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1)  National Youth Day2022: Nation Observes National Youth Day On January 12

•In India, the National Youth Day is celebrated on 12 January annually to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. The main aim behind this is to make sure that the students across the country can be encouraged to learn about the life, the ideas and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and apply them in their lives.

•In 2022, we are observing the 159th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand (12 January 1863). The theme for National Youth Day 2022 is The Theme of 2022 is “It’s all in the mind.”

2)  India’s first heli-hub to be set up in Gurugram

•Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala announced that Gurugram will get India’s 1st heli-hub with all aviation facilities. The heli-hub will be the first of its kind in India to have all facilities at one place for helicopters. The heli-hub is proposed to be built in Gurugram & would be near the metro facility along with easy connectivity to industrial areas (Noida & Bhiwadi).

•The Haryana government has proposed to set up the first heli-hub of the country in Gurugram designed to have many aviation facilities like heliport, hangars, repairs, and any other related services.

3)  9th edition of North East Festival concludes

•The 9th edition of the North East Festival concluded in Guwahati, Assam. The main purpose of this festival is to promote and highlight the commercial and tourism potential of the North East region. The festival was organised in the format of a carnival with live music and dance performances, engaging the visitors throughout the day in the open area while serious discussions on business, economic, socio-political issues of the region engrossed the intellectuals in the conference halls.

•The festival aimed at integrated marketing of the entire North-East to attract tourists and investments. The closing day was graced by Assam’s Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, who interacted with entrepreneurs participating from across the North-East region.

4)  India successfully test-fires naval variant BrahMos cruise missile

•Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test-fired an extended range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile for the Indian Navy. This advanced sea to sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was launched from INS Visakhapatnam, a stealth guided-missile destroyer of the Indian Navy.

5)  Indian Railways launches Mission Amanat to help passengers track their lost belongings

•The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Western Railways zone of Indian Railways has launched a new initiative called “Mission Amanat” to make it easier for railway passengers to get back their lost luggage. Under Mission Amanat, the details of lost luggage and belongings along with photos will be uploaded on the official website of the zonal railway, https://wr.indianrailways.gov.in/. This will help the passengers in tracking and getting back their lost belongings as well as ensure the safety and security of passengers and their luggage and belongings.

6)  Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas appointed as next IMF’s Chief Economist

•French-born economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas has been named as the next chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He will succeed Gita Gopinath, the first woman to serve as the Fund’s chief economist. He will take over as first deputy managing director of IMF from January 21 2022. Initially, Gourinchas will join the IMF on a part-time basis from January 24, 2022. He will take upon a role on a full-time basis from April 1, 2022.

7)  Kochi became India’s first city to have a Water Metro Project

•Kochi, Kerala has become India’s first city to have a Water Metro Project after the launch of its first boat in December 2021, namely ‘Muziris,’ among the 23 battery-powered electric boats being manufactured by Cochin Shipyard Limited. This launch is a part of the Rs 747-crore project which is operated by Kochi Water Metro Ltd (KWML). The boats will be called Water Metros.

•With a total outlay of Rs 819 crore, the project’s major part is financed under Indo-German Financial Cooperation through a long-term loan agreement of 85 million Euros (Rs 579 crore) with the German funding agency, KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau).

8)  India Skills 2021 competition concluded

•India Skills 2021 national competition concluded with more than 200 participants who were felicitated by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. As many as 270 winners of the Competition felicitated with 61 gold, 77 silver, 53 bronze and 79 medallions of excellence. More than five hundred competitors from across the country participated in the competition to showcase their talent from 54 industrial sectors. These sectors include car paint, patisserie and confectionery, welding, additive manufacturing, cyber security, floristry, among others.

9)  Actress Harshaali Malhotra awarded 12th Bharat Ratna Dr Ambedkar Award 2022

•The 2015 film Bajrangi Bhaijaan fame actress, Harshaali Malhotra has been awarded the 12th Bharat Ratna Dr Ambedkar Award 2022. She received the award from Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra, for her commendable performance in the movie and contribution in the field of Indian Cinema. The Government of Maharashtra organised the Bharat Ranta Dr Ambedkar national Awards 2022 ceremony in the memory of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar as a part of the upcoming 73rd Republic Day.

10)  New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel wins ICC Player of the Month Award

•India-born New Zealand cricketer Ajaz Patel has won the ICC Player of the Month award for December following his stupendous 10-wicket haul against Virat Kohli and Co. in the second Test in Mumbai. The left-arm spinner was nominated for the award alongside India opener Mayank Agarwal and Australian pacer Mitchell Starc but beat them to it on the back of his incredibly rare feat.

•Ajaz picked up 14 wickets in the Mumbai Test match in early December against India, including all 10 in the first innings, to become only the third player in Test history, after Jim Laker and Anil Kumble, to achieve the remarkable milestone.

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📰 India’s passport rank improves to 83 from 90

1)  National Human Trafficking Awareness Day 2022: 11th January

•This year National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is observed on January 11, 2022, which is on Tuesday. The day aims at raising awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims, and promoting and protecting their rights. Though the entire month of January has already been recognized as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, this day is specifically dedicated to awareness and prevention of illegal practice.

