Current Affairs in English – January 6 2023

January 6, 2022

National Events:

Ministry of Panchayati Raj:

• Ministry of Panchayati Raj organized a two day National Workshop on Project Driven Block Panchayat Development Plan and District Panchayat Development Plan on 5-6 January, 2023 in New Delhi.
• The National Workshop aimed on adopting, conceptualizing and popularizing Project Development Plan areas. It also aimed to localize and realize Sustainable Development Goals in rural.

‘Eat Right Station’:

• The Varanasi Cantt Railway Station has been awarded the 5-Star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification for providing high quality nutritious food to the passengers.
• The ‘Eat Right Station’ certification is provided by FSSAI to railway stations which set the standard in providing safe and nutritious food to the passengers. This certification is part of the ‘Eat Right India’ initiative.

G20:

• Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan informed that Puducherry would host the first G20 meeting on 31 Jan 2023.
• She released stickers, badges, and posters with the G20 logo and also inaugurated a selfie booth in the presence of Puducherry CM N Rangasamy at an event. Representatives of different countries will participate in the meeting and many important decisions will be taken.

IESH:

• The Reserve Bank of India launched the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) in January 2023. In the January 2023 round, the survey will be conducted across 19 cities.
• It aims to capture subjective assessments of price movements and inflation, based on individual consumption baskets. Hansa Research Group has been assigned to conduct the survey on behalf of the RBI.

Maithili Thakur:

• Folk singer Maithili Thakur was appointed the state icon for Bihar by the Election Commission in January 2023. She will create awareness among the voters for their participation in the electoral process.
• This recognition will give her more impetus to spread Bihar’s folk music across continents. She has rendered traditional folk songs of Bihar in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Hindi.

Imoinu Day:

• Imoinu Day is celebrated in Manipur as a part of the Meitei Cultural ritual. The traditional festival of Imoinu Day is celebrated on the 12th day of the Meitei Lunar Month of Wakching. In 2023, it was celebrated on 3 January.
• On this day, people of the valley serve dishes in odd numbers as part of the Imoinu Eratpa ritual. They regard Imoinu Eratpa as a goddess of health, and prosperity.

BoS:

• Bank of Singapore (BoS) has announced the appointment of Jason Moo as its new CEO. He will succeed Bahren Shaari officially from March 6 onwards. He has 25 years of experience in private banking, wealth management, and capital markets.
• The bank was acquired by OCBC Bank in 2009 from ING Group. From 2017 to 2019, Moo was the CEO of Goldman Sachs (Singapore). Bank of Singapore founded: 2010.

Odakkuzhal Award:

• Writer Ambikasuthan Mangad has been selected for Odakkuzhal Award 2022 for his collection of short stories titled Pranavayu. The award is being given for the best collection of short stories in Malayalam.
• The award will be presented on the occasion of the 45th death anniversary of Mahakavi G. Sankara Kurup.

Kala-Azar:

• Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on 4 January 2023 chaired a high-level meeting the four states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal governments to review the elimination of Kala-Azar from the country by the year 2023.
• 632 endemic blocks have already achieved elimination status with less than one case of Kala-azar per 10,000 population.

HCL & Indian School of Mines:

• Hindustan Copper (HCL) has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad for a collaborative and sponsored research project.
• It will address HCL’s need for technical assistance, guidance and consultancy works. Hindustan Copper (HCL) is the only copper miner in India owning all the operating mining leases of copper ore in the nation.

Ghaziabad-Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay:

• Ghaziabad-Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay section (762 KM) has become the longest fully automatic block signaling section of Indian Railways.
• It achieved the after the commissioning of the automatic signaling system in the Satanraini-Rasulabad-Faizullapur section of the Prayagraj division.
• With this, it has also become the longest Automatic Block Signalling section of Indian Railways.

Skill Development Mission:

• Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, chaired the third meeting of the Steering Committee of the National Skill Development Mission in Delhi on 4 Jan 2023.
• It was launched to provide a strong institutional framework at the Center and in all States for the implementation of skilling activities. Skill Development Mission was launched in 2015.

