Today's Event – 24th January 2022

• 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.

• 1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

• 1758 – During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763).

• 1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the action of Picheuta.

• 1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.

• 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

• 1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully fledged university in South Asia.

• 1859 – The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (later named Romania) is formed as a personal union under the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

• 1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.

• 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.

• 1918 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14 (New Style).

• 1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.

• 1935 – Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company starts selling the first canned beer.[9]

• 1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.

• 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

• 1960 – Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.

• 1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.

• 1966 – Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc.

• 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa.

• 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

• 1977 – The Atocha massacre occurs in Madrid during the Spanish transition to democracy.

• 1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

• 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

• 1986 – The Voyager 2 space probe makes its closest approach to Uranus.

• 1989 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, with over 30 known victims, is executed by the electric chair at the Florida State Prison.

• 1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.

• 2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

• 2009 – Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.

• 2011 – At least 35 are killed and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport.

• 2018 – Former doctor Larry Nassar is sentenced up to 175 years in prison after being found guilty of using his position to sexually abuse female gymnasts.

National Events-

• India recorded 3,06,064 new Covid-19 cases and 439 related deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday. While daily cases are fewer than those logged on Sunday when there were more than 3.33 lakh infections, the daily positivity rate climbed to 20.75 per cent. The weekly positivity rate also climbed from 16.87 per cent to 17.03 per cent on Monday.

• In a recent interview, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal claimed that a Dalit voter in Punjab had come to him and said he would vote for AAP. “I asked him, why not [Punjab CM] Charanjit Singh Channi who is claiming to be the messiah of Dalits. He said AAP has transformed government schools in Delhi and it is only education that can change the lives of people,” he said, making an appeal to vote for AAP if voters “want state-of-art government schools in Punjab like in Delhi.”

• Six Army contingents marching in the Republic Day parade this year will showcase the different uniforms worn and weapons carried by soldiers through the decades, Chief of Staff of Delhi Area Major General Alok Kakkar said on Sunday.

• A WEEK to go for the Budget session of Parliament to begin, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu tested Covid positive on Sunday.

• Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath Sunday attacked the Samajwadi Party on a range of issues – from free electricity to Covid management and Muslim appeasement – as he took part in several poll-related events in Ghazaiabad district.

International Events-

• President Joe Biden is considering deploying several thousand US troops, as well as warships and aircraft, to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an expansion of American military involvement amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, according to administration officials.

• Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Sunday the country had received a second consignment of weapons from the United States as part of defensive aid totalling $200 million.

• Taiwan on Sunday reported the largest incursion since October by China’s air force in its air defence zone, with the island’s defence ministry saying Taiwanese fighters scrambled to warn away 39 aircraft in the latest uptick in tensions.

• Fighting at a prison in the northern Syrian city of al-Hasaka entered a fourth day on Sunday as the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued to battle fighters from the extremist “Islamic State” (IS) group after a breakout at the facility.

• Russia will face severe economic sanctions if it installs a puppet regime in Ukraine, a senior UK minister said on Sunday after Britain accused the Kremlin of seeking to install a pro-Russian leader there. Britain made the accusation late on Saturday, also saying Russian intelligence officers had been in contact with a number of former Ukrainian politicians as part of plans for an invasion.

Job alerts-

• NIT Raipur Jobs for Professor and other posts. Last date 18 February 2022

• Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University Jobs for Executive Officer, Manager and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• AIIMS Rishikesh Jobs for Senior Resident and other posts. Last date 22 February 2022

• Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission Jobs for Assistant Director and other posts. Last date 26 February 2022

• Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited Jobs for Manager, Officer and other posts. Last date 05 February 2022

Sports-

• South Africa’s Director of Cricket Graeme Smith has thanked the Indian players and BCCI for showing faith in the hosts’ ability to successfully stage matches amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying their exemplary commitment has “set the example” for others to follow.

• Nigeria’s 100% record in the group stage meant nothing as it was knocked out 1-0 by Tunisia in the last 16 of the African Cup of Nations.

• Indian batting great and head of National Cricket Academy (NCA) VVS Laxman had words of encouragement for Uganda players after the African team suffered a whopping 326-run loss to title favourites India in the U-19 World Cup here.

• Paris St Germain continued their march towards the Ligue 1 title as Marco Verratti inspired them to a 4-0 home victory against Stade de Reims on Sunday and Lionel Messi made his first appearance of the year.

• Virat Kohli got to a brisk fifty against South Africa in the third and final ODI at Centurion on Sunday and then proceeded to whip out the ‘cradle’ celebration. Kohli dedicated his fifty to his daughter, Vamika, who was in the arms of her mother, Anushka Sharma at the Newlands and the video instantly went viral.

Technology-

• Hubble Space Telescope provides astronomers with breathtaking images of the cosmos for deeper studies. Recently, the telescope shared yet another strikingly beautiful image. This time, it captured the NGC 3318 galaxy, which lies in the constellation Vela, located about 115 million light-years away from the Earth. The image was shared by the European Space Agency (ESA) on its official Instagram handle. Stating that the spiral arms of the galaxy were lazily draped across in the image, ESA added that “Vela was originally part of a far larger constellation, known as Argo Navis after the fabled ship Argo from Greek mythology.”

• Bitcoin and Ether hit their respective new all-time highs in November 2021, but things appear to have only spiralled for the worse since then. Bitcoin and most major altcoin have been selling off as crypto investors eye the prospects of interest rates in the US marching higher, faster, and more aggressively than most had expected just a few months ago. In fact, according to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin's current market cap of $665 billion (roughly Rs. 50,56,000 crore) is down from almost $1.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,00,00,000 crore) in November 2021, while the wider crypto market has shed over $1 trillion (roughly 70,00,000 crore) over the same period.

• Brazilian financial services provider Dock said on Friday it will start using cryptocurrencies to process international remittances as it expands to Latin America and Europe.

• Flipkart Grand Gadget Days Sale is now live -- a day after the Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale 2022 concluded. The Grand Gadget Days Sale will run through January 26, and customers can avail up to 80 percent discounts on electronics and accessories. Electronics like digital cameras, smartwatches, truly wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, laptops, monitors, projectors, gaming headsets, computer peripherals including mouse and keyboard, headphones, speakers, and storage devices are up for grabs on Flipkart. You can get extra off by opting for various bank offers, cashbacks, and also avail options like no cost EMIs.

• WhatsApp is reportedly working on adding a couple of new features and functionalities. One of the upcoming updates is said to bring added security to the instant messaging app, while the other is said to increase customisability for the voice call interface on the app. As per the reports, the former will add two-step verification to the desktop client in the future, while the latter will let users choose and set wallpapers as backgrounds for voice calls on WhatsApp.

Economy –

• At 12:57 pm, The S&P BSE Sensex trading 1,252.46 points (2.12 per cent) lower at 57,784.72 while the Nifty 50 fell 386.00 points (2.19 per cent) to 17,231.15. Both the indices had opened around 0.4 per cent lower earlier in the day and fell further as the trade progressed.

• THE CONFEDERATION of Indian Industry (CII) has suggested the government include an additional 1 per cent corporate social responsibility levy apart from the mandatory 2 per cent for one year in the upcoming Budget to encourage corporates to spend on providing Covid vaccine booster shots.

• HDFC Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of HDFC Ltd and acting as an investment manager, has achieved the initial close of its third fund of an estimated $1.88 billion (about Rs 13,989 crore) focussed on affordable housing, the HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund – 3 (H-CARE-3).

• Budget 2022-23 is likely to have a populist ring to it, interspersed with a string of announcements, entailing road, railways and health-care projects, focussed on a handful of poll-bound states, alongside a greater degree of flexibility to states in market borrowings and capex spending. Coming just ahead of Assembly elections in key states, the Budget is likely to mark a departure from last year’s reformist theme, instead, sticking to the implementation of previous announcements — most of which are hanging fire.

• Proliferation of public WiFi hotspots in rural and urban areas will lead to increased employment for micro and small entrepreneurs in these regions by providing them with an additional source of income, Department of Telecommunication (DoT)  Secretary K Rajaraman said.

Local –

• Delhi administered only 11,706 Covid-19 vaccine doses on Sunday, the lowest this month. The total number of doses administered in Delhi also dropped below 1,00,000 over the last five days.

• The latest round of genome sequencing carried out at the civic-run Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Mumbai has detected the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in 88 per cent of the samples, indicating that the highly transmissible new variant has dominated over the Delta variant.

• Fresh Covid infections in West Bengal dropped to 6,980 on Sunday from 9,191 the previous day, according to a state government bulletin.

• Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Sunday said it has been challenging to curb the spread of Covid in four zones in Chennai despite cases coming down in other parts of the city.

• Karnataka on Sunday reported 50,210 new Covid-19 cases, including 26,299 in Bengaluru, recording its highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. The state also registered 19 deaths. The positivity rate in the last 24 hours was 22.77 per cent.

GK –

Which Indian state has unveiled the draft of ‘New Policy for Women 2021’?

[A] Telangana
[B] Tamil Nadu
[C] Odisha
[D] West Bengal

Novak Djokovic, who was named the ‘Best Balkan Athlete of the year’ 2021, is from which country?

[A] Bulgaria
[B] Serbia
[C] Greece
[D] Hungary

China has complained to the UN, about collision with satellites launched by which project?

[A] Starlink Internet Services project
[B] Psyche Mission
[C] Google Loon Project
[D] Oneweb Satellite Project

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

 Today's Event – 23rd January 2022

• 1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.

• 1719 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire

• 1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.) when Bishop John Carroll, Rev. Robert Molyneux, and Rev. John Ashton purchase land for the proposed academy for the education of youth. 

• 1793 – Second Partition of Poland

• 1795 – After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry.

• 1846 – Slavery in Tunisia is abolished.

• 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

• 1870 – In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.

• 1899 – The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as its first president.

• 1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.

• 1912 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.

• 1920 – The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

• 1937 – The trial of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center sees seventeen mid-level Communists accused of sympathizing with Leon Trotsky and plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime.

• 1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

• 1950 – The Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

• 1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".

• 1958 – After a general uprising and rioting in the streets, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez leaves Venezuela.

• 1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.

• 1961 – The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown.

• 1963 – The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence officially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attack the Portuguese Army stationed in Tite.

• 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

• 1967 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.

