GK and Current Affairs Updates

NATIONAL:

Kapil Dev to be the first chancellor of Rai Sports University.

• Kapil Dev Rai Sports University, Sonepat, coaching program

The Haryana Government has appointed cricket legend Kapil Dev as the first Chancellor of Rai Sports University. The minister of Haryana Anil Vij had approved the proposal to upgrade the sports university on Sept 14th in Sonepat.

Sports University of Haryana:

The Sports University of Haryana in Sonepat is conducting the educational and coaching programs in education and sports sciences and as well as in sports technology and medicine. This Course can embrace coaching for sports management, sports infrastructure engineering, sports scientific discipline, sports nutrition, sports journalism, and sports promoting.

Sports Universities in India :

The Sports University of Haryana is the third sports university established by a government within the country where others are Swarnim Gujarat Sports University in Gandhinagar, province education and Sports University in Chennai.

Kapil dev:

Kapil dev was a baseball player and he is a quick bowler. He is one of the best captains in India. Dev captained the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He was India's national cricket coach between 1999 and August 2000. He is retired in 1994. He is the sole player within the history of 434 wickets and scored  5000 runs in Tests. Dev was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame On 11th March 2010.

Rajasthan Government launches Jan Soochna Portal 2019

• The first-ever public information portal launched in Rajasthan promising to provide information about government authorities and departments suo motu to the public in the true spirit of the Right To Information Act. The portal has brought yet another distinction to Rajasthan, where the RTI movement started in 1990s.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated the portal at B.M. Birla Auditorium in the presence of former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Law Commission chairman Justice A.P. Shah and a galaxy of RTI activists, including Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy.

The State government collaborated with the civil society groups to develop the portal, the first of its kind in the country, initially giving information pertaining to 13 departments on a single platform. The different sections divided into districts, blocks and panchayats, the portal empowers the common people with access to useful information.

The new web portal, named the Jansuchna Portal-2019, would ensure compliance with Section 4(2) of the RTI Act mandating the public authorities to disclose information in the public domain, so that people need not file applications under the law to obtain information.

The statute erode the resolve to bring transparency and accountability in administration.This portal displays our government's resolve for strict enforcement of RTI Act.

The people as well as a strong instrument for ensuring transparency in governance. She applauded the State Government's action to combine technology, justice and information.

The State government will set up information kiosks in village panchayats and self-service e-mitra centres in the towns to enable the people to access the information useful for them. Initially, the information pertaining to 13 government departments such as the number of beneficiaries of schemes, works undertaken in different areas, land records and social security pensions will be available on the portal.

SPORTS:

Mayank Vaid becomes first Indian to complete Enduroman triathlon.

• Mayank Vaid becomes the first Indian to complete the Enduroman. It is a triathlon from England to France which is considered to be one of the toughest endurance competitions in the world. He is the 44th person in the world to have completed this triathlon. He is also the first Asian person to complete this triathlon in solo capacity.

He also broken the record for the shortest time taken to complete the Enduroman Arch to Arc triathlon. He completed the triathlon involving running, swimming and cycling. The time duration is around in 50 hours and 24 minutes. The previous record for this triathlon was 52 hours and 30 minutes. It is held by Julien Deneyer of Belgium.

The triathlon starts with a 140 km run from London’s Marble Arch to Dover on the Kent coast, then a cross-Channel swim (shortest distance 33.8 km) to the French coast, and finishes with a 289.7 km bike ride from Calais to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

This is the longest point to point triathlon in the world. Only 44 persons have completed it so far. More people have climbed Mt. Everest. It is truly the toughest and most brutal triathlon in the world.

The difficulties he faced in the course of his record run.The swim and bike sections were really hard. Especially going sleepless for more than 50 hours. The most challenging part is when a swimmer starts to see the French coast and that’s when the mind plays games.

Pankaj Advani wins his record 22nd world billiards title.

• Pankaj Advani increased his tally of world titles to twenty-two by winning the fourth final within the 150 at the IBSF World Billiards Championship on 14th Sept 2019 in Mandalay of Myanmar.

