26th-27th January, 2023

1. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has announced in open court that the Supreme Court will release 1,268 judgments in 13 Indian languages on Republic Day in a bid to make justice administration more accessible to the common man.
2. Ministry of Culture will revamp the Monument Mitra scheme to enable private firms to partner for the upkeep and maintenance of 1,000 ASI monuments.
3. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the Aditya-L1 mission by June or July 2023.
4. South Africa has signed an agreement with India to introduce dozens of African cheetahs to India over the next decade.
5. Egypt plans to allot land to Indian industries in Suez Canal Special Economic Zone.
6. Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Summit will be held under India’s Chairmanship in August 2023. India has invited all the SCO members including Pakistan and China for this Summit.
7. As India celebrates its 74th Republic Day, over 11 crore rural households of the country have access to tap water connections.
8. India elected as Vice-chair of the 12th session of FAO’s Intergovernmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (ANGR) for Food and Agriculture at Rome.
9. India’s first indigenously developed vaccine named “CERVAVAC” for the prevention of cervical cancer was developed jointly by the Serum Institute of India and the Indian Government’s Department of Biotechnology.
10. Care organization has launched ‘She Feeds the World’ programme in India to improve the food security and nutrition of poor rural households, with a strong emphasis on women small-scale producers.
11. Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has released “FM’s Crack Squad”, which is a list of eminent personalities who have contributed a lot in the Indian economy and preparation of the Union Budget for FY24.
12. The 3rd edition of the Annual Orange Festival 2023 was organized at the Kohima district, Nagaland.
13. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will be inaugurating 500 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ (Mohalla Clinics) across Amritsar.
14. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel announced the unemployment allowance of Rs 2500 per month for the unemployed youth of the state.
15. North India’s largest floating solar power project of 2000kWp was inaugurated in Chandigarh.
16. Central Govt will conduct the first e-auction of wheat (3 million tonnes) on February 1.
17. Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has proposed to use river names as tag line and branding for Indian agri-products.
18. Central Govt has estimated the millet procurement in the country to move up from current 6-7 lakh tonnes to 40-50 lakh tonnes in the next few years.
19. 2023 edition of Indian Navy’s major maritime exercise TROPEX will be held from January – March 2023 in the Indian Ocean Region.
20. India and Egypt has signed an MOU to facilitate content exchange, capacity building, and Co-Productions between Prasar Bharati and National Media Authority of Egypt.
21. Canada has developed World’s First Photonic-based Quantum Computing.
22. UNESCO has designated the historic centre of Odesa, a strategic port city on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a “World Heritage in Danger” site.
23. Australians marked the 235th anniversary of British colonization.
24. Canada has appointed human rights advocate Amira Elghawaby as its first special representative on combatting Islamophobia.
25. Swedish government has announced an “international information campaign”, which it expects to discourage refugees from coming to the country.
26. “Countdown to 2023: WHO report on global trans-fat elimination 2022” report has been released by WHO.
27. National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) has acquired its first stressed asset, Jaypee Infratech, from lenders at a 55% haircut from the IDBI Bank.
28. Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd (AHFL) have entered into a co-lending agreement to offer home loans at competitive interest rates.
29. BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL) has launched Vikram Credit Card for the Indian defence, paramilitary, and police personnel.
30. According to the share purchase agreement of Air India, Tata Group was mandated to adopt an employee stock option scheme (ESOP) within three months of the closing date of the sale.
31. Vaccine major Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) has launched iNCOVACC (BBV154), the world’s first intranasal vaccine for Covid-19.
32. Dell Technologies has acquired Israeli startup Cloudify that is known for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation for $100 million.
33. After China, India will become the second country in the world to start the ‘trade-plus-one’ (T+1) settlement cycle in top listed securities.
34. UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs has released the “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023”.
35. RBI has approved the appointment of Prabdev Singh as the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a period of 3 years.
36. Sangeeta Verma has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India.
37. Shamalbhai B Patel has been re-elected as the Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (owner of the Amul Brand).
38. January 25 – National Tourism Day
39. Visakhapatnam Railway Station of the East Coast Railways has been awarded the Green Railway Station Certification with the highest rating of Platinum.
40. A total of 106 people won Padma Awards 2023.
41. Babar Azam (Pakistan) won the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Sir Garfield Sobers Award for Cricketer of the Year 2023.
42. Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) is an upcoming women’s T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
43. ‘Ironman of India’ Sabir Ali (winner of decathlon gold at the 1981 Asian Athletics Championships in Tokyo) has passed away.
44. Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (Indian architect) has passed away.
45. Olive Ridley turtles (aka Pacific ridley sea turtle) were washed ashore on the coast of Andhra Pradesh. Their population is declining rapidly.

National News

1. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has announced in open court that the Supreme Court will release 1,268 judgments in 13 Indian languages on Republic Day in a bid to make justice administration more accessible to the common man.
   • 1,091 judgments will be translated to Hindi, 21 in Odia, 14 Marathi, 4 Assamese, 1 Garo, 17 Kannada, 1 Khasi, 29 Malayalam, 3 Nepali, 4 Punjabi, 52 Tamil, 28 Telugu and 3 Urdu.
   • The judgments would be made available in the court’s e-SCR portal. The portal which is the repository of the electronic version of Supreme Court Reports (SCR).
2. Ministry of Culture will revamp the Monument Mitra scheme to enable private firms to partner for the upkeep and maintenance of 1,000 ASI monuments.
   • Launched in 2017, the Monument Mitra scheme to allow the adoption of monument sites by people and organizations for the maintenance of ASI sites.
   • The scheme was launched under the Ministry of Tourism and recently it was transferred to the Ministry of Culture.
   • Ministry of Culture would be projecting India as a “cultural superpower” during the four meetings of G20 Cultural track.
     • The first meeting will take place at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh in February.
     • The other two meets will take place in Bhubaneswar and Hampi, while discussion was underway to decide the location for the fourth meeting.
     • At these four locations, a thematic exhibition will be held.
3. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the Aditya-L1 mission by June or July 2023.
   • Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space mission to observe the Sun and the solar corona.
   • The Aditya-L1 mission will be launched by ISRO to the L1 orbit (which is the first Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system). L1 orbit allows Aditya-L1 to look at the Sun continuously.
4. South Africa has signed an agreement with India to introduce dozens of African cheetahs to India over the next decade.

5. Egypt plans to allot land to Indian industries in Suez Canal Special Economic Zone.
   • India and Egypt have signed a strategic agreement, which includes an agreement on terrorism. The countries will work together in resolving cross-border terrorism.
     • The agreement will focus in areas such as cyber security, information technology, youth, culture, and broadcasting.
   • India-Middle-East-Europe Freight-Food-Energy Corridor is being envisioned by India and Egypt can act as a Gateway for India to enter Europe, West Asia (Middle East) and Africa.
     • Although India has land access to the Middle-East, the region goes through Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, which are unstable and hostile nations at present. Therefore, India is seeking an alternative route to the Middle-East, which goes through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

• Suez Canal Special Economic Zone

• Suez Canal Special Economic Zone

6. Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Summit will be held under India’s Chairmanship in August 2023. India has invited all the SCO members including Pakistan and China for this Summit.
   • Theme – “FOR A SECURE SCO”; Secure stands for –
     • S: Security for citizens
     • E: Economic Development
     • C: Connectivity
     • U: Unity
     • R: Respect
     • E: Environmental Protection
7. As India celebrates its 74th Republic Day, over 11 crore rural households of the country have access to tap water connections.
   • 123 districts and more than 1.53 lakh villages of India have reported ‘Har Ghar Jal’.
   • Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in 2019 to provide tap water connections to every household in India.
   • Central and State governments are sharing the funds for the project. The ratio of their fund sharing is 50:50. In the North-Eastern states and Himalayan states, it is 90:10. The North East state share 10% of the funds.
     • For ‘Coverage’, funds are shared in a 50:50 ratio. For ‘Support Activities’ and ‘Water Quality Management System’, the ratio is 60:40.
8. India elected as Vice-chair of the 12th session of FAO’s Intergovernmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (ANGR) for Food and Agriculture at
   • USA is the Chair of the session.
   • Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tonga, and Brazil are other Vice-chairs of this session along with India.
9. India’s first indigenously developed vaccine named “CERVAVAC” for the prevention of cervical cancer was developed jointly by the Serum Institute of India and the Indian Government’s Department of Biotechnology.
   • The price of the Vaccine is between Rs 200 and Rs 400 per dose.
10. Care organization has launched ‘She Feeds the World’ programme in India to improve the food security and nutrition of poor rural households, with a strong emphasis on women small-scale producers.
    • Care has partnered with the PepsiCo Foundation to tackle gender inequality in agriculture with an $18.2 million investment in She Feeds the World.
    • The grant will provide resources and training to 5 million women farmers and their families worldwide to help them increase crop yields and income.
    • The program, which will be implemented in the Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts of West Bengal, aims to reach out to more than 48,000 women, men and children and indirectly benefit 1,50,000 individuals.
    • Under this initiative, PepsiCo has trained close to 1,500 women farmers in West Bengal on potato agronomy and other skills.
11. Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has released “FM’s Crack Squad”, which is a list of eminent personalities who have contributed a lot in the Indian economy and preparation of the Union Budget for FY24.
    • Sitharaman is the first full-term female finance minister of India.
    • The Crack Squad includes –
      • T V Somanathan – economist and a secretary in the Ministry of Finance
      • Ajay Seth – Department of Economic Affairs secretary, secretary in charge of the finance track of the G20-2023, spearheaded initiatives like India’s first sovereign green bond issuance
      • Tuhin Kanta Pandey – DIPAM Secretary, Played a role in privatisation of Air India and Neelanchal Ispat Nigam, and the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India, Responsible for privatisation of Air India and Neelanchal Ispat Nigam, and the IPO of Life Insurance Corporation of India
        • 2023-24 tasks – sale of IDBI Bank and the privatisation of the Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, Bharat Earth Movers, and the Nagarnar Steel Plant of NMDC (formerly National Mineral Development Corporation)
      • Sanjay Malhotra – chairman and MD of Rural Electrification Corporation, secretary of Dept of Revenue
      • Vivek Joshi – complete privatisation of two state-owned banks and one general insurance company
      • V Anantha Nageswaran – Chief Economic Adviser

State News

1. The 3rd edition of the Annual Orange Festival 2023 was organized at the Kohima district, Nagaland.
   • At present, there are about 35,000 standing trees of orange plantation in Rusoma village and is generating an income of more than Rs 40 Lakh to the village.
2. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will be inaugurating 500 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ (Mohalla Clinics) across Amritsar.
3. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel announced the unemployment allowance of Rs 2500 per month for the unemployed youth of the state.
   • Chhattisgarh has a debt of 26.2% of the state GDP.
4. North India’s largest floating solar power project of 2000kWp was inaugurated in Chandigarh.

Agriculture and Rural Development

1. Central Govt will conduct the first e-auction of wheat (3 million tonnes) on February 1.
2. Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has proposed to use river names as tag line and branding for Indian agri-products.
   • APEDA’s involvement has increased agricultural exports to $25.6 billion in 2021-22. This is 51% of the total agricultural exports of the country.
3. Central Govt has estimated the millet procurement in the country to move up from current 6-7 lakh tonnes to 40-50 lakh tonnes in the next few years.
   • The nine states have launched separate mission with assured procurement and distribution of the nutri-cereals at subsidised rates.
   • Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Odisha have launched their own programmes to procure millets and distribute those nutri-cereals within their respective state.

Defence News

1. 2023 edition of Indian Navy’s major maritime exercise TROPEX will be held from January – March 2023 in the Indian Ocean Region.
   • Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) is an inter-service military exercise involving the participation of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard.

Memorandum of Understanding

1. India and Egypt has signed an MOU to facilitate content exchange, capacity building, and Co-Productions between Prasar Bharati and National Media Authority of Egypt.
   • Purpose – to exchange their programs of different genres like Sports, News, Culture, Entertainment and many more areas on bilateral basis and these programs will be telecast on their Radio and Television platforms
   • The MOU is part of the efforts by Prasar Bharati to expand the reach of DD India Channel to show-case the country’s progress through programs focussed on economy, technology, social development and also the rich cultural heritage.
   • Prasar Bharati, Public Service Broadcaster of India, currently has 39 MOUs with foreign broadcasters for co-operation and collaboration in the field of broadcasting.

International News

1. Canada has developed World’s First Photonic-based Quantum Computing.
   • The investment of 40 million Canadian dollars ($32 million) will enable Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a Toronto-based Canadian quantum computing company, to develop the quantum computer.
   • The Computing Technologies will have the potential to provide world leading capabilities to help solve complex data problems and could be used in a variety of sectors such as finance, transportation, environmental modelling, and health.
2. UNESCO has designated the historic centre of Odesa, a strategic port city on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a “World Heritage in Danger” site.

3. Australians marked the 235th anniversary of British colonization.
   • The referendum, expected to be held between August and November, would enshrine the Voice in the constitution.
4. Canada has appointed human rights advocate Amira Elghawaby as its first special representative on combatting Islamophobia.

• US and Canada have five Great Lakes between them.

5. Swedish government has announced an “international information campaign”, which it expects to discourage refugees from coming to the country.
   • During the campaign, the Sweden Government will create contact points in foreign countries to spread the information about Sweden’s migration policy.

Reports and Indices

1. “Countdown to 2023: WHO report on global trans-fat elimination 2022” report has been released by WHO.
   • Mandatory trans-fatty acids (TFA) policies are currently in effect for 3.4 billion people in 60 countries (43% of the world population); of these, 43 countries have best-practice policies in effect, covering 2.8 billion people (36% of the world population).
   • India has launched the policy to eliminate industrially produced TFA.

Banking and Economy

1. National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) has acquired its first stressed asset, Jaypee Infratech, from lenders at a 55% haircut from the IDBI Bank.

2. Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd (AHFL) have entered into a co-lending agreement to offer home loans at competitive interest rates.
3. BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL) has launched Vikram Credit Card for the Indian defence, paramilitary, and police personnel.
   • BFSL already has exclusive cobranded credit cards with the Indian Army (Yoddha), Indian Navy (Varunah), Indian Coast Guard (Rakshamah) and Assam Rifles (The Sentinel).
   • Special Features –
     • It is a lifetime-free credit card
     • It has attractive reward points and activation gift of a complimentary OTT subscription.
     • It has an accidental death cover of Rs 20 lakh.
     • 1% Fuel Surcharge Waiver
     • EMI offers
     • Periodic merchant offers
4. According to the share purchase agreement of Air India, Tata Group was mandated to adopt an employee stock option scheme (ESOP) within three months of the closing date of the sale.

5. Vaccine major Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) has launched iNCOVACC (BBV154), the world’s first intranasal vaccine for Covid-19.
6. Dell Technologies has acquired Israeli startup Cloudify that is known for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation for $100 million.
7. After China, India will become the second country in the world to start the ‘trade-plus-one’ (T+1) settlement cycle in top listed securities.
   • Purpose – for bringing operational efficiency, faster fund remittances, share delivery, and ease for stock market participants
   • In the T+1 format, if an investor sells a share, she will get the money within a day, and the buyer will get the shares in her Demat account also within a day.

GDP Forecasts

1. UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs has released the “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023”.

Appointments

1. RBI has approved the appointment of Prabdev Singh as the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a period of 3 years.
2. Sangeeta Verma has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India.
   • Union Cabinet has approved the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to amend the Competition Act, 2002, to regulate mergers and acquisitions based on the value of transactions.
   • Deals with transaction value of more than Rs 2,000 crore will require CCI’s approval. The Bill proposes to reduce the timeline for the CCI to pass an order on such transactions from 210 days to 150 days.

3. Shamalbhai B Patel has been re-elected as the Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (owner of the Amul Brand).
   • Valamji Humbal has been appointed as the Vice-Chairperson of the Cooperative.

Important Days

1. January 25 – National Tourism Day

Awards

1. Visakhapatnam Railway Station of the East Coast Railways has been awarded the Green Railway Station Certification with the highest rating of Platinum.
   • The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) gave this certification.
   • Steps taken by Visakhapatnam Railway Station to reduce its impact on the environment-
   • Segregation of waste by constructing MRF Shed
   • Setting and operationalisation of 500KLD STP for station & colony water
   • Setting up of solar panels to conserve power
   • Well-developed passenger amenities
   • 100% fitment of LED lighting

• The IGBC Green Railways Stations is one of the certifications, IGBC gives among all the other categories.

2. A total of 106 people won Padma Awards 2023.
   • A total of 91 people won the Padma Shri awards.
   • President of India has approved 412 Gallantry Awards for Defence personnel.

3. Babar Azam (Pakistan) won the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Sir Garfield Sobers Award for Cricketer of the Year 2023.

Sports

1. Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) is an upcoming women’s T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
   • The auction for five teams in the women’s Indian Premier League, now called the Women’s Premier League (WPL) collected nearly Rs 4,670 crore.
   • The auction of teams was for a 10-year period (2023-32).
   • Adani group entered the Indian cricketing arena with the highest bid of Rs 1,289 crore for the Ahmedabad franchise, followed by the Reliance-backed Indiawin Sports, which bought the Mumbai franchise for Rs 912.99 crore.

Miscellaneous

1. ‘Ironman of India’ Sabir Ali (winner of decathlon gold at the 1981 Asian Athletics Championships in Tokyo) has passed away.
2. Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (Indian architect) has passed away.
   • He was the first Indian to receive the Pritzker Prize (Nobel for Architecture). He has also won Royal Gold Medal and Padma Bhushan in 2020.
   • In 2023, he won the Padma Vibhushan award.
   • He was the architect of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL- a Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy) and Cyberabad in Hyderabad.
3. Olive Ridley turtles (aka Pacific ridley sea turtle) were washed ashore on the coast of Andhra Pradesh. Their population is declining rapidly.

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