Important Dates & Festivities - Current Affairs for August, 2015

To mark the 'Sanskrit Diwas' celebrations public broadcaster Doordarshan News has launched an exclusive Facebook page and a Twitter handle in that language.

The theme of International Youth Day 2015 is “Youth Civic Engagement.”

The theme for this year was “Post 2015 Agenda: Ensuring indigenous peoples' health and well-being”.

The court considered it a criminal act amounting to suicide and directed to register cases under section 306 of IPC. The Court banned this ritual, following a Public Interest Litigation filed by human rights activist a decade ago, claiming that the ritual is a social evil and should be considered as a suicide. The ancient ritual, also called Sallekhana, is the voluntary starvation to embrace death. Jain religious leaders has strongly criticized the court judgement. Reacting to judgement, Tarun Sagarji Maharaj has said that this judgement has been given without properly understanding the principles of Jain Religion.

The date 7th of August has been chosen due to its special significance in India`s history. On this day, the Swadeshi Movement was launched in 1905. The movement involved revival of domestic products and production processes.

On World Bio Fuel Day, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the four retail outlets of bio fuel blended diesel. Of them, one is in Delhi and other three are in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Haldiya.

As part of these celebrations, the Ministry of Tourism is organizing the “Bharat Parv” comprising of State Centric Food Festivals along with cultural performances at prominent locations in Delhi in coordination with the Ministry of Culture, Delhi Tourism, NDMC & several other agencies.

The first National Handloom Day will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chennai on 7th August.