13-14 September
14 September
Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer to win 2015 US Open Men’s Singles title
Novak Djokovic on 13 September 2015 won the US Open Men’s Singles title. In the summit clash held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, the Serbian defeated Roger Federer 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4.
For Djokovic, it was a second US Open singles title and a 10th Grand Slam singles title. With this, he tied up himself with Bill Tilden for seventh place on the career list.
However, Federer, a Swiss player, still remains on top of the list with 17 Grand Slam singles titles.
Till now, they have played 42 times and Djokovic’s recent victory tied the series 21-21.
In 2015, Djokovic joined Federer and Rod Laver as the only men in the Open era to reach all four major finals. His only defeat came in the final of the French Open against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
The 2014 title was won by Marin Cilic. He belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Flavia Pennetta won 2015 US Open Women’s Singles title
Flavia Pennetta on 12 September 2015 won the US Open Women’s Singles title. She defeated fellow Italian Roberta Vinci 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 in the summit clash held in New York.
With this win, Pennetta became the oldest woman in the Open era to become a Grand Slam champion for the first time.
After winning the maiden Gran Slam title, she announced that she will retire from professional tennis after the 2015 season.
With this victory, Pennetta became the second Italian woman to win one of the tennis majors.
She joined the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone who had been the lone member in the club.
At present, Pennetta is at the eighth place in the World rankings and is expected to play two tournaments in China and the WTA Finals in Singapore before her retirement.
The 2014 championship was won by Serena Williams of the USA.
SpiceJet became first-ever airline to make night landing at Port Blair’s Veer Savarkar Airport
Budget carrier SpiceJet on 11 September 2015 became the first-ever civil airliner to make night landing on Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair. The successful operation of the flight SG-251 paves the way for similar flight movements after sunset.
The flight was commanded by Capt. Gurcharan Arora and Capt. Ranbir Singh and the 212-seater Boeing 737-900ER aircraft VT-SLD was greeted upon arrival by a grand water cannon salute, an aviation tradition to mark key milestones.
Later the aircraft departed for Kolkata as SG-261, thereby completing a cycle of landing and take-off from the Port Blair airport during the night time.
The night landing was made possible by the recent upgrade of the airport with improved runway, lighting and navigation systems to allow commercial night flying.
The upgrade was carried out by the Andaman and Nicobar administration, with support from the Civil Aviation Ministry, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Andaman and Nicobar Command and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Dr G Satheesh Reddy conferred with Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal
DRDO scientist Dr G Satheesh Reddy in the first week of September 2015 was conferred with the Silver Medal of the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). DRDO stands for Defence Research and Development Organisation.
Dr Reddy was conferred with this medal in recognition of his contributions as one of the leading navigation and avionics experts of the Indian Defense research establishment.
The award will be formally presented to him at the Wilbur and Orville Wright Lecture to be held on 9 December 2015 in the Society's headquarters in London.
About Dr G Sateesh Reddy
• He joined DRDO in 1985 after graduating from JNTU Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.
• At present, he is the Director, Research Centre Imarat (RCI) and Programme Director, medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) system since May 2013. Also he is the Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri.
• As Director RCI, he led the development of Avionics technologies in critical areas of Inertial Systems, Embedded Computers, Control, Real Time Software and Simulation for various Defence programmes - Agni A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, Prithvi, Dhanush, Astra, Akash, B-05, K-4, BrahMos, Nirbhay, Helina, Nag, MRSAM, etc.
• Under his leadership India has developed state-of-the-art avionics sensors and systems for key national strategic programmes and other defence applications.
About Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS)
• It is a British-founded multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. It is headquartered in London.
• It was established in 1866 and is the oldest aeronautical society in the world.
• It has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1909, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society’s first Gold Medal.
• It awards a number of medals and prizes include its Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the individual and team category.
• The very first gold medal was awarded in 1909 to the Wright Brothers.
• Since 2004, the society started awarding team medals for exceptional or groundbreaking team work in aeronautical research and development.
• Besides the above awards, the society also confers R P Alston Memorial Prize for developments in flight-testing, the Edward Busk prize for applied aerodynamics, the Wakefield Medal for advances in aviation safety and an Orville Wright Prize.
10th World Hindi Conference held in Bhopal
The 10th World Hindi Conference was held for three days between 10 September and 12 September 2015 at the Lal Parade Ground in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
The conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in cooperation with the Government of Madhya Pradesh.
