Pankaj Advani wins Asian Snooker Championship 2021
India’s Pankaj Advani won the Asian Snooker Championship 2021 by defeating Amir Sarkhosh. He has won this title for a second consecutive time. He is the winner of the last Asian Snooker Championship held in 2019. In 2019, Pankaj also became the only player who won the titles in all forms of billiards, snooker, 6Reds, and 10Reds competitions. Yasin Merchant (1989, 2001), Alok Kumar (2004), Aditya Mehta (2012) were the other Indians who won the championship.
Rajnath Singh launches a book title ‘Shining Sikh Youth of India’
The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has released a book titled ‘Shining Sikh Youth of India’ in New Delhi, as a part of the commemoration of the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of Sikhs. The book has been authored by Dr Prabhleen Singh, administrative officer at the Punjabi University, Patiala. It covers 100 inspirational and motivational success stories of Sikh youth in India who have done exemplary work in their respective fields.
LIC Launches Mobile App ‘PRAGATI’ for Development Officers
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched a new mobile app ‘PRAGATI’ for the exclusive use of its Development Officers. PRAGATI stands for “Performance Review Application, Growth And Trend Indicator”. LIC has been taking a lot of customer-centric and digital initiatives for ease of operations for its customers and field force.
About the ‘PRAGATI’ app:
The Pragati app will help the Development Officers to get near real-time information about the performance of their agency force in critical areas of business performance like premium collection, agency activisation, prospective outperformers, etc apart from monitoring their team on activities such as usage of agents mobile app and NACH validation. The app also provides development officers with a calculator to measure their cost ratio.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- LIC Headquarters: Mumbai;
- LIC Founded: 1 September 1956;
- LIC Chairman: M R Kumar.
Manipur’s Sirarakhong Chilli and Tamenglong Orange gets GI tag
Two famous products of Manipur, Hathei chilli, which is found in Manipur’s Ukrul district and is known for its unique flavour, and Tamenglong mandarin orange have been granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. This is a historic milestone in the history of Manipur and it will increase the income of farmers in Manipur.
About the Hathei chilly:
The Hathei chilly works as a good anti-oxidant and possesses high calcium and Vitamin C levels. It has an extremely high American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) colour value of 164. The extractable colour of chilli is usually expressed using ASTA values.
About the Tamenglong mandarin orange:
The Tamenglong mandarin orange is bigger in size, weighing 232.76 grams on average. It is a unique sweet and sour flavour. It has high juice content (around 45 per cent) and is rich in ascorbic acid (48.12 mg/100ml). These oranges are grown over areas spanning 1,800 hectares in the hills of Tamenglong, out of which 400 hectares are certified as organic by MOMA.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh; Governor: La. Ganesan.
‘Katley’ declared as state fish of Sikkim
The Government of Sikkim has declared ‘Cooper Mahseer’ locally named as ‘Katley’ as the state fish. Neolissochilus hexagonolepis is the scientific name of the Cooper Mahseer. The decision has been taken to highlight the importance of the Katley fish and to give emphasis to its conservation measures. The fish has high market value and is highly preferred by the public in the State.
The Sikkim government has also declared the reservoirs of the State to be open for fishing activities. License shall be issued by the Directorate of Fisheries to the interested individual fishermen or fishermen co-operative societies or SHGs for fishing in the reservoirs in accordance with the existing provisions under the Sikkim Fisheries Rules, 1990. The reservoirs are in Chungthang in North Sikkim, Legshep in West Sikkim along with Dikchu and Rorathang in East Sikkim.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of Sikkim: PS Golay.
- Governor of Sikkim: Ganga Prasad.
Ministry of Law and Justice launches “Ek Pahal” campaign
Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice has launched the “Ek Pahal” campaign to encourage mass registration under Tele-Law. The Ek Pahal campaign will run across the country from 17th September till 2nd October. The “Ek Pahal” campaign will cover 51,434 Common Service Centres in 50,000 Gram Panchayats in 633 districts across 34 States and UTs.
About the campaign:
Tele-Law means the use of communications and information technology for the delivery of legal information and advice. Department of Justice has partnered with NALSA and CSC e-Governance Service India Limited for mainstreaming legal aid to the marginalized communities through Common Services Center (CSC). This e-interaction between lawyers and people would be through the video-conferencing infrastructure available at the CSCs.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Union Minister of Law and Justice: Kiren Rijiju.
NPCI partners with Liquid Group to enable UPI QR-based payments acceptance
NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has partnered with Liquid Group Pte. Ltd. (Liquid Group) to enable UPI QR-based payments acceptance in 10 markets across North Asia and Southeast Asia. This partnership will help BHIM App users to make UPI QR-based payments in the 10 markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, from early 2022.
