Approximately 2 billion people lack safe drinking water, and 3.6 billion people use poor sanitary services. 

With the increase in preventable illnesses due to poor WASH facilities; the rise in cholera outbreaks in recent times, WHO and UNICEF have come up with the United Nations Water Conference in New York from 22- 24 March 2023.  

The conference will focus on the impact of safely managed water supply, sanitation, and proper hygiene on health.  

The event will explore ways in which WASH and health sectors can work to bridge the gap and coordinate toward development in their fields. 

The meeting proceedings will be presented at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).

Flooding caused by cyclone Freddy caused massive disruption of critical services. 

Active cholera cases are increasing rapidly due to a lack of safe water and sanitation facilities.  More than 2300 cases were reported in the last week.

A total of around 10700 since early February. 36 districts across eight provinces of Mozambique reported outbreaks. There is a high risk of outbreaks of other waterborne illnesses, malaria, etc. UNICEF and other civil support groups have supplied water storage and treatment supplies, hygiene kits, soaps, and disinfectants. 

The "Global task force on Cholera control" aims to reduce cholera deaths by 90% and eliminate disease transmission by 2030 in many countries.

According to a recent UNICEF assessment, 190 million children in ten African countries are most at risk from the combination of three water-related threats: insufficient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); related illnesses; and climate dangers.  

The global analysis done by UNICEF identifies the greatest threats to children and the areas in which remedies are desperately required to avert needless deaths.  

Across these 10 countries, nearly one-third of children do not have access to at least basic water at home, and two-thirds do not have basic sanitation services. 

A quarter of children have no choice but to practice open defecation.  

Three-quarters of children cannot wash their hands because of a lack of water and soap at home.

A new variant of the COVID-19 virus has been linked to a major spike in new cases worldwide and in India. 

XBB.1.16 is a descendant of the XBB.1 variant, which was first detected in the U.S. on September 15th, 2022. 

XBB is a combination of two different strains of Omicron and holds the title of the most immune-evasive variant so far.

It escapes antibody immunity, rendering useless monoclonal antibody treatments used in high-risk individuals with COVID. 

A total of 76 samples of the XBB.1.16 variant have been found across the country including states like Karnataka (30), Maharashtra (29), Puducherry (7), Delhi (5), Telangana (2), Gujarat (1), Himachal Pradesh (1) and Odisha (1). 

The XBB.1.16 variant was first found in India in January.

 From March, till now, 15 new cases have been linked to this variant as per the data by INSACOG.

Mozambique has been facing a cholera outbreak since September 2022.

As of 18 March 2023, nearly 10,000 cases had been reported, more than tripling case reports since early February.  

Cholera has already claimed more than 1,660 lives in Malawi.  

Almost 2.5 lakh children under five years of age are expected to be acutely malnourished, with over 62,000 expected to be severely malnourished. Severely malnourished child - 11 times more likely to die from cholera. 

UNICEF is urgently calling for funding of US$155 million to respond to the impacts of flooding and cholera in the region. Even prior to the cyclone, Malawi and Mozambique were most seriously affected by the cholera outbreak that has, this year alone, resulted in more than 68,000 cases across 11 countries in Africa.

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Partnership for Healthy Cities, a global network of 70 cities committed to preventing non-communicable diseases and injuries held its first-of-a-kind summit hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Health Organization, Vital Strategies, and Mayor Sadiq Khan of London. 

The summit proclaimed the various prevention strategies of local public health policy-making and implementation to prevent the risk factors of NCDs. 

Five cities received US$ 150,000 to advance their work in the partnership: Athens, Greece - for overdose prevention; Montevideo, Uruguay - for food policy; Mexico City - for road safety; Vancouver, Canada - for surveillance; Bengaluru, India- for tobacco control. 

The summit recognized the sustained efforts of the city to decrease smoking in public spaces and enforce the existing mandates.

According to PLFS Reports, the estimated unemployment rate (UR) for people with graduate degrees who are 15 or older was 17.2%, 15.5%, and 14.9% during 2019–20, 2020–20, and 2021–22, respectively. 

