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By admin: Jan. 10, 2022

10th January: World Hindi Day

Tags: Important Days

January 10 is celebrated as World Hindi Day or Vishwa Hindi Divas  every year to spread awareness about Hindi as an international language across the world.

• It commemorates the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference held in Nagpur on January 10, 1975.
• In 2006, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh declared that January 10 will be observed as World Hindi Day every year.
• Hindi  language is also spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji, and Mauritius.

Note 

It should not be confused with Hindi Diwas which is celebrated every year on 14 September to commemorate the adoption of Hindi as an official language of India by the Constituent Assembly in 1949.

26th December as ‘Veer Baal Diwas’

Tags: National News

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi  on the auspicious occasion of the Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, has announced that starting this year, 26th December shall be observed as ‘Veer Bal Diwas’ to mark the martyrdom of Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji and Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji.

• Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji and Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji were two of the four sons of Guru Gobind singhji  who were killed by the Mughals during Aurangzeb rule due to treachery .
• Guru Gobind singh ji was the 10th  Guru of the Sikhs and Guru Granth Sahib is considered as the 11th Guru of the sikhs .Guru Granth Sahib or Adi Sri Granth Sahib ji  is considered to be the holy book of Sikhism  and it contains all the  actual words spoken by the ten gurus of Sikhism.

Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak and he was the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs other being Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das , Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev,  Guru Hargobind, guru har rai sahib ,Guru Har Krishan,  Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. 

The entire Guru Granth Sahib is written in the Gurumukhi script, official script for writing Punjabi in the State of Punjab.

Government to start counselling of NEET PG from January 12, 2022

Tags: National News

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has announced the   National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET PG) counselling from January 12 ,2022.

• NEET-PG is a qualifying and ranking examination for postgraduate medical courses in government or private medical colleges.
• The Supreme Court on January 7, in an interim order, allowed resumption of counselling for NEET-PG admissions for 2021-22 while upholding the validity of 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota.
• Results of the NEET-PG were declared in the last week of September 2021, following which students had been waiting for the counselling to begin for nearly 45,000 postgraduate seats.
•  The process was stalled after the Health Ministry’s proposal to reserve seats for EWS was challenged in court. The Supreme court stayed the counseling  and asked the Government of India to explain the criteria it used for deciding  EWS quota .
•  Kindly see the 1 December 2021  post on EWS controversy 

Global Surya Namaskar on Makar Sankranti Day

Tags: National News

The Ministry of AYUSH( Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy ) is organising a global Surya Namaskar demonstration programme for 75 lakh people on January 14, the day of Makar Sankranti.

• This occasion commemorates thanksgiving to 'Mother Nature' for bestowing health, wealth and happiness. 
•  According to the ministry ,the  Surya Namaskar has been known to develop immunity and improve vitality, which is significant to our health during pandemic conditions. Exposure to the Sun further provides the human body with Vitamin D, which has been widely recommended in all medical branches around the world.
• Surya Namaskar is a set of eight ‘asanas’ performed in 12 steps with coordination of the body and mind. It is preferably performed in the early morning.

Union Minister for AYUSH : Mr. Sabananda Sonowal

PM Modi sends 100 pair of jute footwear for those working at Kashi Vishwanath Dham

Tags: National News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent 100 pairs of jute footwear for those working at Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Varanasi  so that those performing their duties do not have to stay bare-footed in the chilling cold. 

• Leather or rubber made footwear is not allowed within the temple premise hence the PM sent the jute made footwears to the temple worker.

KVIC to provide Khadi Handmade Papers Slippers to the devotees of Kashi Vishwanath

Tags: National News

Starting 14th January, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is beginning the sale of Khadi handmade paper “Use & Throw” slippers for the use of the devotees and the workers.

• The Khadi handmade paper slippers will be sold from the Khadi sales outlet located at the parking lot of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, Varanasi  at a nominal price of Rs 50 per pair. The slippers will be sold by Kashi Hastkala Pratisthan, a registered Khadi Institution in Varanasi. 
• The development comes in wake of the jute slippers sent by the Prime Minister for the workers of Kashi Vishwanath Temple after he learnt that most of the people working at the temple performed their duty barefoot.

Padyatra in the time of Covid

Tags: State News

The Congress on 9 January 2022 began its 11-day padayatra seeking early implementation of the Mekedatu drinking water project violating Karnataka government’s  weekend curfews amidst  increasing cases of covid in the state.