About Play on finals:

India's Pankaj Advani defeated England's Mike Russell in 5-2 to enter the final of the IBSF World Billiards Championship. Thway Oo had beaten the Russell in the semifinals last year before losing to Advani within the final. Advani scored 3 consecutive centuries. The match was equally poised at 2 frames result in Pankaj Advani (India) defeated Mike Russell (England) 5-2: 150(114)-117(59), 142(142)-150(150), 152(118)-122(122), 45-151(74), 152(63)-142(85), 151(123)-96(66), 151-61. Nay Thway Oo (Myanmar) beat Sourav Kothari (India) 5-3: 151(65)-125, 151(93)-95(93), 21-152(152), 150(122)-77(68), 79(72)-151(83), 110(103)-150, 150(150)-0, 152(130)-0.

About IBSF:

The IBSF World table game Championship is the premier international and non-professional tournament for the English billiards sanctioned by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation in 1973.

Pankaj Arjan :

Pankaj Arjan Advani is an Indian billiards and snooker player. he won Indian National Championship titles in 5 completely different years: 2005, 2008, 2012, 2017 and recently in 2019.

AGREEMENTS AND MOUS:

India Rusia signed Contract for Modernisation of Radar and Missile Systems.

• India-Rusia signed Contract for Modernisation of Radar and Missile Systems of Delhi Class of Indian Navy Ships. Under the welfare of labor modernization, the renovation scheme would be undertaken in India in producing important hardware partnerships with the Indian trade. The contract for modernization of Air Defence advanced Kashmir and radar Fregat MAE on P-15 of ships was signed between the Ministry of Defence and JSC Rosoboronexport land in Delhi.

Benefit:

The modernization of radar and Missile systems would enhance well the Air Defence capability of the P-15 Ships in Delhi category missile destroyers of Indian Navy with the upgrading of their anti- Air weaponry.

Radiolocation Fregat-MAE:

The military service has a shipborne with 3D radiolocation is capable of providing Target Designation information to missile systems. This includes a slightly squinted phased array antenna.

DAYS:

The International Day of Democracy is observed on 15 September.

• The International Day of Democracy is observed on 15 September. The day aims to provide an opportunity to review the state of democracy in the world. The day urges all governments to respect their citizens' right to active, substantive and meaningful participation in democracy. The day urges all governments to respect their citizens' right to active, substantive and meaningful participation in democracy.

Democracy:

Democracy is a process which will happen only with the full participation of and support by the international community, national governing bodies, civil society, and individuals. Democracy is a two-way street that is built on a constant dialogue between civil society and the political class.

SDG:

In Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG-16) democracy has been addressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to SDG, democracy is the indivisible links between peaceful societies and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions.

SPORTS:

India won Track Asia Cup 2019.

• Cycling sensation Ronaldo Laitonjam won at the Track Asia Cup 2019. The two gold medal on day one, the junior world champion team member created an Asian record for men’s junior 200m time trial event and later won a gold medal in the junior men’s Sprint event.

Venkappa Shiv Kengalgutti won the gold medal in the junior men’s 3 km individual. Triyasha Paul and Nikita Nisha gave finish in the junior women’s sprint event and added two more medals to India’s tally. Paul and Nisha won medals on day one was well.India’s Punam Chand captured the silver medal falling short against Malaysia’s Emam Firdaus Mohammad Zamri who won the gold medal. India elite women’s 3 KM individual pursuit race. Elangbam Devi and Irungbam Devi gave India a silver-bronze finish in the event. The bronze medal was won by Irungbam Devi.

India’s second team is 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 to deal a disappointing end in the elite men’s 15 KM Scratch Race as he failed to finish on the podium. The Indian finished fifth as the gold was captured by Muhammad Shaari of Malaysia.

Payas Jain won silver at ITTF Asian Junior and Cadet Championship.

• India made a silver splash at the IITF World Asian and Cadet Championship as the country's accomplished table tennis player Payas Jain and junior boys team bagged silver in Cadet Boy's Singles and Junior Boys' Team events.

Jain show his aggression initially but in the face of a fine attacking play by the Chinese.

The Delhi paddler wilted and lost 11-13, 6-11, 8-11, 5-11 in less than 20 minutes. There was a time in the first game when Jain matched his Chinese rival and even deuced after trailing. The top-seeded Chinese converted the point at the second opportunity to go ahead.

