Noor Inayat Khan(Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan or Nora Baker), Britain’s World War II spy, who served in the Special Operations Executive(SOE) became the 1st Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a memorial Blue Plaque at her former family home in London, United Kingdom(UK). She is 1st musilm war heroine of Britain and 1st female wireless operator sent from the UK into Nazi-occupied France to aid the French Resistance during World War II. She was born on January 1, 1914 in Moscow, Russia.
Blue Plaque
i.London’s Blue Plaque scheme was founded in 1866 and has inspired many similar schemes in the UK and around the world.
ii.It is run by the English Heritage charity and honours notable people and organisations of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked.
Key Info about Noor Inayat Khan
i.She was awarded(posthumously) the George Cross for her service in the SOE, the highest civilian decoration in the UK.
ii.Shrabani Basu wrote a book on Noor Inayat Khan titled, ‘Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan and the founder-chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust (NIKMT)’, which has installed a sculpture of Noor in nearby Gordon Square in 2012.
Additional Info:
i.Indian Figures to be honoured with Blue Plaques in London Includes, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar.
ii.A new interactive digital exhibition was unveiled to commemorate Noor Inayat Khan’s life by the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation (CWGF) at Runnymede Air Forces Memorial in Surrey, south-east England to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2020.
Recent Related News:
i.India’s Artificial Intelligence(AI) enabled “MyGov Corona Helpdesk” won two awards under the categories “Best Innovation for Covid-19 – Society” and “People Choice Covid-19 Overall Winner” in 4th CogX, 2020.CogX is the Global Leadership Summit and Festival of AI and Emerging Technology which will be held in London annually.
The theme of CogX 2020 is “How do we get the next 10 years right?”.
ii.Carnegie Corporation of New York has named 2 renowned Indian-Americans, Siddhartha Mukherjee, a Pulitzer prize winner and Raj Chetty, Economics Professor at Harvard University among ‘2020 Great Immigrants’ honourees.
About English Heritage:
HeadQuarters– Swindon, England
Chief Executive – Kate Mavor
