VISION

1)  Charanjit Singh Channi to be next chief minister of Punjab

•The Congress party has elected Charanjit Singh Channi, the outgoing technical education minister, as the new chief minister of Punjab after Captain Amarinder Singh resigned from the post. He has been elected as the leader of the Punjab Congress Legislative Party (CLP). He is an MLA from the Chamkaur Sahib assembly constituency. He will become Punjab’s first Dalit chief minister.

•Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned as the chief minister of Punjab on Saturday following months of infighting between him and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

2)  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.

3)  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.

4)  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.

5)  ‘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.

6)  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.

7)  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.

8)  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.

9)  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!

10)  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.

11)  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.

📰 1.2 lakh people died in road accidents in 2020: NCRB

 APTI PLUS Current Affairs Monthly Magazine August 2021

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JPSC Civil Services Answer Key 2021 Prelims! Solved Paper Key

Insights IAS Static Quiz 2021 August in Hindi PDF

Shankar IAS July 2021 Monthly Mainstorming PDF

1)  World Bamboo Day: 18 September

•World Bamboo Day is observed every year on 18 September to raise awareness of the benefits of bamboo and to promote its use in everyday products. Bamboos are used for various purposes mainly in East and Southeast Asia. Bamboo is a tall, tree-like grass of the family Poaceae. It comprises more than 115 genera and 1,400 species.

•The theme for the 12th edition of WBD 2021 is ‘#PlantBamboo: It Is Time To Plant Bamboo’

2)  International Equal Pay Day: 18 September

•International Equal Pay Day is celebrated on 18 September. The inaugural edition of the day was observed in the year 2020. The day aims to achieve equal pay for work of equal value and break the walls against all forms of discrimination, including discrimination against women and girls.

3)  World Water Monitoring Day: 18 September

•The World Water Monitoring Day is observed every year on September 18 since 2003 to increase public awareness and involvement in water monitoring and protecting water resources around the world. This day is celebrated to increase public awareness and involvement in water monitoring and protecting water resources around the world. World Water Monitoring Day engages people of all ages in monitoring the condition of local rivers, streams, estuaries and other water bodies. The theme of World Water Day 2021 is valuing water.

4)  International Coastal Clean-Up Day 2021: 18 September

•The International Coastal Cleanup Day is traditionally held on the third Saturday in September. In 2021, the day is being held on 18 September. The theme of International Coastal Clean-Up Day 2021: “Keep trash in the bin and not in the ocean”. Coastal Cleanup Day was established by the Ocean Conservancy, an organization that works to help protect the ocean from the challenges it faces every year.

5)  International Red Panda Day 2021

•The International Red Panda Day (IRPD) is celebrated on the third Saturday of September every year to raise public awareness and support for red panda conservation issues. In 2021, the IRPD is being observed on 18 September 2021. The day was launched by the Red Panda Network in 2010. The first international red Panda day was celebrated on 18th September 2010.

6)  PM Narendra Modi virtually addresses 21st SCO Meeting

•The 21st Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State was held in hybrid format on September 17, 2021, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon. This was the first SCO Summit held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit in which India participated as a full-fledged member of SCO.

•The Indian delegation was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who participated in the meeting via video-link and at Dushanbe, India was represented by External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar. PM Modi has expressed India’s support for the “central role” of the United Nations in the global deliberation regarding the current system in Afghanistan.

7)  India’s 61st Software Technology park centre opened in Nagaland

•Nagaland’s first and India’s 61st Software Technology Park of India (STPI) centre was inaugurated at Kohima. The inauguration of the STPI centre in Kohima is a fulfilment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of creating a technology ecosystem in the northeast to create opportunities for future generations in the region.

•The MoS urged the need to create real change in the technology ecosystem. In order to create job opportunities, he said, the state government must work towards creating an interconnection of institutions to create awareness about various opportunities available for the youth.

8)  Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran-XV to begin at Pithoragarh

•The 15th edition of Indo–Nepal Joint Military Training Exercise Surya Kiran will be held from September 20, 2021, at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand. The previous edition of the Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019. The exercise was called off in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

9)  Jhumpa Lahiri to launch her new book ‘Translating Myself and Others’

•The Pulitzer Prize-winning noted fiction writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, is set to launch her new book titled ‘Translating Myself and Others’, which will highlight her work as a translator. The new book is planned to be out in Spring 2022. It will be a collection of essays that reflect Lahiri’s experiences on the meaning of translation, translating her own writing, and writing across languages. The book will be published by Princeton University Press.

10)  Alka Nangia Arora appoints as CMD of NSIC

•Alka Nangia Arora has been appointed as the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of the National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. (NSIC). She has taken the additional charge of the post on September 14, 2021. She is a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.

UPSC prelims admit card: The UPSC has released the admit card for Civil Services preliminary exam. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released the UPSC prelims admit card on the official webiste of the Commission at upsc.gov.in. The UPSC admit card link for the prelims examination will be available to download till October 10, 2021. 

The UPSC had postponed the Civil Services preliminary exam which was earlier scheduled to be held on June 27, in view of the COVID-19 situation in the country. The exam will be held on October 10, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had said in a notification.

The commission conducts civil services examination annually in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

UPSC prelims admit card: Direct link

Download your admit card from the direct link given here:

Download UPSC Admit Card

Candidates may check the UPSC admit card carefully and bring discrepancies, if any, to the notice of the UPSC immediately.

Candidates may mention their Name, Roll Number, Registration ID, Name and Year of the examination in all the correspondence with the UPSC.

Candidates should bring the UPSC admit card (print out) along with the (original) Photo Identity Card, whose number is mentioned in the admit card, in each session to secure admission to examination hall. E-admit card must be preserved till the declaration of the final results of the Civil Services Examination, 2021, the Commission said in a notification.