10th January, 2022 Current Affairs

10th January, 2022 Current Affairs

National
PM Modi inaugurates 25th National Youth Festival on Jan 12

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 25th National Youth Festival on Wednesday, 12th January which is Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary.
• In a tweet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has urged people to register to join this grand event. People can register at the website - pmevents.ncog.gov.in. More than 20 thousand people have already registered for the event.
• Mr. Thakur said, youth across the country can share suggestions and innovative ideas for the Prime Minister’s speech on the occasion. The Prime Minister may include some of the suggestions in his speech.
• National Youth Festival aims to galvanize, ignite, unite and activate the young citizenry towards nation building, to unleash the true potential of our demographic dividend. A National Youth Summit will be organized on 13th January that aims to bring diverse cultures of India and integrate them into a united thread of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.

 First-ever Startup India Innovation Week to be held

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is organizing the first-ever Startup India Innovation Week from 12th to 16th of this month. This virtual week-long innovation celebration aims to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence ‘AzadiKaAmritMahotsav’ and is designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship across India.
• Interestingly, in the startup world, 2021 has been recognized as the 'year of unicorns,' with 40 Plus unicorns added in the year.
• India is emerging as a global innovation hub, boasting the world's third-largest startup ecosystem. DPIIT has recognized more than 61 thousand startups as on date.
• The startups representing 55 industries, spread across 633 districts with at least one startup from every State and UT of the country have created over 6 lakh jobs since 2016. 45 per cent of the startups are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and 45 per cent of them are represented by women entrepreneurs.
• The week-long event will be launched today by Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal.
• On 15th January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to interact with startups and address Startup India Innovation Week at 10.30 AM via video conferencing in closed-door event.

Committed to provide additional security cover to healthcare & frontline workers on priority: Government

• Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is committed to provide additional security cover to healthcare and front-line workers on priority.
• In a tweet, Mr.Mandaviya said, the administration of precaution dose of COVID 19 vaccine for healthcare and frontline workers, and those over 60 years of age, on the advice of a doctor is starting from today across the country.

International
Russian President to take part in emergency meeting of CSTO Council to discuss Kazakhstan

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an emergency meeting of the Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to discuss Kazakhstan, his office said.

The video summit of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will focus on the situation in Kazakhstan in the wake of violent protests and ways to normalize it.

Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel appointed vice-president of AIIB

• Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as a vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a Beijing based multilateral development bank.
• 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.

• Mr. Patel, 58, told that he will be joining on 1st February. He will be one of the five Vice Presidents of the AIIB with a three-year tenure. Mr. Pandian, a former Gujarat chief secretary, has been AIIB’s vice-president since 2016, the year the bank was set up with India as its second largest shareholder after China. Mr. Pandian was also the bank’s first chief investment officer.
• Urjit Patel is currently the chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. He had taken over as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) succeeding RaghuramRajan in September 2016 and was with RBI till December 2018.
• An economist with great repute, Mr. Patel will take over as vice-president at a time when AIIB is expanding its footprint in developing countries especially India where Infrastructure is seen as a key driver for growth. AIIB is currently headed by China’s JinLiqun, who is a former Chinese vice minister for finance.
• India has emerged as AIIB’s biggest beneficiary by obtaining $6.8 billion funding for 29 projects, outgoing Vice President Mr. Pandian told. Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh and China are the next four borrowers from the bank with over $7 billion investment. Pandian said AIIB has funded projects across sectors in India especially in transport and energy sectors. In December, AIIB approved the $150 million “Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Service Program” aiming to strengthen institutions and improve the quality and financial sustainability of selected urban services in Chennai. Also, the AIIB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila are processing a $2 billion loan request from India to purchase 667 million Covid-19 jabs.

• Mr. Pandian has consistently sought to dispel the notion that the AIIB is a Chinese bank, saying it has emerged as a multilateral bank becoming the lead financier of infrastructure projects in Asia. Except the US and Japan, most of the developed and developing countries have joined the bank. In late December, the AIIB approved the application of Iraq to join, becoming the bank’s 51st regional member to bring its membership to 105. As of October 22, AIIB has overall approved 147 projects in 31 countries valued at $28.97 billion.

Sports

14-year-old BharathSubramaniyam becomes India's 73rd Chess Grandmaster

• Fourteen-year-old BharathSubramaniyam has become the73rd Grandmaster of India, the All India Chess Federation confirmed.
• The Chennai-based teenager completed his final GM Norm and crossed the requisite 2500 rating at Vergani Cup Open in Italy.
• Subramaniyam finished seventh overall in the event held at Cattolica by scoring 6.5 points from nine rounds.
• To achieve the Grandmaster (GM) title, a player has to secure three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points.

Rafael Nadal defeats MaximeCressy to claim Melbourne title

• In Tennis, 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal defeated American MaximeCressy, 7-6, 6-3 in the Men's Singles final of the Melbourne Summer Set ATP 250 event.
• The World No. 6 Nadal showed no signs of rustiness as he did not lose a set en route to the title in Melbourne.
• It was Nadal's 89th tour-level crown as the Spaniard saved a set point in the first set tie-break and rallied from a game down in the 2nd set against Cressy.

World No.1 Ash Barty wins Adelaide International

• In Tennis, World No.1 Ash Barty won the Adelaide International by crushing world No. 14 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2 in Women's Singles final at Cannebara.
• This was Barty’s 14th career singles title and second in Adelaide.
• Barty defeated 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and 2020 French Open winner IgaSwiatek of Poland en route to the title in Adelaide, without dropping a set or a service game against Rybakina, Kenin or Swiatek.

Rohan Bopanna-RamkumarRamanathan win Adelaide International doubles trophy

• In Tennis, unseeded pair of Rohan Bopanna-RamkumarRamanathan has won the Adelaide International doubles trophy in Australia.
• Teaming up for the first-time on the ATP Tour, the Indian pair beat top seed Ivan Dodig-Marcelo Mela in straight sets 7-6, 6-1 to win the trophy.
• It was Bopanna’s 20th ATP doubles title and first for Ramkumar.
• Earlier, Bopanna and Ramanathan had outclassed fourth seeds Bosnian-Mexican duo,TomislavBrkic and Santiago Gonzalez in straight sets 6-2, 6-4  in the doubles semifinals.

Published date : 10 Jan 2022 06:27PM