DAILY GK 23-25 JAN 2026
1. TYLER PRIZE
·
Renowned American Biologist Dr. Toby Kiers was
named the winner of 2026 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, also known as ‘Nobel for the
Environment’, in recognition of her groundbreaking research revealing
the important role of mycorrhizal fungal networks in carbon
cycling and nutrient exchange.
·
Tyler Prize is one of the 1st international premier environmental
awards established in 1973 by
the late John and Alice Tyler.
·
The award is administered by The University of Southern California
(USC), Los Angeles, USA.
·
The recipient of the award (i.e. any individual or
organisation from any part of the world) receives a cash prize of USD
250,000.
2.
SAINA NEHWAL ANNOUNCED
RETIREMENT
·
Indian Olympic medallist, Padma Awardee and former world No. 1 Badminton
player Saina Nehwal announced her retirement from
competitive badminton, concluding a 21-year career.
·
She was honored with Padma Shri in 2010 and
Padma Bhushan in 2016 for her
contribution in the field of Sports.
·
She clinched the bronze
medal in women’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics in London becoming the first Indian badminton player to
win an Olympic medal.
·
Became the first
Indian woman to achieve World No. 1 ranking in singles in 2015.
·
She Won her first Badminton
World Federation (BWF) Superseries title at the Indonesia Open in 2009 (Jakarta, Indonesia), the first for an
Indian, and accumulated 10 Superseries
titles including Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, Australia, China, and India
Opens.
·
Commonwealth gold in women’s singles at the 2010 New
Delhi and 2018 Gold Coast editions in Australia.
·
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna - India’s highest sporting honor,
awarded in 2009 (age 19) for her historic rise from world rank 100+ to top 10,
Indonesia Open victory.
·
First badminton player and only second woman after Karnam Malleswari.
·
Arjuna Award Awarded in 2009.
3. VIJAY HAZARE
TROPHY
·
The Vidarbha cricket team won its maiden Vijay
Hazare Trophy (2025–26 season) title after defeating Saurashtra by
38 runs in the final held in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
·
Vidarbha scored 317 runs for 8 wickets in 50 overs and then
bowled out Saurashtra for 279 runs in 48.5 overs to secure the win.
·
Aman Mokhade of Vidarbha received the Player of the Tournament award, scoring 814 runs in the series.
·
Vijay Hazare Trophy is India’s premier domestic
50-over One-Day cricket tournament, named after legendary Indian cricketer
Vijay Hazare.
·
The tournament, started
in 2002-03, features state and regional teams competing in List A matches.
4.
RESPONSIBLE NATIONS INDEX 2026:
·
Former President of India Ram Nath Kovind launched
the inaugural edition of the Responsible Nations Index (RNI), a
1st-of-its-kind global framework.
·
India was
ranked 16th globally in the RNI 2026.
·
Singapore topped the ranking
among 154 countries followed by Switzerland
in second place and Denmark in third
place.
·
The index has ranked major economies like: Japan, USA, and China at 38th,
66th, and 68th positions, respectively.
·
The bottom three nations in the RNI 2026 were Central African Republic (154th), Syria (153rd), and South Sudan
(152nd.
5.
NUMBEO SAFETY INDEX 2026
·
According to Numbeo Safety Index 2026 rankings
by Numbeo, a crowd-sourced global database, Mangaluru (Karnataka) emerged as the safest city in India,
securing the 46th rank
globally with a safety score of 74.4.
·
Qingdao (Shandong, China) topped the global list with an
exceptional safety score of 89.2, followed by Abu Dhabi (UAE) in second place and Doha (Qatar) in third place.
·
Mangaluru (Karnataka) is followed by Ahmedabad (Gujarat) at 87th
globally and Jaipur (Rajasthan)
at 106th.
·
Pretoria (South Africa) was ranked at the bottom (304th) preceded by Caracas
(Venezuela) at 303rd and Johannesburg
(South Africa) at 302nd.
·
The UAE is safety country followed by Qatar
and Andorra.
·
Papua New Guinea ,Venezuela and Haiti are three least safe
countries globally.
6. BRAND
FINANCE GLOBAL 500 2026 REPORT
·
Brand Finance released a report titled “Brand Finance Global
500 2026”.
