Today's Event – 5TH January 2022

• 1900 – Irish nationalist leader John Edward Redmond calls for revolt against British rule

• 1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University. 

• 1912 – The sixth All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague Party Conference) opens. In the course of the conference, Vladimir Lenin and his supporters break from the rest of the party to form the Bolshevik movement

• 1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses. 

• 1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded in Munich. 

• 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States. 

• 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay. 

• 1941 – Amy Johnson, a 37-year-old pilot and the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, disappears after bailing out of her plane over the River Thames, and is presumed dead

• 1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first major London newspaper to be published on both sides of the Atlantic. 

• 1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland. 

• 1949 – In his "State of the Union" address, United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. 

• 1950 – In the Sverdlovsk air disaster, all 19 of those on board are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur. 

• 1953 – The play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett receives its première in Paris. 

• 1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine

• 1968 – Alexander Dub?ek comes to power in Czechoslovakia, effectively beginning the "Prague Spring"

• 1969 – The Venera 5 space probe is launched at 06:28:08 UTC[24] from Baikonur. 

• 1969 – Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes in Fernhill, West Sussex, while on approach to Gatwick Airport, killing 50 people. 

• 1970 – The 7.1 Mw? Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are known to have been killed and about another 26,000 are injured. 

• 1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people. 

• 1976 – The Khmer Rouge proclaim the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.

• 1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.

• 2005 – The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time. 

• 2014 – A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine

National Events-

• A total of 2,135 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected across 24 states and UTs so far, out of which 828 have recovered or migrated.   Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of cases at 653, followed by Delhi at 464, Kerala 185, Rajasthan 174, Gujarat 154 and Tamil Nadu with 121 cases.

• Amid surge in infections of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, several states across the country have imposed stricter curbs to contain the spread of the virus.

• India’s Omicron tally on Wednesday stood at 2,135, of which 828 have recovered. Meanwhile, the active caseload of coronavirus infections crossed the 2-lakh mark.

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has skipped the rally in Punjab’s Ferozepur over security lapses, a statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs said. “Around 30-kms away from National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala, when the PM’s convoy reached a flyover, it was found that the road was blocked by some protestors. The PM was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes. This was a major lapse in the security of PM,” the statement read.

• IN AN attack on former BJP MLA Gurucharan Nayak, suspected Maoists reportedly slit the throats of two police personnel assigned to guard him, during a felicitation ceremony in Goilkera police station area of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

International Events-

• The United Nation Security Council got five new members on Tuesday as Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates formally took up the posts they won in an election in June.

• New York’s prison system unjustly penalized more than 1,600 incarcerated people based on faulty drug tests, putting them in solitary confinement, delaying their parole hearings and denying them family visits, the New York state inspector general said in a damning report released Tuesday.

• South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma along with Indian-origin Gupta brothers, who had “considerable” influence over him, misappropriated huge amount of public money, including diverting millions of rands to enrich the now defunct The New Age newspaper, according to a probe report on corruption during Zuma’s tenure from 2009 to 2018.

• More than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was up from 4.2 million in October and was the most in the two decades that the government has been keeping track.

• France reported a record-smashing 2,71,686 daily virus cases on Tuesday as omicron infections race across the country, burdening hospital staff and threatening to disrupt transport, schools and other services.

Job alerts-

• Securities and Exchange Board of India Jobs for Assistant Manager and other posts. Last date 24 January 2022

• Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission Jobs for Sub Inspector, Gulmnayak, Fire Officer and other posts. Last date 21 February 2022

• International Financial Services Centres Authority Jobs for Assistant Manager and other posts. Last date 24 January 2022

• Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board Jobs for Lab Technician and other posts. Last date 20 January 2022

• CDAC Bangalore Jobs for Technical Assistant, Project Engineer, Project Manager and other posts. Last date 18 January 2022

Sports-

• India opener KL Rahul has made a huge gain of 18 slots to reach the 31st position among batters in the latest ICC Test rankings after his Player-of-the-Match effort that helped India defeat South Africa by 113 runs in the first Test.

• England’s bowlers struck twice in the final session to reduce Australia to 126 for three at the close of play on a rain-disrupted opening day of the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

• Hubert Hurkacz beat Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-4 to secure Poland’s victory over Argentina on Wednesday and a spot in the ATP Cup semifinals. Poland finished the round-robin stage 3-0 in Group D, with wins over Georgia, Greece and in the top-of-the-table match against Argentina.

• The International Boxing Association (IBA) has renewed its partnership with the International Testing Agency for three years, an agreement which will cover in-competition dope testing, long-term sample storage, and investigations among other aspects.

• Covid-19 continues to hamper sports events all across the world as players are returning positive for the virus. Wednesday’s Big Bash League (BBL) match between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers has been postponed after 12 Heat players returned positive PCR tests for Covid-19 and are currently isolating.

