Correct Answer :   China

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China sent a new Earth observation satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Monday (21st August 2023).

The satellite, Gaofen-12 04, was launched by a Long March-4C carrier rocket at 1:45 a.m. (Beijing Time) and has entered the planned orbit successfully.



It will be used in a variety of fields, including land surveys, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster relief.

The launch marks the 484th flight mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.

A Long March-4C carrier rocket carrying a new Earth observation satellite blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Aug. 21, 2023.

The satellite, Gaofen-12 04, was launched at 1:45 a.m. (Beijing Time) and has entered the planned orbit successfully. (Photo by Wang Jiangbo/Xinhua).

Correct Answer :   Honey Dabas and Rahul Jograjiya

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In a historic first, Indian powerlifters, Honey Dabas and Rahul Jograjiya, bagged gold and silver medals to open the Dubai 2023 World Para-Powerlifting Championships on Tuesday (22nd Aug 2023).

Dabbas clinched the nation’s first-ever gold with lifts of 132 kg and then 135 kg, displaying amazing grit, determination, and strength.

Meanwhile, Jograjiya followed his compatriot to secure the silver medal with a final lift of 132 kg in the fiercely-contested men’s 72 kg junior weight category.

Day 1 - Dubai 2023 WPPO C’ships ️History was made as Honey Dabbas wins first ever GOLD for India at a World C’ships with a lift of 135kg in men’s -72kg junior category.

Day 1 - Dubai 2023 WPPO C'ships 🏋️🇦🇪

History was made as Honey Dabbas wins first ever GOLD 🥇🇮🇳 for India at a World C'ships with a lift of 135kg in men's -72kg junior category.

Rahul Jograjiya 🥈follows with SILVER with successful lift of 132kg. #parapowerlifting #Dubai2023 pic.twitter.com/keNmHiCUdc

— Paralympic India 🇮🇳 (@ParalympicIndia) August 22, 2023

Dabas was ecstatic after his victorious show and thanked his support staff for their continuous support and efforts.

“My next goal is to win a medal at the Paralympics. I will be competing another year in the junior, hoping to make it to the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics,” said the Delhi-based Dabas who also expects to qualify for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games," he said.

Dabas has two gold medals from the Dubai 2022 Fazza World Cup.

Correct Answer :   R. Praggnanandha

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R Praggnanandhaa beat Arjun Erigaisi on Thursday (17th August 2023) to become the first Indian since Viswanathan Anand in 2002 to reach the semifinals of a Chess World Cup.

Praggnanandhaa, the 18-year-old from Chennai, beat his compatriot in sudden death after the tie-breaker turned into a series of seemingly interminable draws after the two classical games had failed to throw up a winner earlier this week.

Praggnanandhaa will now face American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, the third seed, in the semifinals of the 2023 FIDE Chess World Cup quarterfinals in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Top seed Magnus Carlsen will be in the other semifinal. Earlier in the tournament, second seed Hiraku Nakamura had been eliminated by Praggnanandhaa himself.

No Indian had reached the last four stage of the FIDE World Cup since Viswanathan Anand won the first two editions of the tournament in 2000 and 2002.

A very exciting quarterfinal match between Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi finally concludes, after 7 tiebreak games, with Praggnanandhaa emerging as the winner and moving on to face Fabiano Caruana in the semifinals. #FIDEWorldCup

📷 Stev Bonhage pic.twitter.com/DBPGbPSyBa

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 17, 2023

The 2023 FIDE World Cup has been a special one for India, even for reasons other than Pragg's semifinal entry. There were three Indian Grandmasters who lost in the quarterfinals, as India became the first country other than Russia to have four GMs in the last four of a single edition of the World Cup. Gukesh lost his quarterfinal to Magnus Carlsen and Vidit Gujrathi lost to Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov..

Source : The Bridge

Correct Answer :   Novak Djokovic

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Novak Djokovic of Serbia secured the titles Cincinnati Open 2023 after defeating Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

The win delivered Djokovic his 95th career title and 39th Masters 1000 crown.

The Spaniard is currently ranked at number one in the ATP Tour rankings, with Djokovic ranked just behind him at number two.

Djokovic is the only player in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once across all three different surfaces.

Source : ToI

Correct Answer :   Russia

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Russia’s first lunar mission in decades has ended in failure with its Luna 25 spacecraft crashing into the moon’s surface.

The incident, a blow to Russia’s space ambitions, happened after communication with the robotic spacecraft was interrupted.

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said it lost touch with Luna 25 on Saturday (19th August 2023) around 2:57 p.m. Moscow time.

“The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not yield any results,” the space agency reported.

According to a “preliminary analysis,” Luna-25 “switched to an off-design orbit” before the collision, Roscosmos said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

A specially formed commission will investigate the reasons for the loss of Luna 25, the agency added.

The news comes a day after the spacecraft reported an “emergency situation” as it was trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, according to Roscosmos.

“During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos shared in a Telegram post on Saturday.

The spacecraft was meant to complete Russia’s first lunar landing mission in 47 years. The country’s last lunar lander, Luna 24, landed on the surface of the moon on August 18, 1976.

The Luna 25 probe launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Amur Oblast on 10 August 2023, setting the vehicle on a swift trip to the moon.

Luna 25’s trajectory allowed it to surpass India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander, which launched in mid-July, on the way to the lunar surface..

Source : CNN

Correct Answer :   Mehuli Ghosh

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In Shooting, India’s Mehuli Ghosh secured a Paris 2024 Olympics quota for India after finishing third in the women’s 10 metre air rifle event at the ISSF World Championship 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 19th August 2023.

