1) 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.
2) 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 khai means food. So, the festival of nuakhai is a festival to celebrate newly harvested food by the farmers.
3) Haryana topped in 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.
4) 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.
5) India and 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.
6) ‘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.
7) 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.
8) 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.
9) 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.
•Justice Bansi Lal Bhat was the first Acting Chairperson from March 15, 2020, followed by Justice A I S Cheema from April 19, 2021, and subsequently Justice M. Venugopal from September 11, 2021.
10) 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 centres and avail the technical expertise of ISRO for testing and qualifying their space launch vehicle systems and subsystems.
•The agreement was signed by R Umamaheswaran, scientific secretary at ISRO and chairman at Interim IN-SPACe Committee, and Pawan Chandana, who is the CEO of Skyroot Aerospace.
11) 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 harmonised 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.
12) 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.
13) 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.