Jain's silver medal earned him a berth in the Asian squad will participate in the World Cadet Challenge at Wladyslawowo. India's campaign at the championships ended with two silver medals one by the junior boys team and another by Jain.

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.

INTERNATIONAL:

World's first malaria vaccine to be introduced in Kenya.

• The world's first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya after debuting in Ghana and Malawi earlier this year. More than 300,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine over the next three years. Malaria infected about 219 million people in 2017, killing around 435,000 of them, most of them babies and children in parts of Africa.

AGREEMENTS AND MOUS:

India and Asian Development Bank signs 200 million dollar loan agreement.

• India and Asian Development Bank signed 200 million dollar loan agreement. The agreement which will upgrade rural roads in 34 districts of Maharashtra to improve road safety.

The project aims to improve the condition of about 2,100 km of rural roads to all-weather standards, with climate resilience and safety features. The main aim is to connect rural communities with productive agricultural areas and socio-economic centres. The road connectivity and better access to markets will help the farmers increase agricultural productivity and incomes.

Asian Development Bank

Headquarters: Mandaluyong, Philippines

President: Takehiko Nakao

Founded: 19 December 1966

Membership: 68 countries

IFC and FIDC sign a MoU to train NBFC.

• The International Finance Corporation (IFC) part of the World Bank Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC), a representative body of asset and loan Financing NBFC to collaborate on the training of NBFCs in the country.

These training programs would be conducted at various centers across the country under the guidance of leading consultants from the World Bank Group.

The training programs would greatly enhance the awareness, expertise and professionalism of our member companies and medium-sized NBFCs catering to the credit needs in rural and semi-urban areas.

This would also facilitate more informed credit appraisals thereby improving the asset quality. Such engagement with a global development finance institution would further improve the credibility of the NBFC sector thereby boosting investors confidence.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

UN appoints retd Indian Army officer to lead its mission in Yemen.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Lieutenant General (retired) Abhijit Guha as Chair of Redeployment Coordination Committee and head of the UN Mission in support of Hudaydah Agreement. Guha, who retired from the Army in 2013, has 39 years of national and international military experience. He's tasked with leading the UN oversight of a ceasefire agreement in the Yemeni city.

SPORTS:

Australia's Megan Schutt becomes 1st woman to take two int'l hat-tricks.

• Australia fast bowler Megan Schutt has become the first woman to claim two hat-tricks in international cricket. Schutt achieved the feat by dismissing West Indies' last three players off the final three deliveries in the final ODI of the three-match series. She had taken her first international hat-trick in a T20I against India last year.

NATIONAL:

Haryana launches two insurance schemes for traders.

• The State Government of Haryana launched two insurance schemes for registered small and medium traders. The schemes are Mukhyamantri Vyapari Samuhik Niji Durghatna Beema Yojana and Mukhyamantri Vyapari Kshatipurti Beema Yojana.

The insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh would be provided under the Mukhyamantri Vyapari Samuhik Niji Durghatna Beema Yojana. The insurance cover ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh would be provided under the Mukhyamantri Vyapari Kshatipurti Beema Yojana. The traders registered under the Haryana Goods and Service Tax (HGST) Act 2017 would be covered under these schemes.

The premium of people under both schemes would be paid by the State government.

UNCCD launched drought toolbox in 14th Conference of Parties.

• On the 10th day of the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) launched a drought toolbox.

Drought toolbox:

The Drought toolbox is a knowledge bank which can be used by vulnerable countries to reduce drought risk. It aims to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought.

It is a web page which will provide the stakeholders to easily access the case studies and other resources to support action on drought preparedness. Using the toolbox, vulnerable countries, including India, can be better prepared and effectively respond to it.

COP14:

UNCCD was established in 1994. There are 197 countries participating in the convention. It aims to improve the living conditions of people in drylands. It also works toward maintaining and restoring land and soil productivity and to mitigate the effects of drought.

UNCCD collaborated with two Rio Conventions namely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

AGREEMENTS AND MOUS:

GeM and Punjab Government sign MoU for Setting up Project Management Unit.

• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Government of Punjab, signed MoU to set up a GeM Organizational Transformation Team (GOTT) Project Management Unit (PMU) in the state. The MoU was signed by Additional CEO, GeM, S. Suresh Kumar, and Director Industries.

