Ashwini K.P. becomes 1st Indian to be appointed Independent Expert on racism

Ashwini K.P. becomes 1st Indian to be appointed Independent Expert on racism

• The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed the first Asian and first Indian as an independent expert on racism and related intolerance. 
• Dr Ashwini’s appointment has been officially made at the UNHRC’s session which concluded in Geneva on October 7. Three names, including that of Ashwini, were doing rounds for the post. 
• Dr Ashwini will take over the UNHCR special rapporteur in Geneva on November 1 for a period of six years. She is the first Asian as well as the first Indian to be appointed for the post.

India’s first ‘Migration Monitoring System’ inaugurated in Mumbai

• India’s first ‘Migration Monitoring Systems’ was inaugurated by the Maharashtra Women and Children Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha in Mumbai. 
• The website-based Migration Tracking System will track the movement of vulnerable seasonal migrant beneficiaries. 
• The Migration Monitoring Systems aims to provide information about migrant pregnant women, lactating women, and children.
• The system provides updated information about migrant pregnant women, lactating women, and children in a single system.

Burning of fossil fuels killed over 3 lakh Indians in 2020

• An estimated over 3,30,000 people died in India due to exposure to particulate matter from fossil fuel combustion in 2020, says the 2022 report of The Lancet countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels, released on Tuesday.
• The report adds that from 2000­2004 to 2017­2021, heat related deaths increased by 55% in India.
• It also pointed to the fact that governments and companies continue to follow strategies that increasingly threaten the health and survival of people, and future generations.
• The report states that in 2021, Indians lost 16,720 crore potential labour hours due to heat exposure with income losses equivalent to about 5.4% of the national GDP.

YSRCP lawmakers to lobby for Vizag as A.P.’s executive capital

• The ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) is deploying its MLAs, MPs and MLCs to drum up public support in its quest to make Visakhapatnam the executive capital of Andhra Pradesh.
• Visakhapatnam as the executive capital would usher in decentralised development and result in progress of the entire north Andhra region.
• After bifurcation in 2014, then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. He proposed Amaravati as the new capital. Now, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to correct that through the three capitals proposal.

Ram temple will complete; shrine to open in Jan. 2024

• The grand Ram temple in Ayodhya will be opened to devotees in January 2024 after the installation of idols on the festival of Makar Sankranti.
• The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khestra on Tuesday said 50% of the construction work has been completed and the overall progress is satisfactory.
• An estimated ₹ 1,800 crore will be spent on building the temple.
• The Prime Minister had performed the ‘bhoomi pujan’ for the construction of the temple on August 5, 2020. A Supreme Court verdict of November 9, 2019, had paved the way for the construction of the temple.