Today's Event – 4th January 2022

• 1853 – After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller. 

• 1854 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang. 

• 1863 – The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany.

• 1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

• 1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death. 

• 1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter. 

• 1918 – The Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Russia, Sweden, Germany and France

• 1948 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom becoming an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu its first Prime Minister.

• 1956 – The Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis. 

• 1958 – Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit. 

• 1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. 

• 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, UK. 

• 1975 – This date overflowed the 12-bit field that had been used in the Decsystem 10 operating systems. There were numerous problems and crashes related to this bug while an alternative format was developed

• 2004 – Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC. 

• 2004 – Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution. 

• 2006 – Ehud Olmert becomes acting Prime Minister of Israel after the incumbent, Ariel Sharon, suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. 

• 2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history

• 2010 – The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai

National Events-

• Amid a single-day spike of 37,379 fresh Covid-19 cases, states such Punjab and Union Territory of Delhi have imposed stricter measures to curb the spread of the virus. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders have tested positive for the virus.

• With the Centre citing urgency, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana Tuesday said he will try to list petitions challenging the criteria for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota in the NEET-PG (All India Quota) for hearing on Wednesday.

• India’s tally for the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, on Tuesday reached 1,892, according to the Union Ministry of Health. The highest number of cases were reported in Maharashtra (568),followed by Delhi, which logged 382 cases of the new variant. Kerala (185),Rajasthan (174),Gujarat (152) and Tamil Nadu (121) also reported over a hundred cases of Omicron.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),India’s space agency, is targeting the launch of first of the two planned uncrewed flights under the Gaganyaan mission before Independence Day this year and the third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 by “middle of the next year”, said the chairperson Dr K Sivan on Monday.

• The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to one of the main accused in the December 2018 Bulandshahar mob lynching case in which a police officer was killed following protests over cow slaughter.

International Events-

• More than 1 million people in the US were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life.

• Most U.S. doctors have no way to determine which variant of the coronavirus a patient is carrying, a distinction that could mean the difference between life and death. High-risk patients carrying the delta variant could benefit greatly from two particular monoclonal antibody treatments shown to reduce hospitalization and death. But those medications would most likely do nothing for patients with omicron, who would only respond to a third antibody treatment that is in very short supply.

• The latest closures are the final chapters in the demise of independent media in Hong Kong, a city that once had some of the freest and most aggressive news media in Asia. Now, as Beijing continues a sweeping crackdown on the city, the journalists who once covered the city’s protests and politics are increasingly either under arrest or out of work, without anywhere to publish.

• China’s cyberspace regulator on Tuesday said it will implement new rules from Feb. 15 that require platform companies with data for more than 1 million users to undergo a security review before listing its shares overseas.

• With Covid case counts soaring, fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant, businesses are once again weighing when to reopen and what steps they need to take to do so safely.

Job alerts-

• Reserve Bank of India Jobs for Specialist Officers and other posts. Last date 04 February 2022

• Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation Jobs for Station Controller/ Train Operator, Junior Engineer, Maintainer and other posts. Last date 21 January 2022

• Employees State Insurance Corporation Jobs for Specialist, Senior Resident and other posts. Last date 10 January 2022

• Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board Jobs for Assistant Law Officer and other posts. Last date 09 February 2022

• National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli Jobs for Teaching Faculty and other posts. Last date 16 January 2022

Sports-

• Bangladesh are closing in on a shock victory over world Test champions New Zealand, but the visitors’ DRS howler against New Zealand batter Ross Taylor became the talking point of the fourth day in the opening match in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday.

• Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka opened her 2022 season with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Alize Cornet on Tuesday in one of the so-called Summer Set of tournaments in Melbourne.

• Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh will be among a host of former stars in the India Maharaja team which will take part in the inaugural edition of the Legends League Cricket (LLC),starting on January 20 in Oman

• Multiple COVID-19 outbreaks inside bio-bubbles threw Australian domestic leagues haywire on Tuesday as cricket administrators grappled to keep schedules on track while players complained of anxiety.

• Scott Boland has retained his spot in Australia’s bowling attack for the fourth Ashes test after his starring role in the series-deciding victory over England in Melbourne last week.

Technology-

• Realme 9i has been tipped to launch later this month and now a hands-on video has surfaced online, which shows the design of the smartphone. The hands-on video shows that the upcoming Realme smartphone will sport a triple rear camera setup housed in a rectangular module. Realme 9i is said to get a flat display with thin bezels on three sides and a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. Realme 9i's hands-on video also shows a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom.

