Golden Globe Awards 2022 announced
The Golden Globe Awards 2022 ceremony was held to recognise excellence in film, both American and international, and American television. This was the 79th edition of the annual event, which honoured the best in American television, as well as film in 2021 as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Two of the films namely The Power of the Dog and the West Side Story, won the most number of awards with 3 each.
List of winners in the Motion Picture category:
| Category | Winners |
| Best Film (Drama) | The Power of the Dog |
| Best Film (Musical or Comedy) | West Side Story |
| Best Actor (Drama) | Will Smith for King Richard as Richard Williams |
| Best Actress (Drama) | Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos as Lucille Ball |
| Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) | Andrew Garfield for tick, tick… BOOM! as Jonathan Larson |
| Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) | Rachel Zegler for West Side Story as María Vasquez |
| Best Supporting Actor | Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog as Peter Gordon |
| Best Supporting Actress | Ariana DeBose for West Side Story as Anita |
| Best Director | Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog |
| Best Screenplay | Kenneth Branagh for Belfast |
| Best Original Score | Hans Zimmer for Dune |
| Best Original Song | “No Time to Die” (Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell) – No Time to Die |
| Best Animated Feature | Encanto |
| Best Non-English Film | Drive My Car (Japan) |
Oscar and Grammy-winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman passes away
Marilyn Bergman, the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy-winning American lyricist and songwriter has passed away. Bergman collaborated with her husband, Alan Bergman for song-writing. The renowned music-writing duo wrote the music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television shows, films, and stage musicals. The pair were nominated for Oscars 16 times and won three times.
Gael Monfils wins 2022 Adelaide International 1 tennis tournament
French tennis player Gael Monfils beat Russia’s Karen Khachanov in the men’s singles event of the 2022 Adelaide International 1 to claim the 11th ATP title of his career. In the women’s category, World number one Australian star Ashleigh Barty beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan to win her second Adelaide International title. 2022 Adelaide International 1 was a combined ATP Tour 250 and WTA 500 tournament.
List of winners
- Men’s single: Gaël Monfils (France)
- Women’s single: Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
- Men’s doubles: Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan (India)
- Women’s double: Ashleigh Barty and Storm Sanders (Australia)
Rafael Nadal wins 2022 Melbourne Summer Set tennis tournament
World number six Rafael Nadal won the men’s singles tennis title at 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1. Nadal beat American qualifier Maxime Cressy 7-6(6), 6-3 to earn his 89th career ATP title. In the women’s singles, Simona Halep beat Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova 6–2, 6–3 to win her 23rd career WTA title. Meanwhile in the Melbourne Summer Set 2 tennis tournament, American player Amanda Anisimova won the women’s singles tennis title, to earn her second career WTA title. American duo Bernarda Pera and Kateřina Siniaková won the women’s doubles tennis title.
Ratan Tata’s biography ‘Ratan N. Tata: The Authorized Biography’ to be out in Nov 2022
Tata Sons emeritus Chairman, veteran industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata’s authorized biography titled ‘Ratan N. Tata: The Authorized Biography’ is set to hit the stands in November 2022. The biography is penned by a former senior bureaucrat and retired IAS officer Dr Thomas Matthew. It will be published by HarperCollins. The book chronicles around the 84-year-old Ratan Tata’s childhood, college years, and early influences, among other things.
Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel Appointed as Vice President of AIIB
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Urjit Patel has been appointed as Vice President of the multilateral funding institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for a period of three years. He will be one of the five Vice Presidents of the AIIB. He is expected to take charge from February 2022. He will succeed outgoing Vice President D J Pandian, who is in charge of sovereign and non-sovereign lending of the AIIB in South Asia, the Pacific Islands and South-East Asia.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- President of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Jin Liqun.
- Headquarters of AIIB: Beijing, China.
- AIIB established: 16 January 2016.
Kevadia railway station renamed as Ekta Nagar railway station
The Ministry of Railways has approved the renaming of the Kevadiya railway station in the Narmada district of Gujarat, as Ekta Nagar railway station. The Statue of Unity’s Kevadiya railway station falls under the Vadodara division. The station code of Ekta Nagar railway station will be EKNR. The numerical code of the station will be 08224620.
Last year, the Ministry of Railways had said tourists visiting the world’s tallest statue in Gujarat “Statue of Unity” will be able to experience the rich cultural history of the state at the Kevadiya railway station itself. Under the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, the Vadodara Division of Western Railways had awarded first of its kind contract in the Indian Railways network for the development of an Art Gallery with a Souvenir shop at Gujarat’s Kevadiya Railway station.
Finance Ministry: Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts cross Rs 1.5 lakh crore
According to the finance ministry, the deposits in bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme have crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark. The total balance in accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme was recorded at Rs 1,50,939.36 crore as of December-end 2021. The data revealed that over 44.23 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme.
Of this, 34.9 crore accounts were opened with the public sector banks, 8.05 crore with regional rural banks, and the remaining 1.28 crore with private sector banks. RuPay Debit Cards were issued to 31.28 crores PMJDY beneficiaries under this scheme.
Bhupender Yadav chaired 19th Meeting of National Tiger Conservation Authority
The 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was held under the chairmanship of the union minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav. Currently, there are 51 Tiger Reserves in India and more than 35 rivers originate from those areas which are crucial for water security.