• 1967 – Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty-one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age.

• 1968 – USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is attacked and seized by the Korean People's Navy.

• 1985 – World Airways Flight 30H overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and crashes into Boston Harbor. Two people are presumed dead.

• 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

• 1987 – Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan sends a "letter of death" to Somali President Siad Barre, proposing the genocide of the Isaaq people

• 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

• 1998 – Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.

• 2001 – Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Communist Party of China to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.

• 2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.

• 2003 – A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.

• 2018 – A 7.9 Mw? earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States, but there are no reports of significant damage or fatalities.

• 2018 – A double car bombing in Benghazi, Libya, kills at least 33 people and wounds "dozens" of others. The victims include both military personnel and civilians, according to local officials

• 2018 – The China–United States trade war begins when President Donald Trump places tariffs on Chinese solar panels and washing machines. 

• 2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

National Events-

• There has been an attempt to obliterate the contribution of several great personalities of Indian history along with its culture and heritage, PM Narendra Modi said on Sunday after inaugurating a hologram statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at India Gate. He said the country was now “correcting this mistake with boldness”

• KERALA CHIEF Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to drop the proposed amendments to the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954.

• As the country commemorates Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, the Forward Bloc, which had in 1939 emerged as a faction of the Indian National Congress under his leadership, struggles for political survival, having been plagued by financial crisis, numerous splits and lack of management.

• Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, India is now finally acknowledging that the disease is in community transmission stage. Recently released bulletins of INSACOG, the consortium of national laboratories that is tracking the different variants of the virus, has mentioned that Omicron is now spreading through community transmission.

• The Indian economy has “some bright spots and a number of very dark stains” and the government should target its spending “carefully” so that there are no huge deficits, noted economist and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Sunday.

International Events-

• A stowaway was discovered in the wheel section under the front of a Cargolux freight plane that arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport from Africa on Sunday, Dutch military police said.

• A Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday started three days of talks in Oslo with Western government officials and Afghan civil society representatives amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

• New coronavirus cases have started to fall nationally, signaling that the omicron-fueled spike that has infected tens of millions of Americans, packed hospitals and shattered records has finally begun to relent

• Hong Kong authorities said on Sunday one hamster surrendered to authorities by pet owners had tested positive for Covid-19 and that over 2,200 hamsters had been culled as the city struggled to contain an outbreak.

• The United Nations said it was concerned about the disappearance of two Afghan women’s rights activists. Taman Zaryabi Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel were reportedly abducted from their homes by the Taliban on Wednesday night.

Sports-

• Former India coach Ravi Shastri believes Virat Kohli could have led the Indian Test team for another two years. Kohli decided to step down after the 1-2 series defeat in South Africa, and now won’t be captain in any format.

• India were forced to withdraw from the Asian Cup after they were unable to field a team for their Group A match against Chinese Taipei on Sunday after a Covid-19 outbreak within the squad.

• Indian Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu emerged victorious in the Marienbad Open 2022 chess tournament here. He remained unbeaten through nine rounds and accumulated 6.5 points to finish half a point ahead of Icelandic GM Hannes Stefansson, the runner-up.

• India’s Sania Mirza and her American partner Rajeev Ram advanced to the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a straight set win over Ellen Perez and Matwe Middelkoop here on Sunday.

• Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu eased past young compatriot Malvika Bansod in straight games to win her second women’s singles title at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament in Lucknow on Sunday.

Economy –

• Proliferation of public WiFi hotspots in rural and urban areas will lead to increased employment for micro and small entrepreneurs in these regions by providing them with an additional source of income, Department of Telecommunication (DoT)  Secretary K Rajaraman said.

• The Payments Council of India (PCI) has sought rollback of zero merchant discount rate (MDR) regime for payments made through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay debit cards.

• The mandatory process for updating nominee details for subscribers of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is facing issues with users reporting glitches in the registration process on the portal. Many have reported issues ranging from the portal showing error, inability to complete the e-sign process and server issues over the last month.

• Various government departments and ministries had pending payments amounting to Rs 278.49 crore to Air India, according to RTI information from the loss-laden national carrier which is being sold off to the Tata group.

• Aided by higher interest income, ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 25 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 6,194 crore during the December quarter of FY22, from Rs 4,940 crore in the same period a year ago.

Local –

• A 32-bed Covid isolation centre for students and campus residents has been set up inside Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the national capital, following the Delhi government’s health department order on January 21.

• Four persons including two minors have been arrested after a 19-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped in the Shivaji Nagar area of suburban Govandi early on Saturday. Police said they had arrested Ramzan Ali Qureshi, 20, and Sajid Malik, 19, and sent the two minor boys, both 17 years old, to the Dongri children’s home.

• Sharpening her attack on the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the Narendra Modi government, with the promise of installing a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the India Gate, cannot absolve itself of the injustice done to her state by rejecting its Republic Day tableau on the legendary freedom fighter.

• The number of fatalities caused due to Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu was ‘less’ as compared to other states because 65 per cent of the population has two doses of vaccination, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said on Saturday.

• Karnataka on Sunday reported 50,210 new Covid-19 cases, including 26,299 in Bengaluru, recording its highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. The state also registered 19 deaths. The positivity rate in the last 24 hours was 22.77 per cent.

GK –

Which country has organised the ‘Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation’?

[A] India
[B] Malaysia
[C] UK
[D] Sri Lanka

Which Union Ministry launched the “Koyla Darpan” portal?

[A] Ministry of Steel
[B] Ministry of Coal
[C] Ministry of Power
[D] Ministry of Rural Development

The UN General Assembly approves the resolution sponsored by which country, condemning Holocaust denial?

[A] USA
[B] Russia
[C] Israel
[D] India

Ayesha Malik became the first-ever woman judge of the Supreme Court of which country?

[A] Israel
[B] Pakistan
[C] Afghanistan
[D] Bangladesh

Which state government launched the ‘Streetscaping and Beautification of Roads’ project on the lines of European Cities?

[A] Odisha
[B] Telangana
[C] Delhi
[D] Goa

 Today's Event –22nd January 2022

• 1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

• 1808 – The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army's invasion of Portugal two months earlier.

• 1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.

• 1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.

• 1879 – The Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War results in a British defeat.

• 1879 – The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 15 km away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.

• 1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

• 1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

• 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

• 1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.

• 1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

• 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

• 1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.

• 1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• 1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

• 1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.

• 1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

• 1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

• 1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

• 1957 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

• 1963 – The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and West Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.

• 1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.

• 1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.

• 1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.

• 1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.

• 1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

• 1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.

• 1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.

• 1973 – In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante

• 1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.

• 1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.

• 1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

• 1992 – Space Shuttle program: The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

• 1998 – Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir

• 1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

• 2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

• 2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.

• 2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq

• 2009 – President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which is not implemented due to congressional opposition

• 2018 – Minnie Mouse receives her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of her 90th anniversary

National Events-

• India reported 3.37 lakh (3,37,704) new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on Saturday, 9,550 lower than yesterday. With 2.42 lakh (2,42,676 ) recoveries, active cases currently stand at 21,13,365. The total number of Omicron cases rose to 10,050.

• The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to censor future statements likely to be made by actor Kangana Ranaut and clubbing of FIRs against her with the one pending at the Khar police station in Mumbai.

• The proposed common entrance test (CET) for central universities, which the University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to hold from the next academic year, is not likely to have admissions to postgraduate courses under its ambit for now.

• The government’s decision to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate with the flame at the National War Memorial triggered a political furore Friday with the Congress attacking the government, saying it amounts to insulting history and memory of soldiers who died for the country.

• The Jharkhand Police on Friday announced that CPI(Maoist) zonal commander Maharaj Pramanik, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh, has surrendered before it. Police said that this surrender is part of an ‘ongoing effort’ to mainstream the Maoists based on the state’s surrender policy.

International Events-

• The world-famous Carnival festivities in Rio de Janeiro will be held in late April rather than the final weekend of February, as the number of coronavirus cases in Brazil spikes and the omicron variant spreads across the country.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the current world is “much more chaotic, much less predictable” than during the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States, and it’s dangerous because there are no “instruments” to deal with crises.

• The UK Health Security Agency on Friday designated a sub-lineage of the dominant and highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant as a variant under investigation, saying it could have a growth advantage. The BA.2, which does not have the specific mutation seen with Omicron that can help to easily distinguish it from Delta, is being investigated but has not been designated a variant of concern.

• Canada is doing all it can stop people smuggling across the US border after a family of four froze to death in a “mind blowing’ tragedy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.

• The official in charge of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team expressed optimism Friday about the future of the pandemic, saying the nation is “moving toward a time when COVID won’t disrupt our daily lives, where COVID won’t be a constant crisis but something we protect against and treat.”

Job alerts-

• DRDO- Research Centre Imarat Jobs for Apprentice and other posts. Last date 07 February 2022

• Chaudhary Bansi Lal University Jobs for Professor and other posts. Last date 08 February 2022

• NHM Pune Jobs for Medical Officer, ANM, Staff Nurse and other posts. Last date 03 February 2022

Sports-

• Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios said a coach and trainer of world number one doubles pair Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic had threatened to fight after their doubles match at the Australian Open on Friday.

• It was raining sixes and fours on a severely windy and cold evening as Asia Lions scripted a stunning six-wicket win over World Giants to return to winning ways in the Legends League Cricket at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground.

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is gearing up for the mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 as 1214 players have registered for it. BCCI secretary Jay Shah, in an official press note, shared that the IPL Player Registration closed on January 20th 2022. “Total of 1,214 players (896 Indian and 318 overseas players) have signed up to be part of the IPL 2022 Player Auction,” the release said.

• Simona Halep continued her rampaging start to the season with a 6-2 6-1 demolition of Montenegrin trailblazer Danka Kovinic to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday. The 14th seeded Romanian fired up on a baking hot day at John Cain Arena to completely overpower Kovinic, who had dumped U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu out in her previous match, becoming her nation’s first player to reach the third round of a Grand Slam singles tournament.

• BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has denied that there was any plan to show-cause of Virat Kohli for his comment on captaincy issue ahead of the Indian team’s tour of South Africa. “Not true at all,” Ganguly told

Technology-

• Instagram recently began testing paid subscriptions with a few content creators and influencers in the US, allowing them to charge their followers a monthly fee in exchange for exclusive content, live videos, stories, and a purple badge next to their username to show they are subscribed when they interact with the creator. While the paid subscriptions feature is only available to a few content creators in the US, the feature has now been spotted in India with pricing tiers to subscribe to some content creators in local currency.

