• In a unique and first-of-its-kind initiative, the Department of Science and Technology, DST has undertaken to set up India’s first-ever Night Sky Sanctuary in Ladakh.
• It will be completed within the next three months.
• The proposed Dark Sky Reserve will be located at Hanle in Ladakh as a part of Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It will boost Astro tourism in India and will be one of the world’s highest-located sites for optical, infrared, and gamma-ray telescopes.
• Science and Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said that a tripartite MoU was signed recently among the UT administration, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council LAHDC Leh and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, IIA, for launching the Dark Space Reserve.
• He said, the site will have activities to help in boosting local tourism and economy through interventions of Science and Technology.
• Jitendra Singh said, a high-level delegation of scientists and officials from Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai will visit Ladakh by the end of this year to explore the possibility of setting up a regional branch of CLRI.
• Ladakh has a very rich and wide variety of animals for leather research and industry and to promote bio-economy of animal skin-derived products.
• He also complimented CSIR for organising 4 training workshops, two each at Leh and Kargil for treatment of diseases of famous Pashmina Goats.
• Ladakh Administration has taken a decision to start the commercial plantation of Leh Berry.
• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR is promoting Leh Berry which is an exclusive food product of the cold desert and also a means of wide-ranging entrepreneurship as well as self-livelihood.

• In order to smoothly implement all the works related to the construction and establishment of the proposed Himachal Medical Devices Park at Nalagarh, Solan district, the state government has constituted two committees under the ambit of the HP State Industrial Development Corporation (HPSIDC).
• A high-level committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Administrative Secretary (Industries). Administrative Secretary (Jal Shakti Department) and Administrative Secretary (Power) will be its members while Director of Industries has been appointed its member secretary.
• Other members include Director of the Department of Environment, Science and Technology; Managing Director of the HPSIDC; a representative of the Pharmaceutical Department of the Central Government; Director of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and a representative of the Center for Innovation and Bio-Design (CIBOD), PGIMER. Co-opted members decided by the committee could also be included.
• This committee would be the highest decision-making body on any aspect of the project. It would take policy and strategic decisions in consonance with the detailed project report (DPR) approved by the Union Government and would be responsible for approving the annual budget of the Medical Devices Park (MDP).
• Apart from this high-level committee, an executive committee had also been constituted under the chairmanship of the Director of the Industries Department. Additional Director would be its convener.

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) of around Rs 398 crore, an increase of 14 per cent, was collected in August in the state.
• According to Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise, Yunus that the GST collection in the first five months of the current financial year had increased to Rs 2,255 crore as compared to Rs 1,634 crore collected during the same period last year.
• He said that continuous improvement in return filing, speedy scrutiny of returns, timely completion of GST audits and strengthened enforcement continue to be the focus areas for the department so as to achieve the target of 25 per cent cumulative growth in the current financial year.
• Yunus said the department had verified 5.6 lakh e-way bills in the current financial year. The department remains committed to improving voluntary compliance with time-bound redress of the issues of the stakeholders under the Tax Haat Programmme.

• According to a forecast from Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the storm is expected to move towards parts of Southwestern Japan, Eastern China and South Korea over the next few days.
• As of September 1, 2022, the category 5 typhoon — the highest classification on the scale — was about 230 km away from Japan’s Okinawa prefecture.
• One of the factors contributing to the Super Typhoon rapidly intensifying and expanding is the fact that it has started absorbing other local meteorological systems.
• Warm tropical waters and other pre-existing meteorological disturbances have also led to the system’s escalation.

About Typhoons

• Typhoons are a kind of storm. The storms, depending on where they occur, may be called hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones.

• Typhoons: In the China Sea and Pacific Ocean.
• Hurricanes: In the West Indian islands in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
• Tornados: In the Guinea lands of West Africa and southern USA.
• Willy-willies: In north-western Australia and
• Tropical Cyclones: In the Indian Ocean Region.

• Former footballer Kalyan Chaubey has been elected as the President of the  All India Football Federation (AIFF). Kalyan defeated the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post.
• The 45-year-old Chaubey, a former goalkeeper with Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, won 33-1, from the 34-member voters’ list made up of state association representatives.

About AIFF

• The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) is the organization that manages the game of association football in India.
• It administers the running of the India national football team and also controls the I-League, India’s premier domestic club competition, in addition to various other competitions and teams.
• The AIFF was founded in 1937, and gained FIFA affiliation in the year 1948, after India’s independence in 1947.
• Currently, it has an office in Dwarka, New Delhi. India was one of the founding members of the Asian Football Confederation in 1954.

• Defence Ministry has said that System for Pensions Administration – Raksha or SPARSH has disbursed more than three thousand ninety crore rupees to Defense Pensioners digitally in the month of August this year.
• In another milestone, more than five lakh sixty-two thousand Defence Pensioners migrated successfully on the digital platform of SPARSH in August. The total number of pensioners onboarded to SPARSH has crossed over one million mark with 11 lakh beneficiaries, which is nearly 33 per cent of the total defence pensioners in the country.
• The Ministry said, this transformational change has been made possible only through incremental innovations.

About SPARSH

• SPARSH is a web-based system processing pension claims and crediting the pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without any external intermediary.
• It has grown exponentially with more than 11 thousand 600 crore rupees disbursed in 2021-22, from just about 57 crore rupees in 2020-21.

