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 Bijedić, 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