In the final, Mehuli Ghosh scored 229.8 to finish with a bronze medal behind the People’s Republic of China’s Jiayu Han and Zhilin Hang. India’s Tilottama Sen finished a credible fourth with 208.4.

The ISSF World Championship 2023 is a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

A total of 48 Olympic quotas are on offer with the top four finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic individual shooting events. This was India’s fourth Paris 2024 quota in shooting..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   Spain

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Spain secured their first ever Women’s World Cup title with a 1-0 win over England at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Sydney on Sunday (20 August 2023).

Jennifer Hermoso had a penalty saved by Mary Earps, but a first-half goal from Olga Carmona was enough for La Roja to become world champions for the first time in history.

The win marks a historic FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign for Spain who previously failed to make it past the Round of 16. Making it to the final after knockout wins over Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden, was already a first for Spain with the victory in the final cause for an even bigger celebration.

La Roja expertly controlled the game from kick-off, nullifying any attacking threats from the Lionesses.

Despite Spain’s dominance, the 2022 European Champions managed an early chance - probably their best of the 90 minutes - but the ball hit the bar.

The missed opportunity struck England hard as they struggled to dismantle Spain’s possession-heavy strategy, while La Roja continued to intimidate in response.

England’s goalkeeper Mary Earps did well to deny Spain a goal in the 17th minute, pulling off yet another incredible save to keep her side in the game. But it was all in vain as Olga Carmona soon found the back of the net with a thunderous strike on the half-hour mark.

England made two much needed changes at half time, bringing in Lauren James and Chloe Kelly for Alessia Russo and Rachel Daly. But despite the forward power that both players possess, they still struggled to leave any real mark on a solid Spanish defence.

In the 65th minute, a handball from Keira Walsh gifted La Roja another goal opportunity in the form of a penalty. Hermoso stepped up, but Earps yet again gave her nation a lifeline as she denied the shot.

The save gave England a new lease of life, with James and Kelly trying to produce something special for the Lionesses. Although they had solid attempts, nothing was enough to penetrate Spain’s line-up.

La Roja looked like a team that had experience in playing on the world’s biggest stage, notwithstanding the fact that they had never made it past a FIFA Women’s World Cup quarter-final stage.

It was Spain’s confidence and composure on the ball that ultimately won them the final, and their performance seemed worlds away from their group stage 4-0 loss to Japan earlier in the tournament.

The Spanish players demonstrated unity, coming together when it mattered most, to make history for their nation..

Source : Olympics

Correct Answer :   Anahat Singh

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India’s Anahat Singh clinched the gold medal in the U-17 category of the Asian Junior Squash Individual Championships held in Dalin, China from August 16th to the 20th, 2023.

The 15-year-old Anahat defeated Hong Kong’s Ena Kwong 3-1 in the final on Sunday (20th Aug 2023) to win the gold medal.

She had beaten Malaysian players Doyce Lee and Whitney Isabelle Wilson in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively.

Last year in Thailand, the Delhi-based Anahat won her first gold medal in this event.

Anahat also has a bronze medal win, at Macau in the U-13 category in 2019.

The Indian player shot to prominence in 2019 when she won the U-11 title during the British Junior Open Squash and by winning the U-13 title in the Dutch Junior Open Squash.

In 2021, she also reached the quarterfinals of the Indian Open held at Noida, thus becoming a part of the 2021-22 PSA World Tour.

Anahat also represented India in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, becoming the youngest Indian athlete at 14 in the competition.

Earlier this year, Anahat emerged winner in the U-15 category of the British Junior Open Squash, beating Sohaila Hazem of Egypt in the final..

Source : News18

Correct Answer :   INS Vagir

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In a first-if-its-kind, longest ever deployment of India’s Scorpene submarines, INS Vagir, commissioned in January this year (2023), has made its way to Australia, covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km.

The Indian Navy released a statement Saturday evening saying that the submarine is on an extended-range deployment.

The deployment commenced in June 2023 and Vagir will reach Fremantle, Australia on 20 August 2023, it added.

The submarine, which is the Indian Navy’s fifth Kalvari class submarine, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in January this year and is based in Mumbai.

Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that except for one port call in Sri Lanka, as part of International Day of Yoga, the submarine has not made any other port call.

They also said that the submarine has traversed about 7,000 kilometres, or a little over 4,000 nautical miles, since it began its operational deployment in June.

This means that the Vagir has sailed continuously since the Sri Lanka stop, with it resurfacing every three-four days depending on the speed, to recharge its batteries for a few hours before sinking to the depth of the ocean again.

The extended range deployment is the maiden deployment by an Indian submarine to Australia and showcases the capability and professional acumen of the Indian Navy to undertake sustained operations at extended ranges from the base port for prolonged durations, the official statement read.

During her stay in Australia, INS Vagir will participate in various exercises with Royal Australian Navy (RAN) units on the West Coast of Australia.

Concurrently, on the East coast of Australia, Indian naval ships and aircraft are involved in Exercise Malabar between 11 and 21 August and AUSINDEX between 22-24 August.

During the Vagir’s ongoing deployment, basic, intermediate and advanced-level anti-submarine exercises are scheduled. In addition, RAN submarines and Indian Naval P8i aircraft are scheduled to exercise with INS Vagir..

Source : The Print

Correct Answer :   Esha Singh and Shiva Narwal

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Shooters Esha Singh and Shiva Narwal brought cheers to the India camp, clinching the 10m air pistol mixed team gold by defeating Turkey in the final of the ISSF World Championship at Baku, Azerbaijan on 18th August 2023.

* The Indian duo defeated the Turkish pair of Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec 16-10 in the gold-medal match to take the country's medals tally to two.

* India are currently placed second on the medals table with a gold and a bronze medal, while China is leading the tally with five gold and two bronze medals..

Source : AIR