22-23 September 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

1. PM Narendra Modi to address 74th session of UNGA in New York

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in New York during the second leg of his week-long US visit after historic visit to Houston.
He will address the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)and participate in other multilateral and bilateral engagements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also participate in UN Secretary General's Summit on Climate Change.
He will also attend a High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage and Leaders' Dialogue on Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives at the United Nations headquarters.
PM Modi will also inaugurate Gandhi Solar Park at the UN headquarters and Gandhi Peace Garden later in the day.

Source: AIR News

Important Days

2. 23rd September: International Day of Sign Languages

International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is celebrated annually across the world on 23rd September along with ‘International Week of the Deaf’.
The 2019 Theme of International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is ‘Sign Language Rights for All!’.

Each day of the International Week of the Deaf:

Days (last week of Sep 2019)	sub-theme
23rd September (Monday)	Sign Language Rights for All!
24th September (Tuesday)	Sign Language Rights for All Children
25th September (Wednesday)	Sign Language Rights for Deaf Senior Citizens
26th September (Thursday)	Sign Language Rights for DeafBlind People and Deaf People With Disabilities.
27th September (Friday)	Sign Language Rights for Deaf Women
28th September (Saturday)	Sign Language Rights for Deaf LGBTIQA+
29th September (Sunday)	Sign Language Rights for Deaf Refugees

Source: UN.org

National Affairs

3. India’s first environmental school to come up in Karnataka

India’s first environment school named World Environment School, Coorg (WESc) will come up at Coorg, Karnataka.
WESc will be open for students of Grade 6 to 12 from India and around the world from the year 2021.
It will be the first school in India and South Asia to take a leading role in promoting and delivering environmental education with sustainability at its core.
It will be launched by Mobius Foundation, a non-profit organization working towards environmental sustainability.

4. Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana on 21st October

Assembly elections in Maharashtra (288 seats) and Haryana (90 seats) will be held on 21^st October this year.
According to the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, the election process in both the states will be completed by 27th of October 2019.
The Model Code of conduct in these states has come into force with immediate effect.
Notification will be issued on 27th of this month and the last date for filing nominations will be 4th October.
The scrutiny will be held on 5th October and the last date for withdrawal of the nomination will be 7th of October.
The counting of votes will take place on 24^th October this year.
The Election Commission has also announced by-polls to 64 assembly seats across 18 States and Samastipur Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar.

Source: AIR News

5. Ooty to host 2nd flower festival during North-East Monsoon

Udhagamandalam-Ooty (in Tamil Nadu) will be hosting the 2nd flower festival of the year during the North-East Monsoon in October and November 2019.
Preparatory works for the elaborate exhibition of colourful and fragrant flowers have started in the famous Botanical Gardens in Udhagamandalam.
More than eighty-five exotic varieties, including predominantly English flowers like Dahlia, Merigold, Calendula and Daisy will be exhibited during the festival.
Flower plants are being replanted in two and a half lakh small pots, which will be kept in environmentally ideal conditions to ensure that the maximum number of flowers are ready by the time of the month-long festival.

6. NTPC to Build Country’s biggest Solar Park in Gujarat

India’s largest power company NTPC Ltd. has planned to set up 5 gigawatts (GW) solar park at Kutch in Gujarat.
A site has been identified for the project, which is expected to cost as much as Rs. 25,000 crores and begin operations by 2024.
It will be the biggest solar park in the country.
The project is part of the NTPC target to build 32 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity by 2032 in order to reduce the share of fossil fuels in its energy mix to 70% from about 96%.

Note:

The International Solar Alliance (ISA), proposed by India as a founder member, is headquartered in India.

7. UP celebrating first anniversary of PMJAY as Ayushman Bharat Day today

Today, Uttar Pradesh Government is celebrating the first anniversary of PM Jan Arogya Yojna, as ‘Ayushman Bharat Day’.
Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath has felicitated the beneficiaries and volunteers called ‘Ayushman Mitra’ in a function in Lucknow.
The state is celebrating Ayushman Bharat fortnight from 15th September to 2nd October.
Under the scheme, more than 36 lakh golden cards have been issued in the last year in the state.
Gorakhpur stands first among all districts in the state in issuing Golden cards.

8. Special schedule for Heritage Hill Railway from Udhagamandalam to Mettupalayam

In Tamil Nadu, the Southern Railways has announced a special schedule for the Heritage Hill Railway from Udhagamandalam to Mettupalayam.
Special trips of the mountain train on the picturesque route, hugging the verdant Western Ghats, will be run on all weekends from October 5th to November 29th.
This coincides with the second flower season in the world-renowned hill station.
The Southern Railways announced in Mettupalayam wherefrom the train starts that the day-time service will have halts at Kallar, Hill Grove, Aruvankadu, Wellington and Coonoor.

Book & Author

9. A new book "Being Gandhi" to mark Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary

A new book by award-winning author Paro Anand will mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi by publishers Harper Collins Children’s Books have been announced.
The book 'Being Gandhi, explores not Gandhi the man or his life as a leader, but really the Gandhian way that must remain relevant to us.
The story revolves around a boy, Chandrashekhar, who is bored of doing projects on Gandhi.