Government e Marketplace (GeM)

GeM, the national public procurement portal launched in August 2016 transformed the public procurement landscape in the country with transparency, efficiency, and inclusion. 

Their main aim is to strengthen and enable Government departments towards a market-based procurement, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Government of India has advised Ministries and Departments of Central and State Governments to consider services of GOTT on an outcome-based self-sustenance model. GOTT will assist the buyer agency to redesign the procurement processes and enhance competencies to derive maximum benefit.

Government of Punjab is the first State which will establish GOTT PMU for effectively utilising this transformational initiative towards inclusive, efficient and transparent procurement.

It is projected that through the initiatives of GOTT PMU, Government of Punjab will be able to transact around Rs 1700 crore in terms of annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) on GeM platform in the first year and over Rs 3000 crore per annum, over a period of time.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

Dr PK Mishra takes over as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra appointed as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India.

Dr Mishra varied work experience in the management of programmes relating to agriculture, disaster management, power sector, infrastructure financing, and regulatory issues outstanding career profile comprising research, publications, policy formulation and programme/project management. The major assignments such as Additional Pr. Secretary to the Prime Minister; Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation,  Government of India; Chairman, State Electricity Regulatory Commission and in the area of Disaster management. As Secretary Agriculture & Cooperation, he was actively involved in path-breaking national initiatives such as the National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY) and the National Food Security Mission (NFSM). 

The Prime Minister during 2014-19 Dr Mishra is credited with  introducing innovation and transformative changes in human resource management, particularly appointments to senior positions.

The international experience includes research and academic work for over four years at the Institute of Development Studies (UK), negotiation and execution of ADB and World Bank projects, member of the Governing Board of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and participation as expert/resource person in several international conferences.

He was conferred with the United Nations SASAKAWA Award 2019, the most prestigious international award in disaster management.

Dr Mishra has a Ph.D in Economics/Development Studies from the University of Sussex, M.A. in Development Economics at the University of Sussex as also M.A. in Economics with a first class at the Delhi School of Economics and  B.A. Hons. (Economics) with a first class and distinction in other subjects from G.M. College (Sambalpur University) in 1970. 

His publications include

• The Kutch Earthquake 2001: Recollection Lessons and Insights, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, India (2004).

• Edited Development and Operation of Agricultural Insurance Schemes in Asia, Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan (1999).

• Agricultural Risk, Insurance and Income: A Study of the Impact and Design of India’s Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme, Avebury, Aldershot, UK (1996).

DAYS:

International Day for South South Cooperation is observed on 12 September.

• International Day for South-South Cooperation is observed on 12 September. South-South cooperation is a broad framework where the South Countries have collaborated in various domains including political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains. The day celebrates the political, social and economical developments made by regions and countries in the south in recent years.

Aim:

South-South Cooperation works towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). It aims to boost the progress towards implementing the SDGs. It raises the awareness of the efforts taken by the United Nation to work on technical cooperation among developing countries.

Theme:

The theme for the 2019 South-South Cooperation is From Commitment to Action — Follow up to Buenos Aires Plan of Action+40. It is a follow up to the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 20-22 March 2019. The theme focuses on implementing the commitments adopted in the summit.

History:

The Day was originally observed on December 19. The day of South-South Cooperation was fully adopted by the United Nations on 12 September 2011. The day commemorates the day when the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a plan of action in 1978 to promote and implement technical cooperation among developing countries.

NATIONAL:

PM Modi lanched National Animal Disease Control Programme.

• PM Narendra Modi launched the National Animal Disease Control Programme for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The government has announced that it will fund the Rs.12,652 crore for the programme for a period of 5 years till 2024.

Aim:

The programme aims at vaccinating over 500 Million livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and pigs against foot and mouth disease (FMD). It also aims to vaccinate 36 million female bovine calves annually in its fight against Brucellosis disease.

The programme has two components:

♦ to control the diseases by 2025

♦ to eradicate FMD by 2030

FMD and Brucellosis: 

FMD and Brucellosis diseases are very common among the livestock cow-bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs etc. If a cow/buffalo gets infected with FMD, the milk loss is up to 100% which could last for four to six months.

