1. Many first at the 73rd Republic Day 2022
Tags: National News
President Ram Nath Kovind led the nation in celebrating the 73rd Republic day 2022 celebration at the Raj Path in New Delhi.
This year republic day celebrations are part of the “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” celebration of the Government of India to commemorate 75 years of Indian Independence.
Highlights of the Republic day ceremony 2022:
- There were no foreign guests at the ceremony like in 2021 due to the corona pandemic.
- From this year the Republic day celebration started on 23 and will end on 30 January. Earlier it started on 24 and ended on 29 January. 23 January is celebrated as Parakram Day on the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose and 30 January is the Martyr's day to mark the assassiantion of Gandhiji.
- This year construction workers, sanitation workers, frontline workers and auto rickshaw drivers were invited as a special guest.
- Eco-friendly invitation cards with seeds of medicinal plants such as Aloe Vera, Ashwagandha and Amla have also been sent to invitees
- For the first time 480 dancers performed on the Rajpath who have been selected through a nationwide Vande Bharatham dance competition.
- The parade saw the launch of 'Shaheedon Ko Shat Shat Naman' programme by National Cadet and a display of ten scrolls each of 75 metres prepared during the 'Kala Kumbh' event.
- Due to Covid restriction only 21 tableaux were allowed at the parade. 12 tableaux were of State and Union Territories and nine of the Ministries and Department. The tableaux of Meghalaya, Gujarat, Goa, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra participated in the parade.
- Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, the country’s first Rafale pilot, was a part of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that featured in the Republic Day parade.
- The finale of the Republic day parade was the spectacular 75 aircraft fly past by the Indian Air Force. It included Rafale, Sukhoi-30s, Jaguars etc. fighter jets and helicopters of the Indian Air Force. 17 Jaguar fighter jets formed 75 formations to commemorate the 75th Independence Day of India.
- The military horse Virat retired after the parade. It was the 13 and final appearance of the Virat on the rajpath as the commandant of the President Bodyguard cavalry. The President, Prime Minister and Defence Minister personally patted the horse as a mark of respect.
- The beating retreat ceremony will be held on 29 January which will feature 1000 drones developed by IIT Delhi startup “ Botlab Dynamics”, and supported by the Department of Science and Technology. India will become the fourth country in the world after China, US and Russia to conduct a drone show on such a scale.
- A number of new tunes have been added to the ceremony to celebrate ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. These include ‘Kerala’, ‘Hind ki Sena’ and ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’. The event will come to a close with the ever-popular tune of ‘Sare Jahan se Acha’.
- The parade was commanded by Parade Commander, Lieutenant General Vijay Kumar Mishra.
2. PM writes Personal letters to foreigners on Republic Day
Tags: National News
On the occasion of the 73rd Republic Day on 26 January 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written personal letters to foreigners known to be friends of India acknowledging their role in strengthening people to people relations between India and their country.
The notable person who acknowledged the PM letter are as follows:
Jonty Rhodes
He is a former cricketer of South Africa who has also named his daughter India.
Chris Gayle
He is a West Indies Cricketer and also plays for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Ashley Rindsberg
He is a noted Israeli author.
Gad Saad
He is a Lebanese born Canadian Prof. of Marketing and is a renowned Behavioural scientist.
Machel Montano
He is from Trinidad and Tobago. He is a famous singer, producer, songwriter and actor.
3. China -Central Asian summit meeting
Tags: International News
China hosted a virtual summit meeting with the leaders of the five Central Asian Countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on 25 January 2022. It was hosted by China just two days before the same Central Asian leaders were to be hosted by India in a virtual summit meeting on 27 January 2022.
- The Chinese President Xi Jingping hosted the meeting to commemorate 30 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Central Asian countries.
- China’s President Xi Jinping offered $500 million in assistance to the region for its livelihood programme and pledged to increase bilateral trade.
- The total trade between the two in 2018 was $40 billion and the Chinese president pledged to increase it to $70 billion by 2030.
- He announced that China will provide 5 crore free corona vaccine doses to these five countries.
4. Padma Awards 2022
Tags: Awards National News
Ahead of Republic Day 2022, the Government of India on 25th January 2022 announced the Padma Awards. Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian awards of the country which is conferred in three categories, i.e. Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
- A total of 4 Padma Vibhushans, 17 Padma Bhushans and 107 Padma Shri awards have been conferred this year. 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 Posthumous awardees.
- These awards are conferred by the President of India at the ceremonial functions which are held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March / April every year.
