1. The World Bank has extended a loan of 50 million dollar for 'Nai Manzil Education and Skills Training for Minorities' project. The project will help the disadvantaged youth from minority communities to complete their education. It will also provide hands-on vocational training and post-placement support to assist them in finding sustainable employment.
2. The Union Government has constituted a committee headed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal for holistic interpretation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act. The recommendations of this Committee are expected to provide a holistic framework and enable those tasked with the work of certification of films.
3. Virat Kohli has won the BCCI Cricketer-of-the-Year 2015 award. The award is named after former India captain and all-rounder Polly Umrigar. Mithali Raj was picked for the top women's award by BCCI. Karnataka all-rounder Robin Uthappa has been picked for the Madhavrao Scindia Award for being the highest run-scorer in Ranji Trophy.
4. Recently, Indian mountaineer, Arunima Sinha has conquered Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, South America. With this, she has become the first female amputee in the world to climb 5 Mountains of the world. Arunima Sinha is already the first female amputee and also the world's first amputee to climb Mt. Everest. Till date, the world's five highest peaks has been climbed by her. These are as follows: Mt. Everest (Asia), Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mt. Elbrus (Europe), Mt.Kosizko (Australia) and Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina). Mt. Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside Asia, at 6,960.8 metres, and by extension, the highest point in both the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
5. The Raja Rani Music Festival is one of the famous festivals of Odisha. It is organized at the Rajarani Temple every year from January 18 to 20 by the Government of Odisha. The Rajarani Temple is a 11th-century Hindu temple located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The temple focuses on classical music and all three styles of classical music 'Hindustani, Carnatic and Odissi' are given equal importance. The musicians from different parts of the country perform during the three-day festival.
6. Atul Sobti has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-owned power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) for a period of 5 years.
7. Kiran Doshi is the author of the book – Jinnah Often Came To Our House. He is an Indian Foreign Service Officer and former ambassador to Austria. The book is about Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The book has shed a light on his personal life which hasn't been highlighted much before.
8. Jharkhand has become the first state to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Union Government for the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) reforms for state-owned power distribution companies. The tripartite agreement is signed between Jharkhand state government, power distribution companies and the union power ministry. The UDAY scheme has been launched by Union Government to improve financial and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies. It envisages to reduce interest burden, cost of power and AT&C losses. The scheme is optional and operationalised through signing of MoU between state governments, state discoms and Centre.
9. The Supreme Court-appointed Justice R M Lodha panel had submitted its report to the Supreme Court registry. It suggested for suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years from participating in IPL. The report, which deals with various aspects relating to the functioning of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will be considered by the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur at a later stage.
10. The Mumbai cricketer, Pranav Dhanawade (15) has become the first batsman to score 1009 runs in an innings in any form of cricket in an officially recognised match. Dhanawade broked a 116-old cricketing record held by the English school boy A. E. J. Collins since 1899, of 628 not out.
11. The Union Government has launched Ganga Gram Yojana at Village Puth in Hapur district, Uttar Pradesh. Under the programme, 1600 villages will be developed. In the first phase of the yojana, 200 villages have been selected. In these villages open drains falling into river Ganga will be diverted to alternative arrangements for sewage treatment.
12. Recently, the Union Government has launched the Stand Up India Scheme to promote entrepreneurship among SC/ST and women entrepreneurs through banks. In it, every bank branch, including private sector, has to provide credit facilities to at least one SC/ST and one women entrepreneur at lower rates.
13. Harper Lee's second novel – Go Set a Watchman topped the US bestseller list in 2015, selling 1.6 million copies more than half a century after her Pulitzer-winning first book was published.
14. Star Wars is a science fiction franchise comprised of movies, books, comics, video games, toys, and animated shows. It is a fictional universe created by George Lucas.
15. The world's largest blue star sapphire stone has been found in the southern Sri Lankan city of Ratnapura, which is known as the city of gems.
16. Louise Richardson, a prominent academic specialising terrorism and security studies, has taken over as the first woman vice-chancellor in the 900-year history of the University of Oxford on January 1.
17. Rajasthan is the first state to brought minimum qualification of Class X for contesting the zilla parishad or panchayat samiti polls, Class VIII to contest sarpanch elections, and Class V for scheduled areas. The minimum education qualification set by the Haryana law to contest panchayat polls is Class X for general candidates, Class VIII pass for women and Dalits, Class V for Dalit women.