• Samsung has begun taking pre-orders for the upcoming Galaxy S22 smartphone series, ahead of the launch of the smartphones. The South Korean manufacturer is set to launch Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra at the Galaxy Unpacked event that is scheduled to take place next month. Samsung is now allowing customers in the US to pre-order the next Samsung flagship smartphone and the upcoming Galaxy Tab S8, even before the company announces the specifications and features for these devices.

• Wordle has taken the Internet by storm, presenting a pleasant-yet-formidable daily challenge for people forced inside their homes across the world due to the ongoing coronavirus-induced pandemic. For those unaware, Wordle is a free-to-play game where you need to guess a secret five-letter word in no more than six tries. It can only be played on a dedicated website, and you don't need to log in or register to play. Owing to the open access and the simplicity of the game, Wordle has become an instant hit among netizens. So much so that even Google has come up with an Easter egg on its search page. 

• Authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China's military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party, at some of the world's most sensitive spots.

• Elon Musk doesn't appear to be amused with Twitter's move to let users have verified non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as profile pictures. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO called the integration “annoying” and suggested Twitter was wasting engineering resources on this effort instead of trying to curb spam activity on the platform. Twitter recently began rolling out NFT features for its users, initially allowing its Twitter Blue subscribers on iOS to use NFTs as their profile pictures. The latest option is slightly different from the usual round-type display picture on Twitter. This one has a hexagonal shape.

Economy –

• One of India’s largest thermal power producers, state-owned NTPC has floated tenders to procure over 14 million tonnes of imported coal despite elevated international prices as producers expect a potential shortage of domestic coal in the summer. Thermal power producers have consistently raised the issue of uncertainty of delivery of coal and are unlikely to be able to build up stocks to normative levels by March according to government officials.

• COMMERCE MINISTER Piyush Goyal on Friday told the industry that as free trade agreements (FTAs) are a two-way traffic, Indian consumers should not be forced to buy expensive domestic products in areas where other countries have a comparative advantage.

• Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in total from various investors during the last year while as many as 42 new startups crossed the valuation of $1 billion, making them unicorns, a report by industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) showed.

• Upholding the Gujarat tax department’s levy of Rs 480 crore purchase tax on ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (erstwhile Essar Steel),the Supreme Court on Friday held that the company was not entitled to any exemption from payment of the tax as it violated the 1992 incentive policy.

• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL),India’s largest company in terms of market valuation, has reported a 37.9 per cent jump in net profit (after exceptional items) for the quarter ended December 2021 at Rs 20,539 crore as against Rs 14,894 crore in the same period of last year.

Local –

• The pace of precautionary doses being administered in Delhi has dropped significantly as just 10,862 people were inoculated on Friday, taking the week’s average to 14,348 doses, compared to 21,016 shots the previous week, data from the CoWIN portal revealed.

• Taking a further dip in Covid cases, Mumbai recorded 3,568 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths on Saturday. 84 per cent of the people were asymptomatic.

• IN A unique move aimed at encouraging people to shun vaccine hesitancy and clear their dues at the same time, the South Dum Dum Municipality in North Kolkata has announced a 25 per cent discount on pending property taxes for residents who are fully vaccinated.

• The construction of the long-pending Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) extension project from Velachery to St Thomas Mount stations is on the verge of completion and is likely to be finished by July 2022, according to officials of the Southern Railways.

• Karnataka has conducted more than six crore Covid-19 tests since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. State Health and Family Welfare Minister K Sudhakar said Karnataka crossed the milestone on Saturday, becoming only the third state in the country to do so.

Person in News –

• Former India footballer and coach Subhash Bhowmik passed away on Saturday morning after undergoing diabetes and kidney related treatment at a private hospital in Ekbalpur, South Kolkata for the past two weeks. He was 72.

GK –

‘I4F Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund’ is a collaboration between India and which country?

[A] Indonesia
[B] Israel
[C] Germany
[D] France

Which country has inaugurated the ‘India-assisted social housing units project’?

[A] Madagascar
[B] Mauritius
[C] Maldives
[D] Myanmar

Which Indian state has launched the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the state and decided to set up ‘Infrastructure Financing Authority’?

[A] Goa
[B] Assam
[C] Arunachal Pradesh
[D] Chhattisgarh

Which Union Ministry released revised ‘Rural Area Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (RADPFI) Guidelines’?

[A] Ministry of Rural Development
[B] Ministry of Panchayati Raj
[C] Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

[D] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Which institution released the ‘Climate of India during 2021’ Report?

[A] NABARD
[B] India Meteorological Department
[C] NITI Aayog
[D] Environment Ministry

 Today's Event – 21s January 2022

• 1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.

• 1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

• 1854 – The RMS Tayleur sinks off Lambay Island on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia with great loss of life

• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

• 1893 – The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.

• 1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.

• 1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

• 1915 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit.

• 1919 – A revolutionary Irish parliament is founded and declares the independence of the Irish Republic. One of the first engagements of the Irish War of Independence takes place.

• 1925 – Albania declares itself a republic.

• 1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.

• 1932 – Finland and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty.

• 1948 – The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Québec Flag Day.

• 1950 – American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

• 1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

• 1960 – Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

• 1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica airport, killing 37 people.

• 1971 – The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.

• 1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

• 1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.

• 1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.

• 2000 – Ecuador: After the Ecuadorian Congress is seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutiérrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas depose President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez is later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigns and allows Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad.

• 2003 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless

• 2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.

• 2005 – In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

• 2009 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow.

• 2011 – Anti-government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Four people lose their lives from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister's office

• 2018 – Rocket Lab's Electron becomes the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine and deploys three CubeSats.

National Events-

• After four Indian nationals died in what seemed to be a case of trying to enter the US illegally from Canada, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he was shocked to hear about the incident. There was no official word from the Ministry of External Affairs about the incident.

• Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday gave consent to a Mumbai-based activist to initiate criminal contempt-of-court proceedings against Yati Narsinghanand for his remarks about the Supreme Court and the Constitution, saying they were “a direct attempt to lower the authority of the Supreme Court in the minds of the general public”.

• A war of words has broken out among war veterans after the government announced that the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate would be extinguished and merged with the flame at the National War Memorial. Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur, former Additional Director General of The Centre for Air Power Studies, tagged the Prime Minister’s Office in a tweet:: “Sir, the eternal flame at #IndiaGate is part of India’s psyche. You, I & r generation grew up saluting our brave jawans there. While NationalWarMemorial is great, the memories of #AmarJawanJyoti are indelible. Request rescind decision.”

• Acting upon a public interest litigation, the Kerala High Court on Friday banned conduct of all events and functions in Kasaragod which have more than 50 persons attending. The high court directive is a setback for ruling CPI(M),which began its Kasaragod district conference with 200-odd delegates and scores of volunteers.

• Ahead of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his statue will be installed at India Gate to honour his contribution to the independence movement. Until the installation is completed, a hologram of Netaji will be projected at the site of the statue, the prime minister said. “I will unveil the hologram statue on 23rd January, Netaji’s birth anniversary,” he tweeted.

International Events-

• As he starts his second term as UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres said Thursday the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions that have sparked conflicts everywhere — but unlike US President Joe Biden he thinks Russia will not invade Ukraine.

• Four Belarusian government officials have been charged in the United States with aircraft piracy for diverting a Ryanair flight last May to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist who was on board, US prosecutors said on Thursday.

• Top American lawmakers have urged the Joe Biden administration to initiate a litigation process at the World Trade Organisation against India subsidising its farmers over half of the value of production for wheat.

• Deep in the South Pacific, scientists have explored a rare stretch of pristine corals shaped like roses off the coast of Tahiti. The reef is thought to be one of the largest found at such depths and seems untouched by climate change or human activities.

• Scientists in Scotland have developed a test that uses X-ray technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect coronavirus disease (Covid-19) within minutes.

Job alerts-

• Educational Consultants India Limited Jobs for and other posts. Last date 07 February 2022

• Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Jobs for Staff Nurse and other posts. Last date 21 February 2022

• Northern Railway Jobs for Senior Resident and other posts. Last date 04 February 2022

• DHS Coimbatore Jobs for Lab Technician, Driver and other posts. Last date 27 January 2022

• Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Jobs for Senior Section Engineer, Junior Engineer and other posts. Last date 14 February 2022

Sports-

• Jamaican cricketer Andre Russell was dismissed in an unusual manner on Friday in a Bangladesh Premier League match between Khulna Tigers and Minister Group Dhaka.

• Sixth seed Rafa Nadal dropped his first set at this year’s Australian Open but still powered through to the fourth round with a 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-1 defeat of Karen Khachanov on Friday.

• Two-time defending champions Japan brushed aside Myanmar 5-0 in their opening game at the Women’s Asian Cup in Pune on Friday while joint-favourites Australia thrashed Indonesia 18-0

• Sixteen members of the senior men’s hockey team were among the 33 COVID-19 cases detected on Friday at the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence. The positive cases came after 128 tests were conducted at the high-profile centre, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said.

• Defending champion Naomi Osaka was knocked out of the Australian Open after losing to Amanda Anisimova 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the third round.

Technology-

• Microsoft recently announced that it will be acquiring Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (roughly Rs. 5,10,990 crore). The wheels have been set in motion, and the deal is expected to close in fiscal year 2023. Activision Blizzard currently has famous titles like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch under its belt. However, one of its most notable franchises is Call of Duty. This acquisition has cast some clouds over the multi-platform nature of the Call of Duty games. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has mentioned in a recent tweet that they have been in talks with leaders at Sony to address these concerns.

• Snap is speeding up its global expansion in countries from Mexico to Japan through tie-ups with wireless carriers and highlighting its popular augmented reality features, the company told Reuters. The parent company of the Snapchat photo messaging app is leaning on its relative safety during a period when social media platforms such as Meta's Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok are being scrutinized worldwide over harmful content, lax privacy and cybersecurity protections, which has led to outright bans of the services in some countries.

• Sony Group will likely add new technology partners to its electric vehicle (EV) project to help it forge a mobility business to transform cars from transportation machines to entertainment spaces, a Sony executive told Reuters.