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced that it is now giving its subscribers a total of 90 days of additional validity with the Rs. 2,399 prepaid recharge plan. It should be noted that the latest offer is separate from the 60-day additional validity offer which the telecom company announced a few days ago. That offer was effective till December 31. The plan comes with benefits such as unlimited local and STD voice calling and 3GB data per day.

• Apple's iOS-based devices could go into a cycle of freezing and crashing and eventually become unusable due to a HomeKit vulnerability that has been exposed by a security researcher. The issue exists in all iOS versions, starting with iOS 14.7. iPhone users on the latest iOS version are also affected by the denial-of-service vulnerability, the researcher said. Apple is said to be aware of the issue and allegedly promise to address it before 2022. The flaw is, however, yet to be fixed.

• Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from South Korea's ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has reportedly decided to give his election campaign a crypto touch. In order to garner funding as well as gain popularity among the masses, Lee will be issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to his supporters who donate their money to his election campaign. NFTs are digital collectibles, often inspired by music, artwork, or video game avatars, among other things, built and secured on the blockchain network.

• Starlink has begun emailing users in India offering refunds on their pre-orders. The satellite internet division of the billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX says that it has been directed by the Department of Telecom to refund pre-orders until the company's Internet service is licensed in India. The company was previously believed to be working on launching its services in India in ten rural Lok Sabha constituencies. India was considered one of its key markets.

Economy –

• Social commerce, defined as transactions that take place entirely within the context of a social-media platform, will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, up from $492 billion in 2021, the consulting company said in the report. The trend is being driven primarily by Gen Z and Millennial consumers, who are expected to account for 62% of the spending.

• Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday assigned a Baa2 rating to the proposed USD-denominated senior unsecured bonds of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL),with stable outlook.

• At 12:32 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 412.27 points (0.70 per cent) higher at 59,595.49 while the Nifty 50 was up 103.70 points (0.59 per cent) at 17,729.40.

• ONGC’s Director of Human Resources Alka Mittal on Monday took over additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the company, becoming the first woman to hold the post at the Maharatna company. Mittal replaces Subhash Kumar who superannuated on December 31.

• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has aligned the tenure of chief executives and directors of insurance companies with the banking sector set by the Reserve Bank of India.

Local –

• A weekend lockdown will be imposed in Delhi, starting this weekend, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Delhi metro and buses will now allow 100 per cent seat occupancy to avoid crowding at bus stops and stations.

• On Monday, as many as 68 patients with Omicron infection were reported in the state, increasing the tally to 578 in Maharashtra. Of these, 40 are from Mumbai and 14 from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area.

• As Covid-19 caseload of West Bengal added another 6,000 new cases on Monday, doctors and health workers seem to be most affected in this fresh surge in infections. Over 100 doctors have been infected with the virus in Kolkata alone, according to sources.

• A total of 3,32,493 children in the 15-18 age group were administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Tamil Nadu on Monday, the first day of vaccination drive for children in the country.

• Witnessing a further surge in daily Covid-19 cases, Karnataka on Monday reported 1,290 fresh infections and 5 deaths, taking the count to 30,10,847 and the death toll to 38,351. Of the new cases, 1,041 were from Bengaluru Urban, as the city saw 134 discharges and 3 deaths. The total number of active cases is now at 11,345.

Person in News –

• Former Saurashtra cricketer Ambapratasinhji Jadeja died of COVID-19 infection on Tuesday, the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) said.

GK –

The GST Council has decided to defer the increase in GST Rate on which product?

[A] Textile
[B] Automobile
[C] Mobile Phones
[D] Cotton

Which state government slashed Rs 25 per litre on petrol and diesel prices for two-wheelers owned by the poor?

[A] Odisha
[B] Tamil Nadu
[C] Jharkhand
[D] Kerala

What is the deadline for KYC updation for bank accounts, as per the recent notification of RBI?

[A] January 31, 2022
[B] March 31, 2022
[C] June 30, 2022
[D] September 30, 2022

Which is India’s first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine for COVID-19?

[A] CORBEVAXTM
[B] NOVAVAX
[C] DIVIVAX
[D] SEROVAXTM

Which country has recently purchased 25 Chinese J-10C fighter jets?

[A] Afghanistan
[B] Pakistan
[C] Sri Lanka
[D] Bangladesh