Current Affairs Daily Digest – January 12 2020
1. National Youth Day is observed on 12 January
National Youth Day or Yuva Diwas is observed on 12 January across India. The day is celebrated every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. It aims to create awareness and to provide knowledge to the youth about the rights in India.
The main aim of the celebration of the Youth day is to propagate the philosophy and the ideals of Swami Vivekananda for which he lived and worked.
The theme of the National Youth Day 2020 is “Channelizing Youth Power for Nation Building”.
2. India attends Hormuz Peace Initiative
India recently attended the Hormuz Peace Initiative that was held in Tehran. The initiative aimed at stabilizing one of world’s busiest shipping lanes, the Strait of Hormuz amidst US-Iran tensions. It was attended by leading trade partners of Iran namely China, Oman, India and Afghanistan.
3. Corona Virus: A new stain of virus found in China
China reported the first death in the country due to pneumonia caused by a new virus that is of outbreak in the city of Wuhan. The Chinese scientists discovered that the new strain of virus is that of the corona virus.
4. GoI established I4C and a portal to deal cyber crimes
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and a National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. The centre was approved in October 2018 at a cost of 416 crores.
5. GoI to launch Purvodaya to accelerate Eastern India Development
The Ministry of Steel announced that it will launch “Purvodaya”, a world class steel hub. The hub aims at an accelerated development programme of eastern states. The Ministry will be joined by CII (Confederation of India Industries) in the implementation of “Purvodaya”.
6. “Cyber AASHVAST” Cyber Crime Prevention Unit launched in Gandhinagar, Gujarat
Home Minister Amit Shah launched the country’s first Cyber Crime Prevention Unit called the “Cyber AASHVAST” in Gandhinagar. Along with AASHVAST, the Video Integration and State Wide Advance Security project called VISWAS was also launched.
The Cyber AASHVAST is a unit that will act to prevent cyber crimes with the help of VISWAS and NETRANG.
7. Smriti Irani launches Yashaswini Scheme for Women entrepreneurship in Goa
Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Irani today launched Yashaswini Scheme for Women entrepreneurship in Goa. The event was held at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at Taleigao near Panaji.
8. DRDO’s Naval variant of Light Combat Aircraft makes its first successful landing
The naval version of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, LCA, made its first successful landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya today. This aircraft is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization, DRDO.
9. Taiwan election: Tsai Ing-wen wins second presidential term
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has secured a second term after sweeping to victory in an election dominated by the island’s relationship with China. Ms Tsai secured just over 57% of the ballot – a record 8.2m votes – well ahead of her rival Han Kuo-yu.
10. Dhaka International Film Festival begins
The 18th Dhaka International Film Festival was inaugurated on Saturday by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen.
The festival kicked off with the screening of the Spanish-Greek film Window to the Sea, directed by Miguel Angel Jimenez, at Bangladesh National Museum (BNM). During the festival 220 films from 74 countries will be screened across various venues in Dhaka between 11-19 January.
11. RBI buys 15 tonnes of gold in Oct-Nov
The Reserve Bank of India stepped up hedging against currency volatility by purchasing 0.48 million troy ounce, close to 15 tonnes, of gold in October-November, central bank data showed. This is the highest bi-monthly gold purchase by the central bank since it started buying gold from the open market in December 2017.
12. Mutual funds infused Rs 670 crore in REITs in 2019: SEBI
Emerging investment instruments REITs and InvITs seem to be finally catching investors’ fancy, with mutual funds investing a whopping Rs 12,000 crore in such units in 2019.
Fund managers infused Rs 670 crore in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Rs 11,347 crore in infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) last year, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