• Lithium is in hot demand due to rapidly growing production of electric vehicles that use lithium-ion batteries, but there is a global supply shortage of the metal, with western countries racing to bring on new mines to compete with China.

• Twitter Flock could be the final version of the ‘Trusted Friends' feature that the microblogging network announced as a concept in July last year. It appears to allow users to have up to 150 people in a group who all will be able to see their tweets and respond to them privately. A teardown of a recent Twitter for Android beta app has also included the code to suggest the Flock feature. Twitter may aim to offer an experience similar to Instagram's ‘Close Friends' by offering Flock on its platform. The Instagram feature allows users to share their Stories to a certain group of people instead of making them public.

Economy –

• Reliance Industries (RIL),the country’s largest corporate in terms of market capitalisation, reported a 41.58 per cent year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 18,549 crore for the December quarter (Q3).

• The growing popularity of digital banks proves that it intuitively caters to customers’ requirements, allowing them to transact in seconds and focus on other areas of their lives.

• Cryptocurrencies sank Friday, taking Bitcoin to the lowest level in more than five months as risk aversion again swept across global markets. The largest cryptocurrency dropped as much as 7.4% to $38,261, while second-ranked Ether slid below $3,000. Digital tokens overall have shed some $1 trillion in value since a November peak, according to CoinMarketCap data.

• The S&P BSE Sensex fell 427.44 points (0.72 per cent) to end at 59,037.18 while the broader Nifty 50 crashed 139.85 points (0.79 per cent) to settle at 17,617.15. Both the indices had opened over a per cent lower earlier in the day and had fallen around 1.5 per cent in the intraday trade.

• The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai as chairman of Unity Small Finance Bank. Rai, after his retirement as the CAG, headed the Banks Board Bureau, the body that advises the government on top-level appointments at public sector lenders and ways to address bad loans, as its chairman, Unity Small Finance Bank said in a statement.

Local –

• Gurgaon on Friday reported three deaths of Covid positive patients including a four-year-old girl, who was suffering from blood cancer. The district has reported 15 deaths so far this month. Over 3,509 fresh cases of Covid were reported in Gurgaon on Friday, taking the tally of active cases in the district to 25,306.

• The Bombay High Court Friday directed the Centre, Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file affidavits within ten days in reply to the PIL filed by two city-based lawyers seeking framing and swift implementation of a vaccine-booster policy and arranging for booster dose “for every citizen on priority without any delay.”

• West Bengal’s Covid-19 tally of new cases dipped to 10,959 on Thursday and the state recorded 37 more casualties over the past 24 hours, as per a health bulletin issued by the government. Thursday’s figures took the state’s caseload and toll to 19,39,920 and 20,230 respectively.

• Tamil Nadu on Friday recorded 29,870 cases, pushing the caseload to 30,72,666. With 33 deaths, the toll reached 37,145. As many as 21,684 people got discharged, leaving 1,87,358 active infections. A total of 1,54,282 samples were tested on Friday. The positivity rate stood at 19.36 per cent.

• The Karnataka government Friday decided to lift the weekend curfew that was in force in the state to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Person in News –

• Aftab Ahmed Khan, an IPS officer from Maharashtra Police who is credited with starting the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the state and was part of several encounters passed away on Friday at the Kokilaben Dhirubai Ambani hospital following a brief illness. He was 81.

GK –

Which Indian has been roped in as the Ambassador for ICANN-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group?

[A] Vijay Shekhar Sharma
[B] Sachin Bansal
[C] Bhavish Aggarwal
[D] Deepinder Goyal

Dimitar Kovacevski is the new Prime Minister of which country?

[A] Greece
[B] North Macedonia
[C] Egypt
[D] Argentina

Which Indian state has joined hands with the World Food Programme (WFP) to improve food security of farmers?

[A] Tamil Nadu
[B] Odisha
[C] Telangana
[D] Assam

Roberta Metsola is the youngest President of which multilateral institution?

[A] European Parliament
[B] UNESCO
[C] UNICEF
[D] World Bank

Which country initiated the ‘Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure’?

[A] USA
[B] UK
[C] India
[D] China

   Today's Event – 20th January 2022

• 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British during the First Opium War 

• 1877 – The last day of the Constantinople Conference results in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

• 1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

• 1921 – The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die.

• 1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.

• 1929 – The first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, In Old Arizona, is released.

• 1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.

• 1937 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President; it is the first time a Presidential Inauguration takes place on January 20 since the 20th Amendment changed the dates of presidential terms.

• 1949 – Point Four Program, a program for economic aid to poor countries, is announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as president.

• 1954 – In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.

• 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated the 35th President of the United States of America, becoming the youngest man to be elected into that office, and the first Catholic.

• 1972 – Pakistan launches its nuclear weapons program, a few weeks after its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

• 1973 – Amílcar Cabral, leader of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, is assassinated in Conakry, Guinea

• 1981 – Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

• 1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

• 1990 – Protests in Azerbaijan, part of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

• 1991 – Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.

• 1992 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board.

• 2001 – President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent four-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

• 2009 – Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American President of the United States

• 2021 – Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. At 78, he becomes the oldest person ever inaugurated. Kamala Harris becomes the first female Vice President of the United States. -

National Events-

• Asserting that an India whose thinking and approach are new and decisions progressive is emerging, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that a system is being created in which there is no place for any discrimination.

• The Supreme Court on Thursday said that reservation for backward classes is not at odds with merit but furthers its distributive impact while upholding the 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate and postgraduate medical admissions (all-India quota).

• The Indian Army is in touch with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China regarding a youth from Arunachal Pradesh who has been missing since January 18. BJP Parliamentarian from East Arunachal, Tapir Gao, had claimed a 17-year-old boy named Miram Taron was abducted by the PLA on Tuesday.

• A Gurugram court has ordered the registration of an FIR on the charge of medical negligence for leaving a cotton swab in the abdomen of a woman during the birth of her baby after a caesarean. The court of Gurugram chief metropolitan magistrate gave the order on Tuesday on a complaint by the woman’s husband, whose pleas earlier for the registration of a criminal case against Shiva Hospital in sector 12 was turned down by the police.

• India reported more than 3.17 lakh (3,17,532) new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on Thursday, marking a 12 per cent increase in fresh cases since Wednesday. The country’s active caseload currently stands at 19,24,051, while the recovery rate stands at 93.69 per cent.

International Events-

• Sitting across a long table from President Vladimir Putin at a COVID-conscious distance, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran reminded his Russian counterpart Wednesday that Tehran had been “resisting America for 40 years.”

• Former Chancellor Angela Merkel has turned down an offer from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a job, her office and UN sources said on Wednesday. Guterres had offered Merkel the chair of a high-level UN advisory body on global public goods, UN sources said. The advisory board is one of the flagship reform projects that Guterres proposed for the UN in his second term, which started in January.

• Coronavirus infections were soaring in Spain, causing caseloads previously unseen in the pandemic. Intensive care unit beds were filling up in hospitals. But that did not stop Tatjana Baldynjuk and Timur Neverkevits, a couple from Estonia, from buying plane tickets so they could visit the island of Lanzarote, a sunny outcrop dominated by volcanoes on the eastern edge of Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago.

• Newly declassified surveillance footage provides additional insights about the final minutes and aftermath of a botched US drone strike last year in Kabul, Afghanistan, showing how the military made a life-or-death decision based on imagery that was fuzzy, hard to interpret in real time and prone to confirmation bias.

• The US government will make 400 million non-surgical “N95” masks from its strategic national stockpile available for free to the public starting next week, a White House official said, as the Biden administration tries to curb the COVID-19 pandemic

Job alerts-

• Northern Coalfields Limited Jobs for  Operator and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Jobs for Mines Officers, Principal, Professor, Reader and other posts. Last date 16 February 2022

• DHFWS Puducherry Jobs for Specialist, GDMO and other posts. Last date 25 January 2022

• MAHATRANSCO Jobs for Apprentice and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Jobs for Research Associate, Manager, Multi-Tasking Staff and other posts. Last date 26 January 2022

Sports-

• Real Sociedad fans threw objects at the team bus carrying Atletico Madrid players to a Copa del Rey match, causing some damage and upsetting Atletico coach Diego Simeone.

• Former Brazil forward Robinho had a nine-year sentence for the rape of a young woman upheld by Italy’s top court. 

• Young Indian origin golfer Akshay won The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour at Sandals Emerald Bay here.

• South African batter Rassie van der Dussen was satisfied that he could execute his sweep shots to perfection as the Indian spinners were unsettled during his team’s 31-run win over visitors in the first ODI.

• The surprises started early at the Australian Open on Thursday. No 3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza became the highest-seeded player to exit at Melbourne Park, just minutes after No 6 Anett Kontaveit lost.

Technology-

• An asteroid bigger than the tallest building on Earth safely flew by on January 19. The giant rock, named 7482 (1994 PC1),zipped past our planet, nearly 1.93 million kilometres away. That's more than five times the distance between Earth and Moon. It has been classified as "potentially hazardous” because of its size and its regular close visits to our planet, and not because it poses any threat to us. The asteroid came closest to Earth at 3:21am IST.

• Norway's Telenor said on Thursday it had partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to speed up the modernisation of its telecoms systems, boosting the use of cloud technology to offer 5G and low-latency data services to professional customers.

• Google Play Games has been launched in limited beta for Windows PCs and laptops, bringing popular Android gaming titles to larger screens with support for mouse-and-keyboard input. The beta will offer a “seamless” gameplay across smartphones, tablets, and computers, according to the company. The company lists titles such as Asphalt 9: Legends, Magic Rush: Heroes, Rise of Empires: Ice and Fire, and War Planet Online that will be available as part of the limited beta. The new Google Play Games beta is currently live in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Google is allowing users to sign up to be notified when it expands to other regions.

• Crypto.com, an international exchange which rose to prominence thanks to its deals with famous sports teams, was recently attacked by hackers. While the accounts of hundreds of Crypto.com users were compromised, the security breach also cost the company $15 million (roughly Rs. 110 crore) in Ether tokens that have been stolen. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek confirmed the attack while claiming that “no customer funds were lost” in this hack attack. In a Twitter thread, Marszalek has shared a summary of how events transpired.

