DAILY GK 19-20 JAN 2026
1.
PM OF YEMEN
·
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) appointed Shaea Muhssin Mohammed
Al-Zindani, Foreign Minister of Yemen, as the new Prime Minister (PM) of Yemen.
·
He succeeds Salem bin Braik.
·
He represented Yemen as Ambassador
to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN)
from 2008 to 2010.
·
Yemen Capital – Sanaa.
2. VIGILANCE
COMMISSIONER
·
President of India, Droupadi Murmu, has
appointed Praveen Vashista as Vigilance
Commissioner(VC) in the Central
Vigilance Commission (CVC) for four years or until the incumbent attains
the age of 65 years, whichever is
earlier.
·
He is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the 1991
batch, belonging to the Bihar cadre.
·
He served in the CBI as SP and Deputy Inspector General
(DIG).
3.
NEW DIRECTORS GENERAL OF
NIA, BSF & ITBP
·
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed
by Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi, approved the proposal of the Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) for the appointments of Rakesh Aggarwal as
Director General (DG) of the National
Investigation Agency (NIA), Praveen Kumar as DG of the Border Security Force (BSF),
and Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor as DG of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
·
NIA Established in 2008 after the Mumbai (Maharashtra) terror
attacks.
·
NIA motto – Rashtraraksanam Adyakartavyam (Protection of the
nation is the first duty) Headquarter in New Delhi
·
BSF Established
on 1 December 1965.
·
BSF motto – Duty Unto Death
(Jeevan Paryant Kartavya); headquartered in New Delhi.
·
ITBP Established on 24 October 1962 after the India-China war.
·
ITBP motto – ‘Shaurya, Dridhata, Karm Nishtha’
(Valor, Steadfastness, and Commitment); headquartered in New Delhi.
4.
PRESIDENT OF UGANDA
·
Uganda’s
Electoral Commission announced that 81-year
old incumbent President Yoweri Museveni of the
National Resistance Movement won the presidential election with 71.65% of the vote, securing a seventh term in
office for 5 years from 2026 to 2031.
·
Yoweri Museveni has been serving as the leader of Uganda since 1986 and is one of the
world’s longest-serving leaders.
·
He won Uganda’s first direct presidential election and
became President in 1996.
·
Uganda Capital– Kampala.
5. MEMBER OF
ABCO
·
The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced the
appointment of India’s Olympic Medallist and professional
boxer Vijender Singh as a member of the Asian Boxing Council (ABCO).
·
Vijender Singh scripted history by winning India’s 1st Olympic
Medal in Boxing (Bronze medal) at the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing, China.
·
He also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar and a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
·
He is a 3-time
Commonwealth Games (CWG) medallist, winning silver medal at Melbourne CWG
2006 (Australia), Bronze at Delhi CWG 2010 (India) and Silver at Glasgow 2014
(Scotland).
·
ABCO Established
in 1985 and headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.
6.
MOAFW: INDIA’S RABI SOWING RISES
2.8%
·
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW) released the data
related to the total area coverage under
Rabi crops (winter crops) as on January 09, 2026.
·
As per the data, the total area sown under rabi crops has increased by 2.8% i.e.
1.76 million hectares (Mn ha) to 64.42 Mn ha
·
The current sown area has also surpassed the seasonal average of 63.78 Mn ha.
·
As per the MoAFW, the expansion in sown area was mainly
attributed to higher acreage under wheat, rice, pulses and oilseeds.
·
The data revealed that the total area sown under Wheat increased by 6.13 lakh hectares
(lh) to 33.42 Mn ha in 2025-26 rabi season.
·
The total area under
Rice stood at 2.17 Mn ha in 2025-26 rabi season.
·
The total area under
Pulses (such as gram, masur) has increased by 3.74 lh, from 13.2 Mn ha
(2024-25) to 13.64 Mn ha (2025-26).
·
This increase was
mainly driven by chana (gram) as total area under it touched 9.58 Mn ha
(during 2025-26 season) over 9.12 Mn ha (2024-25).
·
The total area under
Oilseeds (such as rapeseed and mustard) has increased to
9.68 Mn ha, registering an increase of 3.53 lh compared to
the last year (9.33 Mn ha).
·
The total area covered under Coarse cereals (such as jowar, bajra, and ragi) has expanded
to 5.52 Mn ha during 2025-26 season compared to 5.31
Mn ha in the same period of the last year.
·
Union Minister of of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare - Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Constituency-
Madhya Pradesh, MP).
7. INDIA’S
FIRST OPEN-SEA MARINE FISH FARMING PROJECT
·
Union Minister of State (MoS) Jitendra Singh,
Ministry of Science and Technology launched India’s first open-sea
Marine Fish Farming project (MFFP) in the Andaman Sea, at North Bay, Sri Vijaya Puram, Andaman and Nicobar(A&N)
Islands.
·
The project is being implemented through collaboration
between the Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), its technical arm National Institute of Ocean Technology
(NIOT) and the Union Territory(UT) Administration Administration of A&N
Islands.
8.
28TH CONFERENCE OF SPEAKERS AND
PRESIDING OFFICERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
·
The Government of India(GoI) hosted the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding
Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC), organized by the Parliament of India, at the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan.
·
The conference was chaired
by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
·
India hosted the conference for the fourth time, after
earlier editions in 1970–71, 1986, and 2010.
·
The conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
·
He also inaugurated the 9th
Group of Twenty (G20) Parliamentary Speakers’ (P20) Summit, held on the
sidelines of CSPOC 2026 in New Delhi.
·
Participation: The 2026 event witnessed the largest participation, with 61 Speakers and Presiding Officers from
42 Commonwealth Countries and representatives of 4 semi-autonomous parliaments.
·
The 29th CSPOC will be held in London (UK) in 2028.
9. JAPAN’S
FM TOSHIMITSU MOTEGI VISIT TO INDIA
·
Japan’s Foreign Minister (FM) Toshimitsu Motegi undertook
a 3-day official visit to India.
·
Union Minister S. Jaishankar, Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA) along with Japanese FM Motegi participated in the 18th
India-Japan Strategic Dialogue held in New Delhi.
·
India and Japan launched the Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Dialogue to be led by FMs.
·
Both countries have agreed to convene the Joint Working
Group (JWG) on critical minerals in early 2026.
10.
UAE PRESIDENT VISIT TO INDIA
·
The President of
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan visited India.
·
During UAE President visit, India and the UAE announced
several initiatives in trade,
technology, energy, digital cooperation, culture, and people-to-people ties
to strengthen long-term bilateral relations and economic integration.
·
India and the UAE agreed to expand their Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA), aiming to double bilateral trade to over USD 200 billion by 2032.
·
They also announced a collaboration between Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC) and G-42 to establish a supercomputing cluster, agreed to partner in
advanced nuclear technologies including large reactors and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), and planned to promote
trade and investment with the First Abu
Dhabi Bank (FAB) and DP World
operating from GIFT City, Gujarat.
·
A Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed
for the development of Dholera Special
Investment Region (SIR) in Gujarat.
·
Another LoI between Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) and the
UAE Space Agency aims to develop joint space infrastructure, including
launch facilities, tech zones, start-up incubation, training institutes.
·
A Defence LoI was signed to create a Strategic Defence
Partnership focusing on industry, technology, training, education, special
operations, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism.
·
In energy, a 10-year Sales &
Purchase Agreement (SPA) enables HPCL to import 0.5 million tonnes per annum(MTPA) of Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) from ADNOC Gas starting 2028.
·
A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between APEDA (MoC&I) and the UAE Ministry of
Climate Change and Environment seeks to enhance food sector trade.