• Ministry of Women and Child Development is celebrating the 5th Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2022 across the nation till 30th September.
• This year, the objective of the Poshan Maah is to trigger Poshan Maah through Gram Panchayats as Poshan Panchayats with key focus on “Mahila aur Swasthya” and “Bacha aur Shiksha”. Rashtriya Poshan Maah serves as a platform to bring focus to the discourse of nutrition and good health.
• In the 5th Rashtriya Poshan Maah the aim is to convert Jan Andolan into Jan Bhagidari to fulfill the Prime Minister’s vision of a Suposhit Bharat.
• The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition- POSHAN Abhiyaan is Government’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children under six years, adolescent Girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the programme from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan on 8 March, 2018.
• Focusing on the aims of POSHAN Abhiyaan, the government has launched Mission Poshan 2.0 as an integrated nutrition support program.

• Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh have exhorted Sarpaches and Gram Pradhans to ensure participation of all Gram Panchayats in the selection process of the revamped National Panchayat Awards.
• The process of inviting applications for revamped National Panchayat Awards will commence from 10th of this month. The last date for online submission of entries is 31st October this year.
• The Minister informed that the format, procedures, and categories of the National Panchayat Awards have been comprehensively revised to establish a multi-level competition to reorganize, felicitate and incentivize the best performing Panchayats at the Block, District, State, and National levels.
• Mr Singh said, to accelerate the pace of localization and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals in Panchayats, the format and categories of National Panchayat Awards has been substantially modified.
• 24th April is observed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj as National Panchayati Raj Day every year to celebrate the constitutional status accorded to Panchayati Ray system in the country.
• On this occasion, Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been awarded the best performing Panchayats, States, and Union Territories across the country.

National Panchayat Awards

• Incentivization of Panchayats scheme is one of the central components of Centrally Sponsored scheme of revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA).
• Under this scheme, ‘National Panchayat Awards’ are given to the best performing Panchayats,including financial incentives for award winning Panchayats, in recognition of their performances under various priority sectors/themes.
• These awards are usually given annually on 24th April, celebrated as National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate 73rd Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 which came into force with effect from 24th April, 1993.
• To nudge PRIs for a systematic planning, implementation, monitoring and accountability towards achieving LSDGs at the Panchayat level, the National Panchayat Awards have been restructured.

Incentivization of Panchayats scheme, through National Panchayat Awards aims to:

• Assess the performance of PRIs in attainment of SDGs through 9 identified themes
• Promote competitive spirit among PRIs
• Catalyze the process of ‘Localization of SDGs through PRIs’and sensitizing the PRIs about significance of attaining LSDG by 2030

• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will visit San Francisco and Los Angeles in USA to attend the first ever in-person Ministerial meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
• Goyal will also attend the India-US Strategic Partnership Forum conference.
• India joined the IPEF and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the launch event along with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, and other leaders from partner countries.
• During the six-day visit, Mr. Goyal will also interact with eminent business persons, US officials, and industry leaders to fortify the partnership between the two nations and strengthen trade and economic ties.
• India and the United States enjoy a comprehensive global strategic partnership covering almost all areas of human endeavor, driven by shared democratic values, convergence of interests on a range of issues, and vibrant people-to-people contacts.
• The Ministry said, regular exchanges at the leadership level have been an integral element of the expanding bilateral engagement.
• The outcomes emerging from these visits have been instrumental in further strengthening the multifaceted ties between the two countries.

What is the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)?

• The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) was launched by United States (US) President Biden in Tokyo on May 23, 2022.
• The IPEF has four pillars: Trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonisation and infrastructure; tax and anti-corruption.
• IPEF will have a total of 13 nations as its members.
• The grouping contains Seven of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) members, all four QUAD countries, South Koreaand New Zealand, which account for around 40% of global GDP.
• Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, three ASEAN countries considered closer to China, are not members of the IPEF.

• The Reserve Bank will soon begin a pilot project for end-to-end digitalization of Kisan Credit Card or KCC lending.
• Stating that digitalization of rural finance is an important objective of RBI’s Fintech initiatives, the apex bank has said that the pilot project will commence in select districts of Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with Union Bank of India and Federal Bank being partner banks respectively.
• Developed by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, the proposed digitalization of the KCC lending process is expected to make the process more efficient, and reduce costs for borrowers and the Turn Around Time – TAT significantly.
• Currently, the customers are required to visit the bank branch in person along with the proof of land ownership and other documents with the Turn Around Time from loan application to disbursement ranging from two to four weeks.
• Based on the learnings from the pilot, RBI plans to gradually expand the digitalization of KCC lending across the country.
• RBI has said that this pilot project is expected to play a pivotal role in facilitating credit flow to the unserved and underserved rural population.
• According to RBI that the project when implemented fully will have the potential to transform the rural credit delivery system.

About Kisan Credit Card:

• The scheme wasintroduced in 1998 for providing adequate and timely credit support from the banking system, under a single window with flexible and simplified procedure to the farmers for their cultivation and other needs like purchase of agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. and draw cash for their production needs.
• The scheme was further extended for the investment credit requirement of farmers viz. allied and non-farm activities in the year 2004.
• In the Budget-2018-19, government announced the extension of the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to fisheries and animal husbandry farmersto help them to meet their working capital needs.