WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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 in 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.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.
• 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

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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.
• The Indian Army and Nepali Army would share their experiences of various counter-insurgency operations, and familiarise themselves with each other’s weapons, equipment, tactics, techniques and procedures of operating in a counter-insurgency environment in mountainous terrain.
• The joint military training will help in improving bilateral relations and further strengthen the traditional friendship between the two nations.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 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. The National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) is a Mini Ratna company established in 1955. It falls under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of India and serves as a nodal agency for several schemes of the Ministry of MSME.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Noted writer and former secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages Aziz Hajini passed away. Hajini, born as Abdul Aziz Parray in north Kashmir’s Bandipora, was appointed Secretary J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages in 2015.
• He has over twenty books in Kashmiri to his credit including poetry and criticism. Hajini won the Sahitya Akademi Award (criticism) in 2016 for his book ‘Aane Khane’ written in Kashmiri. He has also won the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award in 2013 for Za Gaz Zameen, Kashmiri translation of Abdul Samad’s Urdu novel Do Gaz Zameen.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• A 12-year-old environmental activist from Mumbai, Maharashtra, Ayaan Shankta has been named as “2021 International Young Eco-Hero”.
• He won the 3rd prize under the Age Group: 8-14 for his project “Conservation and Rehabilitation of Powai Lake” and became one of the 25 global winners of the Young Eco-Hero Award 2021.
• The award presented by “The Action for Nature”, San Francisco based NGO, recognize young people (8 to 16 years old) for their environmental achievements.