During its three day course, the conference was attended by noted Hindi scholars from across the country and the world. They deliberated on 16 aspects for universalisation of Hindi language.
About World Hindi Conference
• It was conceptualized in Wardha of Maharashtra in 1973 and the first conference was held in Nagpur in 1975.
• The objective of the conference is to propagate the use of the language across the world.
• So far, India hosted the event for three times including the present conference. India hosted it for the second time in 1983 in New Delhi.
• The conference was also held in Mauritius in 1976 and 1993, in Trinidad and Tobago in 1996, in London (1999), Surinam (2003), New York (2007) and Johannesburg (2012).
Hindi usage at the Global level
• As per an estimate, Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) is spoken by around 405 million across the world including 240 million native speakers.
• Majority of its speakers reside in India and Nepal and few are in South Africa and Mauritius.
• It is also the fourth highest spoken language in the world next only to English (1500 million), Mandarin (1025 million) and Russian (250 million).
• However, in terms of native speakers, Mandarin stands first with 845 million speakers while native English speakers are only 328 million.
Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis won 2015 US Open Women's Doubles title
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on 13 September 2015 won the US Open Women’s Doubles title.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated the fourth-seeded duo of Casey Dellacqua (Kazakhstan) and Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) 6-3 6-3 in the summit clash held in New York.
Incidentally, Martina Hingis also won the Mixed-Doubles title on 12 September 2015 with Leander Paes.
For Sania-Hingis duo, the title was the second Grand Slam in a row as they won their maiden title in July 2015 at the Wimbledon in England.
Now, Sania has five Grand Slam titles overall including three mixed doubles trophies.
In the Mixed doubles category, she won Australian Open (2009) and French Open (2012) with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi and the 2014 US Open with Bruno Soares.
Apart from the two titles with Sania in 2015, Hingis won the Wimbledon doubles with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998.
Earlier, the Indo-Swiss pair had won doubles title of BNP Paribas Open on 21 March 2015 and WTA Family Circle Cup doubles title on 12 April 2015.
DGs of BSF and Pakistan Rangers held Bi-annual talks in New Delhi
Director-Generals (DGs) of Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers held the Bi-annual talks in New Delhi from 9 September – 12 September 2015. At the end of the meeting both the parties released the Joint Statement.
The 23-member Indian delegation was led by DG of BSF DK Pathak (IPS) and the 16-member Pakistani delegation was led by DG of Pakistan Rangers Major General Umar Farooq Burki.
Issues Discussed
• Need for cooperation to maintain the sanctity of the borders
• Incidents of firing at the borders, smuggling of narcotics, infiltration attempts and defence construction activities
• Inadvertent crossing over by border population and on how to facilitate their return on both the sides
• Security of the border population
• Need for confidence building measures including timely exchange of information, at the field level and mobile communication, simultaneous coordinated patrolling, and sporting events etc.
Joint Record of Discussion
Charting a future route map of cooperation between the two Border Guarding Forces, a Joint Record of Discussion was signed on 12 September 2015. It was mutually agreed to hold the next talks in the first half of 2016 in Pakistan. Both sides also agreed on constant endeavor to maintain peaceful and tranquil borders.
Background
The seed of Bi-annual talks between the officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers was sown during the Home Secretary Level Talks held at Islamabad, Pakistan in May 1989.
The mechanism was established to review the implementation of the agreed norms of cooperation between the two Border Guarding Forces and discuss issues of relevance to both the forces. Issues requiring coordinated efforts like dealing with Drug menace, smuggling, simultaneous coordinated patrolling, timely exchange of information etc were to form the core of discussions.
Germany introduced border controls along Austrian border to check migrant influx from Syria
Germany on 13 September 2015 introduced border controls along its Austrian border to check migrant influx from Syria.
The controls along the borders imply that its temporary exit from the Schengen Agreement that facilitates unhindered movement of people within the EU region.
Germany took the decision against the backdrop of arrival of 13000 migrants on 12 September 2015 alone to the country by trains via the Austrian border. These were part of the 63000 migrants entered the country since August 2014.
The timing of Germany’s decision assumes significance as the European Commission (EC) on 9 September 2015 moved a proposal to relocate 120000 migrants among the European Union countries.
The move is aimed at reducing pressure on frontier states like Greece and Italy that are flooded with lakhs of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and North African nations.
EC formula on internal relocation
As per the EC’s proposal the internal relocation of migrants should take place on the basis of a mandatory distribution key using objective and quantifiable criteria-40 percent of the size of the population, 40 percent of the GDP, 10 percent of the average number of past asylum applications, 10 percent of the unemployment rate.