NFSA:

• Telangana has joined free rice scheme of the Central government under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The scheme envisages supply of 5 kilograms of rice per person per month. Effective from 1 Jan 2023, rice will be completely free under the scheme.
• Telangana’s decision to join this scheme demonstrates a commitment to addressing issues of food security and poverty in the state.

Palm-leaf Manuscript Museum:

• World’s 1st Palm-leaf Manuscript Museum inaugurated in Kerala capital. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has inaugurated the Palm leaf Manuscript Museum in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
• The museum was set up by the Archives Department in association with the Kerala Museum of History and Heritage.
• It is a treasure house of both obscure and celebrated tales of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom that became Asia’s first to defeat any European power on Indian soil.

Polo:

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah on 6 Jan 2023 unveiled a 120-feet-tall statue of a polo player riding a pony at Marjing Polo Complex in Manipur’s Imphal East district.
• This is the highest monument in the northeast. Manipur is considered the birthplace of the game. This massive statue would popularise Manipur, the home of polo, and increase tourist traffic.

National Genome Editing and Training Centre:

• National Genome Editing and Training Centre (NGETC) was inaugurated at National Agri-food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) Mohali in Punjab in Jan 2023. NGETC will cater to the regional needs for adoption of various genome editing methods.
• The center will help in improving crops in present climate scenarios and making them more tolerant to changing environmental conditions.

Kolkata:

• Kolkata will host the first Meeting of Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion Working Group of G20 on Jan 9-11, 2023. The opening session of the meeting will showcase a unique exhibition on India’s role in financial inclusion.
• This working group will discuss ways to improve financial system and financial system infrastructure.

Indian army & Assam:

• The Indian Army on 5 Jan 2023 signed an agreement with the Assam government to offer Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) at eight medical college and hospitals in the state.
• This will facilitate the cashless and capless treatment of 1.12 lakh beneficiaries. The ECHS benefits will be offered in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, Barpeta, Tezpur, Diphu and North Lakhimpur.

TRF & UAPA:

• Centre has declared The Resistance Front (TRF) as a terrorist organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA.
• The TRF came into existence in 2019 as a proxy outfit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed terrorist organization. The organization had been involved in carrying out propaganda on terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Y20:

• Union Minister Anurag Thakur launched the themes of the Y20 summit, logo, and website in New Delhi on January 6, 2023, in the curtain raiser event of Y20 Summit India.
• The Y20 is the official youth engagement group for the G20 (Group of 20), the forum for the world’s largest and most advanced economies. India is hosting the Y20 summit for the first time.

Maharashtra:

• Maharashtra has announced that 122 new sports complexes will soon be built in rural areas. The aim is to reinforce the state’s status as a sporting powerhouse in the country.
• These complexes will aim to develop players from a young age at every level-village, district, taluka, and state to create international-class sportspersons.

DIA:

• President Droupadi Murmu will give away the Digital India Awards (DIA) 2022 to the winners, here on 7 January 2023. DIA 2022 aims to inspire and motivate government entities, start-ups and grassroots level digital initiatives in fulfilling the Digital India vision.
• DIA are instituted under the aegis of National Portal of India. The awards are announced under seven categories.

International Events:

World Day of War Orphans:

• World Day of War Orphans is celebrated on 6 January every year to create awareness about the plight of war orphans and to address the traumatic conditions faced by them. There are an estimated 153 million orphans worldwidle, many of whom are war orphans.
• It was started by the French organization SOS Enfants en Detresses, which aimed to help children affected by conflict.

UN Peacekeeping:

• India, among the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping, is deploying a platoon of women peacekeepers in Abyei, Sudan. This will be country’s largest single unit of female Blue Helmets in a UN mission since 2007.
• In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all women contingent to UN peacekeeping mission. The unit aims to control recent spurt of violence in abyei.

Auto Market:

• India becomes 3rd largest auto market globally, surpasses Japan. As per Nikkei Asia report , India is now the world’s third largest auto market.
• India has surpassed Japan, which is currently placed fourth. China continued to lead the global auto market and the US remained second.
• Vehicles powered by gasoline, including hybrid vehicles, accounted for most of the new autos sold in India in 2022.