If it is affected by Brucellosis the milk output reduces by 30%, during the entire life cycle of the animal. Brucellosis also causes infertility amongst the animals. The infection of brucellosis can also be transmitted to the farmworkers and livestock owners. Both the diseases will cause a direct negative impact on the trade of milk and other livestock products.

Kerala to introduce iWTC in Kozhikode.

• For the first time ever, the Kerala State government is to set up India's first International Women's Trade Centre (iWTC) in Kozhikode. It is in consonance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Aim of iWTC:

iWTC aims to boost women entrepreneurship and secure gender parity by providing women a safe place away from home to start new businesses, set up or expand, and get their products marketed globally.

The first phase of iWTC is being implemented the Gender Park’s Vision 2020. The Phase-I is scheduled to be completed by 2021.

iWTC will provide space to promote and showcase performing arts and cultural forms like dance, music, and theatre.

Using the latest technology, it will involve women entrepreneurs and tradeswomen from the local region and connect them to world markets. It aims to build or expand their businesses

Gender Park:

♦ Gender Park is an institution that works to resolve gender inequity in development. It is promoted by the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala. It is headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

♦ It aims to generate a space exclusively for women development activities that emphasize entrepreneurship in service and cultural activities. It aims to provide formal education in gender studies.

♦ Gender Park also strengthens women development activities that are monitored by various departments, agencies, civil society movements, such as She-Taxi.

♦ Gender Park's International Institute for Gender and Development (IIGD) is involved in research on gender at the local, national and international level.

AGREEMENTS AND MOUS:

Gurugram traffic police partners with Google maps for traffic updates.

• The Gurugram traffic police from the Haryana State has partnered with Google maps for real-time traffic updates. The tie-up will provide traffic-related information in real-time for public use.

• The Gurugram traffic police with Google maps will share the information such as planned road closures, diversions, traffic alerts regarding road crash, etc. The Google maps will immediately respond to the given search conditions and update the information on its public maps.

Aim:

• The reason aimed to prompt commuters to make intelligent choices in order to make their commuting experience hassle-free. This mechanism has been tested successfully and it was found working effectively.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

Essel Group's Rajesh Sethi named NBA India's Managing Director.

• The National Basketball Association (NBA) has appointed Rajesh Sethi as the Managing Director of NBA India effective September 12. He was most recently with Essel Group, where he held various leadership roles with the group's entities, including SITI Networks, Zee Entertainment and Ten Sports. Sethi will oversee the league's basketball and business development initiatives in India.

National:

IPPB launched AePS services

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) rolled out Aadhaar enabled payment system (AePS) services. IPPB become the single largest platform in the country for providing interoperable banking services to the customers of any bank.The AePS services linked to Aadhaar can perform basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance inquiry irrespective of the bank

• Aadhaar enabled payment services, a customer can simply authenticate his/her identity with fingerprint scan and Aadhaar authentication to complete a transaction.The banking services to customers of any bank including the 34 crore Jan Dhan account holders, by leveraging the unprecedented last mile reach of IPPB. This fulfills PM Narendra Modi’s vision set forth at the time of launch of IPPB last year of ushering in economic transformation by bringing banks to the doorsteps of the villagers and poor.

• The launch of AePS by India Post Payments Bank enhances the last mile interoperable banking infrastructure by 2.5 times. The network brings doorstep banking access to millions of underbanked customers and gives a fresh impetus to inclusion of customers facing accessibility challenges in the traditional banking ecosystem.

DPIIT to Launch Plastic Waste Management Campaign for Swachhta Hi Sewa

• The theme of this year’s Swachhta hi Sewa is Plastic Waste Management. Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry is playing a critical two-fold role for the success of the campaign as mandated by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

• DPIIT will ensure recycling of plastic waste collected on 2nd October 2019 in cement kilns and second, collect plastic waste through nationwide shramdaan on 2nd October 2019. DPIIT requested all the State Governments and Union Territories to mobilise the Industrial Parks in States and Union Territories for collection of plastic waste across all Industrial Estates, Parks, Corridors, Nodes and Industrial Areas for the Swachata hi Sewa 2019 campaign beginning from 11th September, 2019.

• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti requested DPIIT to mandate the use of plastic waste by cement kilns and DPIIT will ensure that all collected plastic waste may be recycled in cement kilns by Diwali this year.

• DPIIT personnel will undertake Shramdaan and ensure the collection of plastic waste on and around industrial areas all across the country. DPIIT requested State Governments to sensitize Industrial Parks by focusing on Plastic Waste Management on a sustained and continuous basis.

Business and Economy:

Nissan CEO Saikawa resigns

• Nissan Motor CEO Hiroto Saikawa has resigned his position. His resignation after an internal investigation that revealed falsified documents that boosted his compensation in 2013. The change increased his compensation by about 96.5 million yen (roughly $900,000 at that time), based on current foreign exchange rates.

Saikawa was appointed as CEO of Nissan after a 40-year career in April 2017. Previously he served as co-CEO with Ghosn from November 2016.

• He will be temporarily replaced by chief operating officer (COO) Yasuhiro Yamauchi. A new candidate will be announced by the company in the month of October. The company has formed a committee in June to select the CEO of the company. The committee made up of six company outsiders has now shortlisted 10 possible candidates for the post.

UK Sinha committee recommends Telangana startup policy for startups in other states

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) backed UK Sinha committee has recommended that Telangana's innovative model for start-ups should be assessed for possible replication in other states. UK Sinha, the former Chairman of SEBI, led committee submitted its report in June. The state's various incentives for startups and incubators are the reasons for its mention in the report.

Appointments and Resignations:

Rajiv Kumar appointed as the new MD of Microsoft India

• Rajiv Kumar as the new managing director of Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd (MIRPL).Rajiv, who is currently the Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Experiences and Devices) Group.He will replace Anil Bhansali.He will continue as the Corporate Vice President of Cloud & Enterprise. The 27-year long career at Microsoft.

• The recent key contributions to Microsoft are Kaizala (an enterprise productivity chat app) and bootstrapping the campus hiring program in India resulting in Microsoft hiring the best talent from premier engineering colleges in India.

• He is developer in the Visual Basic team to Development Manager in BizTalk and then the Product Unit Manager for the Content Management Server team which became a part of the SharePoint server.

Days:

World Suicide Prevention Day 2019 is observed on 10 September

• World Suicide Prevention Day 2019 is observed on 10 September every year. The day aims to raise awareness of the risks of suicide and to fund suicide prevention activities. It also aims to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides.

Theme:

The theme for the World Suicide Prevention Day 2019 is Working Together to Prevent Suicide. A survey said that every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for people of all ages. The theme aims to encourage and engage with each other and to spread awareness of suicide prevention. Over 800,000 people, which is a death every 40 seconds or about 3,000 every day, die by suicide.

Sports:

Worlds highest marathon was held in Ladakh

• The eighth edition of Ladakh Marathon was held in Leh town, Jammu Kashmir. More than 6,000 runners from different parts of India and 25 foreign countries participated in the marathon. It was sponsored by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC).

The full marathons were jointly flagged off by the Chief Executive Councillor of LAHDC, Leh Gyal Phunchok Wangyal and Additional District Development Commissioner Mozes Kunzang. The half marathon was flagged off by Dilbag Singh, J&K Director General of Police. The 7-km-long Run for Fun was flagged off by Lt Genl YK Joshi, GoC of 14 Corp of the Army.

Highest marathon:

All four categories marathon are held at over 11, 000 feet above the mean sea level. This marathon is known as the highest marathon in the world.The 4 categories of Ladakh Marathon are 72-km Ultra Khardungla Challenge, 42-km full and 21-km half marathon and 7-km long Run for Fun.

Kenyas Kosgei sets new record in 2019 Great North Run

• kenya’s Brigid Kosgei won the women’s half-marathon event in 2019 Great North Run in Newcastle, England. She finished the run with a time duration of 1 hour four minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Her time was twenty-three seconds faster than Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei on September 8th, 2019 in London.

Brigid Kosgei:

Brigid Jepscheschir Kosgei is a Kenyan marathoner before this event she won the 2018 Chicago Marathon, London marathon, She came second at the 2017 Chicago Marathon and 2018 London Marathon.

NATIONAL:

Former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra takes oath as Rajasthan Governor.