• Disruption to US-bound air travel caused by the rollout of 5G services in the United States eased on Wednesday as authorities approved more flights, but a top airline warned "irresponsible" regulatory confusion would be felt internationally for days.

Economy –

• The RBI’s Digital Payment Index, which shows the deepening of payments through digital modes in India, rose by 39.64 per cent to 304.06 in September 2021 against 217.74 in the year-ago month.

• In a move that will further boost the business of foreign reinsurers in India, insurance regulator IRDAI has reduced the percentage of obligatory cession from the domestic general insurance industry for state-owned GIC Re to four per cent from five per cent.

• Issuing guidelines for the third batch of supplementary demands for grants, the Finance Ministry has asked ministries and departments to restrict their expenses within the revised estimates.

• At 2:41 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 977.66 points (1.63 per cent) lower at 59,121.16 while the Nifty 50 declined 278.35 points (1.55 per cent) to 17,660.05.

• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows to India in 2021 were 26 per cent lower, mainly because large M&A deals recorded in 2020 were not repeated, the UN trade body has said.

Local –

• After a PhD student alleged that a motorist tried to molest her inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus Monday night, the teachers association (JNUTA) has demanded the reinstation of the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH). The PhD student said that the incident had taken place when she was taking a stroll inside the campus around 11.45 pm. An FIR has been registered but no one has been arrested so far.

• Three subscribers of OTT (over-the-top) streaming platform Netflix have been allegedly cheated of nearly Rs 5 lakh in the last two months by cyber fraudsters who sent them phishing links asking them to renew their subscription. The latest victim is a 45-year-old woman from Worli who lodged an FIR with the Worli police station on January 11. She said that she received an email asking her to update her subscription by making a payment. She clicked on a link given to make the payment and shared her credit card details after which two one time passwords (OTPs) were received on her phone. She shared these OTPs with the fraudster after which Rs 2.50 lakh got debited from her account. She called the bank immediately to block her card and approached the police the same day.

• WEST BENGAL on Wednesday reported as many as 11,447 fresh Covid cases, taking the state tally to 19,28,961, according to a state health bulletin.

• Two men, both aged 35, died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank at a house in Chennai’s Varadharajapuram near Tambaram Wednesday, the police said. Their bodies were handed over to their families after a post-mortem and a case was lodged at the Manimangalam police station.

• Karnataka has over 2.6 lakh active Covid-19 patients of whom over 1.8 lakh are in Bengaluru. The data was shared by state Health Minister K Sudhakar. The minister added that the state positivity rate is 18.8%. Meanwhile, CM Basavaraj Bommai, who recently recovered from Covid-19, has hinted that restrictions may be eased in the state soon. He said that a decision regarding this will be made on Friday following a meeting with experts.

GK –

Which country proposed ‘P3 (Pro-Planet People) movement’ during the WEF Davos Agenda 2022?

[A] USA
[B] Russia
[C] India
[D] UK

Senior bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt is the new Chairman & Managing Director of which organisation?

[A] Air India
[B] Life Insurance Corporation
[C] Central Electronics Limited
[D] Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd

Which Union Ministry launched the ‘Climate Hazards and Vulnerability Atlas of India’?

[A] Ministry of Science and Technology
[B] Ministry of Earth Sciences
[C] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
[D] Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Which Tennis star was deported from Australia, after his unvaccinated status?

[A] Rafael Nadal
[B] Novak Djokovic
[C] Roger Federer
[D] Daniil Medvedev

What is the name of the phenomenon that describes record numbers of people leaving their jobs during the Covid pandemic?

[A] Pandemic Quit
[B] The Pandemic Resignation
[C] The Great Resignation
[D] The Pandemic Brunt

Today's Event – 19th January 2022

• 1607 – San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.

• 1639 – Hämeenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) was granted privileges after it separated from the Vanaja parish as its own city in Tavastia. 

• 1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel. 

• 1764 – Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.

• 1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.

• 1795 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, replacing the Dutch Republic.

• 1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

• 1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

• 1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.

• 1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

• 1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey. 

• 1899 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

• 1901 – Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, stricken with paralysis. She dies three days later at the age of 81.

• 1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

• 1917 – Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.

• 1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

• 1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.

• 1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

• 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

• 1953 – Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. 

• 1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

• 1960 – Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenbo?a Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard.

• 1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

• 1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

• 1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

• 1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

• 1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

• 1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

• 1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written.

• 1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

• 1995 – After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued.

• 1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

• 1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

• 1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

• 2007 – Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.

• 2007 – Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.

• 2012 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI

• 2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.

National Events-

• A 45-year-old nursing officer at the government taluk hospital of Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, who had tested positive for Covid-19 Monday, was found dead at her home Tuesday. P S Saritha had been on duty at the Covid care centre for four days from January 8. Monday, she tested positive for Covid-19 and opted for home isolation as there were no major symptoms necessitating hospitalization.

• The Madhya Pradesh government has started the process to replace with Hindi the Urdu, Farsi (Persian) and other non-Hindi words being used by the state police in various proceedings.

• The crime syndicate responsible for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts are enjoying 5-star hospitality in Pakistan and given state protection, Indian envoy at the UN has said, in a veiled reference to the D-company head Dawood Ibrahim.

• India recorded 2,82,970 new Covid-19 cases and 441 related deaths in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Wednesday, data updated by the Union Ministry of Health showed. The daily count is a slight increase from Tuesday’s 2,38,018 cases.

• Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya on Tuesday lost a legal battle to hold on to his plush London home after a British court refused to grant him a stay of enforcement in a long-running dispute with Swiss bank UBS.

International Events-

• 90% of Taiwan’s people trace their roots to mainland China, but more than ever, they are embracing an identity that is distinct from that of their communist-ruled neighbor. Beijing’s strident authoritarianism — and its claim over Taiwan — has only solidified the island’s identity, now central to a dispute that has turned the Taiwan Strait into one of Asia’s biggest potential flashpoints.

• The worst of the coronavirus pandemic-deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly, the head of emergencies at the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.

• Australia’s government will give visa rebates to students and backpackers who want to come to the country, in a bid to get them to fill a record number of job vacancies caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

• A wave of omicron cases may be cresting in the Northeastern United States, but the number of Covid-19 patients is at a record high and climbing, overwhelming hospitals whose staffs have been hollowed out by the coronavirus.

• Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group, said in its report the MY2022 app has seriously flawed encryption that would make users’ sensitive data and any other data communicated through it vulnerable to being hacked. Other important user data on the app wasn’t encrypted at all, the report found.

Job alerts-

• Indian Oil Corporation Limited Jobs for Apprentice and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission Jobs for Medical Officer and other posts. Last date 16 February 2022

• Railtel Corporation of India Limited Jobs for Manager and other posts. Last date 23 February 2022

• Punjab State Power Corporation Limited Jobs for Lineman and other posts. Last date 17 February 2022

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

Sports-

• South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and opted to bat against India in the first One-day International. India handed debut to all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer. Left-arm pacer Marco Jansen, who excelled in the Test series, made his debut for South Africa.

• Defending champion Juventus reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup by beating Sampdoria 4-1 to keep alive at least one chance of winning silverware this season.

• Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi settled for a draw against Russia’s Andrey Esipenko in the fourth round to stay in the lead with three points in the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here.

• Captain Tom Prest struck a run-a-ball 93 before chipping in with three wickets to help the former champions England register a 106-run victory over Canada in a group A league match of the ICC U-19 World Cup here.

• India’s Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin were knocked out of the Australian Open men’s doubles event by wild card pair of Chirstopher Rungkat and Treat Huey here on Wednesday.

Technology-

• Garmin Venu 2 Plus, the new smartwatch from the popular wearables brand, is now official in India. The new Garmin Venu 2 series smartwatch comes with a voice-calling function for letting users make and receive calls directly from their wrist. The smartwatch offers support for voice assistants that allow users to control the device hands-free. Garmin Venu 2 Plus has more than 25 sports apps and has multiple health-tracking features including a Body Battery Energy Monitor, pulse Ox sensor and stress tracking. It has Health Snapshot function as well. The new Garmin smartwatch comes in three different colour options as well.

• With Bitcoin continuing its reign as the king of cryptocurrencies since 2009, more people are getting into its mining process. In a bid to reduce the electricity–consuming process of Bitcoin mining, a town in Georgia ended up taking a rather drastic decision. Residents of Georgia's Svaneti town have reportedly been made to pledge a holy oath against indulging in crypto mining. The decision comes in the backdrop of power crisis impacting the region.

• ExoMars — a joint project of European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia's Roscosmos — has moved a step closer to landing on the Red Planet after it rehearsed how to drive off its Kazachok landing platform on the Martian surface. The simulation involved the UK-built Rosalind Franklin rover making a carefully choreographed move on the Martian soil, in the same way as it would have done after a nerve-wracking descent to the surface of the planet for the first time. The mission now sets its aim to launch by September this year.

• Joining the growing list of Indian states wooing Tesla's billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk to start a manufacturing unit, Karnataka on Tuesday projected itself as the "Electric Vehicle (EV) hub" of India and an ideal destination to set up a plant.

• Elon Musk-founded SpaceX has successfully launched 49 more Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to take the total number to more than 2,000. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US, on January 19. About nine minutes later, the rocket's first stage returned back to Earth for a pin-point touchdown on a SpaceX drone ship called "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

Economy –

• Air India said on Tuesday it will curtail or revise its flights to the US due to deployment of 5G internet there from January 19.

• Bond yields are on the rise ahead of the Union Budget. While the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond closed near the two-year high at 6.63 per cent, showing a jump of 22 basis points in the last one month, yields spiked further at the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) State Development Loan (SDL) auction on Friday.

• Logistics startup Delhivery on Tuesday received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) approval to raise Rs 7,460 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).

• At 10:19 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 216.59 points (0.36 per cent) at 60,538.27, while the Nifty 50 declined 54.45 points (0.30 per cent) to 18,058.60. Earlier in the day, both the indices had opened around 0.5 per cent lower and slipped nearly 1 per cent in the early trade before trimming some losses.

• In about two years of commercial roll out of its fixed-line broadband services, Reliance Jio has toppled 20 -year-old state-run telecom company BSNL as top service provider in the segment. According to a monthly telecom subscribers report released by the telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday, Jio now leads the fixed-line broadband segment with 4.34 million customers.