This data illustrates a declining trend in the UR for people with graduate degrees.  

With effect from 1st October 2020, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) was introduced to encourage employers to create new jobs and replace those lost due to the Covid-19 epidemic.  

The "National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)" is implemented to increase the employability of young people. Under this program, the government reimburses apprentices for 25% of their monthly stipend.  

The Government has brought in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS), and more programs to improve the employability of youth.

A new rise in COVID-19 cases is being observed all over the country in the past few days. As many as 900 cases have been detected in the country in a single day. 

According to MoHFW, as of 21st March 2023, there are 6559 active cases of COVID-19 in the country out of which 699 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours. 

Similarly, on 20th March 2023, 918 new cases were recorded. The daily positivity rate is 0.71% whereas the current Recovery Rate is 98.79%. 

The maximum number of active cases is in Kerala (1796) followed by Maharashtra (1308) and the new variant is being considered the cause of this increase. 

The government has come up with new guidelines for prevention and containment and is encouraging the population to follow COVID-appropriate behavior which would be important to avoid a new wave of COVID-19 disease.

The Labour 20 (L20) engagement group’s inception meeting, as part of India’s G20 presidency, today began deliberations in Amritsar, Punjab.

Trade union leaders, labour studies experts, and delegates from 20 nations at the Labour20 inception meeting.  

National President Shri C. K. Saji Narayanan said that the economic crisis adversely impacts women the most, and hence the future of work depends majorly on the women's workforce.

The day saw five parallel technical sessions:-

The second day of the two-day L20 Inception Meet tomorrow will importantly discuss Women and the Future of Work.

The Third International Human Genome Editing Summit took place on 6-8 March 2023 in London focusing on the governance of gene editing research and recognizing the need to build on existing guidelines to develop global standards for governance and oversight of human genome editing. 

During the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong, in 2018, a prospect of an international legally binding treaty to govern genome editing was raised which did not preceded further.  

Gene editing regulations will consider the aims and consequences of the different practices like Somatic genome editing interventions and Heritable genome editing (germ-line editing).

 The Oviedo Convention, a legally binding instrument established by the European Council, permits somatic genome modifications for preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic purposes, and prohibits germ-line editing, but only 29 countries have enacted it into law. 

To protect legitimate genetic research—to close loopholes in regulations and establish a global consensus on oversight and regulation—will require governance that is as dynamic as the science.

State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the Government of NCT, Delhi, has launched the Happiness Curriculum (introduced in 2018 by His Holiness Dalai Lama)  for students from Nursery to Grade 8 to create confident, mindful, responsible, and happy individuals who collectively build a happy and harmonious society. 

The objectives of the curriculum are to develop self-awareness, critical thinking, effective communication, empathy, life skills, social awareness, and human values. 

The curriculum is based on co-existential philosophy (Madhyasth Darshan) and aligns with the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and is created by a team of professionals, including mentor teachers and counselor psychologists. 

It’s based on the pillars of happiness, which include reflection on the relationship between feelings, thoughts, behavior, and their impact on oneself, family, society, and the environment including mindful activities, stories, reflective questions, and self-expression to enhance students' awareness, mindfulness and deepen learning. 

The Happiness Curriculum is impacting 8 lakh students and 21000 happiness teachers who experience a daily 40 minutes happiness class, creating a paradigm shift in searching for happiness externally through senses to be able to ensure it within oneself through learning and awareness, ensuring continuity of values.

Representatives of the Army, National Disaster Management Authority, National Institute of Disaster Management, and National Institute of Seismology attended the 38th meeting of DDMA. 

LG VK Saxena proposed the following suggestions for effective disaster management plans for Delhi: Delhi being in zone four of high seismicity requires emergency preparedness. 

To retrofit all existing important buildings consistent with Earthquake resilient building code.

To identify hospitals in every district for emergency response in case of an earthquake. 

To recognize open spaces to facilitate rescue operations, broaden narrow bylanes as Delhi's housing pattern is not in accordance with the building codes. 

The meeting discussed the necessity of increasing the number and training of volunteers under the "Aapada Mitra" Scheme.