current affairs 18 September 2022

PM Modi releases 8 cheetahs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

After a long gap of 70 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a historic gift to Madhya Pradesh and the country today.
The Prime Minister has released eight cheetahs brought from Namibia in the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
It is the world's first inter-continental large wild carnivore translation project.
It is the world's first transcontinental project to restore large wild animals.
The introduction of wild cheetahs from Namibia is part of PM Modi's efforts to revive and diversify India's wildlife and its habitat.
Cheetahs were declared extinct from India in 1952 and those that have been introduced are from Namibia and have been brought under a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this year.
The last cheetah died in 1948 in the Sal forests of Koriya district of Chhattisgarh.

25-year-old Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate has been appointed as the newest UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Inspired by Sweden's Greta Thunberg, Nakate began her climate action in 2019 and has since founded the Rise Up Movement and addressed global climate summits.
In 2020 she came to further global prominence when she was cropped out of a news photo she appeared in alongside Thunberg and other white climate activists.
She has addressed world leaders at the COP25 and COP26 climate summits and appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

Bengaluru teenager Pranav Anand became India’s 76th Grandmaster after he crossed the 2,500 Elo mark in the ongoing World Youth Chess Championship in Mamaia, Romania.
To become a GM, a player has to secure three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points.
Anand had scored the third and final GM norm at the 55th Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland in July.
Anand had secured his third and final GM norm in Biel by drawing his game against Spain number five GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (2619) in the penultimate round.
His first two GM norms came in the Sitges Open (in January 2022) and Vezerkepso GM Round Robin (March 2022) tournaments.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to declare Maharaja Hari Singh’s birth anniversary a public holiday.
The announcement was made by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha.
Maharaja Hari Singh JI was instrumental in accession of J&K with the republic of India on 26 October in 1947.
Maharaja Hari Singh was the last Dogra king.
The birth anniversary of the visionary ruler falls on September 23.

Jharkhand has become the third state after Bihar and Odisha in eastern India to have Food Security Atlas for its rural areas.
Odisha and Bihar had their Atlas launched in 2018.
Food Security Atlas of Rural Jharkhand 2022’ launched in Ranchi.
Finance Minister of Jharkhand, Dr Rameshwar Oraon assured that the government would make efforts towards giving quota and green cards to the food insecure districts of Jharkhand.
This Atlas is an effort toward mapping the food security situation in the state.
It has been prepared by the Delhi-based Institute for Human Development (IHD) as part of the research initiative of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.