Honour & Awards

10. Sonu Nigam wins 21st Century Icon Award in UK

Indian playback singer Sonu Nigam (46-years) has been honoured with ‘Magnificent Performing Arts Award’ at the 21st Century Icon Awards in London, United Kingdom (UK).
The nominations for the annual award were from 22 different countries and Sonu Nigam won the award among these.
These annual awards are the brainchild of UK-based Indian-origin entrepreneurs Preeti Rana and Tarun Gulati (co-founders of Squared Watermelon Ltd).
The 2019 edition of awards attracted more than 700 nominations which were narrowed down to 44 finalists.

Source: Business Standard

11. Kerala Tourism receives three PATA Gold Awards

Kerala Tourism has won three prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold awards.
These awards include one for an ethnic food restaurant run by women at Kumarakom under its Responsible Tourism Mission.
The awards presented at a glittering function at Nur-Sultan (Astana) in Kazakhstan were received by state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran and Tourism Director P Bala Kiran.
The two other gold awards were for an advertisement campaign of Kerala Tourism 'Come Out and Play' and for its website (www.keralatourism.org) respectively.

Note:

The PATA Awards are presented to outstanding entries in four principal categories: Marketing; Education and Training; Environment, and Heritage and Culture.

Banking & Finance

12. Bank of Baroda launches agri digital platform ‘Baroda Kisan’

Bank of Baroda has launched a digital platform ‘Baroda Kisan’ to provide solutions for all major agricultural requirements.
The agri-digital platform has been executed by IT Centre of Excellence (ITCoE) of Bank of Baroda in partnership with IBM India.
It is a web-based portal that can also be accessed by farmers via mobile.
The web-based portal will cater to all the needs of farmers, including weather forecasts, crop conditions, the moisture levels of the soil, information on crop worms, market prices, special crop-related consultation.
The Bank also launched centralised processing hubs at Gandhinagar and Hyderabad of agriculture proposals.

Source: Hindu Business Line

13. HDFC Bank to hold 1,000 Grameen loan melas over next 6 months

HDFC Bank has announced to organise 1,000 Grameen loan melas over the next six months with an aim to expand its retail portfolio.
These Grameen loan melas (or village loan fairs) will be held across more than 300 districts and cover around 6,000 villages across India.
Customers can avail of the tractor, auto, two-wheeler and Agri loans or open current or savings accounts, it said. Besides, self-help groups (SHGs) can avail of finance through the bank’s Sustainable Livelihood Initiative.

Source:

Obituaries

14. Former cricketer Madhav Apte passes away

Former cricketer Madhav Apte (86-years) passed away at the Breach Candy Hospital Mumbai.
He has played 67 first-class matches (46 Ranji Trophy for Bombay and three for Bengal), scored 3336 runs, with six centuries and 16 half-centuries.
Madhav Apte was the first Indian opener to aggregate over 400 runs in a Test series (460 runs against West Indies in 1953).
Apte was for many years the President of the Cricket Club of India and the Legends Club.

Source: The Hindu

Sports

15. Rahul Aware wins bronze in 61 kg freestyle category at World C’ship

Indian wrestler Rahul Aware (27-years) has won a bronze medal in men's 61-kilogram freestyle category at the World Championship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Rahul beat 17th seeded Tyler Lee Graff (America) 11-4 to ensure he finished on the podium.
It was India’s fifth medal at this edition of the World Championships with a total haul of 1 silver and 4 bronzes.
Deepak Punia (86-kilogram category) was forced to pull out of the final due to an injury and settled for silver.

Note:

The 2019 World Wrestling Championships were held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan (14th to 22nd September 2019).
The tournament served as qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the top six wrestlers from each category earned their NOCs a qualification.

Source: AIR News

16. Amit Panghal becomes first Indian to win silver medal at World Boxing Championships

Ace Indian boxer Amit Panghal settled for a silver medal at the AIBA Men's World Boxing Championships at Ekaterinburg in Russia.
He lost to Shakhobidin Zoirov (Uzbekistan) in flyweight (48-52 kg) category, by a unanimous decision from the judges.
Amit Panghal created history as he became the first Indian male boxer to qualify for the final of the Championships.
Before this year, India had never won more than one bronze medal at a single edition of the world championship.

Note:

The past Indian medal-winners at the world meet are Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017).

Source: Hindustan Times

17. Sebastian Vettel wins the Singapore Grand Prix 2019

German racing driver Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) has won the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix 2019.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) remained on the second position while Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-Honda) was third.
The 2019 Singapore Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore.

18. Carolina Marina and Kento Momota wins China Open Badminton Title 2019

Carolina Marina (Spain) and Kento Momota (Japan) have won the China Open Badminton Title 2019.
The 2019 China Open badminton tournament took place at Olympic Sports Center Xincheng Gymnasium in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China (17 to 22 September 2019).
This tournament was organized by Chinese Badminton Association and sanctioned by the BWF.

List of all winners:

S. No.	Tournament	Players
1.	Men’s Singles	Kento Momota (Japan)
2.	Women’s Singles	Carolina Marín (Spain)
3.	Men’s Doubles	Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Indonesia) & Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)
4.	Women’s Doubles	Chen Qingchen (China) & Jia Yifan (China)
5.	Mixed Doubles	Zheng Siwei (China) & Huang Yaqiong (China)