·
Accenture remains the world’s
first IT services brand, valued at USD 42.2 billion.
·
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), valued at
USD 21.2 billion (84.6) secured the second
place.
·
Infosys ranked the world’s
third most valuable Information Technology (IT) Services Brand, valued
at USD 16.4 billion.
·
The combined brand value of the world’s top 25 IT services brands stood at USD 167.2 billion in
2026.
7.
ASIA MANUFACTURING INDEX 2026
·
The third edition of the Asia Manufacturing Index (AMI 2026), released by Hong
Kong-based advisory firm Dezan Shira & Associates, showed that India retained
its 6th rank among 11 Asian countries.
·
China maintained
the 1st position leading in economy,
workforce, and international trade, followed by Malaysia in
2nd place and Vietnam in 3rd place.
·
AMI is conducted annually to evaluate
the manufacturing competitiveness of major Asian economies.
·
It
Assesses eight key pillars: Economy, Political Risk, Business
Environment, International Trade, Tax Policy, Infrastructure, Workforce, and
Innovation.
8.
WEF’S GLOBAL RISKS REPORT 2026
·
The World
Economic Forum (WEF) published the 21st edition of its annual risk assessment,
titled ‘Global Risks Report: 21st
Edition Insight 2026’.
·
As per the report, the top global risks are geoeconomic confrontation, state-based conflict,
extreme weather, social protection gaps, and misinformation.
·
The 2026 global
risks outlook is marked by pervasive uncertainty.
·
Extreme
weather has dropped from 2nd
place to 4th place in the two-year outlook, but remains the most severe
long-term (10-year) risk.
·
The report is
based on insights from the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), which
gathers input from over 1,300 global leaders and experts, covering a list of 33 key global risks.
·
GRPS 2025-26 featured 4
key components, including risk landscape, consequences, risk governance, and outlook.
·
This annual edition of the report examines global risks across 3 time horizons i.e. immediate (2026); short-to-medium term (to 2028) and long term (2036).
·
The report highlighted that extreme
weather events emerged as the most significant risks in the long term (up to 2036); followed by biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse (2nd); critical
change to earth systems(3rd); misinformation and disinformation (4th) and
adverse outcomes of AI technologies (5th), among others.
·
The report has identified cyber
insecurity as the major
risk faced by India; followed by other risks which include inequality
(wealth, income); insufficient public services and social protections (such as:
education, infrastructure, pensions).
9.
IMF RAISES INDIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH
FORECAST TO 7.3%
·
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released
its World Economic Outlook (WEO) titled,
“Global Economy: Steady amid Divergent
Forces”, in which
it has upwardly revised India’s growth outlook for Financial Year 2025-26 (FY26) to 7.3%, from
6.6% in October 2025.
·
The IMF’s prediction was just marginally lower than India’s government projection
of 7.4% for the same period.
·
The IMF has also projected that India’s growth would
moderate to 6.4% in both FY27 and FY28.
·
India’s inflation is projected to approach the
Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) target
range of 2% to 6%, after a
significant drop in 2025.
·
Among emerging and developing Asian
economies, India continues to lead, outpacing
regional peers and contributing significantly to Asia’s projected 5.0% growth in 2026.
·
The IMF projected global growth at
3.3% for Calendar Year 2025 (CY25) and 3.2% for CY26, with the same 3.2% growth expected in 2027.
·
The global inflation is projected to decline from an estimated 4.1% in
CY25 to 3.8% in CY26 and further to 3.4% in
CY27.
·
Global trade volume growth is projected to fall from 4.1% in CY25 to 2.6% in CY26, before
rebounding to 3.1% in CY27.
·
IMF
Managing Director (MD) –Kristalina Georgieva.
·
Headquarters – Washington DC.
·
Member Nations – 191.
·
Established – 1944.
10.
RBI ISSUES GUIDELINES ON INTEREST
SUBVENTION FOR EXPORT CREDIT
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued
operational guidelines for extending
interest subvention on pre and post-shipment export credit under the Export
Promotion Mission (EPM) – NIRYAT PROTSAHAN
(1st Component).
