DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Jan. 25, 2023

Suryakumar Yadav named ICC "T20 Cricketer of the Year"

Tags: Awards Sports News

Indian batsman Suryakumar Yadav has been selected as the ICC T20 Cricketer of the Year for the year 2022 for his stellar performance.

An overview of the news

• Suryakumar Yadav beat Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikander Raza, Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan, England all-rounder Sam Curran to win the award.

• Suryakumar Yadav scored 1164 runs in 31 T20 matches played in 2022 and also became only the second batsman in T20 history to score more than 1000 runs in a calendar year.

• Yadav hit 68 sixes in 2022, the most by any batsman in a single year in the history of the format.

In the Women's Section

• Australia's Tahlia McGrath has been awarded the ICC T20 Women's Cricketer of the Year award.

• McGrath left behind India's Smriti Mandhana, New Zealand's Sophie Devine and Pakistan's Nida Dar for the award.

• Tahlia McGrath scored 435 runs and 13 wickets in 16 T20 matches in 2022.

China building dam on Yarlung Zangbo river near Indian border

Tags: International News

Recently it has been revealed through a satellite picture that China is building a new dam on the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) river in Tibet near the tri-junction of India, Nepal and Tibet, which remains a matter of concern for India.

An overview of the news:

• By increasing the construction activities in the areas adjacent to the Indian border, China is installing military equipment and its related equipment there.

• The Chinese dam follows the announcement of plans to build a large dam downstream of the Yarlung Zangbo in 2021 to generate 70 gigawatts of electricity.

• This is nearly three times the power produced by China's Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric power plant in terms of installed capacity.

Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) River:

• The Brahmaputra River is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in China.

• Origin Source:- Mansarovar Lake

• Total length 2,880 km.

• Tibet:- 1,700 km.

• Arunachal Pradesh and Assam :- 920 kms.

• Bangladesh:- 260 km.

Visakhapatnam Railway Station awarded 'Green Railway Station Certificate'

Tags: National News

Visakhapatnam Railway Station under East Coast Railway has been awarded the 'Green Railway Station Certificate' with the highest Platinum rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for adopting green concepts.

An overview of the news

• Dr. S. Vijayakumar, President, IGBC Visakhapatnam presented the certificate to DRM/Voltaire Anup Satpathy at a function held at Visakhapatnam on 24 January 2023.

• Visakhapatnam has joined some of the major railway stations in the country to receive this certificate. Visakhapatnam has scored 82 out of 100 in six categories of environment.

• The Green Railway Station Rating System has been developed by the Environment Directorate of Indian Railways in collaboration with IGBC.

• The system addresses national priorities such as water conservation, waste management, energy efficiency, limited use of fossil fuels, minimal reliance on the use of natural materials, and health and well-being of users.

“U-WIN” platform launched to keep digital records of immunization of women and children in the country

Tags: National News

The Union Health Ministry has launched the “U-WIN” platform to keep a digital record of vaccination of women and children in the country.

An overview of the news

• This platform will be launched as a pilot project in two districts of each state and union territory of the country.

• Every pregnant woman will be registered on this digital platform and records of her vaccination will be maintained. Later a record will be kept of their offspring and their vaccinations at the time of birth and later.

• The platform is based on Co-WIN, the government's digital infrastructure in India's fight against COVID-19.

• Vaccination appointments can also be booked through U-Win. Till now the record of vaccination under UIP was kept manually in the country, but now there will be no need to do so because now all the records of vaccination will be kept digitally.

• With this, once the entire vaccination program is digitised, the beneficiaries will get the certificates immediately and they can also download them if they want. These certificates will be kept in Digi-Lockers.

First India Stack Developer Conference

Tags: Summits

The first India Stack Developers Conference has been organised to focus on ways and means to ensure wider adoption of India's digital goods across the globe in New Delhi on 25 January 2023.

An overview of the news

• The conference will be attended by over 100 digital delegates from industry, government, start-ups and unicorns and academia.

• Representatives of the G-20 countries and the G-20 Secretariat have also been invited to the conference.

• The objective of the conference is to provide a platform to the industry and developer community to develop a strong start-up and innovation ecosystem and explore ways to take India's Stack products to the country as well as to other countries.

• India Stack is a multi-layered suite of digital solutions such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, Co-WIN, GeM, GSTN, which have played a significant role in India's digital transformation.

