• India’s Radhika Batra, Zahra Joya of Afghanistan, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen have been honoured by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their extraordinary work towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The ‘Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards’ were conferred in New York’s Lincoln centre in recognition of the work done by the “four remarkable changemakers” to advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities and around the world.

• Two indigenously designed and built Diving Support Vessels of the Navy were launched in Visakhapatnam.
• Named ‘Nistar’ and ‘Nipun’, the ships were launched by Kala Hari Kumar, the wife of the Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, as per naval traditions
• The ships are capable of conducting search and rescue operations and carrying out helicopter operations at sea
• The vessels are first-of-its-kind ships, indigenously designed and built at Hindustan Shipyard Ltd
• The two have been manufactured with over 80 per cent indigenous content.

• In a push to the Union government’s ‘Skill India’ initiative, the Electronics Sector Skill Council of India (ESSCI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ‘Samsung India’ to upskill youths and enhance their potential for employability.
• Under the programme ‘Samsung Innovation Campus’, it aims to upskill over 3,000 unemployed youths from 18-25 years of age in future technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Big Data and Coding and Programming.
• The ESSCI, which is an approved entity by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), will execute the program through its nationwide network of approved training and education partners.
• Union Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry is said to be in touch with several such firms in the matter.
• The skilling initiative, which is a flagship programme of the Union government, aims to empower youths with industry-relevant skills in emerging technology domains.
• India is billed as the fastest growing economy in the world and virtually has a jump over other countries with regard to its bulging youthful demography.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch has been to reap demographic dividends stemming from its burgeoning youth population.
• The Union government’s vision is to upskill the youth fast, and consequently facilitate them with a “calling card” to measure up to employment opportunities – both domestic and globally.
• Union Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar during the MoU ceremony said, “Skilling should not just be about equipping the youth with employable skills but act as gateways to employability and employment — as their “Passports to Prosperity”.
• The Centre’s emphasis on skilling is to harness the opportunities in an increasingly digitised world and to make India a talent pool.
• The government’s thrust is on the NSDC and the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry evolving closer partnerships between the industry and the skilling ecosystem for sustainable solutions.
• It includes harnessing universities and institutes in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the matter.

• India hosted the 10th Ministerial Commission of Foreign Ministers of the India-Brazil-South Africa Trilateral Cooperative Forum (IBSA), on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly. External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, on a 10-day official visit to the United States, met with his Brazilian counterpart Carlos Franca and South African Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla.
• The trio reaffirmed the cooperation between India, Brazil and South Africa.
• “Hosted the 10th India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Ministerial Commission Meeting. Reviewed the IBSA process and recognised its activities. Appreciated its promotion of South-South cooperation, including on global and multilateral issues.”
• The ministers also launched a report by 4 IBSA think tanks.
• The IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to promote South-South cooperation and exchange.
• The ministerial meeting would review the IBSA process and South-South cooperation.
• The idea of South-South Cooperation (SSC) is not new. Its genesis can be traced back to the decades of efforts by countries and groupings working together to ensure South-South solidarity such as the Bandung conference 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement 1961, the G77 grouping, UNCTAD, the Buenos Aires Plan of Action 1978, and the 2009 Nairobi declaration.
• India, Brazil and South Africa have reaffirmed the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to help combat contemporary challenges to international peace and security.

• The International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL)is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September.
• The day is a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.
• Sign language gives people, who are hard of hearing, a medium to converse.
• This day aims to spread awareness regarding the importance of sign language in the realisation of the human rights of people who are deaf.

International Day of Sign Languages: Theme

• The theme for the 2022 International Day of Sign languages is “Sign Languages Unite Us”. 
• Deaf communities, governments and civil society organisations maintain their collective efforts in fostering, promoting and recognising national sign languages as part of their countries’ vibrant and diverse linguistic landscapes.

