Notes:
The Nordic-Baltic embassies will host the first-ever Nordic-Baltic Youth Film Festival in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi from November 13-18, 2017. The festival will offer a diverse mix of some of the most celebrated and Oscar nominated movies from the Nordic-Baltic region. This platform offers a great opportunity for Nordic-Baltic countries to reflect on the similarities and appreciate their differences. It will also prove to be a platform to enhance people-to-people relations and share the thrill, excitement and experience of watching films together. The Nordic-Baltic countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, or NB8 — are tied together geographically and historically through trade, culture and many common yet diverse value systems.

Notes:
Dr. Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser for Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has been awarded with National Entrepreneurship Award, 2017 under Mentor (Government) category in the Recognition Track at the National Entrepreneurship Award Ceremony, 2017 in New Delhi. Dr. Swarup also holds position of Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Company.

Notes:
The third edition of international film festival “Russian Film Days” has started at Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi on November 10, 2017 with a special tribute to Raj Kapoor. It is an initiative to strengthen the Indo-Russian relationship through cinematic and cultural exchange. During the festival over the course of three days, Delhi movie-goers will be able to watch ‘The Bolshoi’, ‘The Ghost of Sonora’, ‘Yana + Yanko’, ‘Kitchen: World chef battle’, and ‘Attraction’ at DT Cinemas in Saket. This year the event expanded its borders and will be held in three major cities—Delhi, Mumbai and Panaji (Goa).The festival will come to an end in Delhi on November 12 before moving to Mumbai. It will conclude at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji, Goa from November 20.

Notes:
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is an apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India. Its headquarters is located in New Delhi. Recently, it is in news because Consumer Affairs Ministry led-Price Stabilization Fund Management Committee (PSFMC) has decided to import onions through government agency to augment the availability of onions in market and moderate prices in New Delhi. In it, Consumer Affairs Secretary Avinash Srivastava stated that NAFED will procure 10 thousand tonnes and the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) two thousand tonne of onions from producing areas and supply it to consuming areas to enhance its availability.

Notes:
As many as 64 cities from 44 countries have been designated as UNESCO Creative Cities by its Director General Irina Bokova. In it, Chennai has been included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for its rich musical tradition. Some of the other cities included along with Chennai are Alba (Italy), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Auckland (New Zealand), Cairo (Egypt), Cape Town (South Africa), Manchester (UK), and Milan (Italy). With this, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network now counts a total of 180 cities in 72 countries. From India, Jaipur and Varanasi are the other Indian cities that feature on the list.

Notes:
The IDFC Bank has entered into a strategic alliance with mobile wallet major MobiKwik to launch a co-branded virtual Visa prepaid card for customers of MobiKwik. The customers of MobiKwik can generate a 16-digit Visa virtual card through the app and use it for e-commerce and online transactions. In it, one need not be a customer of IDFC Bank to use the co-branded pre-paid card. This pre-paid card will now allow MobiKwik users to shop from Amazon or Flipkart where currently MobiKwik wallet use is not allowed. This Visa pre-paid card is replica of the wallet and can be used anywhere.

Notes:
The Udaypur Wildlife Sanctuary (UWS) is located in West Champaran district of Bihar and covers an area of 8.74 square kilometres. It is home to a variety of water birds, both resident and migratory. The sanctuary has areas of swamp forest, dry riverine forest, and khair-sissoo forest. It is in the Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests eco-region.

Notes:
The 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit has started in Danang, Vietnam with theme “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future” on November 10, 2017. The 2-day summit will gives an opportunity to tout the benefits of global free trade. The 2017 summit will highlight Vietnamese culture, as well as represent the five components, which are as follows: Dynamism, creativity, action, unity, and movement to the future.

Notes:
The India Disaster Response Summit has inaugurated by Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, in New Delhi on November 9, 2017. The summit is jointly organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Facebook to leverage social media platforms to ‘prepare, respond and recover’ for, during and after natural disasters in India. Facebook will now share its disaster maps, developed using aggregated, de-identified data, with NDMA. These maps can aid swift disaster response by providing real-time, actionable information. The Disaster Information Volunteers (DIV) programme, which is being executed by SEEDS, will establish a network of volunteers to provide real-time, first-hand information on disasters in their local communities. The programme will be piloted in two disaster prone states — Assam and Uttarakhand.

Notes:
The 39th session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was held in Paris, France. In it, India has been re-elected as the member of the UNESCO’s executive board, its top decision-making body. The General Conference consists of the representatives of the States Members of the organisation. It meets every two years, and is attended by Member States and Associate Members, together with observers for non-Member States, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Each country has one vote, irrespective of its size or the extent of its contribution to the budget. The General Conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the organisation.