DAILYGK 3-4 FEB 2026
1.
NEW YORK CITY
JOINS WHO’S GLOBAL OUTBREAK ALERT
·
New York City (USA)
joined the World Health Organization
(WHO)’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), a
global public health cooperation network.
·
Earlier, Illinois (USA) joined the
WHO’s GOARN on February 3, 2026.
·
GOARN is a network coordinated by the WHO, established in 2000.
·
It brings
together over 360 institutions worldwide.
·
It operates under the broader United Nations (UN)
Health Network framework, which is coordinated by the WHO.
·
The initiative
aims to detect, monitor, and respond quickly to
disease outbreaks and public health emergencies.
·
Indian GOARN
Partner Institutions: Empower
School of Health; Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute
of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE); Manipal Institute of Virology; National
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC);
National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD); National Institute of Virology
(NIV); Population Council
Institute and The INCLEN Trust
International.
2. AUSTRALIAN
OPEN TENNIS 2026
·
Men’s Singles: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz defeated
Novak Djokovic 2–6, 6–2, 6–3, 7–5 to win his first Australian Open
title.
·
At 22 years and 272 days, he became the youngest
man in the Open Era to complete a career Grand Slam, surpassing Don
Budge’s record from 1938.
·
Women’s Singles: Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina defeated World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka
6–4, 4–6, 6–4 to claim her second Grand Slam singles title and became the first
Kazakh woman to win the Australian Open singles crown.
·
Men’s Doubles: Christian Harrison (USA) and Neal
Skupski (UK) defeated Australia’s Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans.
·
Women’s Doubles: Elise Mertens (Belgium) and Zhang
Shuai (China) defeated Anna Danilina (Kazakhstan) and Aleksandra Krunić(Serbia).
·
Deaf Championships 2026: Italian player Marco
Carretta won both Men’s Singles and Doubles titles at the 2026
Australian Open Deaf Tennis Slam in Melbourne Park, marking a historic double
victory in the Deaf tennis category.
·
It was the 114th edition of
the tournament, the 58th in the Open Era.
3.
THAILAND MASTERS BADMINTON 2026
·
Indian Shuttler Devika Sihag won
her maiden Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 300 title after
Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei retired midway through the women’s
singles final of the Thailand Masters 2026 held in Bangkok,
Thailand.
·
In the Men’s
Singles category, Mohammad Zaki
Ubaidillah(Indonesia) clinched the title in the final match of Princess
Sirivannavari Thailand Masters.
·
With this victory, she became only the third
Indian woman to win a BWF Super 300 title, following two-time Olympic medallist
P.V. Sindhu and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal.
4.
WPL TITLE 2026
·
Royal
Challengers Bengaluru Women’s cricket team (RCB-W) clinched
their second Women’s Premier
League (WPL)
title 2026 by defeating
Delhi Capitals Women’s cricket team (DC-W) by six
wickets in the WPL 2026 final held at
Vadodara International Cricket Stadium, Vadodara (Gujarat).
·
WPL featured
five teams namely Gujarat Giants – Women cricket team (GG-W),
RCB-W, Mumbai Indians – Women cricket team (MI-W), DC-W and UP Warriorz – Women
cricket team (UPW-W).
·
DC’s finished
as runners-up for the fourth consecutive season while RCB-W’s
win marked their second WPL title, joining MI-W as the most successful teams.
5.
INDIA’S 97TH & 98TH RAMSAR
SITES
·
Union Minister Bhupender Yadav,
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), announced
that Patna Bird Sanctuary in Etah, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Chhari-Dhand in Kutch, Gujarat were designated as Ramsar
wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands.
·
With this move, the total Ramsar sites in India have grown to 98.
·
Patna Bird Sanctuary is located on the banks of the Upper Ganga Canal, which
provides water to the wetland.
·
Chhari-Dhand is a seasonal wetland, forming a shallow water body during the monsoon
and drying out in the summer.
·
Chilka Lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo National Park (NP)
(Rajasthan) were designated as India’s
first Ramsar sites in 1981.
·
Tamil Nadu (TN) with 20 Ramsar
Sites,
followed by UP with 11 sites and Odisha with 6 sites, are the top 3 states in India
by number of Ramsar sites.
·
The Sundarban Wetland in West Bengal (WB) is
the largest Ramsar Site in India,
covering an area of 4,230 Km².
·
Renuka Lake in Himachal Pradesh
(HP) is the smallest Ramsar Site in India, with an area of just 0.2 km².
6.
GREAT PLACE TO WORK’ CERTIFICATION
·
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL),
a Maharatna Public Sector
Undertaking (PSU) and India’s largest steelmaker, earned the ‘Great
Place to Work’ certification for the period February 2026 to
February 2027.
·
This marks the third consecutive year that
SAIL has received the certification.
7.
68TH GRAMMY AWARDS 2026
·
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin
Gyatso, won his first Grammy Award
in the Best Audio Book, Narration, and
Storytelling Recording category for “Meditations: The Reflections
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama”.
·
Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright accepted
the award on behalf of Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.
·
The track “Golden” from KPop
Demon Hunters won Best Song Written for
Visual Media, marking the first Grammy win for a Korean Pop (K-Pop).
·
Steven Spielberg earned his first Grammy for Best Music Film as a producer on Music for John Williams, a
documentary honoring John Williams’ career.
·
Bad Bunny won the Album of the
Year (AOTY) award
for Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, marking the first win for a Spanish language album.
·
The song “Luther”, a collaborative track by Kendrick
Lamar and SZA, won the Record of the
Year award.
·
The song “Wildflower”, written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’ Connell, won the Song of the Year award.
·
Olivia Dean, singer-songwriter, won the Best New Artist award.
8.
MINIRATNA CATEGORY- I STATUS
FOR YANTRA INDIA
·
Union Minister Rajnath Singh,
Ministry of Defence (MoD), approved Miniratna Category-I status for
Yantra India Limited (YIL), a
Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU).
·
With Miniratna Category‑I status, YIL’s board can approve capital
expenditure up to Rs.500 crore on projects and equipment
without prior government approval, boosting operational and financial autonomy.
·
YIL was established on 1 October 2021 after
the corporatisation of the former Ordnance Factory Board(OFB) into seven new
DPSUs.
·
It is a Schedule ‘A’ DPSU under the
Department of Defence Production(DDP) under the MoD.
9.
CRAFOORD PRIZE IN GEOSCIENCES
·
Indian-origin climate scientist Veerabhadran
Ramanathan was awarded the 2026 Crafoord Prize in
Geosciences by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, one of the
highest international honour
described as the ‘Nobel of Geosciences’.
·
He recognised for decades of pioneering
climate research, particularly on aerosols, super‑pollutants, and atmospheric
brown clouds.
·
He is Distinguished
Professor Emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego in
California, USA.
10.
UPENDRA NATH BRAHMA ‘SOLDIER OF
HUMANITY’ AWARD 2025
·
‘Gyalyum Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck’, Queen Mother of Bhutan, was
honoured for her exemplary humanitarian service and compassionate leadership.
·
Instituted in 2004 by the Upendra Nath Brahma
Trust, the ‘Soldier of Humanity’ Award upholds the ideals and
philosophy of Bodofa Upendra Nath Brahma, centred on sacrifice, courage, and
service to humanity.
