• Indian Navy (IN) Ships including indigenously built ASW corvette Kamorta and missile corvette Karmuk are participating in the 2nd edition of India, Singapore and Thailand Trilateral Maritime Exercise SITMEX-20, from 21 to 22 November 20 in Andaman Sea.
• The first edition of SITMEX, hosted by Indian Navy, was conducted off Port Blair in September 2019.
• The SITMEX series of exercises are conducted to enhance mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices between IN, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and Royal Thai Navy (RTN).
• The exercise, being conducted as a ‘non-contact, at sea only’ exercise in view of COVID-19 pandemic, highlights growing synergy, coordination and cooperation in the maritime domain between the three friendly navies and maritime neighbours.
• The two days of maritime drills will witness the three navies participate in a variety of exercises including naval manoeuvres, surface warfare exercises and weapon firings.
• Besides improving inter-operability between the friendly navies, SITMEX series of exercise also aim to strengthen mutual confidence and develop common understanding and procedures towards enhancing the overall maritime security in the region. 

• On November 24, China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission will become the first probe in over four decades to bring back samples of lunar rock from a previously unexplored portion of the Moon.
• Early in 2019, China’s Chang’e-4 probe had successfully transmitted images from the far side of the Moon, also referred to as the dark side.
• This was the first probe to land in this portion of the Moon.

Chang’e-5 mission

• Chang’e-5 probe, which is named after the Chinese Moon goddess who is traditionally accompanied by a white or jade rabbit, is the Chinese National Space Administration’s (CNSA) lunar sample return mission that is set to launch on November 24 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island in China.
• The goal of the mission is to land in the Mons Rumker region of the moon, where it will operate for one lunar day, which is two weeks long and return a 2 kg sample of the lunar rock possibly by digging about 2 metres deep into the surface of the Moon.

• Protests were started in Thailand in July this year, seeking the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and demanding reform of the Thai monarchy.
• A large yellow rubber duck has now become a symbol of Thailand’s protest.
• The inflatable ducks had initially been brought out onto the streets as a joke and to mock the government and the monarchy.
• But they took on a new role as the Thai government’s crackdown on the protests intensified. 
• The protestors had used these ducks as shields and advanced towards police lines when police forces began firing water cannons. 
• Thai social media users around the world have also taken to various platforms to share content related to the protests using the hashtag #RubberDuck.

• Recently Bhutan’s Queen Mother Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck has been awarded the United Nations Population Award in the individual category for 2020 for her work on sexual health and ending gender violence.
• She founded a volunteer organisation called ‘Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women’ (RENEW).
• The awardee in the organisational category is HelpAge India that works on elder care.

United Nations Population Award

• It is an annual award, it honours an individual and/or institution in recognition of outstanding contributions to population and reproductive health questions and to their solutions.
• It consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a monetary prize.
• The Award was established by the General Assembly in 1981, in resolution 36/201, and was first presented in 1983.
• The Committee for the United Nations Population Award is comprised of 10 UN Member States, with United Nations Secretary-General and UNFPA Executive Director serving as ex-officio members.
• Nominations for the award are accepted through 31 December of each year.

Indian awardees

Only two Indians have been awarded in the past four decades since the award was established, they are

1. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983.
2. Industrialist-philanthropist J.R.D.Tata in 1992.

Averting a lost COVID generation Report

• Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has released the report “Averting a lost Covid generation”.
• It is the first UNICEF report to comprehensively outline the dire and growing consequences for children as the pandemic goes on.
• It shows that while symptoms among infected children remain mild, infections are rising and the longer-term impact on the education, nutrition and well-being of an entire generation of children and young people can be life-altering.

The report highlight are as follows

1. Children and adolescents account for 1 in 9 reported Covid-19 infections.
2. It estimated that a third of the countries analysed, witnessed a drop of at least 10% in coverage of health services and there was a 40% decline in the coverage of nutrition services for women and children across 135 countries.
3. 65 countries reported a decrease in-home visits by social workers in September 2020, compared to 2019.
4. According to ICMR 11.89% of Covid-19 cases in India are in under 20.
5. 1.5 million School closures have impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education and 28 million children who were attending pre-school education in Anganwadi Centres.
6. An estimated 20 million children under 5 years of age are suffering from wasting (low weight for height), over 40 million children are chronically malnourished and more than half of the Indian women aged 15-49 years are anaemic.
7. The pandemic has further exposed the fragility of children, less by the virus itself but much more by the indirect and long-term fallout.
8. Covid-19 poses a grave threat to the gains made by India in the Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) which saw improvements in recent years.