• Former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra was sworn in as the Governor of Rajasthan at an oath-taking ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan in Jaipur on Monday. Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Shripathi Ravindra Bhat administered the oath of office to Mishra who replaced Kalyan Singh after the completion of his five-year tenure. Mishra became the 22nd Governor of the state.

27-yr-old Anupriya becomes Odisha's 1st tribal woman commercial pilot.

• Anupriya Madhumita Lakra, 27, is the first tribal woman from Maoist-affected Malkangiri district of Odisha to become a commercial pilot, according to the Hindustan Times. Lakra will join the Indigo airline as a co-pilot later this month. Lakra's father, who is a police constable, said that it was difficult for him to fund her pilot training but he took loans.

President Kovind to become first Indian President to visit Slovenia.

• President Ram Nath Kovind's three-nation tour to Slovenia, Iceland and Switzerland will make him the first Indian President to visit Slovenia. "To continue India's engagement and boost the bilateral relations.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

Allahabad HC judge Vikram Nath named Gujarat High Court Chief Justice.

• Senior judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Vikram Nath, has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on Sunday following the Supreme Court Collegium's recommendation sent last month. Notably, the SC Collegium reversed its earlier recommendation to appoint Nath as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on the Centre's request.

SPORTS:

Afghanistan defeat Bangladesh to record their 1st ever away Test win.

• Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by 224 runs at Chattogram's Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium to register their first-ever away Test victory. Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan became the first player to score a fifty and take 10 or more wickets in debut match as captain. Afghanistan also became the second Test side after Australia to win two of their first three Tests.

NATIONAL:

The 6th India China SED was held in New Delhi

• The 6th round of India-China strategic economic dialogue is being held in New Delhi. The three day event will be held on 7-9 September 2019. The dialogue will discuss various issues, including infrastructure, energy and pharmaceuticals.

Event:

The dialogue includes events like round table meetings of joint working groups (JWG) on infrastructure, high-tech, energy, resource conservation, pharmaceuticals and policy coordination.

Participants:

In the dialogue, the Indian side will be led by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar and the Chinese side by Chairman of National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC) He Lifeng. Senior representatives from industry, policymaking and academia from both countries are participating in the dialogue.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY:

HAL to receive 45,000 crore orders for 83 LCA fighters

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) to place orders worth around Rs.45,000 crore with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to acquire 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighters.

• The IAF issued a tender for 83 LCAs about two years ago and the project was stuck over the pricing issue as the government and the Air Force felt that the price offered by the HAL was slightly higher. The Defence Ministry determined the cost of the 83 LCA Mark 1A aircraft around Rs.45,000 crore and the Indian Air Force is now expected to place orders for these planes in the next few weeks.

• The LCAs have been designed and developed completely by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The DRDO chief G Satheesh Reddy presented the Final Operational Clearance (IOC)

Coffee Day sells Global Village Tech Park for 2,800 cr to Blackstone

• Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) closed the deal to sell the Global Village Technology Park in Bengaluru to New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group Llp.Two people familiar with the transaction confirmed the development. The sale of the 90-acre tech park was finalized at Rs.2,800 crore, according to the first person.

• The money will be credited to CDEL within the next week. The 2000 crore from the proceeds of the deal will be used to repay debts of CDEL and Rs.800 crore will go into the books of CDEL to meet its working capital requirements.

• CDEL owns Coffee Day Global Ltd (coffee business), Sical Logistics Ltd (integrated logistics), Tanglin Developments Ltd ,Way2Wealth (financial services), and Coffee Day Hotels and Resorts Ltd (hospitality)obligations of at least Rs.7,653 crore.

The debt come down after Siddhartha and two CDEL subsidiaries sold their entire stake in Mindtree Ltd to Larsen and Toubro Ltd for Rs.3,200 crore, and used a part of the money to repay debt.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

Oscars of science awarded to Event Horizon Telescope Team

• The Event Horizon Telescope Team consists of 347 scientists produced the world first image of a black hole. They were felicitated with breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The prize is known as the Oscars of science with prize money $3 million. The team published the image of black hole circled by a flame-orange halo of white-hot plasma on the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy.