• The nearly 170 km padayatra  ‘Our water our right’ started from  Sangama in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagara district,  will pass through 15 Assembly constituencies before culminating at Basavanagudi  on January 19.
• The Padyatra is being led by the Pradesh Congress chief  D.K.Shivakumar with the participation of other  senior congress leaders of the state .
• Tamilnadu is opposed to the Mekedatu project.

Kindly see the post of  6 January 2022 on Mekedatu dam.

Skoch award for Assam Mission on Malnutrition

Tags: State News

Mission Parvarish of southern Assam, Cachar district was selected for the prestigious Skoch award.

•  Mission  Parvarish was launched during the “nutrition month” in 2020  to combat malnourishment among children aged six months to 5 years  in the southern Assam’s Cachar district. 
• Government agencies, local civic bodies, NGOs and businessmen had come together to provide nutritional support to such children under the mission Parvarish .
• Instituted in 2003, SKOCH Award recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.

22 stranded tourists freeze to death in Pakistan after heavy snowfall

Tags: International News

At least  22 people, including 10 children, froze to death in their vehicles after heavy snowfall at the popular hill station Murree in Punjab province of Pakistan.

• Due to heavy snowfall, all routes leading to the hill station were closed causing all cars to remain stranded.
• Government has declared Murree as a calamity-hit area after heavy snowfall wreaked havoc in the city

Bopanna and Ramkumar wins Adelaide International 1 ATP cup 2022

Tags: Sports News

The unseeded pair of Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan beat the top seeds, Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo  in the doubles final of the Adelaide International 1  ATP cup 2022 on 9 January 2022.

• Ivan Dodig is from Croatia and Marcelo Melo is from Brazil.
•  It was the first ever ATP doubles title for Ramkumar Ramanathan while it was the 21st doubles ATP title for Rohan Boppana .
• The  tournament was played at Adelaide , Australia. 

Bharath Subramaniyam is India’s 73rd Chess GM

Tags: Sports News

 Chennai based fourteen-year old Bharath Subramaniyam on 9 January 2022  became India’s 73rd chess Grandmaster, securing the third and final GM norm at Vergani Cup Open in Italy.

• This was the third GM norm for Subramaniyam and he also crossed 2500 Elo rating points.  To become a GM  a player has to secure three GM norms and 2500 live Elo rating points . 
• He finished  seventh in the tournament .
• The tournament was won by another Indian M.R. Lalith Babu.
• Viswanathan Anand was the firstIndian Chess GrandMaster in 1988.

 Chess rating System 

•   Chess rating system is used in Chess to estimate the strength of a player .
• In chess ,the Elo rating system is used  to grade the players by International chess governing body FIDE.
• The highest rating for a chess player is Grand Master or GM  followed by International Masters or IM and then Masters etc.
• Players are invited to various chess tournaments in the world depending upon their gradings.

For Detail on FIDE  please see the  11 December 2021 post 

Canada win its maiden ATP cup

Tags: Sports News

Canada  won its first ATP cup by defeating Spain 2-0  in the final.

•  Denis Shapovalov of Canada defeated  Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain  and  Felix Auger-Aliassime  of Canada  defeated Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.
• The final was played in Sydney , Australia 

ATP CUP 

•   ATP  cup is organised just before the start of the Australian open Grand slam tournament in the month of January  by the ATP .
•  It is played on hard courts  in  select Australian cities between selected  countries' men Tennis  teams. 

ATP or Association of Tennis Professional is the  governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit worldwide .

Urjit Patel appointed as the Vice -President of AIIB

Tags: Person in news

Reserve Bank of  India  Former Governor  Urjit patel has been appointed as the Vice President of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

• He  has replaced Mr D.J.Pandian  and he will be responsible for AIIB’s investment operations and all sovereign and non-sovereign lending in South and Southeast Asia.

• Sovereign lending means loan given to the governments and non -sovereign lending means loans given to  non -government/private sectors.  

• Urjit Patel is one of the five Vice Presidents in the AIIB and he has been appointed for a period of three years .
• Urjit Patel was the Governor of RBI  from 2016-2018. 

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) 

• It is a multilateral development bank which  was set up in 2016.
•  It has at present 104 members and its Headquarter  is at Beijing ,China.
• China is the majority shareholder of the bank and India is the second largest shareholder of the bank 
• The United States and Japan are not the members of the bank 
• AIIB has given maximum loans to India 

Current President of the Bank : Jin Liqun of China .