Today's Event – 9th January 2022

• 1431 – The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen

• 1760 – Ahmad Shah Durrani defeats the Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat

• 1787 – The nationally known image of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines was transferred from what is now Rizal Park to its present shrine in the minor basilica of Quiapo Church. This is annually commemorated through its Traslación (solemn transfer) in the streets of Manila and is attended by millions of devotees

• 1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

• 1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States

• 1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the Napoleonic Wars

• 1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral. 

• 1816 – Humphry Davy tests his safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery. 

• 1822 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process

• 1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process

• 1861 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War. 

• 1878 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy.

• 1903 – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia. 

• 1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest anyone had ever reached at that time.

• 1914 – The Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded by African-American students at Howard University in Washington D.C., United States

• 1923 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight

• 1923 – Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebel against the League of Nations' decision to leave the area as a mandated region under French control.

• 1927 – A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children

• 1961 – British authorities announce they have uncovered the Soviet Portland Spy Ring in London.

• 1991 – Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.[33]

• 1992 – The Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the creation of Republika Srpska, a new state within Yugoslavia.

• 1992 – The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12

• 1997 – Comair Flight 3272 crashes in Raisinville Township in Monroe County, Michigan, killing 29 people. 

• 2004 – An inflatable boat carrying illegal Albanian emigrants stalls near the Karaburun Peninsula en route to Brindisi, Italy; exposure to the elements kills 28. This is the second deadliest marine disaster in Albanian history.

• 2005 – Mahmoud Abbas wins the election to succeed Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority, replacing interim president Rawhi Fattouh. 

• 2005 – The Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War

• 2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco.

National Events-

• Counselling for NEET-PG admissions for the year 2021-22 will begin from January 12, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said Sunday.

• The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) apprehended a Pakistani boat with 10 crew members on board in the Indian waters off the Gujarat coast, a state defence spokesperson said on Sunday.

• Fifteen people in the Jharkhand chief minister’s residence, including Hemant Soren’s wife and his two children have tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

• Announcing that he tested positive for Covid-19 while campaigning for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Sunday urged the Election Commission to extend the precautionary booster dose to candidates and political workers.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting on Sunday to review the Covid-19 situation in the country as the Omicron variant of the virus fuels a surge in the infection.

International Events-

• Saudi authorities have released a princess and her daughter who had been detained without charge for nearly three years, her legal adviser said on Saturday. Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud, 57, is a businesswoman, rights activist and member of the Saudi royal family. She and her adult daughter Souhoud Al Sharif went missing in March, 2019.

• An infant boy handed in desperation to a soldier across an airport wall in the chaos of the American evacuation of Afghanistan has been found and was reunited with his relatives in Kabul on Saturday. The baby, Sohail Ahmadi, was just two months old when he went missing on August 19 as thousands of people rushed to leave Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban.

• The embattled president of Kazakhstan has the pedigree of an international technocrat. The son of prominent intellectuals, he studied in Moscow at a premier academy for diplomats and later worked in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing. He served as a key adviser to the strongman who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country as a fief for nearly three decades — and then, in 2019, became his heir.

• The Biden administration and its allies are assembling a punishing set of financial, technology and military sanctions against Russia that they say would go into effect within hours of an invasion of Ukraine, hoping to make clear to President Vladimir Putin the high cost he would pay if he sends troops across the border.

• Ambulances in Kansas speed toward hospitals then suddenly change direction because hospitals are full. Employee shortages in New York City cause delays in trash and subway services and diminish the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers. Airport officials shut down security checkpoints at the biggest terminal in Phoenix and schools across the nation struggle to find teachers for their classrooms.

Job alerts-

• National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited Jobs for Executive Director, General Manager and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

•  Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited Jobs for Junior Engineer, Accountant, Lab Assistan and other posts. Last date 27 February 2022

Sports-

• England’s tailenders resisted Australia’s bowlers in fading light Sunday to clinch a draw on a dramatic final day of the fourth Test in fading light at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and then Jimmy Anderson batted out the final 10 overs under immense pressure after Pat Cummins and Scott Boland took three quick wickets in the final session before Steve Smith removed Leach with two overs remaining to set up a nervous finale to a gripping test match.

• Bangladesh concede 7 runs on a single ball on Day 1 of 2nd Test

• Teaming up for the first-time on the ATP Tour, India’s Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan won the Adelaide International doubles trophy with a hard-fought 7-6 (6) 6-1 win over top seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo here on Sunday

• Borussia Dortmund fought back from two goals down after a lackluster start to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 and return some element of excitement to the Bundesliga title race. Mahmoud Dahoud’s 89th-minute winner on Saturday after Jude Bellingham equalized in the 86th moved Dortmund six points behind Bayern Munich a day after the league leader’s 2-1 loss at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach.

• Indian cricket team on Saturday has arrived in Cape Town for the third Test match of the ongoing series against South Africa. The third and final Test begins in Cape Town from January 11

Economy –

• The issue of allocation of spectrum — through auctions or administratively — for setting up private networks will be decided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) when it submits its recommendations on the reserve price for 5G spectrum auctions. The recommendations are expected by March.

• Equitas Holdings Ltd will divest its entire stake in subsidiary Equitas Technologies Pvt Ltd (ETPL) as part of the requirements in accordance with Reserve Bank of India norms for its merger with Equitas Small Finance Bank (ESFB).

• Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL),has entered into an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Columbus Centre Corporation, Cayman Islands, for an equity consideration of $98.15 million (Rs 735 crore).

• In a move to consolidate all its telecom operations under one umbrella, the government is likely to merge the operations and assets of Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

• With the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) coming in at a higher level of 17.6 per cent in the first advance estimates released Friday than the FY22 budget level of 14.4 per cent, the government is likely to get more fiscal headroom.

Local –

• Delhi is not expected to announce a lockdown to curb the spread of Covid cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sunday. Around 22,000 cases are expected to be reported in the city on Sunday, up from a little over 20,000 cases on Saturday, he said, addressing a webcast.

• Maharashtra government has announced new Covid curbs amid rising cases in the state. The government has imposed a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am and no movement will be allowed within this time except for essential purposes. The government has barred the movement of people in groups of five or more.

• The surging Covid-19 cases in West Bengal has cast a shadow over the January 22 civic elections in the state. The West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC),which conducts the elections, are worried about the safety of the voters as well the poll officers, a senior official said.

• Puducherry clocked 444 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours as the test positivity rate shot up to 13.87 per cent, a top Health department official said on Sunday.

• Discounting the Covid-19 surge and weekend curfew, the Karnataka unit of the Congress on Sunday morning launched a padayatra (march),seeking the implementation of the Mekedatu drinking water project, caught in a legal wrangle with Tamil Nadu.

GK –

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

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

What is the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) of India in the year 2020-21?

[A] 918
[B] 920
[C] 937
[D] 951

Which Indian Pace bowler achieved the milestone of 200 Test wickets recently?

[A] Mohammed Shami
[B] Ravichandran Ashwin
[C] Ravindra Jadeja
[D] Jasprit Bumrah

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been extended in which state for another six months?

[A] Assam
[B] Nagaland
[C] Arunachal Pradesh
[D] Sikkim

Which institution released the ‘Compendium on the innovations on technology’?

[A] World Bank
[B] NITI Aayog
[C] International Monetary Fund
[D] World Economic Forum