DAILY GK 9-11 JAN 2025
1. ANJU BOBBY GEORGE CHAIRED
ATHLETES COMMISSION
·
Long-jump great Anju
Bobby George was named
Chairperson of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI)’s Athletes
Commission.
·
Two-time Olympic
medallist and javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is one
of the members in the Athletes Commission.
·
This commission features
India’s nine-athletes with six women athletes and three men athletes.
·
Bahadur
Singh Sagoo was the chairman of the previous Athletes Commission.
·
The Athletes Commission seeks
to represent the viewpoints and interests of athletes within the Athletics
Federation of India’s governing bodies.
·
The eligibility criteria include being a champion at the Asian or
Commonwealth Games or at least participating in an Olympics or World
Championships.
·
The tenure of the
Athletes Commission is four years; the current members are committed to the
2025–2029 cycle.
2. 6th SCORPENE SUBMARINE
‘INS VAGSHEER’
·
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders
Limited (MDL) delivered the 6th and final Scorpene-class submarine, ‘Indian
Navy Ship (INS) Vaghsheer (S26)’ to the
Indian Navy (IN) in Mumbai, marking the successful completion of Project
P-75.
·
India aims to be fully
self-reliant in defence by 2047, with numerous ships
and submarines under construction in domestic shipyards.
·
Other 5 Submarines: INS
Kalvari (2015), INS Khanderi (2017),
INS Karanj (2018), INS Vela (2021), and INS Vagir (2020).
3.
SBI LAUNCHED HAR GHAR LAKHPATI RD SCHEME
·
The State Bank of
India (SBI), India’s largest
Public Sector Bank (PSB), has launched two new deposit schemes namely, Har Ghar Lakhpati Recurring Deposit (RD) scheme and SBI Patrons Fixed Deposit (FD) scheme.
·
Har Ghar Lakhpati RD Scheme is a pre-calculated RD scheme
designed to enable customers to accumulate Rs
1 lakh or multiples thereof.
·
Minors can also avail the benefits of the scheme, thus
promoting early financial planning and saving habits.
·
Tenure of SBI RD account is 12 months or 1 year (minimum) and
120 months or 10 years (maximum).
·
SBI Patrons FD Deposits i.e. It is a FD scheme, designed
specifically to cater the needs of
senior citizens who are 80 years and above.
·
It is available to both
existing and new term deposit customers.
·
The depositors under this scheme will earn an additional 10 basis points (bps) higher interest rate than
what is offered to senior citizens.
4.
SBI LAUNCHED TAB-BASED ONLINE NRO, NRE ACCOUNT OPENING FACILITY
·
State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest Public Sector Bank (PSB),
launched TAB-based digital process for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to open
Non-Resident External (NRE) and
Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts.
·
This initiative aims to
streamline the account opening process through real-time digital verification
and a paperless system.
·
The maximum and minimum tenure
on these deposits is 1 year and 10 years, respectively.
·
Interest earned on these accounts is exempted from income tax as well as the
balances held in these accounts are free from wealth tax.
·
NRO Account - This account aims to address the needs of NRIs who want to manage their income earned within India,
like: rent, dividends, pensions, among others.
·
The interest earned in this
account is subject to tax in India. Funds in this account are also held in
Indian Rupees(INR).
·
It provides limited repatriation i.e. with a limit of up
to USD 1 million per Financial Year(FY).
5. MERGER OF NATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE
BANK WITH COSMOS CO-OPERATIVE BANK
·
The Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) approved the merger
of National Co-operative Bank Limited,
Bengaluru (Karnataka) with Cosmos Co-operative Bank
Limited, Pune
(Maharashtra)
·
The RBI sanctioned the
Scheme of Amalgamation of the banks in exercise of the powers conferred under
Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
6. SEBI EASES SETTLEMENT
NORMS FOR INACTIVE BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS
·
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) eased
settlement norms for brokerage accounts that remain
inactive for over 30 calendar days.
·
This change aims to
reduce procedural inefficiencies for brokers, making the process smoother by eliminating the daily
settlement requirement.
·
Previously, brokers were obligated to identify inactive clients and return their funds
within 3 working days.
·
The new SEBI guidelines allow brokers to settle the funds of clients who haven’t traded for 30 calendar
days on the upcoming settlement dates as per the monthly cycle, specified
in stock exchanges’ annual calendars.
·
A brokerage account is
considered inactive if the client has not made any trades (buying or selling stocks) for 30 days in a
row.
7. WORLD BANK APPROVES USD 35
MILLION TO ENHANCE EDUCATION IN MEGHALAYA
·
The World Bank’s (WB) Board
of Executive Directors approved USD 35 million loan
for a project Meghalaya Multisectoral
Project for Adolescent Wellbeing, Empowerment and Resilience (MPOWER)
aimed to improve education quality in Meghalaya.
·
It aimed to better empower 5,00,000 adolescents to make the
transition from school to work by lowering
dropouts, improving learning outcomes and providing assistance for
accessing jobs and starting businesses.
