Roadmap for Banking of the Future
Current Affairs 16 September 2021
Daily Current Affairs 16 September 2021: This post contains the latest current affairs for 16 September 2021 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.
National
Tata Steel commissions India’s first plant to capture CO2 from blast furnace gas
- Tata Steel has commissioned India’s first carbon capture plant that extracts CO2 directly from the blast furnace gas, at its Jamshedpur Works on September 14, 2021.
- With this achievement, Tata Steel has become country’s first steel company to adopt such a carbon capture technology.
- The plant can capture 5 tonnes of CO2 per day (5-tonne per day (TPD)). The company will reuse the captured CO2 on site to promote circular carbon economy.
Niti Aayog launches ‘Shoonya’ programme to promote zero-pollution delivery vehicles
- 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.
- The campaign will promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the urban deliveries segment and create consumer awareness about health, environmental and economic benefits of electric vehicles.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launches AI-powered road safety project ‘iRASTE’ to reduce road accidents
- Union Minister for Road Transport, Nitin Gadkari launched ‘iRASTE’, an Artificial Intelligence-powered project, which aims to help reduce road accidents, understand the factors responsible for these events and come up with solutions to mitigate them.
- iRASTE stands for Intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering.
- The project has been launched on a pilot basis in Nagpur, Maharashtra with the aim of reducing accidents by 50 percent in the city.
- The project is launched jointly by the Centre, Intel, INAI, IIIT-Hyderabad, CSIR-CRRI (Central Road Research Institute), Mahindra & Mahindra and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
IIT Bombay rolls out language translator ‘Project Udaan’
- The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has launched ‘Project Udaan’, a language translator, to break the language barrier in education, which hampers the flow of messages.
- The Project Udaan, a donation-based project, is an end-to-end ecosystem, which can translate scientific and technical content from English to Hindi and all other Indian languages.
- Visit: https://www.udaanproject.org/
- Project Udaan uses an AI-based translation software ecosystem, to translate engineering textbooks and learning materials, and all main streams of higher learning, in the desired language, in one-sixth of the time taken by a team of domain and linguistic experts working manually on it.
Conference
India to organise first-ever Global Buddhist Conference in November 2021
- India is set to host the first-ever Global Buddhist Conference on November 19 and 20, 2021, in Nava Nalanda Mahavihara campus, in Nalanda, Bihar.
- The academic conference, being organised by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), will become an annual feature.
- Global Buddhist Conference focuses on making India the center of Buddhism, by promoting Buddhist activities, like academic, cultural, seminars, people traveling for festival like Buddha Purnima, Vesak.
- As a part of the event, an award for the promotion of Buddhist studies which will be given on November 21 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, carrying a cash reward of $20,000 (around Rs 14.7 lakh), a plaque, and a gold-plated medallion.
Banking & Economy
UNCTAD projects Indian economy to expand 7.2% in 2021
- The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has pegged India’s economic growth rate as follows, in its Trade and Development report released on September 15, 2021:
- Calendar Year (CY) 2021 – 7.2%
- Calendar Year 2022 – 6.7%
- India’s economy shrank by 7 percent in Calendar Year 2020.
Defence
South Korea successfully test submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM)
- South Korea successfully tested an indigenously developed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on September, 15, 2021.
- South Korea is the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a missile system.
- With this achievement, South Korea joins only a handful of countries to have successfully developed an SLBM.
- Other countries that have tested or developed SLBMs, are United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, North Korea, and India, which have typically designed them to carry nuclear weapons.
Indian Military Contingent Participates in SCO Exercise ‘Peaceful Mission’ 2021 at Russia
- 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
- In 2021, the 6th edition of the biennial multilateral Exercise PEACEFUL MISSION is being undertaken.
Awards
President Ramnath Kovind Presents National Florence Nightingale Awards 2020 to 51 Awardees
- The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, conferred the National Florence Nightingale Awards 2020 at a virtual ceremony on September 15, 2021,
- The award was presented to 51 health care workers and nurses for their selfless dedication and compassion, especially during COVID-19 pandemic.
- The National Florence Nightingale Award was instituted by the Government of India in 1973 and are named after Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
- The year 2020 was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the Year of the Nurse and Mid-wife.
- 2020 also marked the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale.
India’s NIOS wins UNESCO Literacy Prize 2021 for Innovation in Education
- The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), a board of education under the Union Government of India, has won the prestigious UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize 2021 on the occasion of International Literacy Day 2021.
- NIOS has been awarded for enabling education of persons with disabilities through technology-enabled inclusive learning materials, with a specific focus on Indian Sign language-based content.
- The UNESCO International Literacy Prizes is awarded every year since 1967, for excellence and innovation in the field of literacy.
Sports
Lasith Malinga announces retirement from all forms of cricket
- Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on September 14, 2021.
- The 38-year-old had already retired from Test cricket in 2011 and then from the ODIs in 2019.
- He played 30 Tests, 226 ODIs and 84 T20Is for Sri Lanka in which he took a total of 546 wickets (101 in Tests, 338 in ODIs and 107 in T20Is) across all formats.
- Malinga holds the record for most hat-tricks in international cricket.
Days
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer: 16 September
- The International Day for the preservation for Ozone layer (World Ozone Day) is observed annually on September 16 to spread awareness of the depletion of the Ozone Layer and search for solutions to preserve it.
- Theme for 2021 World Ozone Day: ‘Montreal Protocol – keeping us, our food and vaccines cool.’
- The day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly on December 19, 2000, to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987.
