Top Current Affairs 25 January 2022

Top Current Affairs 25 January 2022

Top Current Affairs 25 January 2022: This post contains the current affairs for 25 January 2022. These current affairs are important for banking exams, insurance exams and other competitive exams like IBPS PO and Clerk, SBI PO and Clerk, RBI Assistant and Grade B, etc. You can also attempt our Current Affairs Quiz after reading our daily current affairs.

National

29 Children Awarded Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2022

• The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP) for the year 2022 has been conferred to 29 children.
• These winners include 15 Boys and 14 Girls, belonging to 21 States and UTs.
• The PMRBP award is given by the Government of India to the children with exceptional abilities and outstanding accomplishments in 6 categories.
• Category wise distribution of awards is given below:
  1. Innovation – 7
  2. Social Service – 4
  3. Scholastic – 1
  4. Sports – 8
  5. Art & Culture – 6
  6. Bravery – 3
• The award carries a cash prize of Rs.1,00,000/-

Karnataka launches India’s first AVGC center of excellence in Bengaluru

• The state government of Karnataka has set up India’s first AVGC Center of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru recently.
• AVCG stands for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics.
• Karnataka is also the first in the country to bring an AVGC policy in 2012.
• This new development has positioned Karnataka as a pioneering high technology digital media hub of India.
• The AVGC Center of Excellence (CoE) has been funded by the state department of IT/BT & Electronics, under its ‘Innovate Karnataka’ initiative.
• The CoE is also said to be the biggest such centre in Asia.
• The basic objective of the AVGC COE is to make available the best facilities and technologies to start-ups, AVGC studios, and professionals who find it difficult to fund or access such a high-technology stack individually.

International

NASA launches $1 Million Deep Space Food Challenge jointly with Canadian Space Agency

• The US Space agency, NASA, has launched Phase 2 of the challenge called as ‘Deep Space Food Challenge’ in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency.
• The competition invites teams to design, build, and demonstrate innovative and sustainable prototypes of food production technologies and produce food for judging.
• The technology will help future astronauts to produce nutritious, tasty, and satisfying meals on long-duration space missions, that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste.
• The Phase 2 of the challenge includes a prize of $1 million.
• Phase 1 of the Challenge ended in October 2021 and 18 teams were awarded a total of $450,000.

Business

Swiggy turns decacorn with valuation of $10.7 billion

• Swiggy (Food-ordering and instant grocery delivery platform) has signed a $700 million funding round led by asset manager Invesco.
• With this, the total valuation of Swiggy has reached to $10.7 billion i.e. it is now a decacorn.
• A decacorn is a startup with a valuation of more than $10 billion.

Banking

Paytm partners with Fullerton India to provide lending products

• One97 Communications (which owns Paytm) and Fullerton India, have partnered to provide lending products to merchant partners and consumers.
• The two companies will leverage data-driven insights and wide reach to bring credit to new-to-credit users.
• The programme will offer Paytm Postpaid i.e buy-now-pay-later to consumers on the Paytm platform by utilizing the risk assessment capabilities and scale of Fullerton India.

Defence

Indian military awards contract to Swedish Defence Company ‘Saab’ for supply of AT4 anti-tank weapons

• The Indian armed forces have signed a contract with the Swedish defence company ‘Saab’ for the supply of single-shot anti-armour weapon AT4.
• Saab was selected through a competitive program for the supply of the AT4CS AST weapon, which will be used by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
• The AT4CS AST is a lightweight and fully disposable weapon.
• It can be fired from confined spaces such as from inside buildings, bunkers and other urban environments.
• The weight of AT4CS AST is around 9 kg with an effective range of 200m.

Appointment

Centre appoints Vinodanand Jha as new Chairperson of PMLA Adjudicating Authority

• Vinodanand Jha has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Adjudicating Authority, for a period of 5 years.
• Mr. Jha is a 1983-batch retired IRS officer, who was serving as the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax in Pune before this.
• The PMLA Adjudicating Authority is a three-member body whose mandated is to adjudicate the cases of attachment of assets orders issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and order for its continuity and further confiscation or release, considering the merits of the investigation.

Sports

Ladakh wins 9th Women National Ice Hockey Championship-2022

• The women’s team from Ladakh has lifted the 9th National Women’s Ice Hockey Championship in Himachal Pradesh on January 21, 2022.
• The championship was organised by the Ice Hockey Association of India at Kaza area in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh from January 15 to 21, 2022.
• A total of six teams participated in the championship from Delhi, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Telangana and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
• The current President of the Association is Dr. Surinder Mohan Bali.

List of winners of 2021 ICC Awards

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the winners of 17th edition of ICC Awards for the year 2021 to recognise and honour the best international cricket players of the previous 12 months, between January 01, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

The winners are listed below:

1. Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)
2. Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year – Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
3. ICC Umpire of the Year – Marais Erasmus
4. ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan)
5. ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Tammy Beaumont (England)
6. ICC Emerging Men’s Cricketer of the Year – Janneman Malan (South Africa)
7. ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Fatima Sana (Pakistan)
8. ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year – Zeeshan Maqsood (Oman)
9. ICC Women’s Associate Cricketer of the Year – Andrea-Mae Zepeda (Austria)
10. ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Babar Azam (Pakistan)
11. ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Lizelle Lee (South Africa)
12. ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root (England)

Obituary

Eminent archaeologist Thiru R. Nagaswamy passes away at 91

• Noted Indian historian, archaeologist and epigraphist from Tamil Nadu, Ramachandran Nagaswamy, has passed away. He was 91.
• He first director of Tamil Nadu government’s Department of Archaeology.
• Nagaswamy was known for his work on temple inscriptions and art history of Tamil Nadu.
• In 2018, Nagaswamy was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award.
• Nagaswamy has authored more than 100 books and his latest book was ‘Senthamizh Naadum Pandbum’, published in January 2022.

Days

National Voters’ Day: January 25

• India observes “National Voters’ Day” every year on January 25 to encourage more young voters to take part in the political process.
• 2022 marks the 12th National Voters’ Day (NVD). The first NVD was celebrated on January 25, 2011.
• The theme of NVD 2022 is, ‘Making Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative’.
• The day also marks commemoration of the Foundation day of Election Commission of India (ECI), which was established on 25th January 1950. 

National Tourism Day of India: January 25

• In India, the National Tourism Day is celebrated every year on 25th January to promote tourism and raise awareness about the importance of tourism for the country’s economy.

• The Indian government established the National Tourism Day to cultivate awareness among the global community on the importance of tourism and to demonstrate how it affects social, political, financial, cultural worth and economic values worldwide.