• The Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation (RMAF), which is widely regarded as the “Nobel Peace Prize of Asia,” recently announced this year’s awardees in a global announcement ceremony.
• The 2022 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are Sotheara Chhim (Cambodia), Bernadette Madrid (Philippines), Tadashi Hattori (Japan) and Gary Bencheghib (Indonesia).

About recipients Ramon Magsaysay Award 2022:

• Sotheara Chhim-He is a mental health advocate from Cambodia. He is a leading voice in Cambodian trauma syndrome. He is being recognized for “his calm courage in surmounting deep trauma to become his people’s healer”. As a child, he was forced to work in Khmer Rouge camps for more than three years until their rule ended in 1979.
• Tadashi Hattori-He is a sight-saving humanitarian from Japan. He is being recognized for his simple humanity and extraordinary generosity as a person and a professional. He decided to become a doctor at age 15 when he witnessed the rude treatment that his cancer-stricken father received in a hospital.
• Bernadette J. Madrid-She is a children’s rights crusader from the Philippines. She is being recognized for “her unassuming and steadfast commitment to noble and demanding advocacy. Since 1997, she has led the country’s first child protection centre at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. It has served more than 27,000 children as of last year.
• Gary Bencheghib-He is an anti-plastic pollution warrior from Indonesia. He is being recognized for Emergent Leadership for “his inspiring fight against marine plastic pollution.

About Ramon Magsaysay Award:

• The Ramon Magsaysay Award, established in 1957, is Asia’s greatest honour and distinction. The award is managed by RMAF.
• It is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the third president of the Philippines. The award is regarded around the world as ‘’Asia’s Nobel Prize’’.
• The prize is annually presented in a ceremonial ceremony in Manila, Philippines on August 31.
• The first Ramon Magsaysay Awards ceremony was held on 31st August 1958.

• The United States announced hosting the first-ever US-Pacific Island Country Summit in the last week of this month amid the growing influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region.
• According to the announcement made by the Biden administration, the Summit will be held in Washington from 28th to 29th   September.
• The Summit will demonstrate the United States deep and enduring partnership with Pacific Island countries and the Pacific region that is underpinned by shared history, values, and people-to-people ties.
• Notably, the announcement came a week after the United States accused Beijing of expanding its nuclear arsenal and claimed the extreme build-up process could harm the stability of the Indo-Pacific region.
• Addressing a press conference in Indonesia last week, US Indo-Pacific Commander, Admiral John Aquilino said China is the only country that is expanding its nuclear arsenal and it had 300 nuclear silos going in.

• Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri will lead an official and business delegation to Milan, Italy to attend the Gastech Milan-2022.
• Gastech, the World’s largest gathering focused on LNG as an abated bridge fuel will bring together leading Ministers and CEOs to discuss the evolving energy landscape, assess post-pandemic economic recovery and navigate a route to a just energy transition.
• During the three-day visit, Mr. Puri will participate in the select Ministerial Panel of the Opening Ceremony along with the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and State Secretary of Energy of Portugal.
• He will also take part in Ministerial Panel discussions titled “Energy Security and Transition” and “A just energy transition for developing nations”.
• The Minister will chair the “India Spotlight: Powering India’s energy industry – new avenues for a sustainable future” panel discussion.
• During the visit, Mr Puri will have bilateral meetings with his counterpart Ministers and with CEOs of global energy companies, who are attending the Gastech Milan-2022.
• He will also inaugurate the Exhibition stalls of Indian energy companies which are being showcased at the Exhibition.
• Petroleum Ministry said, the visit will be an opportunity to highlight India’s economic growth story and the investment opportunities that exist in India across the entire energy value chain.

• 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.