External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik on Wednesday launched the official logo of the upcoming International Day of Yoga (IDY) in the national capital.
"The United Nations has declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. There were three remarkable things about this declaration: first, that the declaration was made on India's suggestion; second, that the declaration was made in a record 75 days; and third that 177 countries agreed to the proposal," Swaraj told the gathering, while launching the logo.
Meanwhile, AYUSH Department Secretary Nilanjan Sanyal said that the selection of the logo took place after strenuous sieving.
"We had been working on the logo for the past two months and after a strenuous process of sieving through the entries we received, we finally vetted the logos by a committee of experts who arrived at the final logo, as well as the tagline associated with it," he said.
The 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted and declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.
The idea for declaring an International Day of Yoga at the United Nations was formally proposed by Prime Minister Modi when he visited New York in 2014 for the UNGA.
The main significance of the UN declaring an International Day is to focus the attention of the international community on the topic of the day, and to encourage activities among the member states of the United Nations to commemorate the day.
