Today's Event – 15th January 2022

• 1759 – The British Museum opens to the public 

• 1818 – A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.

• 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.

• 1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

• 1876 – The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, is published in Paarl.

• 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

• 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball

• 1908 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African American college women.

• 1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 99 m (325 ft).

• 1911 – Palestinian Arabic-language Falastin newspaper founded

• 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.

• 1934 – The 8.0 Mw  Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme),killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.

• 1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

• 1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

• 1947 – The Black Dahlia murder: The dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short was found in Los Angeles.

• 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist government.

• 1962 – The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.

• 1962 – Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.

• 1966 – The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'état.

• 1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

• 1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

• 1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

• 1975 – The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.

• 1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

• 1977 – Linjeflyg Flight 618 crashes in Kälvesta near Stockholm Bromma Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 22 people

• 1981 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation from the Polish trade union Solidarity at the Vatican led by Lech Wałęsa.

• 1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

• 1991 – Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system

• 2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online 

• 2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

• 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take-off. This becomes known as "The Miracle on the Hudson" as all 155 people on board were rescued.

• 2013 – A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others

• 2015 – The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the Swiss franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets. 

• 2016 – The Kenyan Army suffers its worst defeat ever in a battle with Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents in El-Adde, Somalia. An estimated 150 Kenyan soldiers are killed in the battle.

• 2019 – Somali militants attack the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya killing at least 21 people and injuring 19

• 2019 – Theresa May's UK government suffers the biggest government defeat in modern times, when 432 MPs voting against the proposed European Union withdrawal agreement, giving her opponents a majority of 230 

• 2020 – The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirms the first case of COVID-19 in Japan. 

National Events-

• During his speech on the 74th Army Day celebrated on Saturday, Army Chief General MM Naravane said the Army will prevent any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo along the borders, and asserted that the country’s patience stems from self-confidence, but it should not be tested by adversaries.

• A day after a Sessions Court here acquitted Roman Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the charge of raping a nun in a convent in the State, Kerala police on Saturday sought legal advice to move an appeal against the verdict in the High Court.

• Flats and land worth a total of about Rs 410 crore of Mumbai-based realty group Omkar Realtors and that of a company belonging to actor-producer Sachin Joshi have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate under the anti-money laundering law.

• By the BJP’s calculation, this year will see the 2,327th birth anniversary of Emperor Ashoka. As good a time as any, it appears, to find out his “caste”.

• Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty on Saturday said there was no considerable spread of Covid-19 among students in the state and the government’s decision to put on hold the offline classes for students of grade 1 to 9 for two weeks was a precautionary step as the viral infection saw a surge in recent days.

International Events-

• Australia has likely neared the peak of its Omicron wave, authorities said on Saturday, but warned daily infections will linger near record levels for “the next few weeks” after more than 100,000 cases were reported for a fourth straight day.

• The coronavirus pandemic has forced the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of world leaders, business executives and other heavyweights to go virtual for the second year in a row, but organizers still hope to catapult the world into thinking about the future with a scaled-down online version this week.

• Hackers who defaced and interrupted access to numerous Ukrainian government websites on Friday could be setting the stage for more serious cyberattacks that would disrupt the lives of ordinary Ukrainians, experts said.

• Hundreds of students in Boston and Chicago walked out of classes on Friday in protests demanding a switch to remote learning as a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant disrupted efforts at returning to in-person education around the United States.

• Federal safety officials are directing operators of some Boeing planes to adopt extra procedures when landing on wet or snowy runways near impending 5G service because, they say, interference from the wireless networks could mean that the planes need more room to land.

Job alerts-

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

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

• Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti Jobs for Staff Nurse, MTS, Plumber and other posts. Last date 10 February 2022

• Overseas Manpower Corporation Limited Jobs for Consultant Doctor and other posts. Last date 21 January 2022

• Reserve Bank of India Jobs for Manager, Legal Officer and other posts. Last date 04 February 2022

Sports-

• Virat Kohli Saturday stepped down from Test match captaincy. “Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it’s now. There have been many ups and also some downs along the journey but there has never been lack of effort or lack of belief,” Kohli wrote in a statement which he posted on Twitter, taking everyone by surprise. He had asked his teammates and the support staff to keep the news to themselves. 

• Yash Dhull captains the Indian side as they  begin their ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup 2022 campaign in Guyana with a Group B clash against South Africa. Dhull will hope to join an illustrious list of names – including Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli and Prithvi Shaw – to have led India to victory in this competition. The Indians head into the U-19 WC with a victory in the under-19 Asia Cup. India have only once failed to make it past the group stage at an U-19 and enter as the favourites to go all the way.

