• Beijing 2022 on 17 September 2021 sent out warm invitations worldwide with the unveiling of "Together for a Shared Future" as its official motto.
• An expert panel selected the motto from 79 proposals submitted since May 2020 and finalized after repeated discussions.
• As the Beijing 2022 organizers explained, "Together" depicts how mankind stays strong when facing adversities and points out the solution to overcome those difficulties and create a better future; "For a shared future" embodies a vision for a better life and conveys hope and confidence.

• 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.
• Tele-Law means the use of communications and information technology for the delivery of legal information and advice. Department of Justice has partnered with NALSA and CSC e-Governance Service India Limited for mainstreaming legal aid to the marginalized communities through Common Services Center (CSC).
• This e-interaction between lawyers and people would be through the video-conferencing infrastructure available at the CSCs.
• The Ek Pahal campaign will run across the country from 17th September till 2nd October.

• Researchers from IIT Delhi have designed and fabricated an innovative device that can generate electricity from water drops, raindrops, water streams, and ocean waves.
• The device is known as ‘Liquid-solid Interface Triboelectric Nanogenerator’.
• The new device produces power using Triboelectric Effect and Electrostatic Induction, and further stores the energy in batteries for consumption.
• It can generate power of only a few Milliwatt (mW), which is sufficient to power small electronic devices like healthcare sensors, digital thermometers, watches, radio frequency transmitters, pedometers.

• MyGov India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has launched the Planetarium Innovation Challenge for Indian start-ups and tech entrepreneurs.
• The challenge aims to bring together the Indian Startups and tech entrepreneurs to develop state-of-the-art technology for Planetariums.
• The basic objective of this Planetarium Innovation challenge involves tech firms and Startups to build an indigenous planetariums system software using the latest technologies including Augmented Reality (A.R.), Virtual Reality (V.R.) and Merged Reality (M.R.).
• MyGov will recognize the best such Indian solutions, which would not only be given cash rewards but also an opportunity to deploy the solution in various cities and rural areas by getting them listed on the GeM portal.

• NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has partnered with Liquid Group Pvt. Ltd. (Liquid Group) to enable UPI QR-based payments acceptance in 10 markets across North Asia and Southeast Asia.
• Liquid Group is a leading cross-border digital payments provider, is headquartered in Singapore. It operates a QR payment acceptance network that enables the cross-border acceptance of payment schemes and digital payment apps.
• This partnership will help BHIM App users to make UPI QR-based payments in the 10 markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, from early 2022.

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has once again announced an extension in the deadline to link PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar.
• The deadline has been extended by six months till March 31, 2022. Earlier this date was extended till September 30, 2021.
• The timeline has been extended to address the hardship being faced by various stakeholders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The World Bank Group has announced to discontinue the Doing Business report (popularly know as ease of doing business ranking).
• The decision was taken by the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management  after data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 were reported.
• To fill the void created by the discontinuation of this report, World Bank would be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate.

• The Centre has constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to look into better implementation of various welfare schemes meant for the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), minorities and women, and to improve their implementation and effectiveness.
• The GoM will be chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
• The basic objective of this GoM is to work for the empowerment and prosperity of backward classes and minorities.
• The panel comprises of top Union Ministers as members including Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other Union ministers namely Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Arjun Munda, Kiren Rijiju and Virendra Kumar.

• The Congress on Sunday (September 19, 2021) named Charanjit Singh Channi as Captian Amarinder Singh's successor for the new Punjab Chief Minister. The Punjab Congress Legislative Party (CLP) elected Channi as the leader paving his way for appointment as the chief minister.
• The development comes a day after Singh's unexpected resignation amid a bitter battle for power with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu just months ahead of the state Assembly polls.
• AICC general secretary Harish Rawat made the announcement via a tweet. He wrote: "It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Charanjit Singh Channi has been unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party of Punjab."

• Harmilan Kaur Bains of Punjab has created a new national record in the women’s 1500m race by clocking 4:05.39 to bag the gold in the women’s 1500m event, at the 60th National Open Athletics Championships in Warangal on September 16, 2021.
• With this achievement, the 23-year-old athlete has erased the 19-year-old record held by Sunita Rani in 1500m at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan by clocking 4:06.03.

Download Daily GK PDF of 19 September 2021