembered for leading the Rampa Rebellion against the British in which he organised the tribal people of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts to revolt against the foreigners.
  • He was inspired by the revolutionaries of Bengal to fight against the British government.
• Rani Gaidinliu:  
  • She was a Naga spiritual and political leader who led a revolt against British rule in India. At the age of 13, she joined the Heraka religious movement of her cousin Haipou Jadonang.
  • For her, the Naga people’s journey to freedom was part of India’s wider movement for freedom. She also spread the message of Gandhi ji in Manipur region.
• Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu: 
  • On 30^thJune 1855, two years before the Great Revolt of 1857, two Santhal brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu organised 10,000 Santhals and proclaimed a rebellion against the British.
  • The tribals took an oath to drive away from the British from their homeland. The Murmu brothers’ sisters Phulo and Jhano also played an active part in the rebellion.

• The seventh edition of the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the French Air and Space Force (FASF), ‘Exercise Garuda-VII’ concluded at Air Force Station, Jodhpur.
• In a statement, the Defence Ministry said, that Exercise Garuda-VII provided the two Air Forces with the opportunity for professional interaction and sharing of operational knowledge and experience.
• With meticulous planning and execution of various phases of the exercise, personnel of the IAF and the FASF were exposed to realistic air combat simulations and the associated Combat Support Operations.
• This enabled the participating contingents to engage in wide-ranging interactions, providing valuable insight into each other’s best practices.
• The exercise also provided a platform for cultural exchange between the Air Force personnel of both countries.