Important Days
Hindi Diwas celebrated on 14 September
Hindi Diwas or Hindi Day is observed every year on 14 September to mark the popularity of Hindi as an official language of India. The language was adopted under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution. The first Hindi day was celebrated on 14th September 1953.
Later, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru announced this day to be celebrated as Hindi Diwas in the country. There are 22 Scheduled languages of India, of which, two are officially used at the Union government of India level: Hindi and English.
Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world. Hindi Divas is celebrated on 14 September because, on this day in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India.
National
Chhattisgarh govt launches ‘Millet Mission’ to become Millet Hub of India
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has announced the launch of ‘Millet Mission’, which aims to provide proper price rates to farmers for minor cereal crops.
The initiative is also a step towards the Chief Minister’s vision for the state to become India’s millet hub. To implement the mission, the state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad, and the collectors of 14 districts of the state.
Other important benefits under the Millet Mission to farmers will include input assistance for millet, procurement arrangements, aid farmers in the processing of crops, and ensure that the farmers get the benefit of the expertise of experts.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- CM of Chhattisgarh: Bhupesh Baghel; Governor of Chhattisgarh: Anusuiya Uikey.
‘Medicine from the Sky’ initiative launched in Telangana
Civil aviation minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia has launched a first of its kind “Medicine from the Sky” project in Telangana. The project has aimed at transporting vaccines and other essential products to remote areas using drones.
The Medicine from the Sky project will be taken up on a pilot basis in 16 green zones in Telangana and later scaled up on the national level based on data.
“This ‘Medicines from the Sky’ project will be taken up in 16 green zones. The data will be analyzed for three months.
Along with the health ministry, IT ministry, state government, and the Centre will together analyze the data and make a model for the whole country.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- Telangana Capital: Hyderabad;
- Telangana Governor: Tamilisai Soundararajan;
- Telangana Chief minister: K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Nuakhai Juhar harvest festival celebrated in Odisha
Nuakhai Juhar, the agrarian festival of Western Odisha, was celebrated with religious fervour and tradition. It is celebrated 1 day after the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi.
Nuakhai is a crop festival celebrated by people of Western Odisha and Southern Chhattisgarh, to welcome the new rice of the season. Nua means new and that means food. So, the festival of nuakhai is a festival to celebrate newly harvested food by the farmers.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of Odisha: Naveen Patnaik and Governor is Ganeshi Lal.
Haryana topped in the installation of solar pumps under PM-KUSUM
Haryana has topped among all other states of the country in terms of installation of off-grid solar pumps under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahaabhiyaan (PM-KUSUM), as per the data by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Haryana has installed 14,418 pumps against 15,000 sanctioned pumps for the year 2020-21. Haryana was given a target of 15,000 pumps for the year 2020-21 with a total cost of Rs 520 crore.
The centrally-sponsored PM-KUSUM scheme was launched in 2019 with the target to install 20 lakh standalone solar pumps.
Under this scheme, farmers have to bear 40 percent of the pump’s cost, while the central and state governments subsidize the remaining 60 percent for solar pumps that have a capacity of up to 10 HP.
However, Haryana and some other states have provided additional top-up on the subsidies, which has reduced the farmer’s share to less than 25 percent.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- Haryana Capital: Chandigarh;
- Haryana Governor: Bandaru Dattatraya;
- Haryana Chief Minister: Manohar Lal Khattar.
International
Aziz Akhannouch elected as new PM of Morocco
Aziz Akhannouch has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Morocco by the country’s King Mohammed VI. Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents (RNI) party secured 102 out of the 395 seats in the parliament election, held on September 10, 2021.
Prior to this appointment, the 60-year-old was the Minister of Agriculture from 2007 to 2021. The announcement came after Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents (RNI) party triumphed in Wednesday’s parliamentary polls. The pro-business RNI managed to secure 102 out of the 395 seats in parliament, toppling the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which won a paltry 13 seats.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- Morocco Capital: Rabat;
- Morocco Currency: Moroccan dirham;
- Morocco Continent: Africa.
Appointments
Justice Venugopal appointed as acting Chairperson of NCLAT
Justice M. Venugopal has been named as the new Acting Chairperson of the appellate tribunal, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). This is the third time in a row that an Acting Chairperson is at the helm of the NCLAT, after the retirement of permanent Chairperson Justice S J . Mukhopadhaya on March 14, 2020.