·
The project MPOWER will strengthen
academic results for adolescents in grades 6-12 and
close gaps in students’ reading and math skills.
·
Meghalaya has one of the
highest dropout rates in India, with 11% of students leaving school at the
upper primary level and 22% of students dropping out at the secondary level.
·
World Bank President – Ajay Banga
·
Headquarters – Washington, D.C
·
Established – 1944
·
Meghalaya Chief Minister - Conrad Kongkal Sangma
8.
WORLD BRAILLE DAY 2025 – JANUARY 4
·
The United
Nations(UN’s) World Braille Day is
observed annually on January 4 across
the globe to commemorate the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the 19th-century French
inventor of the Braille writing system.
·
The theme for 2025 World Braille Day is Celebrating Accessibility and Inclusion for
the Visually Impaired
9.
WORLD DAY OF WAR ORPHANS 2025 – JANUARY 6
·
World Day of War Orphans is
observed annually on January 6 across
the globe to raise awareness about the challenges faced by children who have
been left orphaned by wars and about the trauma experienced by war orphans
globally.
·
The World Day of War
Orphans was proposed by the French
organization SOS (Societas Socialis) Enfants en Détresse (SOS Children in Distress), to protect
children from abuse and mistreatment.
·
UNICEF Headquarters- New York
·
Established-December 11, 1946
·
Member Countries- 190
10. EARTH’S ROTATION DAY 2025
– JANUARY 8
·
Earth’s Rotation Day is observed globally on January
8 to highlight the importance of Earth’s rotational motion.
·
It commemorates the anniversary of French physicist Leon
Foucault‘s scientific demonstration in 1851.
·
The spinning of the
Earth around its axis is called ‘rotation.’
·
Earth completes a full rotation on its axis every 23 hours
and 56 minutes, rounded up to 24 hours.
·
The full rotation
is known as one Earth Day and is responsible for day and night cycles.
·
Earth rotates on its axis
from West (W) to East (E), the Sun and the Moon appear to move from E to W across the
sky.
·
In the 16th century, Polish astronomer Nicolaus
Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model, suggesting Earth
rotated on its axis and revolved around the Sun.
·
This theory was confirmed by Galileo Galilei’s observations of Jupiter’s
moon in 1610.
·
In 1851, French physicist Léon Foucault provided conclusive
proof of Earth’s rotation with the Foucault Pendulum experiment.
·
The principle of the
experiment was 1st demonstrated in the
Pantheon in Paris.
·
The experiment involved suspending a 28 kilogram (kg) brass
bob, 38 centimeters (cm) in diameter (d), hanging on a 67 meter (m) (220 foot)
long wire.
·
It was the 1st satisfactory demonstration of the earth’s
rotation using laboratory apparatus rather than astronomical observations.
·
Later, it was displayed at the Pantheon in Greece, (Rome,
Italy).
·
Earth rotates on its axis
on an imaginary line passing through the North(N) and South (S) Poles, at a speed of
1,670 kilometer per hour(km/h) (1,037 miles/h) at the equator.
·
The Earth’s diameter is
12,714 km (7,900 miles) from N towards S Poles and 12,756 km (12,756 miles) via the
equator (7,926 miles).
11. PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS
2025 – JANUARY 9
·
The Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas (PBD), also known as Non-Resident Indian (NRI)
Day, celebrated once in two years on 9th January is
a significant event that honors the contributions of the Overseas Indian community (Indian diaspora) in
the development of India.
·
The PBD is observed every
year on 9th January since 2003 to commemorate
the day in 1915 when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly
known as Mahatma Gandhi, returned to India from South Africa to
lead the country’s freedom struggle.
·
Since 2015, under a
revised format, PBD Convention has been organised once every 2
years with the theme-based PBD Conferences.
·
The 18th PBD Convention was held for the 1st
time in Bhubaneswar, Odisha in January 2025.
·
The
theme of PBD Convention 2025:”Diaspora’s Contribution to a Viksit Bharat”
(Developed India).
12. WORLD HINDI DAY 2025 –
JANUARY 10
·
World Hindi Day or Vishwa
Hindi Diwas is annually observed across the globe on 10
January to highlight the significance of the Hindi language and
its role in connecting people globally.
·
The theme of
this year is “A Global Voice of Unity
and Cultural Pride,”
·
Hindi Diwas, also known as Hindi Day, is annually observed
on September 14 to commemorate the adoption of Hindi
written in Devanagari script as one of
the 22 official languages of India
·
In 1949, Hindi was first spoken at the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the United States of America(USA).
·
In 2006, former Prime Minister (PM) Dr. Manmohan Singh
presided over the inaugural celebration of Vishwa Hindi Diwas.
·
Hindi is the third most
spoken language in the world, with about 4.46% of the world population.
·
It ranks fourth in the
world in terms of the number of native speakers, behind English, Spanish,
and Chinese.
·
In 1950, Hindi was declared the official language of India
and was designated as Hindi in Devanagari script in Article 343 of the Indian
Constitution.
·
Hindi
is one of the 22 scheduled languages,
listed in the Eighth Schedule of the
Indian Constitution.
