21st September, 2022

1. The Indian Railways will launch the ‘Vande Bharat 2’ – an upgraded version of the Vande Bharat train or train-18 – to offer improved and better railway facilities to passengers.
2. Central govt will set up a national commission to study the social, economic and educational status of members of Scheduled Castes who converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
3. Union Ministry of Power has proposed to create Market-Based Economic Dispatch (MBED) mechanism for dispatching power.
4. India aims to have a 200,000-km national highway network by FY25.
5. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has arrived in Washington to attend the 77th Session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
6. Manipur CM N Biren Singh has launched the ‘CM Da Haisi’ (meaning ‘Inform to CM’) web portal to receive complaints and grievances from the general public.
7. Hyderabad State Liberation Day was celebrated on September 17.
8. Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has inaugurated the 9th Session of Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in New Delhi from September 19 to 24, 2022.
9. Indian Air Force is implementing the “Project Cheetah” under which it aims to upgrade the Israeli-origin Heron drones with strike capabilities.
10. World’s first public database on fossil fuels named as “Global Registry of Fossil Fuels” has been launched by Carbon Tracker, in collaboration with Global Energy Monitor.
11. Kazakhstan has renamed the country’s capital back to Astana. It is presently called Nur-Sultan.
12. United Arab Emirates (UAE) will launch its maiden moon mission in November this year.
13. China has successfully cloned the wild Arctic Wolf for the first time in the world.
14. Kazakhstan will host the Conference on Confidence Building Measures and Interaction in Asia (CICA) Summit in its capital city Astana on October 12-13.
15. BRICS Tourism Ministers’ meeting was held virtually under the Presidency of China.
16. Global investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board has announced to acquire a 30% equity stake in Mahindra Susten for ₹23.71 billion (~$300 million).
17. SBI has extended its ‘WECARE’ Fixed Deposit scheme for senior citizens till March 31, 2023.
18. SBI has collaborated with Remitly to enable NRIs to send money through SBI via Remitly to their family members while relaxing at home using mobile and web applications.
19. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) have signed a FinTech Cooperation Agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in FinTech.
20. Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is expected to complete the construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline by the end of 2022.
21. Russia’s Petersburg Social Commercial Bank (PSCB) has opened a rupee vostro account with India’s Yes Bank to keep the trade ongoing in the midst of western sanctions.
22. World Water Monitoring Day
23. September 19 – International World Snakebite Awareness Day
24. Chennai Open WTA 2022 (tennis) – Women’s Singles – Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic); Women’s Doubles – Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) and Luisa Stefani (Brazil)
25. “Muskurate Chand Lamhe aur Kuchh Khamoshiyan” book has been authored by Jiwesh Nandan.
26. Death toll from Lassa fever in Nigeria has reached 171 this year.

National News

1. The Indian Railways will launch the ‘Vande Bharat 2’ – an upgraded version of the Vande Bharat train or train-18 – to offer improved and better railway facilities to passengers.
2. Central govt will set up a national commission to study the social, economic and educational status of members of Scheduled Castes who converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
   • Reason – several petitions are currently pending before the Supreme Court seeking SC reservation benefits for Dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam
3. Union Ministry of Power has proposed to create Market-Based Economic Dispatch (MBED) mechanism for dispatching power.
   • Purpose – for centralised scheduling of the annual electricity consumption of inter- and intra-state
   • The annual electricity consumption of around 1,400 billion units will be scheduled for dispatch.
   • This will mark a clear shift from a decentralised model followed now.
   • MBED is in line with the Centre’s ‘One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency, One Price’
4. India aims to have a 200,000-km national highway network by FY25.
   • This requires building 20,000 kms of national highways every year for the next three years.
   • The target includes 34,800 km of Bharatamala highways to improve connectivity of national highways as well.
   • The NHAI also aims to build greenfield expressways of about 8,000 km over the next three years.
   • In her FY23 budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman pledged to add 25,000 km to the national highway network in FY23.

5. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has arrived in Washington to attend the 77th Session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

State News

1. Manipur CM N Biren Singh has launched the ‘CM Da Haisi’ (meaning ‘Inform to CM’) web portal to receive complaints and grievances from the general public.
2. Hyderabad State Liberation Day was celebrated on September 17.

Agriculture and Rural Development

1. Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has inaugurated the 9th Session of Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in New Delhi from September 19 to 24, 2022.
   • Theme – “Celebrating the Guardians of Crop Diversity: Towards an Inclusive Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”

Defence News

1. Indian Air Force is implementing the “Project Cheetah” under which it aims to upgrade the Israeli-origin Heron drones with strike capabilities.
   • Israeli-origin Heron unmanned aerial vehicles will be equipped with better communication facilities and missiles which can target enemy positions from long range.
   • Project Cheetah is a part of Make in India.
   • Another Project Cheetah (world’s first inter-continental large wild carnivore translocation project) has brought 8 Cheetahs (5 females and 3 males) in India from Namibia.
     • This Project Cheetah was prepared in 2008-09. Cheetah was declared extinct in 1952 in India.