18. The former Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Devender Kumar Sikri has been appointed as the new chairman of Competition Commission of India (CCI). He succeeded Ashok Chawla. The main objective of CCI is to make market work for the benefit and welfare of consumers and also prevent activities that have adverse effect on competition in India.
19. The World's first slum museum will be set up in Dharavi, Mumbai.
20. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has been conferred with the 2016 Central Banker of the Year Award (Global and Asia Pacific) by the Financial Times Group's monthly publication.
21. The senior IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Sailesh has been appointed as Registrar General and Census Commissioner for a period till July 28, 2017. He succeeded C Chandramouli. Prior to this, he was the additional secretary in the Home Ministry.
22. Recently, the union government has issued a notification to permit jallikattu, Tamil Nadu's traditional bull-taming sport, ahead of the Pongal festival. The notification overturns a 2011 notification that prohibited the exhibition or training of bulls, and some other animals, as performing animals. The Supreme Court had in 2014 upheld the 2011 government order. The present order permits jallikattu and bullock cart races in Maharashtra, etc.
23. The 8-day counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency joint exercise 'Shakti-2016' has started between India and France in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. This is the 3rd edition in the series of bilateral exercises under this banner. The joint exercise will undergo a training schedule aimed at combating conditioning, infantry tactical operations in a counter-terrorism environment and planning of joint operations under the United Nations (UN) mandate. It will round off in a tactical exercise encompassing clearing of pockets of terrorists in rural and urban environment.
24. Priyanka Chopra has won the Favourite Actress in a New TV series award at the People's Choice Awards 2016 for her leading role in American TV thriller series 'Quantico'. She is the first South Asian actress to win a People's Choice Awards.
25. Telangana has become the first Indian state to make gender education compulsory at the graduate level.
26. The 11th World Hindi Day has been observed on January 10, 2016.
27. Google's Project Tango, a technology platform first revealed in 2014, gives a form of computer vision to mobile devices. Recently, Chinese computing giant Lenovo said it has partnered with Google to launch a new smartphone that can see and map out surroundings with help from the US-based company's 3D technology named Project Tango.
28. Asia's oldest stock exchange BSE will get its own postage stamp. BSE had recently become the world's fastest stock exchange clocking a median trade speed of six micro seconds. It has also cemented its position among the largest exchanges of the world in terms of total market capitalisation of listed firms, after hitting a milestone of Rs 100 lakh crore.
29. The Nati folk dance of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh had made it to the Guinness World Records Book as the largest folk dance in the world.
30. Kerala has become the first Indian state to achieve 100% primary education.
31. Sachin Bansal, who is the co-founder of Flipkart, has stepped down as CEO to take on the role of Executive Chairman of the company. Other co-founder Binny Bansal, will take the reins from Sachin as the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart. He was earlier the COO of the company.
32. Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the crop insurance scheme 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojna' to boost the farming sector. The scheme will offer more insurance with less premium and lead to rise of purchasing capacity of farmers. The new Crop Insurance Scheme replaced the existing National Agricultural Insurance Scheme. Under the new scheme, farmers will have to pay a uniform premium of two per cent for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops. For annual commercial and horticultural crops, farmers will have to pay a premium of 5 per cent. The remaining share of the premium will continue to be borne equally by the Centre and the respective state governments.
33. Sikkim has become India's first fully organic state by implementing organic practices on around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land. The organic cultivation is free of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
34. Jharkhand is set to make a mark by flying the world's largest Tricolour atop the India's tallest flagpole at the Pahari temple in Ranchi. The 293 feet tall flag pole will be 53 feet taller than the Qutub Minar.
35. Kiran Bedi's latest book 'Creating Leadership' has illustrations from her top cop years.
36. The Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has won the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize, who is best known for his work with "do tank" Elemental, an architecture group that aims to tackle poverty and eliminate slums using a participatory approach that engages local communities in early stages of the design process. With this, he is the first Pritzker laureate from Chile and the fourth from Latin America. He will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medal during a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 2016.
37. The Delhi-based Journalist-writer, Ankita Anand has won the prestigious 2015 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize in Asia and the Pacific – Amateur category. She earned the award for her sensitive portrayal of life for young women facing the threat of the diktat of khap panchayats in Haryana with the title 'Stirrings beneath the peepul' published in the journal.
38. The first woman Vice Chancellor of Kerala, Dr Jancy James has been selected for the prestigious 2016 Prof MV Pylee Award for the best academician of India. Dr Jancy was the former VC of Mahatma Gandhi University and founder Vice Chancellor of Central University of Kerala.