·
NIRYAT PROTSAHAN Objective is to facilitate improved access to pre- and post-shipment rupee export
credit for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) exporters
by reducing the cost of such credit.
·
The RBI has
directed all All Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCB)
(excluding Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)), Primary (Urban)
Co-operative Banks (UCB), State Co-operative Banks (StCB),
All-India Financial Institutions (AIFI) to extend the
benefit strictly to eligible exporters.
·
All MSME manufacturer
exporters and
merchant exporters holding a valid
active Importer Exporter Code (IEC) and a valid MSME Udyam Registration Number (URM)
shall be eligible to receive
interest subvention support.
·
The interest subvention will be applicable only to
exports covered under a notified positive list of tariff lines at the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) six-digit level.
11.
RBI NOTIFIES NEW FEMA RULES FOR
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued
the ‘Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and
Services) Regulations, 2026’ under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), introducing uniform timelines and enhanced monitoring
requirements for trade‑related
foreign exchange transactions.
·
These regulations
will supersede the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods & Services)
Regulations, 2015 and are set to take effect from October 1, 2026.
·
It has been mandated that all references to RBI must be routed via the Platform for
Regulatory Application, Validation and Authorisation (PRAVAAH)
portal, and any doubtful
transactions must be reported to the Directorate of Enforcement(ED) under the
Ministry of Finance(MoF).
·
As per new rules, an exporter of goods is required to submit a declaration in the Export Declaration Form (EDF) to
the specified authority.
·
Authorized Dealer (AD) banks have been mandated to enter EDF details for goods exported through
non-EDI ports into the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS)
within 5 working days of receipt.
·
For service exports,
RBI has mandated banks to upload exporter-submitted EDF details into EDMPS within
5 working days of receipt from the exporter.
·
The new rules have specified that the export proceeds must be realized and repatriated
within 15 months of shipment or invoice, while exports invoiced and settled in Indian Rupees (INR) must be realized
within 18 months.
·
As per new FEMA
regulations, all inward and outward remittances linked to exports, imports,
and merchanting trade transactions must be reported
in EDPMS and/or IDPMS.
·
RBI has empowered
the AD banks to monitor all transactions in EDPMS and IDPMS for closure of
outstanding entries.
12.
INDIAN ARMY DAY 2026 – JANUARY 15
·
Indian Army (IA) Day also known as Bhartiya Sena Diwas is
celebrated annually across India on 15th January
·
The day marks the appointment
of General (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa as the first Indian Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of
the Indian Army in 1949, succeeding General Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher,
the last British C-in-C of independent India.
·
Although the IA was established in 1895, its first Indian Chief was appointed only
in 1949.
·
2026 Events:
·
The Army Day Parade was hosted for the first time by the
South Western Command, also known as the Sapta Shakti Command.
·
Sena Medals (Posthumous) were awarded to the Next of Kin of
five soldiers for acts of bravery.
·
The Nepal Army Band participated in parade .
·
The newly raised
Bhairav Battalion made its first public appearance as an agile combat force
designed for rapid response, drone-enabled warfare, and multi-domain
operations.
13.
PARAKRAM DIWAS 2026 –
JANUARY 23
·
Parakram Diwas, also known as the Day of Valour, is
observed annually across India on 23 January to
commemorate the birth anniversary of Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra
Bose, popularly known as Netaji.
·
The first Parakram Diwas was
celebrated on 23 January 2021.
·
The Ministry of Home Affairs, (MHA), announced the
recipients of the S C Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar 2026 in
recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of Disaster
Management.
·
Institutional Category: Sikkim State Disaster Management
Authority (SSDMA).
·
Individual Category: Lieutenant
Colonel Seeta Ashok Shelke, Indian Army (IA).
14. Book
‘Chalice of Ambrosia: Ram Janmabhoomi- Challenge and Response’
·
Vice President (VP) C.P. Radhakrishnan released
a book titled ‘Chalice of Ambrosia: Ram Janmabhoomi- Challenge and
Response’, authored by Dr. Surendra
Kumar Pachauri
·
It chronicles the long and complex Ram Janmabhoomi movement,
a campaign to reclaim and build a temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram, a Hindu
god, in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh (UP).
