“World Hindi Day” celebrated globally on 10th January
The World Hindi Day is celebrated annually on January 10 since 2006 to promote the language at the global stage. The day marks the anniversary of first World Hindi Conference which was inaugurated on January 10, 1975, by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
However, the celebration of first World Hindi Day was commenced on 10 January 2006 by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. It must be noted that the National Hindi Day is celebrated in India on September 14 every year. On that day in 1949, the constituent assembly adopted Hindi, written in Devanagari script, as the official language of the Union.
Former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki passes away
Veteran Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki, who served as former External Affairs Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has passed away. He had served as External Affairs Minister of India from June 1991 to March 1992. He had been the Chief Minister of Gujarat for three times between 1976 to 1990. He was the longest-serving chief minister of the state before Narendra Modi.
Joe Biden names two Indian-Americans in US National Security Council
US President-elect Joe Biden named Indian-American Sumona Guha as senior director for South Asia and Tarun Chhabra as senior director for Technology and National Security. Guha was co-chair of the South Asia foreign policy working group on the Biden-Harris campaign and serves on the transition’s State Department Agency Review Team.
During the Obama-Biden Administration, Chhabra served on the National Security Council staff as director for Strategic Planning and director for Human Rights and National Security Issues, and at the Pentagon as a speechwriter to the Secretary of Defence.
About Sumona Guha:
Guha is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University. Named as senior director for Technology and National Security, Chhabra is a senior fellow at the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University.
About Tarun Chhabra:
Born in Tennessee and raised in Louisiana, Chhabra is a first-generation American and a graduate of Stanford University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School.
Japan commits Rs 2,113 cr support for COVID relief efforts
The Government of Japan has committed Official Development Assistance loan of 30 billion Japanese Yen which is approximately Rs 2113 crore rupees for a programme loan to support India’s efforts at providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
India and Japan have had a long and fruitful history of bilateral development cooperation since 1958. In the last few years, the economic cooperation between India and Japan has strengthened and grown into a strategic partnership.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Japan Capital: Tokyo.
- Japan Currency: Japanese yen.
- Japan Prime minister: Yoshihide Suga.
West Bengal CM Inaugurates 26th Kolkata International Film Festival
West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee has inaugurated the 26th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF). The inaugural ceremony was also virtually attended by Bollywood superstar and West Bengal’s brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan from Mumbai. Legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s classic ‘Apur Sansar’ will be the inaugural film of the festival in which 131 movies from 45 countries will be screened till January 13.
Films will be screened at Rabindra Sadan, Nandan, Sisir Mancha and Rabindra Okakura Bhavan in Salt Lake. Six films by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini and movies on sitarist Ravi Shankar, singer Hemanta Mukherjee and flicks of comedian Bhanu Bandyopadhyay will be screened.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Chief Minister of West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee; Governor: Jagdeep Dhankhar.
“Modi India Calling – 2021” Book Released
A coffee table book named “Modi India Calling – 2021” has been released on the occasion of 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The book contains various photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi captured during his “107 overseas and bilateral visits”.
The book is the idea of BJP leader Vijay Jolly and it was released by Adesh Gupta, the Delhi BJP president. The book has been published by Maneesh Media and has 450 pages containing thousands of photographs of the PM Modi. Jolly has also said that he wishes to form a similar book on Rahul Gandhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
IREDA-NHPC Partnership in Green Energy Projects
NHPC Limited has signed an MOU with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) for providing assistance in setting up renewable energy (RE) projects for the next 5 years. The agreement was signed in the presence of Abhay Kumar Singh, NHPC CMD, and IREDA, CMD, Pradip Kumar Das.
Under the agreement:
- NHPC will help in the knowledge and technology transfer and provide consultancy and research services.
- NHPC has undertaken an ambitious plan to make a significant impact on the renewable energy landscape of the country.
- Under the plan, NHPC will develop 7.5 GW of renewable energy projects in the next 3 years.
- NHPC has already successfully commissioned a renewable capacity of 102.5 MW on an ownership basis and has contracted 2000 MW as an intermediary procurer basis.
About NHPC Limited:
NHPC Limited is an Indian Hydropower generation company formed in 1975. It was formed with an aim to plan and promote the efficient development of hydroelectric power in all aspects. Later on, NHPC expanded to include other sources of energy such as Geothermal, Solar, Wind, Tidal, etc.
