Current Affairs 23 January 2021

We are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 23 January 2021, which have unique updates of Latest Current Affairs 2021 events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, Business Standard and all Government official websites.

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Indian Army Signs MoU with SIDM on Indigenisation and Innovation Partnershipi.On the occasion of 25 Years of Army-Industry Partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) i.e. on January 21, 2021, Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), a company of CII organized a seminar on Army-industry partnership in New Delhi.
ii.The seminar marked the signing of an memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indian Army & SIDM to accelerate indigenisation and innovation under Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative to reduce dependence on foreign origin equipment.
iii.It was signed by Director General of SIDM Sujith Haridas and Major General KV Jauhar, Additional Director General (ADG) Army Design Bureau.
iv.The seminar was virtually addressed by Chief of the Army Staff Manoj Mukund Naravane.
About Indian Army:
Chief of the Army Staff Manoj Mukund Naravane was conferred with the Honorary Chief of Nepal Army rank in November 2020.
Headquarters– New Delhi
About Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM):
President– Jayant Damodar Patil
Headquarters– New Delhi
<<Read Full News>>

Kiren Rijiju Inaugurates 1st ever Khelo India Zanskar Winter Sports  & Youth Festival 2021 in LadakhOn January 21, 2021, Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Youth Affairs and Sports inaugurated the 1st ever Khelo India Zanskar Winter Sports & Youth Festival 2021 at Padum in Zanskar of Kargil, Ladakh UT. It will take place for 13 days from January 18-30, 2021 and is organized by  Ladakh’s Sports & Youth Services Department and Tourism Department under the Khelo India program.
i.The Festival is the 1st of its kind to be organized in Zanskar Valley,  Ladakh.

• Objective –  To promote Zanskar as a winter Tourists destination.
• It has been introduced as an annual event to showcase the potential of Zanskar valley as a hub for Adventure Tourism & Sports.

ii.Some of the events in the Festival are Ice Climbing, trekking on frozen Zanskar River, Ice Hockey, snow sculpture & ethnic food festival.
About UT Ladakh
Lieutenant Governor– Radha Krishna Mathur
Capital–  Leh, Kargil
<<Read Full News>>

India Africa Trade Council 2021 inaugurated in Chennai, Indiai.On January 22, 2021, the India Africa Trade Council 2021 was inaugurated in Hotel Crowne Plaza, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) for building up business relations between India and Africa.
ii.It was inaugurated by the Additional Secretary (Africa) Ambassador Nagma Mallick (IFS) Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Govt. of India and the Ambassador of Ethiopia in India Dr Tizita Mulugeta Yimam.
iii.Ramakrishan, Founder of Corporate Clinic in Chennai was appointed as the Director of the India Africa Trade Council during the ceremony in Chennai.
About South Africa:
Capital– Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial).
Currency– South African Rand (ZAR)
<<Read Full News>>

MoRTH & IIT Roorkee sign MoU for Strengthening R&D activities and Continuation of Professorial Chair Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) & IIT Roorkee (IITR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Strengthening Research & Development (R&D) sectors in Road Sector & continuing of MoRTH Professorial Chair at IIT Roorkee.

• The Chair focuses on R&D, training & teaching in the Development of Highway Infrastructure.

Objective:

• To develop indigenous technologies for reducing the cost & time taken for construction of Road/Bridge/Tunnel projects.
• To achieve this purpose, the knowledge available with Research Institutes & Academia will be used by MoRTH.

MoRTH Professorial Chair:
The Professorial Chair will provide Guidance regarding

• Acceleration of Innovation, Research & Development in highway sector
• Undertaking studies on Environment & Social Impacts of highway development projects

About IIT Roorkee (IITR):
Director – Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi
Location – Uttarakhand
<<Read Full News>>