The NCLAT was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
It is also an appellate tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), and by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
It is also the appellate tribunal to hear and dispose of appeals against any direction issued or decision made or order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Summits and Conferences
India and the US launch the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue
India and the United States of America (USA) have launched the “Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)”. It will strengthen India-US bilateral cooperation on climate and environment.
The dialogue was launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Bhupender Yadav and Mr. John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) in New Delhi.
“Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)” is one of the two tracks of the India-U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 partnership launched at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021. The other track is Strategic Clean Energy Partnership.
CAFMD will demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development, taking into account national circumstances and sustainable development priorities.
Science and Technology
Skyroot Aerospace becomes first Spacetech startup to formally tie-up with ISRO
A Hyderabad-based Space technology startup, Skyroot Aerospace has become the first private company to formally enter into an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The Framework MoU will allow the company to undertake multiple tests and access facilities at various ISRO centers and avail the technical expertise of ISRO for testing and qualifying their space launch vehicle systems and subsystems.
Skyroot, founded by former ISRO scientists, is building the Vikram series of rockets to carry small satellites into space.
The startup has already test-fired its solid propulsion rocket engine named Kalam-5, whose bigger version will power its rockets.
Skyroot Aerospace is building the Vikram series of rockets to carry small satellites into space. The first launch vehicle in the series, Vikram-1 is scheduled to be launch in 2022.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- ISRO Chairman: K.Sivan;
- ISRO Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka;
- ISRO established: 15 August 1969.
Awards
ICRISAT awarded “AFRICA FOOD PRIZE 2021”
Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has been awarded the Africa Food Prize for 2021 for improving food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Tropical Legumes Project developed 266 varieties of improved legumes and half a million tons of seeds for a range of legume crops, including cowpeas, pigeon peas, chickpea, common bean, groundnut, and soybean.
The improved seeds benefitted over 25 million farmers in climate-resilient approaches and to control pest outbreaks across the region. ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political public international research organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world.
Sports
IOC Suspends North Korea From Beijing Olympics
North Korea was formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 10th Sept as punishment for refusing to send a team to the Tokyo Games citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the North Korean national Olympic body will also now forfeit money it was due from the previous Olympics. The unspecified amount — potentially millions of dollars — had been withheld because of international sanctions.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- International Olympic Committee Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland.
- International Olympic Committee President: Thomas Bach.
- International Olympic Committee Founded: 23 June 1894 (Paris, France).
MS Dhoni to mentor Indian team for the T20 World Cup
BCCI announced that the former India captain MS Dhoni will mentor the team for the tournament, which will be played in UAE and Oman in October and November. He announced his retirement from international limited-overs cricket on August 15, 2020.
Dhoni had last played for India in the 2019 ICC World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Dhoni, who leads Chennai Super Kings, is a three-time IPL-winning captain and has brought home three major ICC trophies — World T20, Champions Trophy and World Cup.
Useful notes for all competitive exams:
- Secretary of BCCI: Jay Shah.
- President of BCCI: Sourav Ganguly.
- Headquarters of BCCI: Mumbai, Maharashtra; Founded: December 1928.
Books and Authors
A book titled ‘Human Rights and Terrorism in India’ by Subramanian Swamy
A book has titled ‘Human Rights and Terrorism in India’ authored by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.
He has come out with a book “Human Rights and Terrorism in India” which traces how the combating of terrorism can be harmonized with human and fundamental rights within reasonable restrictions that are permitted by the Constitution and upheld by the Supreme Court. It is the thesis of this study that to deter terror, India as a nation must foster a concept of identity.
The release of three dreaded terrorists in exchange for hijacked Indian Airlines passengers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar in 1999 is the “worst capitulation” to terrorists in India”s modern history.
Obituary
Former Union minister Oscar Fernandes passes away
Veteran Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister Oscar Fernandes have passed away. The senior Congress leader had served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Transport, Road and Highways, and Labour and Employment, in Manmohan Singh’s UPA government.
He had served the Lok Sabha for five terms and was the sitting member of the Rajya Sabha in his third term. He was also the chairman of the Central Election Authority of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). He was a trained Kuchipudi dancer.