• In a significant achievement and recognition to country’s efforts against hypertension, India has won a UN award for its initiative to control and prevent hypertension under the government’s National Health Mission.
• The India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) which is a large-scale hypertension intervention under National Health Mission, has been recognized for its exceptional work within India’s existing primary healthcare system.
• The IHCI won the ‘2022 UN Interagency Task Force and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award’ at the UN General Assembly side event held at New York in USA.
• The award recognizes the outstanding commitment and action of India to prevent and control Non-Communicable Diseases and deliver integrated people-centric primary care.
• The IHCI has been able to leverage and strengthen the existing healthcare delivery system, and hypertension control interventions under National Health Mission.
• The initiative was launched in 2017 and expanded in a phased manner to cover more than 130 districts across 23 states.
• Under the initiative, more than 34 lakh people with hypertension are taking treatment in government health facilities, including Ayushman Bharat Health Wellness Centres.

• Nagaland Government will be launching its own health insurance scheme called the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS) on 1st of October.
• The CMHIS aimed to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure on hospital care for all bonafide citizens of the state.
• The scheme will cover two beneficiary categories-State government employees and pensioners including legislators/ex-legislators and their dependents, and all the Indigenous and or Permanent residents of the State who are not beneficiaries under AB PM-JAY or any public-funded insurance scheme.
• The beneficiary families will be entitled to free health insurance coverage of up to five lakh rupees per family per year.
• Additionally, the first category which is Government employees, pensioners, legislators, or ex-legislators should have additional staggered benefits as notified by the Government.

• Providing further impetus to Aatmanirbharta in defence production, Ministry of Defence signed a contract with M/s BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited BAPL for acquisition of additional dual-role capable Surface to Surface BrahMos missiles at an overall approximate cost of 1700 Crore rupees under Buy-Indian Category.
• Induction of these dual-role capable Missiles is going to significantly enhance the operational capability of Indian Navy fleet assets.
• It is notable that BAPL is a Joint Venture between India and Russia making a crucial contribution to augment the new generation of Surface-to-Surface Missiles with enhanced range and dual role capability for land as well as anti-ship attacks.
• This contract is going to give further boost to indigenous production of critical weapon system and ammunition with active participation of indigenous industry.

• Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur inaugurated the National Rafting Championship at Pirdi in Kullu.
• It will be organised in Beas River.
• Nearly 200 players from 11 different states are participating in the championship.
• Rafting is an Adventure sports.
• River Beas from Manali to Bhuntar, a stretch of 50 km with a number of rapids, is most popular for recreational river rafting runs.
• For safety reasons rapids of rivers in Himachal Pradesh have been graded in accordance with international guidelines.
• It has been categorised in six categories ranging from easy moving water for beginners to Un-runnable water for only experts.

• The “world’s longest extradosed single-span bridge”, which is slated to be constructed on 620-feet-high pillars (approximately equal to the height of three Qutub Minars) near Shakaral on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli stretch of the Parwanoo-Shimla four-laning project, is set to become another tourist attraction.
• There will be only two pillars in this 280-m-long single-span extradosed cable bridge to be constructed at a cost of Rs 600 crore in three years and the height of the bridge (top of the pillar) from the ditch will be 826 feet, said National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regional officer Abdul Basit.
• He said the bridge would be built by the state-of-the-art technology on the Shakral-Dhalli section of the stretch by Gawar Infrastructure Company, Gurgaon.
• “This will be the world’s first extradosed bridge with a span length of 280 m, surpassing the 275-m-long span extradosed bridge in Japan, as per information collected from Google,” said detailed project report (DPR) consultant, Intercontinental Techno Consultant, Neeraj Choudhary.
• He said the new highway would bypass Shimla and reduce the distance between Kaithlighat and Dhalli from 40.1 km to 28.4 km. The stretch would be constructed in two sections. The Kaithlighat-Shakral (17.46 km) section would be constructed by the HP Singla group while the Shakral-Dhalli (10.98 km) section would be constructed by Gawar Infrastructure Company.
• The total cost of the project is Rs 3,915 crore, which includes the construction of five tunnels measuring 5.14 km in length and five major and one minor bridge, besides 22 viaducts.
• The length of the longest and shortest tunnels is 2.66 km and 242 m, respectively. The bypass would be linked at seven points with Shimla city.