Google CEO Sunder Pichai has held discussions with the Indian envoy in the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, about the technology giant's activities in India, particularly its aggressive push towards digitisation, as he became the first top Indian-American tech business leader to visit the country's embassy in US .

'Thank you' Ambassador Sandhu for the great conversation, Pichai said in a tweet after his visit to the Indian Embassy in downtown Washington DC late last week.

Pichai, who in January this year was named among the 17 awardees to receive the Padma Bhushan.

An exhibition featuring 85 artists and over 170 artworks from different parts of India has been organised in Singapore to showcase the evolution of the Indian art styles as part of celebrations to mark the 75 years of independence.

The exhibition titled '75 Years of Indian Art #CanvasToNFTs' was opened by Singapore Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran and the Indian High Commissioner P Kumaran at The Arts House by Artpodium, a Singapore-based art community.

With digital art becoming a more prominent style in today's world, the organiser also launched Artbien alongside the classic art styles.

The exhibition was a pictorial journey for art lovers to explore Indian art through the years, and was supported by galleries and artists across India, apart from a section dedicated to contemporary Singapore-based artists.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Egyptian Defence Minister General Mohamed Zaki signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Cairo, Egypt on  Sep 19 on cooperation in the field of defence. The Indian Defence Minister is on a two-day official visit to Egypt.

Terming it a milestone event of the visit, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a statement said the MoU “will pave the way for enhancing defence cooperation across all sectors of mutual interest.”

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held bilateral talks with the Egyptian Defence Minister.

During the meeting, both sides discussed steps to strengthen defence ties and reached a consensus to enhance the conduct of joint exercises and exchange of personnel for training, especially in the field of counter-insurgency.

The two Ministers also agreed to identify proposals for expanding cooperation between the defence industries of India and Egypt in a time-bound manner. They also exchanged views on regional security and acknowledged the contribution of India and Egypt to peace and stability in the world. Both sides expressed happiness at the intensified defence engagement and exchanges over the last year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the two defence ministers holding bilateral talks, Rajnath Singh had a call-on with the President of Egypt Mr Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, both the Ministers agreed to consolidate and focus on enhancing security and defence aspects of bilateral cooperation.

Rajnath Singh also invited his Egyptian counterpart to the India-Africa Defence Dialogue and IOR Defence Ministers’ Conclave, scheduled to be held as part of the 12th DefExpo in Gandhinagar, Gujarat between October 18-22, 2022.

In a bid to discourage the use of chemical fertilisers, the government is likely to launch a scheme called -- Pradhan Mantri – Promotion of Alternative Nutritious And Agriculture Management (PM-PRANAM).

The scheme will incentivise those states that use lesser amounts of chemical fertilisers in a particular year as compared with the average quantity used over a period of the last three years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, while delivering his independence speech appealed to the farmers to use less chemical fertilisers.

To incentivise for using less chemical fertilisers

The scheme will incentivise those states that use lesser amounts of chemical fertilisers in a particular year as compared with the average quantity used over a period of the last three years

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors  on Sep 20  approved a loan of USD 150 million to the Indian state of Punjab to help the state better manage its financial resources and improve access to public services.

The international financial institution, in a statement, said it would support the state's efforts to strengthen the institutional capabilities of various government departments, manage fiscal risks and make informed policy choices to support sustainable growth.

The new projects will support the state's development goals by strengthening the planning, budgeting and monitoring functions, and leveraging digital technology, besides increasing accountability in the public procurement systems by supporting the state-wide implementation of new legal and policy reforms.

The project will pilot two initiatives: It will introduce a performance-based grants system to incentivize municipal corporations to improve service delivery.

Second, it will demonstrate the delivery of 24x7 water supply in select areas in the cities of Amritsar and Ludhiana. It will improve water delivery systems and reduce water leakages. The success of these pilots is expected to offer a significant potential for the state-wide scale-up of improved service delivery.

The USD 150 million loans have a maturity of 15 years including a grace period of 6 months .

AR Ilamparthi won the U14 open gold in the World youth chess championship at Mamaia, Romania. The 13-year-old is studying in class 8th at Sree Sankara Bala Vidhyalaya Golden Jubilee School Pallikaranai. Ilamparthi seeded nine signed off with a fourth straight victory to tally 9.5 points.

After winning the first five rounds, Ilamparthi defeated Romania’s Filip Magold (11th round) who was his ninth victim to reach 9.5 points. Ilamparthi who had an ELO rating 2269, got 57 more points after his win at Romania. The studious and ambitious kid who idolises Gary Kasparov.

Q1. Name the former Home Minister who was once a member of Ahmedabad Municipality and who has been remembered by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a conference of Council of Mayors and Deputy Mayors of BJP in Gujarat via video conferencing ?

1. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
2. Babubhai Patel
3. Jivraj Narayan Mehta
4. Balwantrai Mehta
5. None of These

Q2. Name the sports with which Gary Kasparov is associated ?

1. Golf
2. Football
3. Chess
4. Billiards
5. None of These

Q3.  Name the Indian state for which the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors  on Sep 20  approved a loan of USD 150 million to  help the state better manage its financial resources and improve access to public services ?

1. Gujarat
2. Punjab
3. Bihar
4. Assam
5. None of These

Q4. To showcase the evolution of the Indian art styles as part of celebrations to mark the 75 years of independence, an exhibition featuring 85 artists and over 170 artworks from different parts of India has been organised in

1. US
2. UK
3. UAE
4. Singapore
5. None of These

Q5. The Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the country's longest river cruise service between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Bogibeel in Assam will begin from

1. 2023
2. 2024
3. 2024
4. 2025
5. None of These

Answers

1------------------------1   Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

2------------------------3   Chess

3-------------------------2   Punjab

4-------------------------4   Singapore

5-------------------------1 2023

Chaos. That’s the word 19-year-old Kyle Kumaran uses when asked to sum up his racing journey so far. For him, the last four years have been “absolute chaos” as he has gone from one race to another every month.

“You get on with it, achieve the most you can as you go,” says Kumaran as he sits down for a chat after winning his third Novice Cup race (for DTS Racing) in round one of the 25th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship in Coimbatore.

In December 2021, he won silver for India in the Rotax Max Challenge Grand finale in Bahrain.