India’s 7th Trade Policy Review (TPR) at WTO
The second session of the 7th Trade Policy Review (TPR) of India concluded at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This was the final session of the 7th trade policy review. Trade Policy Review is a key mechanism under the monitoring function of WTO. During this trade policy review, WTO examines the trade and related policies of the member countries with an aim to improve their adherence to WTO rules and to provide constructive feedback.
Important Points Trade Policy Review (TPR) of India:
- The official delegation of India for the 7th TPR was headed by Anup Wadhawan, the Commerce Secretary.
- The Commerce Secretary responded to all the issues rose by the Members during the 1st TPR session of India.
- The Commerce Secretary also urged the members to provide a permanent solution to Public Stock Holding (PSH) for food security.
- India is committed to simplify and streamline the overall domestic business environment and has an aim to make a place in the top 50 in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report.
- Before this, the last Trade Policy Review of India was held in the year 2015.
About World Trade Organization:
WTO is an organization that regulates international trade between countries. It was established in the year 1955 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It has 164 members at present.
Preeti Pant Panel to study adverse findings of NFHS-5
The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has recently formed a technical expert group to study the adverse findings from the National Family Health Survey-5. The Ministry has set up the technical committee of medicine and nutrition experts under the leadership of Joint Secretary Preeti Pant.
About National Family Health Survey-5:
- The expert group also includes State programme officers from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka.
- The committee will examine the findings of the National Family Health Survey-5 as well as suggest policies and courses of action to improve on indicators related to anaemia, malnutrition, C-section, and stunting.
- The newly formed technical expert group will conduct meetings regularly and will provide its recommendations soon.
- As of now, no meeting has been held and no date has been finalized for the first meeting.
National Family Health Survey-5:
- The factsheet of the 1st phase of National Family Health Survey-5 was released in December 2020.
- The sheet covered 22 States/UTs and provided information on 131 indicators like family welfare, population, nutrition, reproductive and child health, etc.
- Before the National Family Health Survey-5, four surveys have been conducted in the years 1992–93, 1998–99, 2005–06, and 2015–16.
- All the NFHS rounds were conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai.
Twitter deletes new Trump tweets on @POTUS, suspends campaign account
Twitter Inc has deleted new tweets posted by U.S. President Donald Trump on official government account @POTUS and suspended the account of his presidential campaign, after booting his personal account of the platform permanently. @POTUS Twitter account is an official Twitter account of US President Donald Trump. The Account is named President Trump.
About POTUS Twitter account:
- The POTUS Twitter account is in the news because President Trump used the account to tweet against “Twitter” after the company permanently banned and suspended the @realDonaldTrump of Trump.
- Trump tweeted that Twitter has conspired with his rivals and suspended his account to silence him.
- Earlier, Twitter released an official statement about the permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account.
- After the tweets by Trump through the @POTUS account, Twitter deleted his tweets.
- @POTUS account has 33.4 million followers at present.
Indonesian Jetliner crashes into the sea after takeoff
A passenger plane of Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air carrying 62 people on board crashed into waters off Jakarta. The Boeing 737-500 was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island.
The Sriwijaya Air disappeared from radars four minutes into its journey to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province. It is thought to have dropped more than 3,000m (10,000ft) in less than a minute.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Capital of Indonesia: Jakarta.
- The currency of Indonesia: Indonesian rupiah.
- President of Indonesia: Joko Widodo.
Harsh Vardhan launches Coastal Research Vessel Sagar Anveshika
Union Minister for Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan has launched Coastal Research Vehicle (CRV) ‘Sagar Anveshika’ at the Chennai Port. The vehicle will be used to carry out environment indexing and bathymetric (mapping underwater features) in both coastal and offshore waters.
It will be used for research purposes by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and has been built by Titagarh Wagons, Kolkata, West Bengal. NIOT already has 6 Research Vessels – Sagar Kanya, Sagar Sampada, Sagar Nidhi, Sagar Manusha, & Sagar Tara.
About ‘Sagar Anveshika’:
- Anveshika has been built under the Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) and is a DP (Dynamic Positioning)-Capable vessel.
- Anveshika will add to the capacity and capability for exploring the ocean which is a huge source of water, energy, food, minerals.
- Utilizing the Research Vehicle, Marine Scientists can travel six kilometres below the sea. The scientists can also stay underwater for more than 16 hours to conduct research activities.
- Anveshika will enable scientists to conduct various oceanographic research missions aboard, it houses modern laboratories equipped with the latest instruments.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- National Institute of Ocean Technology Director: Dr G A Ramadass.
- National Institute of Ocean Technology HQ: Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