Local –

• Delhi has administered 1,47,354 precaution doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in 10 days since the vaccination drive was opened for a third dose for healthcare workers, frontline workers, and those above the age of 60 years with comorbidities.

• The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that there has been a gradual decline in Covid-19 cases in areas under its administration.

• West Bengal recorded 10,430 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, an increase of 1,045 infections from Monday, a bulletin issued by the state health department stated. The fresh cases took the state’s tally of cases to 9,17,514.

• Ahead of the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, the Greater Chennai Police has announced traffic diversions in parts of the city on January 20, 22, 24 and 26.

• Recording a massive spike in Covid-19 cases, Karnataka on Tuesday logged 41,457 new infections and 20 deaths. Among the new cases, 25,595 cases are from Bengaluru. With today’s numbers, the state’s positivity rate rose to 22.30 per cent. On Monday, Karnataka had recorded 27,156 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths.

GK –

The bilateral trade between India and China in 2021 ……………. from that of last year (2020).

[A] Increased
[B] Decreased
[C] Remained Same
[D] None of the above

‘Rojgar Mission’ is the recent initiative of which state?

[A] Uttar Pradesh
[B] Chhattisgarh
[C] Punjab
[D] Assam

Pandit Birju Maharaj, who passed away recently, was associated with which dance?

[A] Kathak
[B] Bharatanatyam
[C] Kuchipudi
[D] Mohini Aattam

As per Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV),who can set up a Public Charging Station (PCS)?

[A] DISCOMs
[B] Individuals
[C] Ministry of Power
[D] State Governments

India’s Commemorative postal stamp on Covid-19 vaccination features which vaccine?

[A] Covishield
[B] Covaxin
[C] COVOVAX
[D] ZyCoV-D

 Today's Event – 18th January 2022

• 1670 – Henry Morgan captures Panama.

• 1701 – Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg.

• 1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".

• 1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.

• 1806 – Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.

• 1866 – Wesley College is established in Melbourne, Australia

• 1886 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

• 1896 – An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.

• 1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

• 1913 – First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.

• 1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.

• 1919 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.

• 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

• 1958 – Willie O'Ree, the first Black Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.

• 1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.

• 1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

• 1969 – United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members.

• 1972 – Members of the Mukti Bahini lay down their arms to the government of the newly independent Bangladesh, a month after winning the war against the occupying Pakistan Army.

• 1974 – A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

• 1976 – Lebanese Christian militias kill at least 1,000 in Karantina, Beirut.

• 1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

• 1977 – Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney, killing 83.

• 1977 – SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedi?, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• 1978 – The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.

• 1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges),and earth (cliffs).

• 1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.

• 1988 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 crashes near Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, killing all 98 passengers and 10 crew members

• 1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

• 1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 US states.

• 2002 – The Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.

• 2003 – A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

• 2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France

• 2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.

• 2008 – The Euphronios Krater is unveiled in Rome after being returned to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

National Events-

• Doctors treating patients with coronavirus disease (Covid-19) should avoid prescribing steroids and get them tested for tuberculosis if severe cough persists, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said in its updated set of guidelines.

• The two Indians killed in the suspected drone strike in Abu Dhabi Monday have been identified, informed the Indian Embassy in UAE Tuesday morning. It added that two of the six injured in the attack are also Indians.

• Days ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday carried out searches at 10 places in Ludhiana, Mohali and Pathankot districts in connection with an illegal sand mining case. Among the places searched was the Mohali residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew. The ED is probing a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on an FIR registered in 2018 by the Punjab police against Kudrat Deep Singh, the main accused, who owns a quarry in Nawanshahr, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district.

• The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order winding up Devas (Digitally Enhanced Video and Audio Services) Multimedia Private Limited, which in association with ISRO’s space arm Antrix Corporation aimed to deliver video, multimedia and information services via satellite to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones across India.

• A 15-year-old girl was allegedly abducted and gang-raped by three men in a car while she, along with two other teen girls, were on an early-morning jog in Ranchi on Sunday, police said on Monday. Police said a speeding car started following the three minor girls, and one of them was kidnapped and taken to a deserted spot and gang-raped. The girl was later spotted by a passerby, who informed the police.

International Events-

• Ukraine’s former president and a leading opposition figure, Petro O. Poroshenko, returned Monday to Kyiv, where he faced possible arrest on charges of treason, adding internal political turmoil to the mounting threat of a Russian invasion.

• China announced Monday that its birthrate plummeted for a fifth straight year in 2021, moving the world’s most populous country closer to the potentially seismic moment when its population will begin to shrink and hastening a demographic crisis that could undermine its economy and even its political stability.

• The week before intensive diplomatic meetings began over the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, U.S. and Ukrainian officials watched from afar as Russia began emptying out its embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

• Influenza has returned to Europe at a faster-than-expected rate this winter after almost disappearing last year, raising concerns about a prolonged “twindemic” with COVID-19 amid some doubts about the effectiveness of flu vaccines

• Australia on Tuesday suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic as a fast-moving Omicron outbreak continued to push up hospitalisation rates to record levels, even as daily infections eased slightly. Australia is dealing with its worst COVID-19 outbreak, fuelled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus that has put more people in hospitals and intensive care than at any time during the pandemic.

Job alerts-

• Nainital Bank Jobs for Specialist Officer and other posts. Last date 07 February 2022

• Punjab State Power Corporation Limited Jobs for Lineman and other posts. Last date 17 February 2022

• Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited Jobs for Investigator, Supervisor and other posts. Last date 25 January 2022

• DHFWS North 24 Parganas Jobs for FTMO, Lab Technician, Staff Nurse and other posts. Last date 22 January 2022

• National Institute of Nutrition Jobs for Project Field Worker, Project Technician and other posts. Last date 02 February 2022

Sports-

• World men’s tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic will have to comply with Spanish health rules to be able to travel to Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.

• Fast-rising India pacer Mohammed Siraj considers Virat Kohli his “superhero” and says the batting ace will always remain his skipper despite his captaincy tenure ending in all formats of the game.

• In a video that has gone viral, Australian and English cricketers’ had their post-Ashes party shut down by the police after an alleged noise complaint made in the hotel where the visiting team was staying in Hobart.

• Daniil Medvedev launched his bid for a maiden Australian Open title on Tuesday with a 6-1 6-4 7-6(3) romp over Swiss battler Henri Laaksonen.

• Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi prevailed over Russia’s Daniil Dubov in the third round to become the sole leader with 2.5 points in the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament.

Technology-

• Kodak has launched magnetic wireless chargers in India that are compatible with Apple iPhone 12 and Apple iPhone 13 series. While one is for use in the car, the other one is for juicing up an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 series handset at home or office. Both of the chargers offer 15W maximum charging power. Kodak announced a licensing agreement with Bengaluru-based Georgian Enterprises to sell such consumer electronics in the Indian market. The US-based photography company also said that it will launch more exciting products in future.

• Apple's upcoming mixed reality headset has hit delays that could push the launch of the headset to the end of 2022 or 2023, according to a new report. The Cupertino company has been working on an augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/ VR) headset that is said to be in development since 2015, and the company is reportedly weighing a price point higher than $2,000 (roughly Rs. 1,49,000). The company is reportedly adding in support for the device in iOS 16, which is expected to be unveiled later this year.

• Google recently announced the expansion of Fast Pair to Windows PCs to let users easily set up Bluetooth accessories, sync text messages, and share files using the Nearby Share service. The tech giant is now reportedly working on a new addition for its Nearby Share feature. The new tool is said to be called Self Share, and as the name suggests will let users to easily transfer files to themselves across their own devices. Using Self Share, you can send files to yourself without the use of email or cloud drives. The feature is likely to use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi for transferring data to Chrome OS or Android devices.

• Hong Kong-based crypto wallet provider and trading platform crypto.com has decided to expand the size of its investment arm, called Crypto.com Capital, to $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,722 crore) to help fund web3 startups. The expansion arrives just days after cryptocurrency firm FTX announced the launch of a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 14,888.6 crore) venture capital fund called FTX Ventures to focus on advancing blockchain and Web3 technology alongside investments in “social, gaming, fintech, software, and healthcare.” Similar expansions have also been made by rival companies like Binance and Coinbase.

• Following the birth of Bitcoin in 2009, an estimated 7,000 more cryptocurrencies have been launched that are presently in circulation. While Bitcoin remains the reigning king of the crypto world, some other cryptocurrencies have also emerged as popular choices for transactions in recent times. Cryptocurrencies other than the Bitcoin are termed as “altcoins”. Ether, Litecoin, and Dash are among the altcoins that are rapidly gaining popularity among investors.

Economy –

• India’s policy of keeping high tariff on import of electronic components to protect the domestic industries is proving counterproductive to its plans such as Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and making the Indian electronics manufacturing industry uncompetitive compared to other electronics manufacturing nations, the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said in a report.

• While the recovery that has been underway in the Indian economy is encountering headwinds from a rapid surge in Covid cases in a third wave marked by the rapid transmissibility of the Omicron variant, expectations that the variant may turn out to be more of a “flash flood than a wave” have brightened near-term prospects, the RBI has said.

• Ahead of the Union Budget, banks have pushed for lowering fixed deposit (FD) tenure from five years to three years for availing tax benefits as applicable in the case of mutual fund products like equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS).

• At 3:01 pm, the Nifty 50 index was down 181.30 points (0.99 per cent) at 18,126.80, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 516.84 points (0.84 per cent) higher at 60,792.07.

• Markets regulator Sebi is examining introducing an alternate dispute resolution mechanism, with an aim to provide an effective system for settling disputes between investors and regulated entities, a release said on Monday.

Local –

• Till last week the Defence Ministry had been preparing to accommodate around 24,000 people. But as the number of Covid cases is on the rise, and with the country in the middle of the third wave, the final number is likely to be between 5,000 to 8,000 guests this year, senior Defence Ministry officials said on Tuesday.

• Researchers at the IDC School of Design at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have developed a portable patient chair for dental camps. The objective is to provide a substitute for the dental clinic chair, one that can be taken to camps held in rural parts of the country.

• The West Bengal State Election Commission is mulling conducting civic elections for the remaining municipalities in the state on February 27.

• Tamil Nadu reported 23,443 fresh Covid-19 cases on Monday, pushing the caseload up to 29,63,366. It also logged 20 more deaths, which took the toll up to 37,009.

• Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka said the state government has decided not to enforce a lockdown in spite of a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Person in News –

• Noted cartoonist and Padma Shri awardee, Narayan Debnath, died Tuesday morning in Kolkata after a prolonged illness. He was 96

• Eminent theatre personality Shaoli Mitra died at her residence after prolonged illness in Kolkata on Sunday. She was 73.

GK –

Which Indian state constituted the Justice Hema Commission ?

[A] Tamil Nadu
[B] Kerala
[C] West Bengal
[D] Gujarat

‘Xylophaga nandani’, which was recently identified, is a species of ………….

[A] Mollusc
[B] Fish
[C] Turtle
[D] Snake

‘Magh Mela-2022’ is an annual religious fair held in which state?

[A] Uttar Pradesh
[B] Bihar
[C] Gujarat
[D] West Bengal

Hydrophis gracilis, a rare sea snake, has been spotted in which state/UT?

[A] Kerala
[B] Maharashtra
[C] Goa
[D] Andhra Pradesh

Which technology platform launched the ‘JagrukVoter’ campaign?

[A] Facebook
[B] Microsoft
[C] Twitter
[D] Google

Today's Event – 31st December 2021

• 1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences, seeing the first use of the naval line of battle.

• 1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.

• 1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

• 1757 – Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.

• 1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.

• 1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time.

• 1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.

• 1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

• 1853 – A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England.

• 1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of the Province of Canada.

• 1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, files for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He was granted the patent in 1879.

• 1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

• 1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906 

• 1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.

• 1942 – USS Essex, first aircraft carrier of a 24-ship class, is commissioned.

• 1951 – Cold War: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Western Europe.

• 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

• 1956 – The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest.

• 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.

• 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

• 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.

• 1968 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.

• 1968 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes near Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board

• 1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.

• 1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

• 1983 – Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner.

• 1983 – In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic.

• 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

• 1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

• 1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.

• 1994 – The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny.

• 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.

• 1999 – The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.

• 1999 – The U.S. government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

• 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.

• 2000 – The last day of the 20th Century and 2nd Millennium.

• 2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).

• 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.

• 2010 – Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages.

• 2011 – Samoa and Tokelau skip the day of December 30, 2011 as they jump to the other side of the International Date Line, changing their time zones.[9]

• 2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.

• 2014 – A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others.

• 2015 – A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.

• 2018 – Thirty-nine people are killed after a ten-story building collapses in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, Russia

• 2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• 2020 – The World Health Organization's issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

National Events- 

•  The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Friday extended the validity of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of NGOs expiring between September 29, 2020 and March 31, 2022 till March 31, 2022. Earlier, an extension was granted only till December 31 this year.

•  Restrictions have been clamped across India on New Year celebrations. While festivities have been completely banned in states like Delhi and Karnataka, others have brought in strict restrictions, such as curfews, to control the spread of the virus. Internationally, too, celebrations in Italy, Paris and London’s Trafalgar Square have been called off, among other destinations.

•  With 16,764 fresh cases of Covid-19 recorded on Thursday, India’s active caseload has risen to 91,361. The country witnessed its sharpest single-day spike in new cases of the Omicron variant, with 309 such cases being added to the overall caseload.

•  Parts of Northwest India are in for a chilly New Year as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a cold to severe cold wave over the region from Friday, December 31 to Monday, January 3.

• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case against Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) operative based in Germany, Jaswinder Singh Multani. He is reported to have been detained in Germany by the authorities there.

International Events- 

• In a sprawling settlement of mud brick huts in western Afghanistan housing people displaced by drought and war, a woman is fighting to save her daughter. Aziz Gul’s husband sold their 10-year-old into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children. Otherwise, he told her, they would all starve. He had to sacrifice one to save the rest. 

•  Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was released from prison on Friday nearly five years after being convicted of corruption, fuelling debate over whether she would play any role ahead of the March presidential election.

•  Former Republican President Donald Trump’s recent comments touting Covid-19 vaccines as safe and a major achievement of his presidency have roiled extreme anti-vaxers, which include many of his ardent supporters.

•  Global coronavirus infections hit a record high over the past seven-day period. With numerous countries registering all-time highs, authorities in many places have called off celebrations to welcome in 2022, fearful that the all-conquering Omicron variant will take advantage of gatherings to spread even faster.

• China is on high alert against Covid-19 as the New Year holiday looms, with the city of Xi’an under lockdown while several New Year’s Eve events in other cities have been cancelled and some provinces urged restraint in travel during the festive season.

Job alerts-

• NHM Chandigarh Jobs for Surgeon and other posts. Last date 12 January 2022

• Uttarakhand Subordinate Service Selection Commission Jobs for Statistical Assistant, Research Officer and other posts. Last date 12 February 2022

• Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital Jobs for Junior Resident and other posts. Last date 17 January 2022

• Uttar Dinajpur District Jobs for Asha and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• National Technical Research Organization Jobs for Senior Aviator, Deputy Chief Aviator and other posts. Last date 23 January 2022

Sports-

•  Romelu Lukaku’s comments on being dissatisfied with life at Chelsea are “unhelpful” and will attract unnecessary attention, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said on Friday.

•  India wrapped up a memorable 2021 in style by bringing down South Africa’s citadel, the Supersport Park, as they handed the Proteas a 113-run loss in the first Test of the three-match series.

•  BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has been discharged from the hospital on Friday, where he was admitted earlier this week after his RT-PCR test came positive.

•  Former India and South Africa coach Gary Kirsten has expressed interest in coaching England’s Test side, saying it would be a “lovely project ” to revive the fortunes of Joe Root and his men.

• India’s top player Koneru Humpy finished fifth in the women’s event of the FIDE World Blitz championship while her compatriot R Vaishali, who was in second spot after nine rounds, slipped to 14th here.

Awards and honours-

Technology-

• Vi (Vodafone Idea) has reintroduced the Rs. 601 prepaid recharge plan with a reduced validity of 28 days. The plan previously used to be valid for a total of 56 days. Benefits bundled with the Rs. 601 Vi prepaid plan remain unchanged. The recharge plan offers daily 4G data allocation, unlimited voice calls, and SMS messages per day. It also offers one year of access to Disney+ Hotstar Mobile that gives online streaming of exclusive TV shows, live sports, and Hollywood movies.

•  Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro December 2021 update has been paused due to reports of call drops, the company has said. The technology giant has said that they have identified a fix that will roll out in a software update by late January. Google's newest phones have been at the centre of controversy because of various glitches on the software front. Since the phones' launch in October, various users of the newest Pixel smartphones have been complaining of issues

•  The Korean government is planning to develop a technology for Korea's first artificial sun KSTAR to maintain 100 million degrees for 300 seconds by 2026. The 300 seconds is the minimum time required for the commercialisation of nuclear fusion technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on December 30 that it held the 16th National Fusion Committee at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy and finalise the '4th basic plan of nuclear fusion energy development (2022-2026)'. The science ministry sets goals and directions of its policies for nuclear fusion energy development every 5 years.

•  Samsung Galaxy S21 FE cases have been accidentally revealed by the South Korean company ahead of its official announcement. The company appears to have a total of 15 cases in plans for the Galaxy S21 FE that will be available in a variety of colour options. In addition to the traditional Silicone cases, the phone may have options such as Smart Clear View and Thin Strap. The colour options of the cases appear to be aligning with the shades of the Galaxy S21 FE.

• The price of Bitcoin hit record highs in 2021 thanks to support from traditional finance, but cryptocurrency specialists are struggling to predict next year's outcome for the volatile sector.

Economy – 

• The GST Council on Friday decided to defer the hike in the rate of goods and services tax (GST) on textiles from 5 per cent to 12 per cent, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced. 

•  The Indian stock markets have witnessed a record bull run in 2021. Not only the benchmark indices hit record highs this year, the midcap and smallcap indices too put up a stellar show during the calendar giving returns of nearly 61 per cent.

•  Shares of cash management company CMS Info Systems had a tepid start and got listed at a premium of nearly 2 per cent from their issue price in the stock exchanges today.

•  The S&P BSE Sensex jumped 364.54 points to 58,158.86 in opening deals while the Nifty 50 surged 104.05 points to 17,308.00.

• Clarifying that tax liabilities from the recent cash seizure from searches conducted at the residential and business premises of Uttar Pradesh-based businessman Peeyush Jain are yet to be determined, GST authorities on Thursday said no deposit of tax dues has been made so far.

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

• The Delhi Government has ordered the closure of three markets in North East Delhi’s Seelampur area till December 31 or until further orders for violating Covid-19 norms. 

•  Genome sequencing at the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Mumbai, has detected the new variant Omicron in nearly one-third samples it tested – in an indication of community transmission in the state. This comes a day after the Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) detected Omicron in 38 of its samples from Mumbai and Pune in their community surveillance

•  With a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in the state capital, elaborate arrangements have been made at and around the Park Street for regulation of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic for the New Year and New Year’s eve, Kolkata Police said on Thursday.

•  Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Chennai over the past couple of weeks, the Centre on Thursday asked Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan to enhance testing and contact tracing and strengthen hospital-level preparedness in the state.

• Continuing to see a surge in the spread of Covid-19 infections, Bengaluru Urban logged 565 fresh cases out of 707 cases in Karnataka. The active case tally in the state stood at 8223.

Person in News – 

•  TBA

GK – 

‘Narcotics Control Bureau’ functions under the aegis of which Union Ministry?

[A] Union Finance Ministry
[B] Union Home Ministry
[C] Union External Affairs Ministry
[D] Union Defence Ministry

Which state is the first state in India to observe Sahibzada Diwas?

[A] Uttar Pradesh
[B] Madhya Pradesh
[C] Assam
[D] Nagaland

What is ‘Frozen tardigrade’, that was seen in the news?

[A] Microscopic multicellular organisms
[B] Food Processing Unit
[C] Nano Preservative
[D] Rocket Fuel

Where is Indravati Tiger Reserve located?

[A] Karnataka
[B] Chhattisgarh
[C] Bihar
[D] West Bengal

Who was Edward O Wilson, who has been in news recently?

[A] Biologist
[B] Cosmonaut
[C] Cricketer
[D] Dancer

Today's Event – 30th December 2021

• 1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.

