• Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been conferred with the SDG Progress award for Bangladesh’s steady progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN-sponsored Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
• Prime Minister Hasina is currently visiting the US to attend the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

• The International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September to raise awareness on sign languages and strengthen the status about sign languages.
• Theme 2021: “We Sign For Human Rights”.
• 23 September has been chosen to mark IDSL as it commemorates the establishment of the World Federation of the Deaf on 23 September 1951.
• The International Day of Sign Languages was first celebrated in 2018.

• The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, launched the ‘National Single Window System (NSWS)’, on September 22, 2021, for investors and businesses.
• NSWS is a single-window portal that will act as a one-stop-shop for investors or entrepreneurs, to get approvals and clearances needed from Government.
• It shall give freedom from the legacy of running to government offices for approvals and registrations needed by investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses in India.
• The new system aims to bring transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the ecosystem.
• Currently, the portal hosts approvals across 18 Central Departments and 9 States. The remaining 14 Central depts and five states will be added by December 2021.
• The portal has been developed jointly by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) along with Invest India.

• The Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal virtually flagged off the dwarf container train service from Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), on September 20, 2021.
• This is the first consignment of laden dwarf containers from Mumbai-based JNPT port, the biggest container port in India.
• The consignment was moved by train to Inland Container Depot (ICD) Kanpur.
• The main benefit of dwarf containers is that they are shorter in size due to which they can be double-stacked, as well as easily run on electrified tracks.
• This will enable the railways to undertake double-stack movement of cargo, leading to a reduction in logistics cost.

5. OECD projects India’s economic growth forecast at 9.7% for FY22 & 7.9% for FY23

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has cut India’s economic growth rate projections by 0.2 percentage points to 9.7 per cent for the current financial year (2021-22).
• For the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), OECD has projected the Indian economy to grow by 7.9 per cent, as compared to 8.2% pegged earlier.
• For global economy, OECD has projected a strong growth rate of 5.7% in 2021 and 4.5% in 2022, as compared to 5.8% and 4.4%, respectively, estimated earlier.

6. ADB cuts India’s GDP forecast for FY22 to 10%

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

• Private sector lender Yes Bank has partnered with Visa to offer credit cards to its customers, following the regulatory ban on Mastercard by RBI.
• The Visa co-branded cards come with nine credit card variants covering all segments, consumer cards, business cards, and corporate cards across YES First, YES Premia and YES Prosperity.
• Yes Bank has achieved the transition to Visa as a payment network within a record time of less than 60 days, post the bank imposed on Mastercard from July 22, 2021.

• The Board of Directors of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has unanimously approved the merger of the company with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).
• As a part of the merger, shareholders of SPNI will also infuse growth capital into SPNI, which will make them the majority stakeholder in the merged entity.
• Zee Entertainment will hold a 47.07 per cent stake, while Sony India will hold a 52.93 per cent stake in the combined company.
• Following the merger, Sony India will have the right to appoint the majority of directors to the merged company.
• Puneet Goenka, the CEO of Zee Entertainment, will be the MD and CEO of the merged entity for a period of 5 years.
• The merged entity will be listed on the Indian stock exchanges.

• Odisha will host the junior men’s World Cup Hockey in coming November. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced this in capital Bhubaneswar last evening. He also unveiled the logo and trophy for the tournament.
• As many as 16 countries will take part in the event that will be held in the Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar from the 24th November 5th December 2021. Odisha had hosted the 2018 men’s hockey world cup.

• On September 1, sisters Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama turned 107 years and 300 days old, officially breaking the record for the world’s oldest living identical twins. The Japanese siblings are also the oldest identical twins to have ever lived.
• As Mari Yamaguchi reports for the Associated Press (AP), Sumiyama and Kodama were born on Shodoshima island in western Japan on November 5, 1913. They were the third and fourth of 11 siblings.
• Previously, Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, also sisters from Japan, held the title of oldest living identical twins. At the time of Narita’s death in January 2000, the pair were 107 years and 175 days old. Kanie died the following March, at age 108, notes Hanako Montgomery for Vice.