39. Indian writer Anuradha Roy has won the prestigious 2016 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for her novel 'Sleeping on Jupiter' at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka. Ms. Roy was awarded the $50,000 prize and a unique trophy by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in the ceremony.
40. Dinesh Sharma, Additional Secretary of Union Ministry of Finance, has been elected to the 12-member board of the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This is the first board of directors of AIIB in which 57 nations are founding members including India. The inaugural meeting of the board of the governors of the AIIB also held in Beijing after its formal launch by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is the designated governor of the AIIB from India.
41. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group has announced a tie-up with the Madhya Pradesh government to set up a 750-Mw Rewa ultra-mega solar power project. This will be the largest single-site solar power project in the world.
42. The book titled " She Will Build Him A City" has been authored by Raj Kamal Jha, who is the Chief Editor of the daily newspaper The Indian Express and an internationally acclaimed novelist. The book is concerned with the metropolitan coexistence of health and sickness, poverty and wealth.
43. In a recent terrorist attack at a Burkina Faso hotel, several people are killed. Burkina Faso is a Western Africa nation. Its capital city is Ouagadougou.
44. Recently, state- run BHEL has commissioned the second 660 MW supercritical unit of Lalitpur Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) in Uttar Pradesh.
45. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently released a book named "The Z Factor: My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time". The book is the autobiography of Essel Group Chairman Dr. Subhash Chandra. Dr Chandra is referred to as the Media Moghul of India, revolutionised the television industry by launching the country's first satellite Hindi channel Zee TV in 1992 and later the first private news channel, Zee News.
46. India will host a seven-day military exercise "Exercise Force Eighteen" that to be held on March 2 to 8, 2016 in Pune, Maharashtra.
47. The 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF)'s 46th annual conference has been started at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Switzerland. The official theme is "Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution". In this edition of WEF meeting, approx. 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists would discuss the most pressing issues facing the world like outlook of the global economy, measures to fight terrorism, inequality, etc.
48. Maharashtra has become the first state in the country where women employees in government jobs can avail up to 180 days maternity leave, while having a baby through surrogacy.
49. Recently, Roger Federer became the first man to achieve 300 singles wins at grand slams. Presently, Martina Navratilova holds the all-time record of 306 singles wins at grand slams.
50. The first Ministerial Meeting of Arab-India Cooperation Forum was held in Manama, capital city of Bahrain.
51. The Veteran Bollywood actress Rekha has been honoured with the third National Yash Chopra Memorial Award 2016 in recognition of her talent and contribution to the film industry.
52. For the first time in the history of Republic Day parade, a 76-member French Army contingent took part. The French Army's 35th Infantry Regiment traces its origin back to 1604 when it was raised in Lorraine in France.
53. The free-speech organization PEN American Center announced that it is giving its 2016 PEN/Allen award to author J.K. Rowling. Previous recipients of the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award include Philip Roth, Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie. PEN is also honouring Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch. Pietsch joined with several other publishers last year in an informal pledge to combat censorship of translated books in China.
54. Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease suspected of causing birth defects is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947.
55. Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has joined a task force of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to study the future of global financial system. Its members include bankers and policymakers from across the world. The task force was formed at the request of Bank of England Governor and Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney and WEF's Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.
56. The Red Panda Winter Festival 2016 was started in Sikkim on 23 January. It ends on 31 January. The festival promises to be a grandiose nine-day event of culture, food, harmony and celebrations.
57. The Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has ranked India at 76 out of 168 countries in its latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015. The list is topped by Denmark followed by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and Netherlands. The ranks of some important countries are as follows: Bhutan (27), China (83), Sri Lanka (83), Pakistan (117), Nepal (130) and Bangladesh (139). The CPI is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption. Countries' scores can be helped by open government where the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don't respond to citizens' needs.
58. The Mysuru-Varanasi Express is the first Braille-embedded in India where all reserved coaches have embedded Braille signage.
59. According to the Bangkok based Thai Rice Exporters Association, India has overtaken Thailand as the world's largest rice exporter in the year 2015 by shipping (exporting) 10.23 million tonnes of rice. Vietnam was third globally while China remained the No. 1 importer of rice.
60. Indian author and foreign affairs expert Nisid Hajari has won the 2016 William E. Colby Award for his book "Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition". The book is based on the 1947 partition of India and the violence surrounded that event. The Colby prize is awarded annually by Norwich University to a first-time author in recognition of a work of fiction or non- fiction that has made a major contribution to the understanding of military history, intelligence operations or international affairs.
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