• Directed by Shep Doelman at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the team spent over a decade simulating an Earth-sized computational telescope that combined the signals received by eight radio telescopes working in pairs around the world with their sights trained on the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, 55 million light-years away.

Through this technique, they were able to achieve an unprecedented resolution and observe the black hole's silhouette for the first time in history, confirming theoretical predictions about these celestial objects.

The event horizon of a black hole is the point at which its gravitational effects are strong that light cannot escape its pull.

ENVIRONMENT:

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decides to discontinue single use plastic

• The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has announced its plan to get rid of single-use plastic within the secretariat. The Ministry has encouraged the staffers to turn the recycled paper.

Aim:

The reason aims to implement the ban as it plans to have a clean and green environment with collective responsibility and endless methods toward achieving the goal of plastic-free surroundings. All the Ministry officials are requested to discontinue the single-use of plastic folders, plastic water bottles, and different such things forthwith and instead start/encourage the utilization of recycled paper.

Background:

On 4 July 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the people to avoid single-use plastic. Minister Prakash Javadekar advised that each one involved within secretariat and media units are ought to discontinue the utilization of single-use plastics.

DAYS:

World Literacy Day is celebrated on 8 September

• On 8th September every year, International Literacy Day is celebrated to make people to know the importance of Literacy for people, communities and societies.

Aim:

It aims to combat worldwide problems also to promote illiteracy. The theme for 2019 is Literacy and Multilingualism.

History and aim of International Literacy Day:

On 26th October in 1966, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared 8th September as International Literacy Day.

NATIONAL:

First Mega Food Park was held in Telangana.

• The first Mega Food Park in Telangana was held at Lakkampally village in Nizamabad district. It was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The food park was promoted by Smart Agro Food Park. The Smart Agro Mega Food Park was set up in 78 acres of land at a cost of Rs.108.95 crore.

The facilities in the park include a 5,000-tonne warehouse each for raw materials, finished goods, and commodities, 500-tonne deep freeze, Turmeric-Curcumin, Oleoresin Extraction unit of 5 tonnes a day, quality control lab and other related food processing facilities.

Aim:

Mega Food parks aimed to facilitate the doubling of farmer’s income by 2022. The scheme functions along with the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi which is a government initiative in which all small and marginal farmers will get up to Rs.6,000. Mega Food Parks will reduce post-harvest losses and hedge the farmer’s risk.

The Ministry aims to boost the food processing industry. If the agriculture sector grows exponentially, it will become a major contributor to double the farmer’s income and Make In India initiative of the government.

Benefits:

The Mega Food Park leveraged an additional investment of about Rs.250 crore in 22 food processing units. It generated a turnover of about Rs.14,000 crore. It is also expected that the Mega Food Parks will also provide 50,000 direct and indirect jobs and benefit about one lakh farmers.

Financial assistance:

The Mega Food Park Scheme is implemented to boost the food processing sector. The government provides financial assistance up to Rs.50 crore per Mega Food Park project.

India ranks 34th in World Travel Tourism Competitiveness Index.

• According to the reports, tourism in India is seeing an upward trend as India ranks 34th position on world travel and tourism competitiveness index. With this, India moves up six places up, and this has been driven by the rich natural and cultural resources, alongside strong price competitiveness.

The report stated, “India, which accounts for the majority of South Asia's T&T (travel and tourism) GDP, remains the sub-region's most competitive T&T economy, moving up six places to rank 34th globally. India showed the greatest percentage improvement to its overall Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) score, which has helped it become the only lower-middle income country in the top 35.”

AGREEMENTS AND MOU’S:

CBSE partners with Microsoft for capacity building of teachers for AI learning in schools.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has joined hands with Microsoft to conduct capacity building programmes for high school teachers and integrate cloud-powered technology in teaching.

Meant for teachers of classes eight to 10, the programme will be conducted in 10 cities across the country, starting September 11, 2019.

As part of the programme, at least 1,000 teachers nominated by the CBSE will undergo a three-day project-based training for practical, hands-on knowledge of Microsoft 365 tools such as OneNote, Flipgrid, Teams and Outlook.

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a strategic lever for economic growth across nations around the world. Through this initiative, we are empowering institutions, educators and students of India to acquire early education and skills in new technologies like AI and cloud to lead that growth in that rapidly changing world.