Today's Event – 2nd January 2022

• 533 – Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy

• 1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution. 

• 1791 – Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, North America, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War. 

• 1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded by a group of six engineers; Thomas Telford would later become its first president.

• 1900 – American statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China. 1920 – The second Palmer Raid, ordered by the US Department of Justice, results in 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested and held without trial.

•  1921 – World premiere of the science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek R.U.R. in theater in Hradec Králové 

• 1900 – Chicago Canal opens.

• 1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtains the conviction of 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.

• 1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. 

• 1954 – India establishes its highest civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan. 

• 1955 – Following the assassination of the Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera, his deputy, José Ramón Guizado, takes power, but is quickly deposed after his involvement in Cantera's death is discovered. 

• 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union. 

• 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory, at the Battle of Ap Bac. 

• 1967 – Ronald Reagan, past movie actor and future President of the United States, is sworn in as Governor of California. 

• 1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football (soccer) match. 

• 1974 – United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.

• 1975 – At the opening of a new railway line, a bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.[26]

• 1975 – The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress. 

• 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, affecting countries from Ireland to Yugoslavia and causing at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage. 

• 1978 – On the orders of the President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, paramilitary forces opened fire on peaceful protesting workers in Multan, Pakistan; it is known as 1978 massacre at Multan Colony Textile Mills. 

• 1981 – One of the largest investigations by a British police force ends when serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 

• 1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon becomes the first African American woman mayor of a major city and first woman Mayor of the District of Columbia. 

• 1993 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Sri Lanka Navy kill 35–100 civilians on the Jaffna Lagoon. 

• 2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth

National Events- 

•  India on Sunday reported a single-day rise of 27,553 Covid-19 cases and 284 deaths. With 9,249 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours, the active caseload stood at 1,22,801

• Among the pilgrims who died in a stampede at Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday was a 30-year-old ayurveda doctor from Gorakhpur who got married only 30 days ago. Arun Pratap Singh, who completed Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree from a college in Khurja in Bulandshahr, was running a hospital in Gorakhpur. 

•  Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday underlined the importance of a change in mental attitudes as the judiciary aligns more with technology and aims to go paperless.

•  A Muslim organisation has approached the Supreme Court seeking action against hate speeches against the community, saying state authorities had failed to act despite complaints. The plea by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, through its president Maulana Syed Mahmood Asad Madani, said “such speeches go beyond the limits of a permitted critical denial of another’s beliefs, and are certainly likely to incite religious intolerance…”.

• AS the active Covid case load nationwide crossed 1 lakh Saturday, the registration for vaccination for children between 15 and 18 years, a crucial milestone in expanding immunity beyond adults, got under way.

International Events- 

• The United States on Saturday cut Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from access to a duty-free trade program, following through on President Joe Biden’s threat to do so over alleged human rights violations and recent coups. 

•  Israel’s military said early Sunday it launched strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip, a day after rockets were fired from the Hamas-ruled territory.

•  The British government has asked public sector managers to test their contingency plans against a worst-case scenario of 25% staff absence as part of efforts to minimise disruption from the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.With daily infection numbers at a record high and people who test positive required to self-isolate for at least seven days, the government expects businesses and public services to face disruption in the coming weeks, it said in a statement.

• French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Sunday the isolation period for fully vaccinated people who test positive for COVID-19 would be cut to seven days from 10 days. 

• President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “our moral compass and national conscience” as South Africa bade farewell at a state funeral on Saturday to a hero of the struggle against apartheid.

Job alerts-

• National Mineral Development Corporation Jobs for Apprentice and other posts. Last date 25 January 2022

• Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission Jobs for Naib Tehsildar and other posts. Last date 27 January 2022

Sports-

• Brock Lesnar won the WWE Championship on Day 1, WWE’s first pay-per-view (PPV) of 2022 which was held at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The event’s title alluded to its New Year’s scheduling and is WWE’s first PPV to have the New Year’s theme since New Year’s Revolution in 2007. 

•  Arsenal fans hurled plastic bottles and toilet rolls at City’s celebrating players after Rodri scored a stoppage-time winner at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday as temperatures reached 16.2 degrees Celsius (61.16 degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital.

•  BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had tested positive for the delta plus variant of COVID-19 but was discharged after four days of hospitalisation as the infection was not severe and could be managed in home isolation, a hospital official said on Saturday.

•  Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp will miss the Premier League match at Chelsea on Sunday after what the club called a suspected positive coronavirus test.

• India’s fastest Under-23 sprinter Taranjeet Kaur of Delhi has failed an in-competition dope test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency, the source said on Saturday.

Economy – 

• Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collections in December (for sales in November) rose 13 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 1.29 lakh crore, data released by the Finance Ministry on Saturday showed. 

•  Vistara on Saturday said that Vinod Kannan took over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the airline on Saturday. According to a statement by the carrier, Kannan replaced Leslie Thng who was the CEO from July 16, 2017 to December 31, 2021.

•  Supply side constraints due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage impacted auto sales of top vehicle manufacturers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, which saw a double-digit decline in wholesale despatches during December 2021, the fourth month in a row.

•  The nation’s power consumption recorded at 4.5 per cent rise in December at 110.34 billion units (BU),over the year-ago month, as per Power Ministry data. In December 2020, consumption was 105.62 BU, against 101.08 BU in December 2019.

• Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Saturday said it will raise up to $5 billion in foreign currency-denominated bonds and use the proceeds to retire existing borrowings.

Local –

• In a bid to ramp up security at city courts, the Delhi Police, following an audit, has decided to procure 1,055 CCTVs, including 60 pan-tilt-zoom cameras, 56 X-ray baggage scanners, 30 explosive detectors, 28 integrated systems for checking vehicles, and 155 iron barricades 

•  In 2018, Seema Kunchikorne contracted pulmonary multidrug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB). From 65kg, her weight dropped to 45kgs and she slipped into depression. Her husband packed her off to her mother’s house and eventually she was admitted to Sewri TB hospital.

•  With the state capital seeing a major spike in Covid-19 cases, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has identified 11 micro containment zones. According to sources, the process of containment will start on January 3

•  Four workers died and eight sustained injuries in a blast at a firecracker unit in near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday morning, police said.

• Karnataka breached the thousand-mark in the single-day spike in cases as the state Saturday recorded 1,033 fresh Covid cases of which Bengaluru Urban reported 810 cases. The total number of active cases in Karnataka now stands at 9,386 of which 7,876 are in Bengaluru. The last time when the state had seen over 1,000 cases in a single day was on September 9 last year when it recorded 1,074 cases.

GK – 

Which Union Ministry is implementing ‘Gram Ujala programme’?

[A] Ministry of Power
[B] Ministry of Rural Development
[C] Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
[D] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Which Asian Country recently unveiled its National Security Policy (NSP)?

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

The latest version of ‘Consumer Protection Act’ was passed in which year?

[A] 2010
[B] 2015
[C] 2019
[D] 2021

Which state’s legislative council has passed a bill to give more powers to Higher Education Minister in the state-run varsities?

[A] Andhra Pradesh
[B] Maharashtra
[C] Telangana
[D] Tamil Nadu

As per the Ratings agency ICRA, what is the estimated real GDP Growth of India in FY 2022?

[A] 12.5 %
[B] 11 %
[C] 10%
[D] 9%