• Ace goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya on Saturday stepped down as SC East Bengal captain in yet another setback for the red-and-gold brigade who are yet to win a match from 11 outings in the Indian Super League.

• World championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen entered his maiden World Tour Super 500 summit clash on Saturday with a come-from-behind win over Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open, here.

• Alexander Zverev made a spirited defence of embattled world number one Novak Djokovic on Saturday, saying his legacy will not be tarnished by the visa saga which has rocked the tennis world ahead of the Australian Open.

Technology-

• Telangana Industry and Commerce Minister KT Rama Rao has made a strong pitch to Elon Musk for setting up units in India saying he would be "happy to partner Tesla in working through the challenges".

• Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) developer Krafton is rolling out a new update for the popular battle royale game. As announced earlier, the Spider-Man: No Way Home theme is the major highlight of the update. The latest 1.8.0 update brings UI improvements, allowing players to pick a desired match quickly. With the update, players can avail the new Livik: Aftermath theme until February 14. Once the new version is installed, ranked and normal matching will be shown separately. The update adds automatic marking as well. Along with new features, the update is also bundled with some improvements to the existing elements in the game. Some players flagged issues regarding the January update, and the company has offered a fix.

• Multiple states have begun investigating potential violations in how Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, runs its virtual-reality Oculus business, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

• Joshua Martinangeli, 7, is too ill to go to school. But the German student can still interact with his teacher and classmates through an avatar robot that sits in class in his place and sends a blinking signal when he has something to say.

• An international team of scientists has produced the most detailed 3D map of the universe yet, with astrophysicists unveiling details of the first 7.5 million galaxies out of 35 million. The stunning image shows the cosmic web of galaxies going back billions of light-years. And, this is only the beginning of the project, which is seven months old. The survey, which will help explain dark energy, a force that makes up 68 percent of the universe and drives its expansion, is expected to take a total of five years to complete.

Economy –

• The country’s largest private-sector HDFC Bank on Saturday reported an 18.1 per cent rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 10,342.20 crore for the quarter ended December 2021, helped by healthy non-interest income and fall in bad loans provisioning.

• The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Saturday said it has increased prices of its models by up to 4.3 per cent with immediate effect to partially offset the impact of the rise in input costs.

• The Express Awards for Women Entrepreneurs (or ExpressAWE) announced on Friday saw a tidal wave of entrepreneurial success. But what also added glitter and weight to the memorable evening were rich and insightful conversations between industry veterans with takeaways for life for the many leading and budding women entrepreneurs.

• The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has agreed to hear Amazon’s plea challenging the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) decision to suspend the company’s 2019 deal with Future Coupons. The NCLAT, on Thursday, while rejecting Amazon’s plea to put on hold CCI’s decision, asked both the regulator and Future Coupons to file their reply within the next 10 days.

• Dynamic pricing, inventory management and optimisation of delivery cost will be key to the success of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative of the government, a senior official said on Friday.

Local –

• Delhi on Saturday reported 20,718 fresh Covid-19 cases, nearly 4,000 less than the previous day’s tally, according to the Delhi state health bulletin. The decline in the number of cases, however, was driven by fewer tests being conducted after the new ICMR guidelines did away with testing on demand.

• Mumbai recorded a further dip in the number of daily Covid-19 cases on Saturday, recording 10,661 cases as against the 11,317 infections it registered on Friday. The number of deaths, however, went up from nine on Friday to 11 on Saturday.

• Twenty more people, including eight students, residing on the IIT Kharagpur campus have tested positive for COVID-19, an official said on Saturday.

• Tamil Nadu recorded 23,459 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Friday, taking the overall tally to 28,91,959. With 26 casualities, the toll reached 36,956. As many as 9,026 people recovered in the past 24 hours, leaving 1,18,017 active infections. The positive cases included 21 returnees from other states and countries. The positivity rate stood at 15.32 per cent.

• Karnataka on Saturday reported 32,793 new Covid19 cases, including 22,284 in Bengaluru and seven deaths. The positivity rate in the last 24 hours was 15 per cent.

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 is India’s first large state to record 100 per cent first-dose vaccinations?

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

NITI Aayog released the “North Eastern Region District SDG Index”, with support from which institution?

[A] UNDP
[B] UNICEF
[C] World Bank
[D] WTO

Which institution released the ‘Women and girls left behind: Glaring gaps in pandemic responses’ report?

[A] World Economic Forum
[B] World Bank
[C] UN Women
[D] NITI Aayog

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

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