About the meeting:
- The environment minister launched an action plan for the reintroduction, protection and conservation of 7 major big cats in India including the cheetah, which has become extinct in independent India.
- Under the action plan, 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next 5 years in various parks.
- He announced that 14 Tiger reserves across India have received accreditation of the global Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS). He underlined the need to meetings of NTCA in the first week of April, August & December every year.
‘Kerala Arts and Crafts Village Organization’ won ‘International Craft Award 2021
Kerala Arts and Crafts Village Organization (KACV) from Kovalam, Kerala was awarded the ‘International Craft Award for 2021’ for the best craft village in the world by the World Crafts Council International. It is the only award India received in the non-individual category. The KACV was established by the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (UL CCS) for the State Tourism Department of Kerala. In 2021, the Village of the Year award was won by ‘Kraf Komuniti Ku’ in Malaysia.
Other Awardee’s:
| Category of the award | Winners |
| Craft Icon of the Year | Chandramali Liyangane of the National Crafts Council, Sri Lanka. |
| Sustainable Development & Social Inclusion in the Handicrafts Sector | Malaysian Prison Department |
| Craft Persons of the Year | Shahrbanoo Arabian (Iran) and Dalavayi Kullayappa (India) |
| Craft Designers of the Year | Zohra Said (Morocco) and Ismario Ismael (Mexico) |
| Next Generation Craft Designers of the year | Qiling Zhang (China) and Mubin Khatri (India) |
| The Master Artisans | Amita Sachdeva (India) and Mubarik Khatri (India) |
Bharath Subramaniyam named India’s 73rd chess Grandmaster
Tamil Nadu’s Bharath Subramaniyam became India’s 73rd chess Grandmaster. He secured the third and final Grandmaster norm at an event at Cattolica in Italy. He scored 6.5 points from nine rounds along with four others and finish seventh in the event. He secured his third GM norm here as well as touched the requisite 2,500 (Elo) mark.
Fellow Indian player M R Lalith Babu became the winner in the tournament, with seven points. He won the title on the basis of a better tie-break score as he tied with three others including Anton Korobov from Ukraine. In order to become a GM, a player has to secure three GM norms as well as cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points.
Recent Indian Chess Grandmasters:
- 70th: Raja Rithvik (Telangana)
- 71st: Sankalp Gupta (Maharashtra)
- 72nd: Mitrabha Guha (West Bengal)
RBL Bank tie-up with Google to advance next-gen customer experience
RBL Bank and Google announced a strategic collaboration to fuel the Bank’s customer experience strategy. Through this, the bank will expand its value proposition to serve its rapidly growing customer base through the digital platform, Abacus 2.0. It will enable better customer data management, and analytics, enabling effective cross-selling within the Bank’s large customer base. RBL Bank currently has over 4 million urban retail asset and liability customers.
This collaboration will enable better customer data management, and analytics, enabling effective cross-selling within the Bank’s large customer base and subsequently reducing the cost of customer acquisition, significantly. Through Abacus 2.0, the Bank aims to provide a superior and holistic one-stop solution to its existing and new customers, to seamlessly deliver its different product offerings across channels.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- RBL Bank Founded: 1943;
- RBL Bank Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra;
- RBL Bank CEO & MD: Rajeev Ahuja;
- RBL Bank Tagline: Apno Ka Bank.
Chennai International Airport ranks 8th in Global List for ‘On-Time Performance’
The Chennai International Airport is one of the top 10 large international airports in the world that ensures ‘on-time’ departures. In a review conducted by Cirium, an organisation that specialises in offering aviation data to travel, finance, aerospace, and aviation industries, the airport has been ranked 8th for ‘on-time performance’ for the year 2021. According to the latest traffic figures of Chennai Airport, it has done recovery of 80 % in domestic traffic. It is the sixth busiest airport in India.
Besides that, Chennai airport is the only Indian airport to figure in the top 10 positions of the list. The first three positions have been bagged by United State’s Miami Airport, Fukuoka Airport, and Haneda Airport in Japan.
Top 3 Airports in the list:
| Rank | Airports |
| 1st | Miami Airport (United States) |
| 2nd | Fukuoka Airport (Japan) |
| 3rd | Haneda Airport ( Japan) |
| 8th | Chennai Airport (India) |
Uttar Pradesh Govt Declares 4 Villages Near Nepal Border as Revenue Villages
Uttar Pradesh government declared four villages located near the Nepal border in the district as revenue villages. District Magistrate of Bahraich, Dinesh Chandra Singh said the decision was taken before the announcement of the general elections to the UP Legislative Assembly. These four villages are Bhavanipur, Tedhia, Dhakia and Bichhia located in Mihinpurwa tehsil of the district.
All these villages are Vantangiya villages. The Vantangiya’ community comprises people brought from Myanmar during the colonial rule to plant trees. There are around 225 families in these four villages consisting of over 1,500 members.
What is a revenue village:
A revenue village is a small administrative region with defined borders. One revenue village may contain many hamlets. A village administrative officer is the head officer of a revenue village. The people of these villages will now get the benefits of all the schemes of the government.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Uttar Pradesh Capital: Lucknow;
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister: Yogi Adityanath;
- Uttar Pradesh Governor: Anandiben Patel.