Technology-

• PlayStation VR2 (PS VR2) and PlayStation VR2 Sense controller are now official. I mean, the names, the products already were. At its CES 2022 conference, Sony shared the official name of its next-gen virtual reality headset and VR controllers for the PlayStation 5. Both are predictable and fitting, given the numerical iteration that Sony likes, and that the new PS5 controller is known as the DualSense. Alongside, Sony announced an exclusive PS VR2 game in Horizon Call of the Mountain, based in the worlds of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.

• Oppo Enco M32 neckband-style earphones were launched on Wednesday in India. They offer various features including fast charging technology, long battery life, balanced audio output, and IP55 rating for dust and water resistance. The successors to the Enco M31 earbuds, the new earphones come equipped with an independent sound cavity that allows for a larger sound field, and immersive sound experience. They come with an AI call-noise-reduction algorithm for clear calling, and dual-device, fast-switching function to quickly switch between two devices.

• China's cyber regulatory body issued on Wednesday draft rules governing mobile apps, including a requirement for security reviews of apps whose functions could influence public opinion.

• The year of 2021 wrapped up as a fruitful one for the crypto sector with Bitcoin maintaining its position as the reigning king of the price charts. A recent report by analytics provider Glassnode has observed that 76 percent of Bitcoin's circulating supply is currently illiquid, which means it is moved into wallets that have no history of spending. The anonymous Bitcoin creator known as Satoshi Nakamoto has capped the total number of Bitcoin tokens to be mined at 21 million. As per CoinMarketCap, 18.9 million Bitcoins have already been mined and are in the circulating supply.

• Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, Zephyrus G14, Strix SCAR, and Strix G Series laptops have been launched by the company at CES 2022. The new gaming laptops feature updated Intel and AMD processors, along with Nvidia and AMD GPUs, and run on Windows 11. The company also launched Asus Flow Z13 gaming tablet which runs on Windows for portable gaming. It comes with powerful Nvidia RTX graphics, a 4K display with 60Hz refresh rate, and 1TB SSD storage. Asus has also updated the ROG Strix GT15 gaming desktop with updated Intel and Nvidia RTX graphics, and announced a new mechanical keyboard — Asus ROG Strix Flare II Animate. Prices and availability details of most new products are yet to be announced by the company.

Economy –

• In a bid to boost digital transactions in the country, the State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that it will not levy any service charge on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions up to Rs 5 lakh through its digital banking channels.

• Passenger vehicle retail sales in India witnessed an 11 per cent year-on-year decline in December as semiconductor shortage continued to impact the segment, automobile dealers’ body FADA said on Wednesday.

• At 2:47 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 392.04 points (0.65 per cent) higher at 60,247.97 while the Nifty 50 advanced 117.80 points (0.66 per cent) at 17,923.05.

• Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea by Future group companies seeking to quash the ongoing arbitration proceedings in Singapore with Amazon relating to the Rs 24,500-crore merger deal with Reliance Retail. With this order, the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon against Future Retail (FRL) over the merger deal will go as per schedule on January 5.

• Solar open access installations in India jumped 85 per cent to 307 megawatt (MW) in October-December period of 2021, Mercom India Research said in a report. The installations stood at 166 MW during the same quarter in 2020, the research firm said in its report titled “India Solar Open Access Market Report Q3 2021” on Tuesday.

Local –

• Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain has said that the National capital will report nearly 10,000 Covid-19 cases and the positivity will shoot up to 10 per cent in the daily bulletin to be released Wednesday evening. This implies that the daily tally of the viral infection has doubled in Delhi in just one day from the 5,481 cases reported on Tuesday.

• With coronavirus infections exceeding 15,000 on Wednesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has asked all private hospitals to restore Covid bed numbers to the peak-level that they had during the second wave of the pandemic.

• The last 24 hours witnessed a nearly 50 per cent jump in daily Covid-19 cases in West Bengal – from 6,078 on Monday to 9,073 on Tuesday – with the state’s test-positivity rate climbing to 18.96 per cent. Kolkata alone has contributed half of the daily new cases with 4,759 people testing positive in the city in the last 24 hours.

• The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court Tuesday observed that the installation of CCTV cameras in a spa was violative of the fundamental “bodily” privacy of a person.

• With Covid-19 cases surging, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to impose weekend curfew and extend night curfew until January 19. Curfew will be in place between 10 pm and 5 am across the state.

GK –

Which Union Ministry has set up six Task Forces on 6 G technology?

[A] Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
[B] Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
[C] Ministry of Communication
[D] Ministry of Commerce and Industry

‘SMILE’ scheme is to be implemented by which Union Ministry?

[A] Ministry of Education
[B] Ministry of Women and Child Development
[C] Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
[D] Ministry of Rural Development

What is the Current Account Balance of India, in the second quarter ended September 2021?

[A] 9.6billionsurplus

[B] 9.6 billion deficit
[C] 0.6billionsurplus

[D] 0.6 billion deficit

As on January 1, 2022, what is the estimated population of the world, as per the US Census Bureau?

[A] 3.8 billion
[B] 5.8 billion
[C] 7.8 billion
[D] 9.8 billion

What is the existing annual income limit for identification of economically weaker section (EWS)?

[A] Rs 6 lakh
[B] Rs 8 lakh
[C] Rs 9 lakh
[D] Rs 10 lakh