Further, the formula applies to nationalities of applicants with an EU-wide average recognition rate of 75 percent or higher.
Schengen Agreement
• Its objective is to create borderless area within the European Union.
• It facilitates movement of people across international borders without passport and passing through mandatory check posts.
• It was signed in June 1985 at Schengen in Luxembourg and became operational on 26 March 1995.
• It is a core part of EU law and all EU member states without an opt-out which have not already joined the Schengen Area are legally obliged to do so when technical requirements have been met.
• It currently consists of 26 European countries covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of around 4.3 million square kilometers. Several non-EU countries are also included in the area.
• Member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Indian Railways partnered with Google to provide free Wi-Fi services under Project Nilgiri
Project Nilgiri: Joint collaboration between Indian Railways and Google to provide free Wi-Fi services in 400 railway stations.
The term Project Nilgiri was in news in the second week of September 2015 as RailTel of the Indian Railways and Google were working on this project.
Under this initiative, free Wi-Fi services will be provided to passengers in 400 railway stations across the country.
Users will be able to access high speed internet for the first 30 minutes by using One Time Password (OTP) generated for this purpose. After 30 minutes, the speed will drop and become slow.
The project employs Google’s Fiber technology under which the company provides internet services up to a speed of 1 Gbps. Google Fiber was launched in 2010 and the service is available only in the USA.
Indian-Australian Navy Bilateral Maritime Exercise AUSINDEX-15 started
Indian and Australian Navy Bilateral Maritime Exercise AUSINDEX-15kicked off the East Coast of India on 11 September 2015. The nine-day exercise will conclude on 19 September 2015.
The exercise was jointly inaugurated by Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead, Head Navy Capability Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Rear Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet onboard INS Shivilak at Visakhapatnam.
The maritime exercise seeks to strengthen defence co-operation between the two countries as envisaged in the Framework for Security Co-operation announced by the Indian and Australian Indian Prime Ministers in 2014.
Further, the exercise will also help strengthen professional interaction, both in harbour and at sea and would be a start for attaining interoperability between the two navies. It will also strengthen the ability to undertake regional joint and/or combined operations such as Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
The Exercise will see participation of RAN ships HMAS Sirius (Fleet tanker), HMAS Arunta (Anzac class frigate), and HMAS Sheean (Collins class submarine) from the Australian side.
On the other hand, the Indian Navy will be represented by INS Shivalik (stealth frigate), INS Ranvijay (guided missile destroyer) and INS Shakti (Fleet tanker).
In addition, one Royal Australian Air Force P3C Orion surveillance aircraft and Indian Navy’s P8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft will operate from Chennai during the exercise.
Hindi Divas observed on 14 September across India
14 September: National Hindi Divas
Hindi Divas (Hindi Day) was observed across India on 14 September 2015. The day was observed to promote the Matra Bhasha – the mother tongue of India and show its importance as a language in the country and the world at large.
On the occasion of Hindi Divas, the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented Rajbhasa awards in various categories at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. These awards were instituted by the Rajbhasha Vibhag, Ministry of Home Affairs to recognize the excellent contribution of Ministries, Departments and Nationalized Banks and others in the field of Hindi.
About National Hindi Divas
National Hindi Divas is observed annually in India. Hindi Day is observed because on 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union.
About Hindi
Hindi as a language is the fourth most spoken language of the world. In India, Hindi is used as a mother tongue by around 258 million people and is a native language for most people living in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
Outside Asia, Hindi is an official language in Fiji. The Constitution of Fiji states 3 official languages, namely English, Fijian, and Hindi. The dialect of Hindi spoken there is known as Fiji Baat or Fiji Hindi.
Constitutional Provision for Hindi language
Official Language policy of the Union has been explained in detail under Article 120 (Part-5), Article 210 (Part-6), Article 343, 344 and from 348 to 351. In Part - 17 (Article 343 to 351) of the Constitution, the Official Language of the Union and States has been prescribed.
Ruling People’s Action Party won Singapore general elections for record 12th time
The Ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) on 12 September 2015 won the general elections to the Parliament of Singapore. The party is headed by the incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In the elections to the unicameral legislature, while the PAP won 83 seats, the opposition Worker’s Party ended up with just six seats, one less than it held in the outgoing parliament.
