On June 1, 2019, As a Curtain Raiser for International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2019 which is celebrated on June 21, a two-day Yoga Mahotsava was inaugurated by Shri Rajeev Kumar, Vice-Chairman of Niti Ayog at New Delhi. The Yoga Mahotsav-2019 was organized by Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) under Ministry of AYUSH(Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy). The theme of IDY 2019 in India is “Yoga for Heart”.
Key Points:
i. 2 Applications ‘Yoga Locator’ and ‘Bhuvan App’ related to IDY 2019 were launched by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Ministry of AYUSH.
ii. Yoga Locator is a map-based location app. It will enable yoga instructors to register themselves and reach out to large number of people.
iii. Bhuvan App, designed in collaboration with ISRO(Indian Space Research Organization), provides geo time location and documentation.
iv. Three special sessions were organized as a part of the event.
- Know about Yoga was organized for the Yoga enthusiasts. Historical, medical and educational prospects of Yoga were discussed with the participants in detail.
- My self-experience in Yoga-A Motivational Journey , an exclusive session was organized by seeing the participation of huge number of youngsters
- Celebrity Sessions– a specially scheduled session was a part of the event.
5 Cities shortlisted for IDY 2019:
Centre shortlisted 5 cities for IDY 2019 namely Delhi, Shimla, Mysore, Ahmedabad and Ranchi. Names of these cities were sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to finalize the venue of the main function to be held on June 21. This will be the first mega public event after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the second consecutive term.
About IDY:
The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014. The first IDY was organized at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015 in which representatives of 191 countries participated. In 2016, the main event was held in Chandigarh, in 2017 it was held in Lucknow and in 2018, it was held at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. 2019 Theme for IDY as per UN is “Climate Action”.