This strategic partnership with Liquid Group is a formidable step towards achieving our vision of taking our robust and popular payments solutions to global markets. This will enable UPI QR-based payment acceptance and scale-up in Asian markets.
About the Liquid Group:
Liquid Group is a leading cross-border digital payments provider, is headquartered in Singapore. It operates a QR payment acceptance network that enables the cross-border acceptance of payment schemes and digital payment apps.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- National Payments Corporation of India MD & CEO: Dilip Asbe.
- National Payments Corporation of India Headquarters: Mumbai.
- National Payments Corporation of India Founded: 2008.
World Bank Group Discontinues Doing Business Report
The World Bank Group has decided to discontinue publication of its ‘Doing Business” rankings of country business climates after a review of data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 reports. The decision was taken by the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management after data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 were reported.
To fill the void created by the discontinuation of this report, World Bank would be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- World Bank Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States.
- World Bank Formation: July 1944.
- World Bank President: David Malpass.
Fino Payments Bank appoints Pankaj Tripathi as brand ambassador
Fino Payments Bank (FPBL) has appointed Indian actor Pankaj Tripathi as its first brand ambassador, for a period of two-year. Pankaj Tripathi will be the face of Fino Payments Bank’s marketing campaigns across various platforms, to promote its products and services.
To begin with, the actor will be the face of Fino bank’s first campaign titled ‘Fikar Not’. He will work with the brand in promoting its products and services representing through Fino’s ever-present and friendly neighbourhood local banker – Hamesha available!
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chairman of Fino Payments Bank: Prof Mahendra Kumar Chouhan.
- Fino Payments Bank established: 13 July 2006.
- MD & CEO of Fino Payments Bank: Rishi Gupta.
- Headquarters of Fino Payments Bank: Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Harmilan Kaur Bains sets new record in 1500m race at National level
Harmilan Kaur Bains of Punjab has created a new national record in the women’s 1500m race by clocking 4:05.39 to bag the gold at the 60th National Open Athletics Championships in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Hanamkonda in Telangana. With this achievement, the 23-year-old athlete has erased the 19-year-old record held by Sunita Rani in 1500m at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan by clocking 4:06.03.
Odia litterateur, social worker and journalist Manorama Mohapatra passes away
Eminent Odia litterateur, social worker and journalist Manorama Mohapatra passed away. She was a former editor of Odia daily ‘The Samaja’. She had won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1984, Soviet Nehru Award in 1988, Critic Circle of India Award in 1990, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar Samman in 1991 and Rupambara Award in 1994.
Niti Aayog tie-up with ISRO,CBSE launch ‘Space Challenge’ for school students
Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission in collaboration with ISRO and CBSE has launched ‘Space Challenge’ for school students across India. This challenge has been designed for all the school students, mentors and teachers across the country who not only are associated with schools having Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) labs but for all the non-ATL schools as well.
The aim of this challenge is to enable innovation among young school students to create something in the space sector that will not only help them learn about the space but create something that the space programme can use itself.
Under the Atal Innovation Mission:
- The Aayog is running initiatives like Atal Incubation Centres and ATLs to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
- This is to ensure that students of classes 6 to 12 are given an open platform where they can innovate and enable themselves to solve digital age space technology problems.
- The ATL Space Challenge 2021 aligns with the World Space Week 2021 which is being observed from October 4-10 each year at the global level in order to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology.
India’s first indigenous cruise liner launched by IRCTC
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has joined hands and signed the agreement with Cordelia Cruises being operated by M/s Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt. Ltd for promotion and marketing of the first indigenous luxury cruise in India. This is another incredible luxury travel offering under IRCTC”s umbrella of tourism services to the public.
The luxury travel offering in the form of the indigenous cruise will take guests on-boards to some of the most popular Indian and international tourist destinations – such as Goa, Diu, Kochi, the Lakshadweep islands, and Sri Lanka.
About the Cordelia Cruises:
Cordelia Cruises is one of India’s premium cruise liners and aspires to promote and drive the cruise culture in India through experiences that are “stylish, luxurious, and most importantly, inherently Indian.”
India’s Raja Rithvik becomes 70th Grandmaster
India’s R Raja Rithvik became chess Grandmaster after he crossed the ELO Rating of 2500. The 17-year-old achieved this GM title in Vezerkepzo Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Budapest, Hungary. He thus became the 70th Grandmaster from the country. A native of Warangal, Rithvik has been undergoing advanced coaching at RACE Chess Academy under reputed coach N.V.S. Rama Raju.
