Important Current Affairs 14th September 2019

NATIONAL:

Maitree 2019, Indo Thailand Joint Military Exercise to be held.

• The Defence Ministry of India announced a joint military exercise between India and Thailand as MAITREE 2019. The exercise is aimed to share the experience that are gained to counter-terrorism operations. The exercise will be conducted at Foreign coaching Node of Umroi in Meghalaya from 16 September to 29 September of 2019.

About MAITREE exercise:

About 100 Indians and Royal Thailand army RTA soldiers will participate in this joint ministry exercise. MAITREE 2019 is the third army engagement between India-Thailand. The counter operations exercise would be held in urban areas or in the jungle.

Significance of MAITREE-2019:

The annual Joint Military Exercise between India and Thailand is being conducted since 2006. It is aimed to improve the level of defence co-operation between the Indian Army (IA) and the Royal Thailand  Army (RTA) that will foster defence cooperation and bilateral relations between the 2 nations.

India-Thailand Relations:

The diplomatic relations between India and Thailand were established in 1947. Each country has increased economic and business links by the exchange of high-level visits. India and Thailand were culturally joined for a hundred years and India has had a deep influence on Thai culture.

AWARDS:

HRD Minister Confers CBSE Teachers Award 2018 To 35 Teachers.

• Central Board of Secondary Education conferred Teacher's Award 2018 to 35 Teachers and Principals. The awards were given away by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The Union HRD Minister launched the CBSE's portal Vidyadhan on Diksha App, a Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing National Forum for Teachers and released

CBSE's Annual Activity Calendar

Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal greeted all the awardees and principals and thanked them for their in nation building through teaching. The awards are a symbol of their hard work. The teachers to create a positive environment with quality and values that meet the present and future needs of students.

The HRD Minister released 10 CBSE Manuals on various subjects like art integration, experiential learning, enjoyable teaching and learning of mathematics, new initiatives, school quality assessment and assurance, 10 + 2 post-academic courses, artificial intelligence, hubs of learning and eco-club and water conservation.

State for Human Resource Development was the Guest of Honour at the event.The  student is different and unique, and education should meet individual needs and nature of each student so that children become courageous, confident human beings with strong character and are able to build a bright future.

Ms. Anita Karwal congratulated the awardee teachers and said that it will give new energy to the recipients and at the same time inspire many other teachers to uplift the education sector.

Indian Ambassador to UAE Navdeep Suri conferred with UAE Order of Zayed.

• Sheikh Khalifa, conferred the Order of Zayed II first class.Mr Suri was given the honour in recognition of his efforts during his tenure and his contribution to the development and strengthening of relations between the UAE and India.Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, presented the Order to the ambassador during a meeting at the ministry in Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Abdullah praised the ambassador for his role in bolstering UAE-Indian relations and wished him success in his future assignments.The relations between India and the UAE to even greater heights and to try to realise a vision outlined by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces recently presented the Order of Zayed, the nation's highest civilian award to Mr Modi for forging close ties between the two countries.The award was presented by Sheikh Abdullah, who thanked Mr Stellino for his work in strengthening ties between the countries and wished him the best for the future.The Italian ambassador thanked Sheikh Khalifa and all of the government bodies for their support in making his job a success.

SPORTS:

India bags 34 medals in 10th Asia Pacific Youth Games.

• Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju congratulated Indian contingent for excellent performance in the 10th Asian Pacific Youth Games in Vladivostok. India won total 16 gold, 13 silver and 5 bronze medals in seven different sports.

Indian Judokas to give strong performances yesterday as Mahesh Saini (66 kg), Vishal (81 kg) and Rohit (50 kg) won gold while Siddharth won silver. Yoshiki won gold in the girl’s singles while the girl's doubles team also won gold in Table Tennis. The Indian swimming team finished as the overall winners in their sport. Assam swimmer Astha Choudhury brought laurels to the State and country by winning five medals including two gold and three silver.

Astha bagged gold medals in 4×50 metre mixed freestyle and 4×50 mixed individual medley relay categories. The gold medals, Astha won silver medals in 100 metre freestyle, 200 metre freestyle and 100 metre individual medley categories.

Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy won its first medal when Swasti Singh won the bronze medal in junior women’s 2 km individual pursuit. Kristina Titovskaya of Kazakhstan won the gold while Yanina Kuskova of Uzbekistan captured silver. Harshveer Singh had to deal with a disappointing end in the elite men’s 15 KM Scratch Race as he failed to finish on the podium. In a world-class field, the Indian finished fifth as the gold was captured by Muhammad Shaari of Malaysia.