NATIONAL

Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary and Guru Ghasidas National Park declared as Tiger Reserve

• The technical committee of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has approved the proposal of declaring the combined areas of the Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary and Guru Ghasidas National Park as Tiger Reserve.
• The Guru Ghasidas National Park is a located in Koriya district of Chattisgarh and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Surajpur disctrict, Both Tiger Reserve falls at the border of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
• This becomes the 4^th Tiger Reserve òf Chattisgarh, The other tiger reserves in the state includes Amarkantak-Achanakmar wildlife sanctuary, Indravati Tiger reserve and Udanti-Sitanadi tiger reserve.

Additional Fact: The Guru Ghasidas National Park is the last known habitat of Asiatic Cheetah in India.

Two Indian Organisations bags UNDP Equator Prize

• The Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited, based in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu and Snehakunja Trust Based in Kasarkoda, Karnataka has been awarded the prestigious Equator Prize 2021, by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited is a 1,700-member cooperative, managed and run entirely by indigenous people from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• In the past eight years has improved livelihood across 147 villages by processing and marketing a diverse range of forest produce and crops, Through local value addition, members earn premium prices on a range of products including those collected sustainably from the reserve such as honey, soap nuts and berries and phoenix leaves, and as well as those cultivated organically such as coffee, pepper, silk cotton, cereals, spices and fruits.
• Snehakunja Trust has protected sensitive wetland and coastal ecosystems in the Western Ghats and the Karnataka coast for 45 years with a focus on community-based restoration and conservation.

About Equator prize: It is a biennial award by UNDP given to recognize community efforts of reducing poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

The winners of the award will receive prize money of US $10,000 and the opportunity of joining series of the special virtual events associated with the Nature for Life Hub, UN General Assembly, and the UN Food Systems Summit later in 2021.

Centre permits export of Sputnik Light vaccine

• The government has permitted the export of Sputnik Light vaccine, produced domestically in India, as it is not been approved for emergency use in India.
• Hetero Biopharma Limited is one of the partners of Russian Direct investment Fund (RDIF) authorised to produce Sputnik Light, which is same as the Russian Sputnik vaccine.
• Russia has stated that one million doses of Sputnik-V and two million doses of the Sputnik Light has been manufactured by Hetero Biopharma Limited, which has a shell life of Six months.
• Since Sputnik Light has not been approved for emergency use by the Indian Drug Regulator, It can be exported to prevent wastage.

‘6S Campaign’ under a customer outreach programme

• Punjab National Bank has launched ‘6S Campaign’ under a customer outreach programme to extend financial services at concessional rate during the festival season.
• 6S denotes-Swabhiman, Samruddhi, Sankalp and Swagat, Sampark and Shikar.
• Swabhiman-The Bank aims to aggressively push the financial inclusion agenda by deepening penetration of the three Jan Suraksha or Social Security Schemes pertaining to the insurance and pension sector namely, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, and Atal Pension Yojana.
• Samruddhi-Bank aims to drive credit outreach for the agricultural sector which is the cornerstone of the Indian economy.
• Shikar, Sankalp and Swagat-The Bank has devised special rates of interest to drive credit offtake in the retail and MSME sector. In addition, focussed products and customer segments have also been identified for targeted outreach in line with the Bank’s broader strategic agenda.

SPORTS

Indian shooters swept 12 medals in Junior World Championship

• On the final day of Junior World Championship, Indian Shooters won 12 medals remarkably.
• Vijayveer Sidhu won gold against his twin brother Udhayveer Siddhu in standard pistol event.
• Arjun Singh, Cheema, Shaurya Sarin and Ajinkya Chavan won gold to bronze in that order on the basis of the inner 10s.
• Rhythm Sangwan won Gold in Junior standard pistol event.
• Totally India won the championship with 16 Gold, 15 Silver And 9 Bronze medal pushing USA to the second.

Valtteri Bottas wins F1 Turkish Grand  Prix 2021

• Valtteri Bottas of Finland has won F1 Turkish Grand  Prix 2021 pushing Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to second and third respectively.

MISCELLÀNEOUS

Oct 11 is observed as the National Online Bank Day.

Oct 11 is observed as International day of the Girl Child.