Indian Railways launches 'Ideal Train Profile'

Tags: National News

Indian Railways has introduced 'Ideal Train Profile' for maximum capacity utilisation and income generation by regularly analysing movement of demand in each train in reserved express trains.

An overview of the news

• The project has been started on a pilot basis in seven Zonal Railways - Eastern, Central, Northern, Southern, South Central, Western and West Central Railways.

• This project has been implemented in more than 200 trains so far.

• Through this facility, it is expected to increase the availability of confirmed seats and increase the number of passengers in the train by 5 percent.

• This module has been developed after two years of hard work by the Railway team under the leadership of R Gopalakrishnan.

Project Benefits

• 'Ideal Train Profile' is a seat capacity optimization decision aid. It allows more than 5,000 combinations of ticket and class for a single date train journey.

• It will also help Railways to review train quota from time to time to address the changing demand mix due to holidays, festivals etc.

Gambian Vice President 'Badra Ali Joffe' passes away in India

Tags: Person in news

Gambian President Adama Barrow tweeted on 18 January 2023 that Gambia's Vice President 'Badra Ali Jofe' has passed away in India after a illness.

An overview of the news: 

• 65-year-old Badra Ali had also been the Education Minister before becoming the Vice President.

• He served as the Education Minister from 2017 to 2022.

• In the year 2016, the famous personality of Gambia 'Yahya Jammeh' was defeated by Badra Ali.

• He was then the fourth Vice-President to serve alongside President Adama Barrow.

• Badra Ali worked at the World Bank as an education specialist for West and Central Africa.

• Gambia was also in the news last year due to the death of about 70 children in the African country Gambia after consuming cough syrup made in India.

Gambia:

• Capital: Banjul

• President: Adama Barrow

• Currency: Gambian Dalasi

Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (AGR) for Food and Agriculture

Tags: International News

India has been elected as the Vice-Chair of the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (AGR) to be held in Rome during January 18-20, 2023.

An overview of the news

• Dr. BN Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Science) and National Coordinator, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) chaired the session and acted as ambassador.

• This working group was formed by the FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA).

• The task of this group is to review technical issues, advise and submit recommendations to the Commission and implement the Commission's program relating to AGR at the global level.

• The 12th session of the ITWG reviewed the implementation of the Global Action Plan for Animal Genetic Resources, monitoring ANGR diversity and preparation of the third country report.

• The Global National Coordinators' Workshop prior to the ITWG session was held in Rome on January 16-17, 2023.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)

• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that studies agricultural production, forestry and research related to agricultural marketing.

• Establishment - 1945

• Headquarters – Rome (Italy)

Renowned architect Dr. B.V. Doshi passed away

Tags: Person in news

Noted architect and Padma Bhushan awardee Balkrishna Doshi passed away at the age of 95.

An overview of the news

• Regarded as the foremost architect of modern India, Doshi was born on 26 August 1927 in Pune.

• Doshi has the distinction of having worked with stalwarts in the field such as Corbusier and Louis Kahn.

• Doshi's major projects include CEPT University and Kanoria Kala Kendra in Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and 'Aranya Low Cost Housing', a township for low and middle income families in Indore.

• Doshi was awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award in the year 1995 for the architecture of 'Aranya Low Cost Housing' township.

• He was awarded the most prestigious award in the field of architecture "Pritzker" in the year 2018. He was the first Indian to receive this honour.

• Doshi was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award in the year 2020.

13th "National Voter's Day"

Tags: Important Days

On January 25, 2023, the country's 13th "National Voters' Day" is being celebrated.

An overview of the news 

• The theme of this year's National Voters' Day (NVD) is 'Nothing Like Voting, I Vote for Sure'.

Background Of The Day

• It was started in the year 2011 in the context of the establishment of the Election Commission of India.

• The Election Commission came into existence on January 25, 1950, on the eve of the first Republic Day of independent India.

Purpose

• The main objective of National Voters' Day is to create electoral awareness among the citizens and encourage them to participate in the electoral process.

Organising Events

• A national function will be organised by the Election Commission in New Delhi in which President Draupadi Murmu will attend as the chief guest and present the National Awards for the year 2022.

• The first copy of the book 'Electing the First President - An Illustrated Chronicle of India's Presidential Election', published by ECI, will be presented to the President by Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on the occasion.

• The song “Main Bharat Hoon – We are the Voters of India” produced by ECI in association with Subhash Ghai Foundation will also be launched.