current affairs 19 September 2021 (In English)

China has applied to join the Asia Pacific Free Trade Group.

• China has applied to join the 11-nation Asia-Pacific Free Trade Group to increase its influence on international policies.
• The application was submitted to New Zealand's trade minister by Commerce Minister Wang Wentao as a representative of the Comprehensive and Progress Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) or Asia-Pacific Free Trade Grouping.
• The CPTPP was originally the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It was a group promoted by former President Barack Obama as part of the United States' growing emphasis on its ties with Asia.
• China was not included in the starting group.
• Donald Trump withdrew from the group in 2017 and current US President Joe Biden is yet to rejoin the group.

Indo-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran-XV will begin in Pithoragarh.

• The 15th edition of the Indo-Nepal joint military training exercise Surya Kiran will be conducted from September 20, 2021 in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.
• The previous edition of Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019.
• The joint military training will help in improving bilateral relations and further strengthen the traditional friendship between the two nations.

Alka Nangia Arora has been appointed as the CMD of National Small Industries Corporation Limited.

• Alka Nangia Arora is the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
• National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) is a Mini Ratna company established in 1955.
• It comes under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of India and acts as a nodal agency for several schemes of the Ministry of MSME.

MyGov India has launched "Planetarium Innovation Challenge" for Indian start-ups and tech entrepreneurs.

• The Planetarium Challenge was launched with an aim to bring together tech firms and start-ups based out of India with the capability to build an indigenous planetarium system software.
• This system software must be built by using latest technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Merged Reality (MR).
• This challenge aligns perfectly with India's objective of progressive digital transformation under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

Jhumpa Lahiri to launch her new book "Translating Myself and Others".

• Pulitzer Prize winning eminent fiction writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, is all set to launch her new book Translating Myself and Other, which will highlight her work as a translator.
• The new book is planned to come out in the spring of 2022.
• It will be a collection of essays reflecting Lahiri's experiences on the meaning of translation, translating his own writings, and writing in languages.
• The book will be published by Princeton University Press.