• 1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

• 1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.

• 1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

• 1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

• 1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, the United States Army and Lakota warriors face off in the Drexel Mission Fight

• 1896 – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.

• 1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5.

• 1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

• 1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.

• 1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.

• 1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India (later Dhaka, Bangladesh).

• 1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.

• 1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita.

• 1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.

• 1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

• 1935 – The Italian Air Force bombs a Swedish Red Cross hospital during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

• 1936 – The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors.

• 1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

• 1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

• 1952 – An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber crashes in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure, killing three crew members and a civilian on the ground.[3]

• 1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension.

• 1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker II ends.

• 1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland.

• 1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.

• 1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed.

• 2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194.

• 2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.

• 2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed.

• 2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.

• 2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

• 2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.

• 2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.

• 2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

National Events- 

•  “As of now Covid cases are under control. We’ll review the situation in the first week of January,” Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur told. He was here to attend the Chief Ministers’ pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

•  The government is in the process of finalising a system to provide ration to all homeless people who do not have ration cards, Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Thursday.

•  The Union government has approved additional assistance of more than Rs 3,000 crore to six states this year to cover damages caused by natural disasters, a Home Ministry statement said Thursday.

•  Belonging to Akola in Maharashtra, Kalicharan, who is in his mid-30s, first became known in 2020 after a video of him reciting the Shiv Tandav Strotam went viral. Originally called Abhijit Dhananjay Sarang, Kalicharan reportedly changed his name after he met with an accident while in his teens that badly twisted his leg but left him with only a hairline fracture. He believed it to be the blessing of Goddess Kali, of whom he was a devotee.

• The government on Thursday said that there have been extensive deliberations on whether the precautionary (third) dose of the Covid vaccine should be the same as the first two doses, adding that a decision on the same is expected before doses are administered to healthcare and frontline workers and citizens above 60 years with comorbidities.

International Events- 

•  Tesla Inc is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S electric cars to address rearview camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the U.S. road safety regulator said on Thursday.

•  Thousands of people left messages on the social media account of the late Chinese COVID-19 whistleblower Li Wenliang on the anniversary of the day he learned of possible pneumonia-causing virus cases in Wuhan and shared the information with fellow doctors

• Chinese bishops and religious leaders briefed senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen on President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics” in an unprecedented meeting organised by the mainland’s representative office in the city, according to four clerics. 

• Within weeks, the Omicron variant has fueled thousands of new Covid-19 hospitalizations among US children, raising new concerns about how the many unvaccinated Americans under the age of 18 will fare in the new surge. 

• Today is different, however. This 425th vigil will be the last. Later this month, the Brokdorf nuclear power plant will be shut down as part of Germany’s 2022 nuclear phaseout.

Job alerts-

• AIIMS Gorakhpur Jobs for Professor and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• AIIMS Rishikesh Jobs for Junior Resident and other posts. Last date 07 January 2022

• Raipur District Court Jobs for Stenographer, Peon and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• NHM Satara Jobs for  Medical Officer, Supervisor, Staff Nurse, Lab Technician, Pharmacist and other posts. Last date 10 January 2022

• Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission Jobs for Ayurveda Medical Officer and other posts. Last date 14 February 2022

Sports-

•  South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman, Quinton de Kock, announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect on Thursday. The announcement comes on the backdrop of South Africa’s defeat in the first Test match against India in Centurion, where the visitors won by 113 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

•  The U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy has been postponed due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in India.

•  It’s not only the big-wigs of sport, or the ones who have played for India, that are a muse for biopics. There is another motion picture coming soon, based on the life of Mumbai’s leg-spinner Pravin Tambe.

•  Jammu and Kashmir-based alpine skier Arif Mohammed Khan has become the first Indian athlete to qualify for two different events of the Winter Olympics, set to be held in Beijing from February 4, next year.

• It was U Mumba who came up trumps against Jaipur Pink Panthers in the first match of the day and in the final encounter it was Pawan Sehrawat who led from the front as the Bengaluru Bulls toppled Haryana Steelers by a margin of 42-28.

Awards and honours-

• TBA 

Technology-

•  Food ordering from platforms including Swiggy and Zomato may become costlier soon as they will be required to collect and pay tax on behalf of all restaurants starting January 1, 2022. The new move comes as a result of the update issued by the finance ministry under which food aggregators are directed to pay five percent of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for cooked food orders through their platforms. Experts believe that the update will impact both end consumers and small restaurants. At the same time, platforms including Swiggy and Zomato are also expected to have additional compliance load due to the change in the tax regime.

•  Bitcoin was created in 2009 by an anonymous person pseudo-named Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity still remains a mystery. In a recent interview, Tesla CEO Elon Musk named computer scientist Nick Szabo as the anonymous creator, who could have been the brains behind the birth of the world's first ever cryptocurrency. Musk was being quizzed on Lex Fridman's podcast when he made the statement. Musk also revealed that people often suspect him to be the originator of Bitcoin, a claim which he has denied so far.

•  TikTok is the most downloaded app worldwide with 656 million downloads in 2021, as per a new report. It is followed by other social media apps like Instagram, and Facebook (now Meta) as well as instant messaging platforms WhatsApp and Telegram. Meanwhile, when it comes to category wise distribution, Netflix is the most downloaded entertainment app, Shopee tops shopping apps list kicking Amazon out of top three, Google Maps is first in travel app category, and Spotify is the most preferred music and audio app globally. The list takes into account download numbers from both Apple App Store or Google Play store.

•  Popular Japanese mobile game Elemental Knights Online is planning to release Gensokishi Online "Meta World" — the newest version of the online MMORPG which incorporates elements of play-to-earn (P2E),user-generated non-fungible tokens (NFTs),and the metaverse. Gensokishi Online's “Meta World” metaverse will allow players to purchase land and freely edit their creations, such as buildings and characters. The land, as well as in-game equipment, can be minted as NFTs and sold on different exchanges as it is built on the Polygon blockchain network.

• Polygon, an Ethereum-based network has “silently fixed” a vulnerability that had put its native MATIC tokens worth $24 billion (roughly Rs. 1,78,560) at risk. The issue came to light after a group of ethical hackers informed Immunefi, a bug bounty platform associated with decentralised finance (DeFi). Immunefi hosts the bug bounty for the Polygon network. Despite quick measures to resolve the case, notorious hacker(s) were able to steal 801,601 MATIC tokens, making up for around $2.4 million (roughly Rs. 17.8 crore)

Economy – 

• Airtel Xstream Fiber offers super-fast internet with up to 1Gbps speed, which means a reliable internet connection that allows presentations and calls to run smoothly even when there are multiple smartphones, laptops, smart TVs, etc. using the same WiFi connection. With Airtel Xstream Fiber, you do not have to worry about poor speeds, video calls freezing abruptly or file transfers taking forever, which means fewer missed deadlines and better productivity. 

•  The government has extended by two months till February 28 the deadline for businesses to file GST annual returns for 2020-21 fiscal ended March 2021.

•  The 30-share index ended 12.17 points or 0.02 per cent lower at 57,794.32. Similarly, the broader Nifty fell 9.65 points or 0.06 per cent to 17,203.95

•  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has warned of a rise in bad loans in 2022 and emerging signs of stress in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the microfinance segment, which call for close monitoring of these portfolios.

• One of the major assembling units of iPhone 12, in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, has been placed under ‘probation’ by Apple, following findings that the Foxconn-owned unit had lapses in ensuring quality of living conditions for its employees.

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

•  With the number of Covid cases on the rise in Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) will curtail patients visiting outpatient clinics as well as the number of routine admissions, according to the contingency plan that will come into effect on New Year’s Eve. Both old and new patients with existing appointments will receive consultations, only the numbers will be restricted, as per recommendations of the heads of the departments, according to the plan.

• Maharashtra, meanwhile, reported 5,368 fresh Covid-19 cases, 1,193 recoveries, and 22 deaths, taking active cases to 18,217. The number of Omicron cases rose to 450, with the state recording 198 cases of the variant on Thursday. 

• West Bengal on Wednesday recorded 1,089 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, marking a huge jump from 382 cases on Tuesday. The tally over the last 24 hours also represents the biggest single-day rise in cases over the past one week. 

•  With Covid-19 cases on an ascending graph in a few districts including Chennai, TN Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan advised the public to avoid non-emergency travels and follow safety guidelines issued by the government

• Continuing to see a surge in the spread of Covid-19 infections, Bengaluru Urban logged 565 fresh cases out of 707 cases in Karnataka. The active case tally in the state stood at 8223. The state health department reported 252 recoveries and three deaths in Bengaluru Urban. The state conducted 114,686 tests.

Person in News – 

• TBA 

GK – 

Which country has developed the world’s first ‘AI Prosecutor’?

[A] USA
[B] China
[C] Russia
[D] India

‘Graded Response Action Plan’ (GRAP) is to be implemented by which state, to tackle Covid-19?

[A] Odisha
[B] New Delhi
[C] Telangana
[D] Maharashtra

“India Out” campaign is associated with which country?

[A] Sri Lanka
[B] Myanmar
[C] Maldives
[D] Nepal

Psyche mission, which was seen in the news, is being developed by which country?

[A] USA
[B] UK
[C] Russia
[D] Israel

‘Renukaji Dam project’, seen in the news, is to come up in which Indian state?

[A] Maharashtra
[B] Himachal Pradesh
[C] Gujarat
[D] Bihar

Today's Event – 29th December 2021

• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

• 1812 – USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.

• 1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

• 1845 – The United States annexes the Republic of Texas

• 1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete.

• 1874 – The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain.

• 1876 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.

• 1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.

• 1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia.

• 1911 – Sun Yat-sen becomes the provisional President of the Republic of China; he formally takes office on January 1, 1912.

• 1913 – Cecil B. DeMille starts filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man.

• 1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, is first published as a book by American publishing house B. W. Huebschis after its serialization in The Egoist (1914–15).

• 1930 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.

• 1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

• 1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.

• 1940 – World War II: In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians.

• 1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.

• 1972 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board.

• 1975 – A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 74.

• 1989 – Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia.

• 1989 – The Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87, serving as the apex of the Japanese asset price bubble.

• 1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached.

• 1994 – Turkish Airlines Flight 278 (a Boeing 737-400) crashes on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board.