The PAP won the elections for record 12th time since independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Also, it was the first elections held after the death of Lee Kuan Yew, father of Prime Minister Lee, who was the Prime Minister of the country between 1959 and 1990.
Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923-23 March 2015) is considered as the founding father of modern Singapore as he transformed the city-state from a small port city and a malaria-infested backwater to a wealthy global hub.
DMRC to execute 6769 crore rupees worth Vijayawada Metro Rail Project
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will execute the Vijayawada Metro Rail Project. A decision in this regard was taken by the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet in the second week of September 2015.
Further, the state government also gave in principal approval to the DMRC for the execution of the Vishakhapatnam Metro Rail Project.
Features of Vijayawada Metro Rail Project
• The objective of the project is to improve connectivity in Amaravati and surrounding areas, of which Vijayawada also forms a part. Amaravati is the name of the proposed capital of the state.
• It will have two corridors with a distance of 26.03 km.
• It will be constructed at a estimated cost of 6769 crore rupees by 2018.
• A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be formed for the execution of the project for which the Union Government will also contribute as part of its commitment in the AP Reorganization Act, 2014.
The Visakhapatnam Metro Rail project will have three corridors and initially it will run along the distance of 34.91 km that will be further extended to 42.55 km. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by December 2018.
Mount Aso, the largest volcano of Japan erupted
The largest volcano of Japan Mount Aso Volcano erupted on 14 September 2015. The eruption blasted a plume of black smoke 2-kilometer high and the ashes from the volcano fell up to 4-kilometer away.
The volcano situated on main southern island of Kyushu erupted unexpectedly; however, there have been reports of no causalities or damage from the volcano’s eruption
The 1592-metre Mount Aso is one of the most active peaks in Japan but is also a popular hiking spot. It is also the second largest mountain in Japan and is one of the biggest calderas in the world, encompassing an area 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north to south and 18 kilometers (11.2 miles) east to west.
Since 2014, the volcanic activity in Japan has intensified, especially after the eruption of the Mount Ontake in central Japan. It was the Japan’s biggest volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years and had killed 63 people.
Japan is located in a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes running around the edges of the Pacific Ocean known asRing of Fire. There are over 100 active volcanoes in the area.
Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha announced to set up Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on 14 September 2015 announced to set up Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation to implement the Union Government’s Bharatnet scheme. The announcement was made in the state legislature.
The corporation will be established at an estimated cost of 3000 crore rupees and will oversee the linkage of 12524 villages in the state through optical fibre network.
Other initiatives announced by Jayalalitha
• Specially designed wheel chairs will be given to 911 differently- abled persons who are victims of spinal cord diseases and injuries at a cost of 1.92 crore rupees.
• Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) to all households in Tamil Nadu, making use of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license obtained by the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation. Its objective is to provide quality internet service to all households in the state.
Hormusji N Cama elected as Chairman of Press Trust of India
Hormusji N Cama was on 14 September 2015 unanimously elected as the new chairman of the Press Trust of India (PTI). He is the Managing Director of Bombay Smachar, which is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in India from 1855.
A member of the Press Council, Cama succeeded Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL).
Cama, currently the Chairman of the Readership Studies Council of India, has also served as President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS). He is also on the Board of Council for Fair Business Practices and Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
Riyad Mathew elected Vice-Chairman
Apart from him, Riyad Mathew was unanimously elected as the Vice Chairman of the PTI. He is the Director of Malayala Manorama and is a Senior Assistant Editor of the Malayala Manorama, which publishes one of India’s leading weekly magazines, The Week. He also has worked as a correspondent with Associated Press (AP) in Washington.
Cama and Mathews were elected to the post during the meeting of the Board of Directors following the PTI’s 67th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in New Delhi.
Other members of the PTI Board
Besides, Cama and Mathews, the Board of Directors meeting also saw the election of members of PTI Board. The members of the Board are
Mohan Gupta (JPL), KN Shanth Kumar (Deccan Herald), Vineet Jain (Times of India), Aveek Kumar Sarkar (Ananda Bazar Patrika), Viveck Goenka (Indian Express), N Ravi (The Hindu), MP Veerendra Kumar (Mathrubhumi), Sanjoy Narayan (Hindustan Times), Vijay Kumar Chopra (Hind Samachar) and R. Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar).
About Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India (PTI) was registered in 1947 and started functioning in 1949. It is India’s premier news agency, having a reach as vast as the Indian Railways. Currently, PTI commands 90 per cent of new agency market share in India.