2)  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.

3)  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.

4)  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.

5)  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.

6)  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.

7)  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.

📰 No ‘third party’ should interfere in China’s Sri Lanka ties: Wang Yi

[ GENERAL STUDIES PAPER – 4 ] : UPSC MAINS CIVIL SERVICES IAS EXAM 2021 QUESTION PAPER

[ GENERAL STUDIES PAPER – 3 ] : UPSC MAINS CIVIL SERVICES IAS EXAM 2021 QUESTION PAPER

1)  World Hindi Day: 10 January

•World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 since 2006 to promote the language at the global stage. The day marks the anniversary of the 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.

2)  PM declares December 26 to be observed as ‘Veer Baal Diwas’ annually

•Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has declared that starting from the year 2022, December 26 will be observed as ‘Veer Baal Diwas’ every year. The day will be commemorated as a tribute to the courage of the 4 Sahibzades (the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji), who attained martyrdom in the 17th century. The announcement was made by PM Modi on January 09, 2022, on the occasion of the Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, or the birth anniversary of the 10th guru of Sikhs and the founder of the Khalsa community.

3)  Sikkim celebrated Losoong (Namsoong) Festival

•Losoong (Namsoong) is annually celebrated across the Indian State of Sikkim on the 18th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan Lunar Calendar, which also marks the beginning of the harvest season. The Namsoong festival begins on the 1st day of the new moon phase Kurneet Lovo, as per the Lepcha lunisolar Calendar known as Dungkit Karchu. The losoong festival is celebrated as Sonam Losoong, by the Sikkimese Bhutia and as Namsoong by the Lepchas. The festival is also celebrated in Nepal and Bhutan.

4)  Sudhir Kumar Saxena committee constituted to enquire security lapses during PM Punjab visit

•Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a committee to enquire into the serious lapses in the security arrangements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab. It is a three-member committee and will be headed by Sudhir Kumar Saxena, Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat. It also comprises Balbir Singh, Joint Director, IB and Suresh, IG, SPG.

•The committee has been asked to inquire about the alleged lapses in the security arrangements of PM Modi “which led to the exposure of the VVIP to grave risk” and submit the report at the earliest. The move comes just ahead of the Supreme Court’s hearing on the PM’s security breach. It was the government’s own former ASG, Maninder Singh, who moved SC seeking an independent probe into the PM’s security breach. The court is slated to hear the matter on January 7.

5)  Australia & Japan signed defence agreement to counter China

•The leaders of Japan and Australia signed a “landmark” defence agreement that allows closer cooperation between their militaries and stands as a rebuke to China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in a virtual summit to sign the Reciprocal Access Agreement, the first such defence pact signed by Japan with any country other than the United States.

6)  GoI extends Navrang Saini’s term as interim chief of IBBI

•The Government of India has extended the tenure of Navrang Saini as interim Chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for three more months till March 05, 2022. Mr. Saini, who is a Whole Time Member of IBBI, was assigned additional charge of Chairperson in addition to his existing duties in October 2021 for three months till January 13, 2022. The post of full-time Chairperson has been lying vacant after M.S. Sahoo retired upon completing a five-year tenure on September 30, 2021.

7)  Reliance acquires controlling stake of 73.37% in New York’s Mandarin Oriental hotel

•Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced the acquisition of a controlling stake of 73.37% in Mandarin Oriental New York, a premium luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan. RIL through its wholly-owned arm Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited has acquired the entire share capital of Cayman Islands-based Columbus Centre Corporation (Cayman), for an equity value of approximately $98.15 million (Rs 735 crore).

•Cayman is the parent company of Mandarin Oriental hotel. It had indirect ownership of a 73.37 per cent stake in the hotel. Reliance will also take over the hotel’s debt in excess of $115 million to take the entire deal value to around $270. The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of March 2022.

8)  SBI Ecowrap: India’s Real GDP projected to grow at around 9.5% in FY22

•The economic research team of the State Bank of India (SBI) released its Ecowrap report. In the report, SBI researchers have revised upwards the real GDP of India to around 9.5 per cent in 2021-22 (FY22) on a year-on-year (YoY). The report believes that though rising Covid infections could impact mobility, yet economic activity is not expected to get much affected.

9)  RBI data: Forex reserves decline by USD 1.466 bn to USD 633.614 bn

•As per the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, the foreign currency reserves of India declined by $1.466 billion to $633.614 billion, in the last week of 2021, which ended December 31, 2021. Gold reserves rose by USD 14 million to USD 39.405 billion. India’s forex touched a lifetime high of USD 642.453 billion in the week ended September 03, 2021. Forex reserves include foreign currency assets (FCAs), gold reserves, SDRs and the country’s reserve position with the IMF.

10)  NSO projects Indian economy to grow 9.2% in FY22

•National Statistical Office (NSO) has estimated India’s GDP to grow at 9.2 per cent in the current fiscal, 2021-22. NSO released its first advance estimates of economic output on January 07, 2022. The GDP estimate for the 2020-21 fiscal was projected at a contraction of 7.3 per cent by NSO.