International News

1. World’s first public database on fossil fuels named as “Global Registry of Fossil Fuels” has been launched by Carbon Tracker, in collaboration with Global Energy Monitor.
   • Carbon Tracker is an independent financial think tank that carries out in-depth analysis on the impact of the energy transition on capital markets and the potential investment in high-cost, carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
   • Global Energy Monitor (GEM) is a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization which catalogues fossil fuel and renewable energy projects worldwide.
2. Kazakhstan has renamed the country’s capital back to Astana. It is presently called Nur-Sultan.
   • The country has also made constitutional amendments to extend the presidential term to seven years.
   • President of Kazakhstan – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
3. United Arab Emirates (UAE) will launch its maiden moon mission in November this year.
   • The Rashid rover is expected to study the lunar surface, mobility on the moon’s surface, and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles.
4. China has successfully cloned the wild Arctic Wolf for the first time in the world.

5. Kazakhstan will host the Conference on Confidence Building Measures and Interaction in Asia (CICA) Summit in its capital city Astana on October 12-13.
   • Kazakhstan has invited PM Narendra Modi for this conference.
6. BRICS Tourism Ministers’ meeting was held virtually under the Presidency of China.
   • It was attended by G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DONER.
   • India had launched the BRICS alliance for Green Tourism during the India’s Presidency of BRICS in 2021.
   • India is holding SCO Presidency and G20 Presidency in 2022-23.

Banking and Economy

1. Global investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board has announced to acquire a 30% equity stake in Mahindra Susten for ₹23.71 billion (~$300 million).
   • Mahindra Susten is the solar engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) arm of Mahindra Group.
2. SBI has extended its ‘WECARE’ Fixed Deposit scheme for senior citizens till March 31, 2023.
   • Deposit tenure – 5-10 years
   • Interest – Additional premium of 30 bps (over and above existing premium of 50 bps) over interest rate for the Public i.e., 80 bps over interest rate for Public
3. SBI has collaborated with Remitly to enable NRIs to send money through SBI via Remitly to their family members while relaxing at home using mobile and web applications.
   • NRIs can now transfer money to 17 Remitly nations.

4. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) have signed a FinTech Cooperation Agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in FinTech.
   • Both entities are collaborating on Regulatory Sandbox initiative and information sharing.
   • MAS is the central bank of Singapore.
5. Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is expected to complete the construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline by the end of 2022.
   • The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline Project (IBFPP) aims to connect Siliguri in West Bengal with Parbatipur in Bangladesh’s Dinajpur district.

6. Russia’s Petersburg Social Commercial Bank (PSCB) has opened a rupee vostro account with India’s Yes Bank to keep the trade ongoing in the midst of western sanctions.
   • This new feature will enable the settlement of bilateral trade in rupees, bypassing payment curbs imposed on Russia by the US and EU for Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.

Important Days

1. September 18 –
   • World Water Monitoring Day
   • World Bamboo Day
2. September 19 – International World Snakebite Awareness Day
   • Union Health Ministry is planning to launch a dedicated national programme for the prevention and control of snakebite.
   • India is home to more than 300 species of snakes of which about 60 are venomous or mildly venomous.
   • Four major venomous species are Russell’s Viper, Indian Cobra, Common Krait, and Saw-Scaled Viper.
   • Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) and developing and tropical countries account for around 95% of the total snakebites of the world.
   • January 30 – World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day

Sports

1. Chennai Open WTA 2022 (tennis) – Women’s Singles – Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic); Women’s Doubles – Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) and Luisa Stefani (Brazil)
   • WTA – Women’s Tennis Association (based in US)

Miscellaneous

1. “Muskurate Chand Lamhe aur Kuchh Khamoshiyan” book has been authored by Jiwesh Nandan.
   • The book was released by Bollywood Actor Manoj Bajpayee.
2. Death toll from Lassa fever in Nigeria has reached 171 this year.
   • Cause – Lassa fever is an animal-borne, or zoonotic, acute viral illness spread by the common African rat. It is endemic to West Africa.
   • Symptoms – Initial: fever, general weakness and malaise, Later symptoms: headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough, and abdominal pain
   • Treatment – The antiviral drug ribavirin seems to be an effective treatment for Lassa fever if given early on in the course of clinical illness.
   • Transmission – Casual contact (including skin-to-skin contact without exchange of body fluids) does not spread Lassa virus.

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