2nd round of Intensified Mission Indradhanush- 2 begins
The second phase of Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 rolled out at block level in 35 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The aim of the program launched by central government in 2017 is to achieve 90 percent vaccination coverage in children of less than 2 years in the state.
Under the program the immunization activity will be in four rounds over seven working days excluding the Regular immunisation days, Sundays and holidays. Next rounds will be in February and March months and will cover 425 blocks of 73 districts of state.
Under the program around 66 thousand sessions will be organized for vaccination of more than 5.5 lakh children and around 1.3 lakh pregnant women of state.
Australia beat New Zealand to win third Test and series 3-0
Australia have completed a perfect summer of Test cricket after beating New Zealand by 279 runs at the SCG. The Australians dismantled the Black Caps in the third Test for 136, wrapping up the series 3-0 as they claimed all five Tests of the home summer inside four days for the first time.
Australia declared second innings at 2-217, setting New Zealand an unlikely 416 to win.
Bhubaneswar to host 1st edition of Khelo India University Games from Feb 22 to March 1
The first edition of Khelo India University Games is scheduled to be held at the KIIT University in Bhubaneswar from February 22nd to March 1st. The Odisha Government will host the prestigious event at the KIIT complex in association with Sports Authority of India (SAI), Association of Indian Universities, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the National Sports Federation (NSFs).
British Junior Open Squash Tournament: Egypt’s Amina Orfi defeats Anahat Singh
India’s Anahat Singh’s run ended in the U-13 girls’ title round when top-seeded Egyptian Amina Orfi defeated her in final 11-0,11-1, 11-4 winning the British Junior Open Squash Tournament at Birmingham.
Earlier, in the boys U-19 semi-final another Indian Veer Chotrani lost to top seed Moustafa El Sirty.
DRDO participates in Pride of India-Science Expo-2020
The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is participating in Pride of India-Science Expo-2020 being held at the 107th Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru.
31 DRDO laboratories with more than 150 exhibits and models are participating in the expo showcasing many cutting-edge indigenous defence technologies, which narrate the saga of Self-reliance and National Pride with the Make in India spirit.
Star attractions of outdoor exhibits at DRDO Pavilion include the Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM), Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile system (QRSAM), ASTRA Missile, Radars including Battle Field Surveillance Radar (BFSR), ASLESHA and BHARANI, MINI-UGV Autonomous Surveillance Robot, Sentry Autonomous Surveillance Robot etc.
Golden Globes 2020
The 77th annual Golden Globes was held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills and was hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais.
Best Motion Picture – Drama: 1917
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Renee Zellweger – Judy
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture: Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Awkwafina – The Farewell
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Taron Egerton – Rocketman
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture: Laura Dern – Marriage Story
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture: Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Best Director of any Motion Picture: Sam Mendes – 1917
Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language: Parasite
Best Motion Picture – Animated: Missing Link
Best Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Best Original Score: Hilder Guðnadóttir – Joker
Best Original Song: “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” – Rocketman (Elton John, Bernie Taupin)
Best Television Series – Drama: Succession
Best Performance by an Actress In a Television Series – Drama: Olivia Colman – The Crown
Best Performance by an Actor In a Television Series – Drama: Brian Cox – Succession
Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Fleabag
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Phoebe Waller-Bridge – Fleabag
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Rami Yusef – Rami
Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture made for Television: Chernobyl
Ice Hockey C’ship: LSRC win bronze medal in Under-20 Boys category
Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre (LSRC) won the bronze medal in Under-20 Boys category of the ongoing 5th Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI) National Ice Hockey Championship. LSRC beat Delhi with 5-1 goals. The hosts Union Territory of Ladakh will play Chandigarh in the finals.
Japan presses for Ghosn’s extradition from Lebanon
Japan is pressing Lebanon to return fugitive ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who escaped house arrest in Tokyo. Lebanon does not typically surrender its citizens, but Japan says it can request his extradition.
Mr Ghosn ran Nissan until he was arrested on charges of financial misconduct in November 2018. But, in the final days of 2019, he skipped bail to board a private jet that took him to Turkey before he travelled on to Lebanon.
Karur Vysya Bank MD Seshadri quits
Private sector lender Karur Vysya Bank Ltd.’s Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) P.R. Seshadri has resigned citing personal reasons. Board of Directors of the Bank in their meeting held Monday has accepted the resignation of P R Seshadri.
Nine-judge SC bench to hear Sabrimala case from January 13
A nine-judge Constitution Bench of Supreme Court will hear from 13th of January, the issue of allowing women and girls of all ages to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple along with other contentious issues of alleged discrimination against Muslim and Parsi women.
