DAILY GK 4-5 JAN

 DAILY GK 4-5 JAN

1.     KMRC: INDIA’S FIRST UNDERWATER METRO SERVICES

●      The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) announced that the East-West Metro Corridor project, India’s first underwater metro service, in Kolkata will be completed by December 2023.

●      The 16.6 km corridor will run through the Hooghly river, connecting Howrah and Kolkata Sealdah railway stations including the north-south line of the Kolkata Metro at Esplanade.

 

2.     RBIS 2022 LIST OF D-SIBS

●      The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the 2022 list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) based on the data from March 31, 2022.

●       In this, State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank kept the status as D-SIBs, under the same bucketing structure as in the 2021 list of D-SIBs.

●      D-SIBs are interconnected entities, whose failure can impact the whole of the financial system and create instability. They are also known s ‘too-big-to fail’ banks.

●      SBI will be in the 3rd bucket .

●      ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank will be in the 1st  bucket

●      The D-SIBs will be selected by RBI based on the size of the bank as a percentage of GDP(Gross Domestic Product) i.e the banks having a size beyond 2% of GDP.

●      The selected D-SIBs are assessed through the 4 indicators of Size, Interconnectedness, Lack of readily available substitutes or financial institution infrastructure, and Complexity.

 

3.     INDIA’S EXTERNAL DEBT AT $610 BILLION IN Q2 FY23

●      As per the figures from the Ministry of Finance, India’s external debt stood at USD 610.5 billion in Q2 FY23 (July-September 2022) showing a decrease of USD 2.3 billion from Q1 FY23 (April to June 2022).

●      The external debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio stood at 19.2% at the end of Q2FY23 as compared to 19.3% at end of Q1FY23.

●      The United States (US) dollar denominated debt remained the largest component of India’s external debt, with a share of 55.5% at end of Q2FY22, followed by the Indian rupee (30.2%), Special Drawing Rights (SDR) (6.1%), yen (4.9%), and the euro (2.6%).

 

4.     BCCI BEST PLAYERS OF 2022

●      The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the names of the players who were the best performers of  Team India across all 3 formats – One Day Internationals (ODIs), T20 and Test in 2022.

●      Best Performers in Tests Rishabh Pant (Wicket-Keeper Batsman),Jasprit  Bumrah (Bowler)

●      Best Performers in ODIs Shreyas Iyer (Batter), Mohammed Siraj (Bowler)

●      Best Performers in T20Is Suryakumar Yadav (Batter),        Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Bowler)

 

5.     GAGANYAAN: TO BE LAUNCHED BY 2024

●      Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Science and Technology, announced that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ready to launch India’s 1st Atmamirbhar human flight “Gaganyaan” by the year 2024.

●      There will be two preliminary launches in 2024. The 1st will be unmanned, and in the 2nd launch, the robot will be there as a human replica. On the third launch, humans will be sent into space.

 

6.     SHASHI THAROOR’S BOOK “AMBEDKAR: A LIFE”

●      Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament (MP – the Lok Sabha – Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), has launched his latest book “Ambedkar: A Life”, a biography of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

●      Shashi Tharoor won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2019 for “An Era of Darkness: The Britsh Empire in India”.

 

7.     108TH INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS

●      Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister(PM) of India, virtually inaugurated and addressed the 108th edition of the Indian Science Congress (ISC), also known as ISC 2023, organised at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj (RTM) Nagpur University, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

●      The focal theme of the ISC 2023 is “Science and Technology for Sustainable Development with Women Empowerment”.

●      The ISC Association was founded in 1914 in Kolkata and held a meeting every year during the 1st week of January. It has a membership of more than 30,000 scientists.

 

8.     1ST WOMAN OFFICER TO BE DEPLOYED AT SIACHEN

●      Captain Shiva Chouhan, hailing from Rajasthan, has become the first woman officer of the Indian Army to get operationally deployed at Siachen Glacier, Karakoram range in the Himalayas in ‎Ladakh‎, the world’s highest battlefield after training at Siachen Battle School.

●      She is posted at the “Kumar Post” at an altitude of 15,632 feet where night temperatures are close to -25 degree Celsius.

●      Capt Shiva Chouhan is an Engineer Officer from the Bengal Sappers.

 

9.     INDIA TAKES OVER LEADERSHIP OF ASIAN PACIFIC POSTAL UNION

●      Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh, former Member (Personnel), Postal Services Board, will take over as Secretary General of the Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU) for a 4-year term, following the successful elections held during the 13th APPU Congress in Bangkok (Thailand)

●      He will succeed Mr. Lin Hongliang of China, the outgoing Secretary General of the APPU, who was appointed in January 2014.

●      This marked the first time an Indian has taken the lead of an international postal organisation.

●      The Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU) is an intergovernmental organisation with 32 member countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

●      The APPU was established in Manila (Philippines) in 1962 and has been headquartered in Bangkok since 2002.

 

10. WORLD BRAILLE DAY 2023 – JANUARY 4

●      United Nations (UN)’s World Braille Day is annually observed across the globe on January 4 to highlight and raise awareness about the importance of Braille as a means of communication for the partially sighted and blind.

●      World Braille Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, a 19th-century French educator, who invented Braille in 1824.