NSDC Partners with California State University to Provide Digital Skills Training in IndiaOn 21st January 2021, the National Skill Development Corporation(NSDC) partnered with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) to fulfill the increasing demand for a digitally skilled workforce in India.
The initiative is led by eSkillIndia, the digital skilling unit of NSDC.
Features:
i.Under this partnership ,the platform of CSULB – SkillsCommons and Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) will be integrated with NSDC’s eSkillindia.org, to encourage e-learning among the youths of India.
ii.The free and access to the industry centered training materials, this partnership will facilitate online training to all.
Benefits:
i.CSULB will provide more than 200 free courses for the skill seekers in India.
ii.The courses from various sectors like healthcare, management, information technology, finance, employability skills will be provided under this initiative.
About National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC):
i.NSDC, a public limited company established by the Ministry of Finance as Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model.
ii.The Government of India holds 49% share capital of NSDC through the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship(MSDE) and the Private sector holds the balance 51%.
MD & CEO– Manish Kumar
Headquarters– New Delhi
Incorporated on– 31st July 2008

Specialists from Indian AirForce move to Russia for S-400 Missile System Training in Moscow 

India is set to send the first group of Military specialists to Russia to train on operating the S-400 air Defence system in Moscow.India will receive the first batch of the S-400 by the end of 2021.

In October 2018, India signed a 5.43 billion USD deal with Russia to procure five S-400, long-range air Defence systems.

S-400 supplies initiative is one of the flagship projects in the Russian-Indian military and military-technical cooperation.

• S-400 was developed by Almaz Central Design Bureau of Russia. It is an upgrade of the S-300 family of surface-to-air missile systems.
• The all five s-400 delivery is expected to be completed by 2025

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

MoS MEA V Muraleedharan’s 3-day visit to UAE; Focus on Welfare of Indian Workers in UAEi.The Minister of State (MoS) Vellamvelly Muraleedharan, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) paid a three day visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE) from January 19, 2021 to January 21, 2021 to focus on welfare of Indian workers in UAE.
ii.He landed at the Abu Dhabi International Airport where he was received by Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor.
iii.He inaugurated the classes that offer basic lessons for improving Indian workers’ knowledge in English and Arabic languages as well as computer skills in the premises of the Delhi Private School (DPS) in Jebel Ali.
About United Arab Emirates (UAE):
Capital– Abu Dhabi
Currency– United Arab Emirates dirham
<<Read Full News>>

BANKING & FINANCE

Small Finance Banks’ Assets Grew 150% Annually between FY18-FY20 & NPA ratio Moderate:RBIi.In accordance with an article ‘Small Finance Banks: Balancing Financial Inclusion and Viability’ published in Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monthly bulletin on January 21, 2021, the assets of small finance banks (SFBs) between financial years (FY) 2017-18 and 2019-20 have grown 150% annually. Their share in total assets of the financial sector stood at 0.4% in March 2019.
ii.The article prepared by Richa Saraf and Pallavi Chavan from the RBI’s Department of Supervision provided an overview of SFB’s business between FY 2017-18 and 2019-20.
iii.There has been rapid growth in the branch network of SFBs. The number of branches of SFBs rose to 4,307 by March 2020, but they are concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas.
iv.The bad loan ratio or NPA ratio is low among the freshers of India’s financial system. Notably their NPA remained moderate inception, which states a healthy asset quality
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Formation– 1 April 1935
Governor– Shaktikanta Das
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Deputy Governors– 4 (Bibhu Prasad Kanungo, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, and M Rajeswar Rao)
<<Read Full News>>

SBI Executed Money Market Deals linked to SOFRi.On January 21, 2021, the State Bank of India (SBI) has executed two inter-bank short term money market deals with pricing linked to SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) through its Hong Kong (China) branch.
ii.The transaction states the growth of SBI in Alternate Reference Rates (ARRs).
iii.ARRs are overnight rates which are published at the end of the overnight borrowing period.
iv.It should be noted that SBI is one of the first major banks to sign the ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) 2020 IBOR Fallbacks protocol on December 11, 2020.
About SBI (State Bank of India):
Founded– July 1, 1955 as SBI
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairman– Dinesh Kumar Khara
Tagline– The banker to every Indian; With you all the way; Purely banking nothing else; The nation banks on us; A bank of the common man
<<Read Full News>>

GrayQuest Partners with SBM Bank India to Enhance Access to Quality Education in Indiai.On January 22, 2021 GrayQuest partnered with SBM Bank (India) Limited to help its clients to access affordable funds to pay their children’s education fees in monthly payments.
ii.GrayQuest has partnered with over 2000 leading schools, colleges and universities across India to enable this kind of payment.
Aim of the Partnership– To enhance access to quality education in India by increasing the convenience of paying educational fees.
About GrayQuest:
Founder, CEO– Rishab Mehta
HeadOffice– Mumbai, Maharashtra
About SBM Bank (India) Limited:
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Managing Director(MD) and Chief executive Officer(CEO)– Sidharth Rath
Commenced Operations– 1st December 2018
<<Read Full News>>

Govt of India Increased Authorized Share Capital of  Punjab & Sind Bank From Rs 3,000 Crore to Rs 10,000 Crore

Government of India has increased the authorised share capital of Punjab & Sind bank to Rs 10,000 crore from Rs 3,000 crore.The government in 2020 had approved to infuse Rs 5,500 crore capital into the bank by preferential allotment of shares. The fund was approved from Rs 20,000 crore cleared by the Parliament in September 2020 to infuse capital in Public Sector Banks (PSBs)  as part of the 1st batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2020-21.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS        

Coal Ministry conferred ‘Coal Minister’s Award 2020’;launched ‘Project Passion’ of CIL and CHP in New Delhi

Three units of Coal India Ltd (CIL) namely  Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) in Madhya Pradesh, Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) in Jharkhand & Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) in Maharashtra have bagged the ‘Coal Minister’s Award 2020’ for adopting the best & sustainable practices for coal mining in India. The awards were presented by Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal & Mines during a function held in New Delhi.
i.Coal Minister’s Awards

• NCL, Madhya Pradesh was awarded for its performance in Coal Production & Productivity
• CCL, Jharkhand & WCL, Maharashtra were awarded for adoption of best safety practices & sustainable mining.

ii.During the event, Pralhad Joshi virtually inaugurated a new Coal Handling Plant (CHP) at Krishnashila Coal Project of NCL in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It is the 3rd Completed Project under CIL’s 35 First Mile Connectivity (FMC) Projects.
iii. Pralhad Joshi also launched ‘Project Passion’ – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) of CIL to boost the business performance & Growth of the company by ensuring Data Integrity.
About Coal India Limited (CIL):
Chairman cum Managing Director  – Pramod Agarwal
Headquarters – Kolkata, West Bengal
<<Read Full News>>

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS          

Mongolian PM Ukhnaa Khurelsukh Resigns Over Protests Against the COVID-19 Control MeasuresOn 21st January 2021, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, Prime Minister of Mongolia resigned following the public protest against the COVID-19 control measures of the Government.

• Submitting the resignation, he has also proposed to dissolve his government.
• The Mongolian parliament dominated by Ukhnaa Khurelsukh’s Mongolian People’s Party voted to accept the resignation.
• 60 parliamentarians out of the 63 who attended the session approved the resignation.

Other resignations:
Yangu Sodbaatar, the Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia and the head of the National Emergency Commission, responsible for handling the COVID-19 pandemic, and Togtmol Mukhsaikhan, Health Minister resigned from their position on 20th January 2021 over the social pressure and public protests.
The State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia):
The State Great Hural, is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia.
Chairman– Gombojav Zandanshatar
Members– 76(includes 13 female representatives)
About Mongolia:
President- Battulga Khaltmaa
Capital–  Ulaanbaatar(Red Hero)
Currency– Mongolian Tugrik

Jayant N Khobragade Appointed as India’s Next Ambassador to ASEAN Secretariat, Jakartai.On January 21, 2021 Jayant N Khobragade has been appointed as India’s next Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia. He will shortly take charge of the position.
ii.He is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1995 batch and currently serves as joint secretary in External Affairs Ministry, Government of India.
About Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN):
Member countries– Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia
Chair(2021)– Brunei Darussalam
Secretary-General of ASEAN 2018 -2022–  Dato Lim Jock Hoi from Brunei Darussalam
Headquarters– Jakarta, Indonesia
<<Read Full News>>

 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

HAL Successfully Test Fires Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW)Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) successfully Test Fired the Indigenous  Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from the Hawk-i aircraft close to the coast of Odisha.
i.It is the 1st Smart Weapon to be fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132.
ii.It has been developed by  Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under HAL’s Hawk-i Program.
iii.SAAW is a precision strike weapon of 125 kg category and has a range of 100 kms
iv.It can be used to attack enemy assets like radars, bunkers, taxi tracks and runways.
About Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL):
Chairman & Managing Director – R Madhavan
Headquarters – Bengaluru, Karnataka
About RCI:
Director  – Narayana Murthy
<<Read Full News>>

OBITUARY

Malayalam Actor Unnikrishnan Namboothiri Passed Away at 98On 20th January 2021, renowned Malayalam actor, Unnikrishnan Namboothiri passed away at the age of 98 in Kannur, Kerala. He was born on 19 October 1923 in Payyanur, Kannur, Kerala.
Acting career of Unnikrishnan Namboothiri:
i.At the age of 73 Unnikrishnan Namboothiri made his debut as an actor in 1996 in the film “Desadanam”.
ii.His noted films in Malayalam during his career from 1996 to 2014 includes, Oral Mathram, Kaliyattam, Kalyanaraman, Kaikudanna Nilavu, Madhuranombarakattu, Rappakal, and Pokkiri Raja.
iii.He has also starred in Tamil films which includes, Kandukondain Kandukondain and Pammal K Sambandam.
Awards:
At the age of 76, He won the national award for his role in the Malayalam Movie ‘Desadanam” directed by Jayaraj in 1996.

STATE NEWS

Rajasthan Govt Signs Tripartite Agreement with RSMML & MECL for Study of Potash Mining i.On January 21, 2021 Department of Mines & Geology (DMG), Govt. of Rajasthan signed a  tripartite agreement with Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Limited(RSMML) and the Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL), Govt of India to take possibility steps towards study solution mining of potash in the Nagaur-Ganganagar area of ​​Rajasthan, covering parts of Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh, and Bikaner districts.
ii.MECL will be the program manager and this will create a path for solution mining which tends to be established as the 1st solution mining hub of potash in India.

About Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Limited(RSMML):
It is an undertaking of Rajasthan govt
Chairman– NiranjanKumar Arya, IAS
Headquarters– Udaipur, Rajasthan
About Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL)
It is under the administrative control of Ministry of Mines, Govt of India
Chairman & Managing Director(CMD)– Ranjith Rath
Headquarters– Nagpur, Maharashtra
<<Read Full News>>

Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal Laid Foundation Stone of Rs 184 Crore Science City at Tepesia, AssamOn January 18, 2021 Assam Chief Minister(CM) Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation stone of  Science City at Tepesia, Assam. The total expenditure to build this science city is Rs 184 crore.
Purpose of Science City– To popularise Science & Technology(S&T) at the grassroot
About the Construction:
Cost
i.The main building of the Science City is being built jointly by the National Council of Science Museum under the Cultural Affairs department of the Central Government and Science and Technology Department of the State government. The construction of the main building will cost Rs 110 crore.
ii.The centre and the state government will share the total cost of constructing the science city in 90:10 ratio.
Coverage
The science city will cover 250 bighas(a traditional unit of measurement of area of land) of land and roads, drainage system etc.
Note
Necessary lands have also been available to set up ISRO centre at  Amingaon, Assam. The work of Bio-Tech Park that covers an area of 64 bighas at Amingaon has been completed
About Assam:
River Ports– Dhubri port, Pandu port
Nicknames of Cities- Dibrugarh– Tea City of India; Guwahati- Gateway of North East India

UP’s ‘Virasat Drive’ Disposed 4.43 Lakh Pending Disputes over Land & Properties

In December 2020, The Government of Uttar Pradesh launched the “Virasat (natural succession) Drive”, a two-month long campaign to end land disputes over succession rights in villages and to resolve the property lawsuits at tehsil and district levels. As of 19th January 2021, under this initiative, the officials of the revenue department have disposed of more than 4.43 lakh cases which were pending for years.

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