Padma Vibhushan (4):
This award is awarded for exceptional and distinguished services.
- Former Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, India’s first CDS General Bipin Rawat, Hindustani Classical vocalist Prabha Atre and Radheshyam Khemka of Gita Press have been named for the Padma Vibhushan.
- Apart from Gen. Rawat, Singh and Khemka have been conferred the award posthumously.
Padma Bhushan (17):
This award is awarded for distinguished service of a high order.
Name | Field - State/Country |
Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad | Public Affairs - Jammu and Kashmir |
Shri Victor Banerjee | Art - West Bengal |
Ms. Gurmeet Bawa (Posthumous) | Art - Punjab |
Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee | Public Affairs - West Bengal |
Shri Natarajan Chandrasekaran | Trade and Industry - Maharashtra |
Shri Krishna Ella and Smt. Suchitra Ella* (Duo) | Trade and Industry - Telangana |
Ms. Madhur Jaffery | Others-Culinary - United States of America |
Shri Devendra Jhajharia | Sports - Rajasthan |
Shri Rashid Khan | Art - Uttar Pradesh |
Shri Rajiv Mehrishi | Civil Service - Rajasthan |
Shri Satya Narayana Nadella | Trade and Industry - United States of America |
Shri Sundararajan Pichai | Trade and Industry - United States of America |
Shri Cyrus Poonawalla | Trade and Industry -Maharashtra |
Shri Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous) | Science and Engineering - Mexico |
Ms. Pratibha Ray | Literature and Education - Odisha |
Swami Sachidanand | Literature and Education - Gujarat |
Shri Vashishth Tripathi | Literature and Education - Uttar Pradesh |
Padma Shri (107):
This award is awarded for distinguished service in any field.
Name | Field - State/Country |
Shri Prahlad Rai Agarwala | Trade and Industry - West Bengal |
Prof. Najma Akhtar | Literature and Education - Delhi |
Shri Sumit Antil | Sports - Haryana |
Shri T Senka Ao | Literature and Education - Nagaland |
Ms. Kamalini Asthana and Ms. Nalini Asthana* (Duo) | Art - Uttar Pradesh |
Shri Subbanna Ayyappan | Science and Engineering - Karnataka |
Shri J K Bajaj | Literature and Education - Delhi |
Shri Sirpi Balasubramaniam | Literature and Education - Tamil Nadu |
Srimad Baba Balia | Social Work - Odisha |
Ms. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay | Science and Engineering - West Bengal |
Ms. Madhuri Barthwal | Art - Uttarakhand |
Shri Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat | Literature and Education - Ladakh |
Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar | Medicine - Maharashtra |
Shri Harmohinder Singh Bedi | Literature and Education - Punjab |
Shri Pramod Bhagat | Sports - Odisha |
Shri S Ballesh Bhajantri | Art - Tamil Nadu |
Shri Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia | Art - Sikkim |
Shri Maria Christopher Byrski | Literature and Education - Poland |
Acharya Chandanaji | Social Work - Bihar |
Ms. Sulochana Chavan | Art - Maharashtra |
Shri Neeraj Chopra | Sports - Haryana |
Ms. Shakuntala Choudhary | Social Work - Assam |
Shri Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil | Sports - Kerala |
Shri S Damodaran | Social Work - Tamil Nadu |
Shri Faisal Ali Dar | Sports - Jammu and Kashmir |
Shri Jagjit Singh Dardi | Trade and Industry - Chandigarh |
Dr. Prokar Dasgupta | Medicine - United Kingdom |
Shri Aditya Prasad Dash | Science and Engineering - Odisha |
Dr. Lata Desai | Medicine - Gujarat |
Shri Malji bhai Desai | Public Affairs - Gujarat |
Ms. Basanti Devi | Social Work - Uttarakhand |
Ms. Lourembam Bino Devi | Art - Manipur |
Ms. Muktamani Devi | Trade and Industry - Manipur |
Ms. Shyamamani Devi | Art - Odisha |
Shri Khalil Dhantejvi (Posthumous) | Literature and Education - Gujarat |
Shri Savaji Bhai Dholakia | Social Work - Gujarat |
Shri Arjun Singh Dhurve | Art - Madhya Pradesh |
Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre | Medicine - Maharashtra |
Shri Chandraprakash Dwivedi | Art - Rajasthan |
Shri Dhaneswar Engti | Literature and Education - Assam |
Shri Om Prakash Gandhi | Social Work - Haryana |
Shri Narasimha Rao Garikapati | Literature and Education - Andhra Pradesh |
Shri Girdhari Ram Ghonju (Posthumous) | Literature and Education - Jharkhand |
Shri Shaibal Gupta (Posthumous) | Literature and Education - Bihar |
Shri Narasingha Prasad Guru | Literature and Education - Odisha |
Shri Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan (Posthumous) | Art - Andhra Pradesh |
Shri Ryuko Hira | Trade and Industry - Japan |
Ms. Sosamma Iype | Others - Animal Husbandry - Kerala |
Shri Avadh Kishore Jadia | Literature and Education - Madhya Pradesh |
Ms. Sowcar Janaki | Art - Tamil Nadu |
Ms. Tara Jauhar | Literature and Education - Delhi |
Ms. Vandana Kataria | Sports - Uttarakhand |
Shri H R Keshavamurthy | Art - Karnataka |
Shri Rutger Kortenhorst | Literature and Education - Ireland |
Shri P Narayana Kurup | Literature and Education - Kerala |
Ms. Avani Lekhara | Sports - Rajasthan |
Shri Moti Lal Madan | Science and Engineering - Haryana |
Shri Shivnath Mishra | Art - Uttar Pradesh |
Dr. Narendra Prasad Misra (Posthumous) | Medicine - Madhya Pradesh |
Shri Darshanam Mogilaiah | Art - Telangana |
Shri Guruprasad Mohapatra (Posthumous) | Civil Service - Delhi |
Shri Thavil Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan | Art - Puducherry |
Ms. R Muthukannammal | Art - Tamil Nadu |
Shri Abdul Khader Nadakattin | Others - Grassroots Innovation - Karnataka |
Shri Amai Mahalinga Naik | Others - Agriculture - Karnataka |
Shri Tsering Namgyal | Art - Ladakh |
Shri A K C Natarajan | Art - Tamil Nadu |
Shri V L Nghaka | Literature and Education - Mizoram |
Shri Sonu Nigam | Art - Maharashtra |
Shri Ram Sahay Panday | Art - Madhya Pradesh |
Shri Chirapat Prapandavidya | Literature and Education - Thailand |
Ms. K V Rabiya | Social Work - Kerala |
Shri Anil Kumar Rajvanshi | Science and Engineering - Maharashtra |
Shri Sheesh Ram | Art - Uttar Pradesh |
Shri Ramachandraiah | Art - Telangana |
Dr. Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao | Medicine - Andhra Pradesh |
Ms. Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai | Social Work - Gujarat |
Ms. Padmaja Reddy | Art - Telangana |
Guru Tulku Rinpoche | Others - Spiritualism - Arunachal Pradesh |
Shri Brahmanand Sankhwalkar | Sports - Goa |
Shri Vidyanand Sarek | Literature and Education - Himachal Pradesh |
Shri Kali Pada Saren | Literature and Education - West Bengal |
Dr. Veeraswamy Seshiah | Medicine - Tamil Nadu |
Ms. Prabhaben Shah | Social Work - Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu |
Shri Dilip Shahani | Literature and Education - Delhi |
Shri Ram Dayal Sharma | Art - Rajasthan |
Shri Vishwamurti Shastri | Literature and Education Jammu and Kashmir |
Ms. Tatiana Lvovna Shaumyan | Literature and Education - Russia |
Shri Siddhalingaiah (Posthumous) | Literature and Education Karnataka |
Shri Kaajee Singh | Art - West Bengal |
Shri Konsam Ibomcha Singh | Art - Manipur |
Shri Prem Singh | Social Work - Punjab |
Shri Seth Pal Singh | Others - Agriculture - Uttar Pradesh |
Ms. Vidya Vindu Singh | Literature and Education - Uttar Pradesh |
Baba Iqbal Singh Ji | Social Work - Punjab |
Dr. Bhimsen Singhal | Medicine - Maharashtra |
Shri Sivananda | Others - Yoga - Uttar Pradesh |
Shri Ajay Kumar Sonkar | Science and Engineering - Uttar Pradesh |
Ms. Ajita Srivastava | Art - Uttar Pradesh |
Sadguru Brahmeshanand Acharya Swami | Others - Spiritualism - Goa |
Dr. Balaji Tambe (Posthumous) | Medicine - Maharashtra |
Shri Raghuvendra Tanwar | Literature and Education - Haryana |
Dr. Kamlakar Tripathi | Medicine - Uttar Pradesh |
Ms. Lalita Vakil | Art - Himachal Pradesh |
Ms. Durga Bai Vyam | Art - Madhya Pradesh |
Shri Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas | Science and Engineering - Gujarat |
Ms. Badaplin War | Literature and Education - Meghalaya |
Note:
- Former West Bengal Chief Minister buddhadeb Bhattacharjee turned down the Padma Bhushan.
- Veteran singer Sandhya Mukherjee refused to accept the Padma Shri.
5. Stampede kills 8 football fans in Cameroon
Tags: International News
At least 8 football fans were killed in a stampede on 24 January 2022 at a stadium in Cameroon,s capital, Yaounde. The football fans were trying to enter the Olembe Stadium to watch a match between Cameroon and Comoros football team for the African Cup of Nations tournament .
Cameroon government allowed only vaccinated fans to watch the match and many fans who were not vaccinated against coronavirus tried to forcefully enter the stadium resulting in stampede.
Cameroon
It is an African country.
It's capital is Yaounde
Currency: Central African franc
6. India provides $ 2 lakh assistance to Tsunami hit Tonga
Tags: National News
The Government of India has announced an immediate relief of USD 2 lakh to the Kingdom of Tonga for reconstruction and rehabilitation work.
- The Pacific island country was hit by a Tsunami caused by an undersea Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption on 15 January 2022.
- According to American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption was hundreds of times stronger than the US atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945,
- According to NASA the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano spewed debris as high as 40 kilometres into the atmosphere during the January 15 eruption that triggered huge tsunami waves.
- The volcanic ash blanketed the country having a population of about 100,000 in a layer of toxic ash, poisoning drinking water, destroying crops and completely wiping out at least two villages.
- Neighbouring countries New Zealand, Australia and Japan are providing relief material to the country
7. India improves on the Corruption Perception Index 2021
Tags: National News
According to the latest Corruption Perception Index 2021 report, released by the Berlin based Transparency International, India's rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries with a score of 40.
- Last year India was ranked 86.
- The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
- The least corrupt countries were Finland, Denmark and New Zealand with a score of 88 at the top.
- They were followed by Norway, Singapore and Sweden with a score of 84 .
- The most corrupt was South Sudan at the bottom with a score of 11
8. India Israel to celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relation
Tags: National News
India and Israel have started a series of events to mark the 30 years of establishment of diplomatic relationship between the two countries .
Both the countries have released a logo which features Ashok Chakra of India and Star of David of Israel. These symbols are there on the flags of India and Israel respectively.
The logo was designed by Nikhil Kumar Rai of India.
India and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1992 .
Israel
The modern state of Israel was set up as a country for the Jews . It was set up after the partitoning of the Muslim majority Palestine. It proclaimed its Independence on 14 May 1948 which was opposed by the Palestinians and Arab States.
India recognised Israel on 17 September 1950 but no diplomatic relationship was established with Israel as a protest to its treatment of Palestinians and India’s support to Palestaninan cause . India support setting up of an independent Palestinian state ,which Israel opposes .
India established diplomatic relations with Israel and opened its diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1992.
Capital of Israel: Jerusalem. Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital but many countries including India see it as a disputed territory.
Tel Aviv is considered as the capital of Israel by a majority of countries.
Parliament of Israel: Knesset
Currency of Israel: Shekel
Prime Minister of Israel: Nefatli Bennet.
9. Government of India announces Subhash Chandra Bose Awards For Disaster Management 2022
Tags: National News
The Union Home Ministry every year announces Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar on 23 January on the occasion of the birth day of Subhash Chandra Bose which is also celebrated as Prakram Diwas in India .
The Award is given in two categories, Institutional and Individual. It honours institutions and individuals who provide exemplary services in the field of disaster management.
Institutional Category award 2022.
Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM),
The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GID M) was set up in 2012 with its headquarters at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
It got a cash prize of Rs 51 lakhs and a certificate.
Individual Category award 2022
Professor Vinod Sharma
He is a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and Vice-Chairman of the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, was the founder co-ordinator of the National Centre of Disaster Management, now known as the National Institute of Disaster Management.
He received a cash prize of Rs 5 lakhs and a certificate.
10. Former Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe awarded Netaji award 2022
Tags: National News
Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was conferred with the Netaji Award 2022 by Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata.
- Consul General of Japan in Kolkata Nakamura Yutaka received the honour on behalf of Mr. Abe at a function at the Elgin Road residence of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125th birth anniversary.
- In January 2021, Government of India bestowed the country’s second-highest civilian honour “Padma Vibhushan” on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
