• Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice has launched the “Ek Pahal /एक पहल” campaign to encourage mass registration under Tele-Law.

• From the total budget of Rs 26,058 crores, an amount of Rs 25,938 crores has been sanctioned for the automobile industry and Rs 120 crores for the drone industry.

1. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) : government has increased the FDI in the Telecom sector under automatic route from 49% to 100%.

• Government think tank Niti Aayog in collaboration with US-based Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India, has launched a campaign named Shoonya on September 15, 2021, to promote zero-pollution delivery vehicles by working with consumers and industry.

In China. BRICS has 5 members- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

• The Chandigarh Railway Station of the Indian Railways’ has been awarded with the 5- star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
• Chandigarh Railway Station is the fifth station in India to get this recognition. The other railway stations to get this certification include Anand Vihar Terminal Railway Station; (Delhi), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus; (Mumbai), Mumbai Central Railway Station; (Mumbai) and Vadodara Railway Station.

• On September 07, 2021, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav launched a portal named PRANA, for regulation of air pollution in 132 cities across the country.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY)-National Mission for Financial Inclusion is marking its 7th anniversary on August 28, 2021

• Ministry of Textile in partnership with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi has launched the project ‘INDIAsize’ to develop Indian size charts based on body measurements of the Indian population for better fitting of ready to wear garments.
• The project ‘INDIAsize’ plans to measure 25000 people in the age group of 18 to 65 years in six different regions of India using 3D body scanners. The six regions are- i.e. New Delhi (North), Mumbai (West), Chennai (South), Hyderabad (Centre), Kolkata (East) and Shillong (North-East).

Out of the 103 districts considered for ranking, 64 districts belonged to the Front Runner category while 39 districts were in the Performer category in the composite score and ranking of districts.

• NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute(WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India. NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for India.

The top 5 sectors capture about 83% of the aggregate pipeline value. These top 5 sectors include- Roads (27%) followed by Railways (25%), Power (15%), oil & gas pipelines (8%) and Telecom (6%).

• The Indore city of Madhya Pradesh, or the cleanest city of India, has become the only city from the country to be selected for International Clean Air Catalyst Programme.
• Clean Air Catalyst is a new flagship programme launched by The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and a global consortium of organisations, led by World Resources Institute (WRI) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to combat air pollution in low and middle-income countries by accelerating clean air solutions.

• The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology  Shri Ashwini Vaishnav jointly launched a digital platform ‘Kisan Sarathi’ to help farmers in getting ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language.

• Arunachal Pradesh based Dr. Tadang Minu has been appointed as a member of the Coaches Committee of the International Boxing Association(AIBA).
• Dr. Minu is the first Indian women and the only second Indian to be appointed as a member in AIBA.
• She has been appointed due to her enormous knowledge and experience in the field of boxing.
• Dr. Minu is the chairman of Women’s Commission of Boxing Federation of India.

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have signed a $484 million loan on June 16, 2021, to improve transport connectivity and facilitate industrial development in the Chennai–Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC) in Tamil Nadu.

• India has been elected as the member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the six main organs of the United Nations, for three-year terms of 2022-24.
• India was elected to the 54-member ECOSOC, by the UNGA on June 7, 2021, in the Asia-Pacific States category, along with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Oman.

Innovating to Net Zero Summit, hosted by Chile on June 02, 2021.

• The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has announced that the validity period of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualifying certificate has been extended from the present 7 years to lifetime with retrospective effect from 2011.

Top 5 States in SDG India Index 2020–21

• Kerala (75)
• Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (74)
• Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Uttarakhand (72)
• Sikkim (71)
• Maharashtra (70)

Bottom 5 States in SDG India Index 2020–21

• Chhattisgarh, Nagaland and Odisha (61)
• Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (60)
• Assam (57)
• Jharkhand (56)
• Bihar (52)

Samant Kumar Goel

• The Government of India has signed a tripartite peace accord with the State government of Assam and five insurgent groups from the Karbi Anglong region in Assam, to end decades of violence in the region.

BPCL launches AI-enabled chatbot ‘URJA’.

Alka Nangia Arora

Government has appointed Harsha Bhupendra Bangari as the new Managing Director (MD) of Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank)

• Two new beaches in India have received the Blue Flag Certification by the Foundation for Environment Education in Denmark (FEE) in 2021.
• The two beaches are –Kovalam in Tamil Nadu and Eden in Puducherry.
• Now India have total 10 beaches with the coveted International eco-label “Blue Flag”.

• Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has recently announced her upcoming book, titled “Know Your Rights and Claim Them: A Guide for Youth”.

• IDBI Bank has announced that the board of IDBI Bank has approved to divest its entire stake of 19.18% in Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Limited (ARCIL). 
• Asset Reconstruction Company India (Arcil) is the oldest ARC entities operating in India, founded in 2002. Headquarter- Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• ARCIL is owned by State Bank of India (SBI), IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB), and other foreign investors.

• Facebook India has launched “Small Business Loans Initiative” in India in partnership with online lending platform Indifi. India is the first country where Facebook is rolling out this programme.

• The GoM will be chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Rs 50 crore

• Quad nation comprise of India, Japan, the US and Australia.

• The Indian military contingent comprising of an all arms combined force of 200 personnel is participating in the Exercise PEACEFUL MISSION -2021, a Joint Counter Terrorism Exercise between Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.
• The Exercise PEACEFUL MISSION- 2021 is being hosted by Russia in the Orenburg Region of South West Russia from September 13 to 25, 2021

• The leaders of the eight permanent members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) have agreed to change the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran from an observer state to a full member state.
• Iran had held observer status for the past 15 years. Iran will be the 9th main member of the organisation.
• SCO currently have China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan as full member states.

Pakistani climber Shehroze Kashif becomes youngest mountaineer in the world to scale Mt. K2

England professional footballer, Jimmy Greaves, who played as a forward (striker) has passed away.

• Hurun Research Institute has released the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, as per which India is the third largest Unicorn/startup ecosystem in the world. The USA is on top followed by China on second.
• India has 51 unicorns according to the list. USA has 396 and China has 277 unicorns.

• The Rajasthan government has launched a new campaign titled ‘Mission Niryatak Bano’, to encourage aspiring exporters in the state, increase the total exports from Rajasthan and increase job opportunities in the state.

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been named as the mentor of the Indian cricket Men’s team for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

• Indian shot-putter Tek Chand was the flag-bearer for the Indian contingents at the opening ceremony of Paralympics  in Tokyo on August 24, 2021.

15 September

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised downwards India’s economic growth forecast for the current fiscal, 2021-22 (FY22) to 10 percent. Earlier this was projected at 11 percent.
• The Manila-based multilateral funding agency ADB has predicted the GDP growth for fiscal 2022-23 (FY23) to 7.5 percent.

Card-on-File Tokenisation (CoFT)

• The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has increased the entry age for the National Pension System (NPS) from 65 years to 70 years.
• As per the revised norms, any Indian Citizen, resident or non-resident and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) between the age of 65-70 years can join NPS and continue or defer their NPS Account up to the age of 75 years.

Carol Furtado was named interim CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

Finance Minister of India, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, launched the ‘Ubharte Sitaare Fund (USF)’ of corpus Rs 250 crore for export-oriented small and mid-sized companies.

HDFC Bank launches ‘Dukandar Overdraft Scheme’ for small retailers

Cash Recycler machine

• The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) is building next-generation Digital Financial Infrastructure named National Digital Financial Infrastructure (NADI).

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh