DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS –

JANUARY 14, 15, AND 16, 2023

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Contents
NATIONAL NEWS ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
STATE NEWS................................................................................................................................................................. 4
DEFENCE NEWS .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING .................................................................................................................. 6
INTERNATIONAL NEWS.............................................................................................................................................. 6
REPORTS AND INDICES ............................................................................................................................................ 8
BANKING AND ECONOMY ......................................................................................................................................... 9
APPOINTMENTS ......................................................................................................................................................... 12
IMPORTANT DAYS ..................................................................................................................................................... 13
AWARDS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13
SPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 13
MISCELLANEOUS....................................................................................................................................................... 13

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NATIONAL NEWS
1. India and the United States have established a New Working Group to build sustainable
supply chains and boost bilateral trade.
• The working group will initially focus on trade facilitation, digitization of customs procedures,
issues related to sustainable finance and the scaling up of innovative clean technologies.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the world’s longest river cruise named Ganga Vilas
from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in Assam.
• This Ganga cruise will sail for 51-days.

3. Indian Railways is going to run its Bharat Gaurav Deluxe AC Tourist Train on a very special
tour “Shri Ram-Janaki Yatra: Ayodhya to Janakpur” covering two most significant
pilgrimage sites Ayodhya and Janakpur from the neighbouring countries India and Nepal.
• The tourist train will include the visit of Nandigram, Sitamarhi, Kashi and Prayagraj as
added attractions in the tour.
• The visit of Ayodhya, Sitamarhi and Prayagraj will be covered in the day halt at the
destination.

4. Central Govt is planning to launch a five-year National Urban Technology Mission to infuse
technological innovations in municipal services and infrastructure of 4,500 urban local
bodies in the country.
• The mission will be spearheaded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, will have
three major sub-heads.
• The first sub-head is online governance. The second sub-head would be monitoring and
efficient management of the environmental infrastructure of 1,000 cities.
• Under the mission, sewage treatment, air quality, flood management and water bodies of
these cities will be monitored through technological interventions.

5. Indian Army and Uttarakhand has signed an MOU for CLAW (Conquest land air and water)
Global for the first edition of the 'Soul of Steel' challenge.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with several other ministers and Army veterans,
launched the 'Soul of Steel' challenge in Dehradun on the occasion of Armed Forces
Veterans Day (January 14).
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• The 'Soul of steel' challenge is a long-distance triathlon held in Europe which tests an
individual's physical capabilities.
• The Indian Army plans to organize the 'Soul of steel' challenge at least once every year.
Anyone between the age group of 18-30 can apply for the challenge that would be spread
across a duration of three months.
• As many as 12 Indians will be shortlisted for the challenge and will be divided into two
teams of six participants each. A total of six international teams will participate in the
endurance challenge.

Knowledge Nuggets -
• The CLAW Global was set up in January 2019 by Major (retd) Vivek Jacob, a retired
para special forces officer.
• The initiative is aimed at enabling life skill training and youth development. It is also
expected to boost global promotion of adventure tourism in Uttarakhand.

6. India will establish a Global South Centre of Excellence to undertake research on

development solutions for developing countries.
• The announcement was made during his opening address at the concluding session of the
Voice of Global South virtual summit.

7. IG Drones startup has developed India's first 5G-enabled drone named Skyhawk, that is
capable of vertical take-off and landing.
• The drone can be used in defence and medical applications, among other sectors.
• IG Drones is incubated by Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT)
campus in Odisha’s Sambalpur.

8. Central Govt has announced to set up India’s first Centre of Excellence in Online Gaming
in Shillong, Meghalaya by March 2023 to help startups from the North-East region to build
next generation online gaming apps and softwares.
• The centre will be established through the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)
under the Digital India Startup Hub.
• Indian online gaming industry will reach $5 billion in 2025.
• The Ministry of Electronics and IT has announced to set up a state-of-the-art facility under
the National Institute of Electronics and IT (NIELIT) to provide training on digital skills
to the youth of North-East at Shillong.
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9. Central Govt has announced to launch the 4th phase of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas
Yojana (PMKVY 4.0) to train roughly 1,45,050 youth in the North East region of the country.
• The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship under PMKVY 4.0 has set a
target to skill around 60,000 youth in Tripura, 35,000 in Nagaland, and 50,000 youth in
Meghalaya across a spectrum of approved courses.

STATE NEWS
1. Vidisha, a district of Madhya Pradesh, is the first district ever in India for on-ground
implementation of ground-breaking 5G use cases proposed by startups.

2. Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has restored the Old Pension Scheme
(OPS) for Himachal Pradesh government employees with immediate effect.
• The CM has also approved a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 to women aged 18-60. The
state govt will also generate one lakh job opportunities in a year.

3. Tamil Nadu Assembly has adopted the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of
Service) Act, 2016 to make Tamil language paper compulsory for recruitment to the State
government services.

4. Tripura government has launched a special education programme called ‘Saharsh’ in an

effort to encourage social and emotional learning.
• Launch – August 2022 in 40 schools in the state on pilot basis
• Purpose – for empowering children to learn with happiness and contribute to empathetic
development
• Expansion – From January 2023, it will be expanded to all schools in the state
• The social and emotional learning is the process through which children and adults learn
the skills they need to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals,
feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make
responsible decisions.

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5. Rajasthan has implemented the first-ever policy for blindness control in the country to
ensure the “Right to Sight”.
• The policy is in line with the “Nirogi Rajasthan” (Healthy Rajasthan) campaign of the
state, which was launched in 2019.

6. The bull-taming sport of Jallikattu, also known as ‘Eru Thazhuvuthal’ and ‘Mancuvirattu’, has
begun in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu on the occasion of Mattu Pongal.

DEFENCE NEWS
1. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship ‘Kamla Devi’, the Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV), built by Garden
Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), has been delivered to the Indian Coast Guard.
• ICGS Kamla Devi was commissioned at Kolkata.

Knowledge Nuggets -
• The ship has been named after Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay.
• Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indian social
reformer and freedom activist.
• She is the first lady in India to stand in elections from Madras Constituency although
she lost in the elections but she pioneered the path for the women in India.
• She was also the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms,
and theatre in independent India.

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MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
1. Mumbai-based hi-tech engineering company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has signed an MOU with
the Norway-based H2Carrier (H2C) to develop floating green ammonia projects for
industrial-scale applications.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• Ammonia is a pungent gas that is widely used to make agricultural fertilisers. Green
ammonia production is where the process of making ammonia is 100% renewable and
carbon-free.
• One way of making green ammonia is by using hydrogen from water electrolysis and
nitrogen separated from the air.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. Swedish mining company LKAB has found Europe’s largest known deposit of rare earth
elements.
• These metals are used in the manufacturing of electric cars and wind turbines, as well as
magnets, glass screens, speakers and various other electronics.

2. World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all nations in South-East Asia to take urgent
measures against measles.
• By 2019, measles vaccination coverage reached an all-time high of 94% for the first dose
and 83% for the second dose. However, in 2021, it was reduced to 86% for first dose and
76% for second dose.

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• This reduction leaves 9 million children unvaccinated for measles and around 5.3 million
children partially vaccinated.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• Measles is an acute viral respiratory illness. It is highly contagious infectious disease
caused by measles virus.
• High fever up to 40 degrees Celsius, cough, runny nose, itchy eyes are some of its initial
symptoms.
• Measles is a childhood infection, which can be prevented through vaccination. However,
adults can also acquire measles disease.
• Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease, yet measles claims an estimated 351 lives
(mostly children) worldwide each day.
• Countries with highest burden of measles, as per Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (national public health agency of the United States).

3. Two day-long ‘Think-20’ meeting will be held under G20, to discuss various topics, including
'Global Governance with LiFE, Values, and Wellbeing' in Bhopal.

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• The first Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) Meeting will be held in Pune under India's
G20 Presidency to focus on various facets of making cities economic centres of growth,
financing urban infrastructure, and making it future-ready in all aspects.
• The IWG meeting will focus on "Financing Cities of Tomorrow: Inclusive, Resilient and
Sustainable."

REPORTS AND INDICES

1. United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) has
released the “Levels and trends in child mortality” report.
• As per the report, more than 5 million children under age 5, including 2.3 million new borns,
along with 2.1 million children and youth aged 5 to 24 years – 43% of whom are
adolescents – died in 2021.
• Globally, the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) fell to 38 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2021.
• Children born in sub-Saharan Africa are subject to the highest risk of childhood death
in the world with a U5MR of 74 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021.

2. UNICEF has released the “Never Forgotten: The situation of stillbirth around the globe”
report.
• As per the report, there are 53 million babies that have been stillborn since 2000.
• In 2021, a total of 1.9 million babies were stillborn, an unprecedented high record.
• In 2021, the global stillbirth rate of 13.9 stillbirths per 1,000 total births.
• Stillbirths were concentrated in a few countries, with the greatest number found in India,
followed by Pakistan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and
Bangladesh.
• These six countries accounted for almost half of the estimated global number of stillbirths
and 36% of global live births in 2021.
• The region of sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a shocking increase in the global number
of stillbirths from 26% in 2000 to 45% in 2021.

3. According to the UN’s “World Social Report 2023”, the number of people aged 65+ will
double from 761 million in 2021 to 1.6 billion in 2050.

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• Published by – UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs

• At present, Northern America and Europe has the highest share of old-age people.
• Northern Africa, Western Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa will witness an increase in the
number of old-age people.
• The countries are advised to invest in the silver economy (Silver Economy is defined as the
market that is being developed around the needs of an ageing population, with a focus on
innovation.)

4. According to the “Survival of The Richest” report by Oxfam International, India's top 1%
owned more than 40.5% of its total wealth in 2021.
• The report was released during the World Economic Forum-Davos 2023 on the theme of
‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’.

5. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released the Rural Health Statistics Report
2021-22.
• The report is an annual publication of MoHFW since the year 1992.
• The report is based on data uploaded by states and union territories on the Health
Management Information System (HMIS) portal.
• As of 31 March, 2022, the report has revealed that each sub-centre (SC) catered to an
average of 5,691 people, each Primary Health Centers (PHC) to 36,049 people and each
Community Health Centers (CHC) to 1,64,027 people.
• As per norms, each SC is supposed to cater to a population of 3,000-5,000, each PHC to
a population of 20,000-30,000 and each CHC to a population of 80,000-1,20,000.

BANKING AND ECONOMY

1. UK-based private equity firm Apax Partners sold 4.3% stake in Shriram Finance Ltd through
the open market.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• Shriram Finance Ltd is India’s largest retail NBFC offering credit for commercial vehicles.

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• In November 2022, the subsidiaries of Shriram – Shriram Transport Finance Company

Shriram Capital, and Shriram City Union Finance – merged to form the Shriram Finance
Ltd.

2. China's Alibaba Group has sold about a 3% stake in One97 Communications, the parent
entity of leading Indian mobile payments and financial services company Paytm, for ₹1,031
crore through a block deal.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• A Block Deal is the selling and buying of securities (like shares) between the institutional
players. Block Deals are generally executed through multiple brokers to hide the true size
of the transaction.
• In India, SEBI allows only single transaction through Block Deals, which can be of a
minimum of five lakh shares or Rs 5 crore. The transaction happens through a separate
trading window.

3. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched e-Bank Guarantee (e-BG) facility in association with
National e-Governance Services Limited (NeSL).
• A bank guarantee is a kind of guarantee from a lending organization. The bank guarantee
signifies that the lending institution ensures that the liabilities of a debtor are going to be
met. In other words, if the debtor fails to perform the obligation, the bank will cover it.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• A bank guarantee is a kind of guarantee from a bank / lending organization. The bank is
taking the guarantee of paying the exporter on behalf of the importer.
• The importer obtains the bank guarantee to give it to the exporters.

4. Garuda Aerospace has partnered with the Union Bank of India (UBI) for the Union Kisan
Pushpak Scheme.
• The Kisan Pushpak Scheme has been launched by the Bank to provide loans to farmers
for availing loans for 150 Garuda Agri Kisan drones, developed by Garuda Aerospace.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund Scheme is already providing subsidies to farmers
for purchasing drones. The Scheme is also working to train 150 skilled drone pilots.

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• Garuda Aerospace is targeting 1 lakh youth for drone pilot training. The company is
planning to sell 5,000 drones before 31st March, 2023.

5. SEBI has allowed alternative investment funds (AIFs) to participate in the Credit Default
Swaps (CDS) market as protection buyers and sellers in a bid to facilitate deepening of the
domestic corporate bond segment.
• Under the new norm, Category-I and Category-II AIFs can buy CDS on underlying
investment in debt securities only for the purpose of hedging, while Category-III AIFs can
purchase CDS for hedging or otherwise, within permissible limits.
Knowledge Nuggets -
• A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial derivative that allows an investor to swap or
offset their credit risk with that of another investor.
• Alternative Investment Fund are the mutual funds that hold non-traditional
investments like real estate. The investment can be made in both equity and/or debt.
• There are three types of AIFs in India
o Category I AIF – Encouraged and incentivised by the govt
▪ Venture capital funds (Including Angel Funds)
▪ SME Funds
▪ Social Venture Funds
▪ Infrastructure funds
o Category II AIF – AIFs which do not fall in Category I and III. These funds aim to
meet day-to-day operational requirements. Govt does not provide any concessions
in this category.
▪ Real Estate Funds
▪ Private Equity Funds
▪ Funds For Distressed Assets
o Category III AIF – AIFs which employ diverse or complex trading strategies fall in
this category. These funds can also invest in listed or unlisted derivatives.
▪ Hedge Funds
▪ PIPE Funds

6. SEBI has allowed mutual funds with active Equity-Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) to
launch passive schemes to provide a cost-effective and tax-saving alternative to individual
investors.

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• Earlier, mutual funds were allowed to either launch an actively-managed ELSS scheme or a
passively-managed one but not in both categories.

7. India and China bilateral trade reached all-time high of $135.98 billion in 2022.
• The trade deficit of India touched $100 billion for the first time.
• Last year, the trade was $125 billion. This year, it has grown by 8.4%.

8. Jio-BP, a fuels and mobility joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and UK-
based BP, will build EV charging infrastructure for India unit of French automobile
manufacturer named Citroen.
• Jio-bp will install DC fast chargers across Citron's key dealership network and workshops
across the country in phases.

9. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Group (SMBC Bank) of Japan and Oaktree Capital
Management are among those that have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) for the
strategic stake sale in IDBI Bank.
• Oaktree is a US alternative assets firm founded by Howard Marks, one of the world’s
most formidable distressed debt investors. The stake being sold is held by the Centre and
state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
• The government, which owns 45.48% of IDBI Bank, is looking to divest a 30.48% stake in
the lender, alongside state-owned Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), which will sell a
30.24% stake from its holding of 49.24% in the bank.

10. CII Business Confidence Index has rebounded to its highest reading in almost two years of
67.6 from 62.2 for the October-December quarter.

APPOINTMENTS
1. Cognizant has named Ravi Kumar S as the CEO and a member of the Board, replacing
Brian Humphries.

2. The government has extended the tenure of managing director (MD) and CEO of Bank of
Baroda Sanjiv Chadha till June 2023.

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IMPORTANT DAYS
1. January 15 – Army Day; Theme - In Stride with the Future

2. January 16 – National Startup Day

• The webinar was organized on this day on the theme of “Founders of Today, Leaders of
Tomorrow”.

AWARDS
1. S.S. Rajamouli's RRR won two trophies — Best Foreign Language Film and Best Song for
"Naatu Naatu" — at the Critics Choice Awards (CCA).

SPORTS
1. Barcelona Football Club has won the Spanish Super Cup by defeating Real Madrid FC.

2. Indian pair of Yuki Bhambri-Saketh Myneni won Bangkok Open Challenger 2023.

MISCELLANEOUS
1. Former Union minister and once the Janata Dal (United)’s chief Sharad Yadav passed away.

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