It had, however, said that the debate about the Constitutional validity of religious practices like bar on entry of women and girls into a place of worship was not limited to the Sabarimala case.
The top court said such restrictions are there about the entry of Muslim women into mosques and Dargah and Parsi women, married to non-Parsi men, being barred from the holy fireplace of an Agyari.
No respite from Australia’s raging bushfires
There seems to be no respite from Australia’s raging bushfires. Fire continues to burn across several regions of the country including New South Wales and Victoria which have received some relief following rains.
Officials have warned that huge fires in Victoria and New South Wales could meet to create a larger mega blaze.
Around 25 people have lost their lives so far. The bushfire crisis has taken a very heavy toll with more than 1,500 homes already lost in the fire.
All time high temperatures and months of severe drought have fuelled the massive bushfires across Australia, since September last year.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an additional 2 billion dollars over two years to a new agency to coordinate a national response to rebuild communities and livelihoods following the deadly crisis.
P Magesh Chandran lifts 95th Hastings International Chess title
India’s P Magesh Chandran has lifted the title in the 95th edition of the prestigious Hastings International Chess Congress at Hastings in England. He remained unbeaten in all the nine rounds. Magesh with a FIDE rating of 2479, finished in clear first place with 7.5 points from nine games after securing a 33-move draw in the final round.
Piyush Goyal inaugurates NSE Knowledge Hub
Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal has inaugurated the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub in New Delhi and said that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will contribute one trillion dollars by the year 2035.
He said, artificial intelligence-powered learning ecosystem will assist the banking, financial services and insurance sector.
PM Modi to chair meeting of experts at Niti Aayog on Jan 9
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the meeting of experts at the Niti Aayog and is likely to discuss the state of economy. The meeting will also be attended by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant and other senior officials of the think tank. The meeting assumes important as the government is in the process of formulating Budget proposals for 2020-21.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Union Budget on February 1st with an eye to reviving growth.
Prez Hassan Rouhani warns not to threaten Iranian nation
Amid escalating tensions between Iran and US, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned not to threaten the Iranian nation.
After the assassination of Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani, Mr Trump wrote in a series of tweets that if Iran makes a move to avenge the assassination of Soleimani, the United States will target 52 Iranian sites.
RBI buys three long-term securities worth Rs10,000 cr in 3rd special OMO
In the third special open market operation in many weeks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had bought three long-term securities worth 10,000 crore rupees while selling the same amount of three short-term bonds.
In the current OMO purchase auction, the RBI offered to purchase three securities including 10-year benchmark government bond, as against just one bond in the previous two auctions. It got bids worth 64,505 crore rupees for the three bonds but choose to accept only bids of 10,000 crore rupees under the OMO purchase auction.
In the previous two similar auctions, the RBI had purchased bonds of 20,000 crore rupees and sold bonds worth 15,326 crore rupees
RBI revises PCA regime for urban co-operative banks facing financial stress
The Reserve Bank of India has rationalised its Supervisory Action Framework (SAF) to initiate prompt corrective action (PCA) for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) facing financial stress.
UCBs may be placed under PCA if net non-performing assets (NPAs) exceed 6 per cent of net advances, incurs losses for two consecutive financial years or has accumulated losses and capital adequacy falls below 9 per cent.
To halt failing asset quality, the RBI may prescribe steps like reduction in exposure limits for fresh loans and advances, restriction on fresh loans and advances carrying risk-weights more than 100 per cent.
As for action to correct capital adequacy ratio, the RBI may restrict expansion of size of the balance sheet, put curbs on fresh borrowings, except for meeting temporary liquidity mismatches.
Turkey begins deploying soldiers to Libya after Parliamentary approval, says Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Turkish soldiers had begun deploying to Libya after receiving approval from Parliament last week. Mr Erdogan said, Turkey was not sending its own combat forces, but that different teams would take on coordination tasks.
The Libyan Government is fighting an insurgency by rebel forces under Gen Khalifa Haftar, based in eastern Libya. General Haftar is backed by Egypt and the UAE, while the UN-backed Government is supported by Turkey and its ally Qatar.
UAE Cabinet approves issuance of 5-Year multi-entry tourist visa
The UAE Cabinet has approved the issuance of a five-year multi-entry tourist visa for all nationalities visiting the country. The decision was made during the Cabinet’s first meeting of 2020. This move comes in a bid to support the UAE’s tourism economy and affirm the country’s position as a global tourist destination.
The country receives 21 million tourists annually and their aim is to establish the country as a major global tourist destination.
