DAILY GK 1-2 JAN 2025
1.
KARNAL STUDENTS HONOURED BY
NASA FOR ASTEROID DISCOVERY
·
Twelve
students and
two teachers from Dyal Singh Public School in Karnal, Haryana have been
honoured by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA)’s
International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) for their
discovery of a Main-Belt Asteroid (MBA) TD40 found
using data from pan-STARRS telescope
,operated by the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, United States.
·
Diksha, a Class XI student, and her team
Aryabhatta consisting of 11 peers under the guidance of Principal
Sushma Devgun and Dr. Kaveri Chauhan, received IASC certificates for
discovering and registering 11 near-Earth objects.
·
The
students spent two years working with expert guidance and using free online
software. An asteroid will be named after Diksha, marking a first for any
school in Haryana.
2.
NATIONAL
SPORTS AWARDS 2024
·
The
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) announced the recipients
of the National Sports Awards 2024 which will be conferred
on 47 sportspersons,
coaches, entities and universities under 6 categories.
·
The
awards were recommended by the selection committee headed by Justice
(Retd.) V Ramasubramanian of the Supreme Court (SC) along with
eminent sports persons, sports journalists and sports administrators.
·
Major
Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024: Olympic medallists Manu Bhaker (Shooting), Harmanpreet Singh, (Hockey) Chess world
champion Gukesh D and Para-Athlete Praveen Kumar were named
as the recipients of the ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna 2024 award’.
·
It
is the highest sporting honour of India,
given for the most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of 4 years.
·
It
was formerly known as the ‘Rajiv Gandhi
Khel Ratna Award’ and in August 2021, it was renamed as the ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’.
·
It
comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of Rs 25 Lakh each.
·
First Winner was Chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.
·
Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games
2024 to 32 Awardees .
·
‘Arjuna Award’ was the highest sporting
honour of India before the introduction of the ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna’
in 1991-1992.
·
It comprises a Bronze statuette of Arjuna, a Certificate, a
Ceremonial Dress, and a Cash Prize of Rs 15 lakh .
·
Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) for outstanding performance in
Sports and Games 2024 given to Sucha
Singh (Athletics) and Murlikant Rajaram Petkar (Para-Swimming).
·
The
Arjuna Award (Lifetime Achievement) acknowledges
retired athletes who have not only excelled in their sporting careers but
have also significantly contributed to promoting
sports post-retirement.
·
Dronacharya Award for outstanding
coaches in Sports and Games 2024 in
Regular Category given to Subhash
Rana (Para-Shooting), Deepali
Deshpande(Shooting),Sandeep Sangwan(Hockey).
·
Dronacharya Award for outstanding
coaches in Lifetime
Category: For coaches who have helped sportspersons to
achieve excellence over a period of 20
years or more given to S
Muralidharan (Badminton) Armando
Agnelo Colaco(Football).
·
It
comprises a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a Certificate, a Ceremonial dress,
and a Cash prize of Rs 15 lakh for lifetime achievement and Rs 10 Lakh for regular.
·
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar- Physical Education Foundation of
India.
·
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA)
Trophy 2024- Chandigarh University, Punjab (Overall winner University),Lovely Professional University,
Punjab(1st runner up University) ,Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab
(2nd runner up University).
·
The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
(MAKA) Trophy is awarded to the top-performing
university at the Khelo India University Games.
·
A
rolling MAKA trophy and a cash prize of
Rs 15 Lakh.
·
In November 2024, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and
Sports (MoYAS) announced the discontinuation
of the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement and introduction of the Arjuna Award (Lifetime) with effect from 2024.
3. INDIA-NEPAL MILITARY EXERCISE ‘SURYA
KIRAN’
·
The 18th
edition of the Battalion Level
Joint Military Exercise ‘Surya Kiran’ commences in
Saljhandi, Nepal.
·
The
annual bilateral military exercise is alternatively hosted by the Indian
Army(IA) and the Nepali Army.(NA).
·
The
exercise follows successful visits by General
Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of IA to Nepal, and
the visit by General Ashok Raj Sigdel,
COAS of NA to India.
·
The
IA contingent is being led by a Battalion from the 11th Gorkha Rifles.
·
Nepal Prime Minister – KP
Sharma Oli.
·
President- Ram Chandra Poudel.
·
Capital- Kathmandu.
4.
MINISTRY
OF DEFENCE DECLARED 2025 AS “YEAR OF REFORMS”
·
The
Ministry of Defence (MoD) declared 2025 as
the “Year of Reforms”, with the objective of transforming the
tri-services into a technologically-advanced combat-ready force capable of
multi-domain integrated operations.
·
The
MoD has set a target to achieve defence exports worth Rs
50,000 crore by 2029, which is over 137% larger than the record Rs
21,083 crore (approximately USD 2.63 billion) achieved in the Financial Year
2023-24(FY24).
5.
READINESS
FOR A RAPIDLY AGING SOCIETY INDEX
·
According
to the study published in an indexed medical journal ‘Nature Aging’, India ranked at 123rdposition
among 143 countries (accounting 95.4% of
the world’s population) worldwide in terms of its readiness to tackle the
challenges posed by an aging population.
·
Switzerland has secured 1st position
with the highest score of 82.3, followed by Norway and Denmark ranked at 2ndand 3rdposition,
respectively.
·
Currently,
India is the youngest country in the
world, with more than 50% of its
population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35.
·
Rwanda (143rd) ranked lowest in the index with an overall score of 36.6, followed by Togo
(142nd), Afghanistan (141st), Benin (140th) and Malawi (139th).
6.
GOVT
FORMS EXPERT PANEL TO REVISE WPI BASE YEAR 2022-23
·
The
Government of India (GoI) formed an expert panel to review and revise the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) base year from
2011-12 to 2022-23 and develop a new
Producer Price Index (PPI).
·
It
was notified by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
(DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I).
·
The
working group was headed by National
Institution for Transforming India (NITI) member Ramesh Chand, along
with 18 other members from
various ministries, public and private sectors.
·
Wholesale Price
Index (WPI): WPI
measures the average change in the selling prices of goods sold in bulk by
wholesalers to businesses.
·
The
prices of a total of 697 items are
tracked under the 2011-12 series of the WPI, which includes 117 primary
items, 16 items of fuel and power and 564 manufactured products.
·
The
WPI was first introduced in 1942, with the base year set as 1939.
Since then, the index has undergone 7 revisions, each updating the
base year to better reflect changes in the economy.
·
Producer Price
Index (PPI): PPI is a measure of the average
change over
time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output
including prices at various stages of production, from raw materials to
finished goods.
·
It
was increasingly adopted by most G20
countries.
7.
TRAVEL AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT INDEX
2024
·
India
has significantly improved its position in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2024, ranking 39th among 119
countries.
·
The top three ranked countries in the world are USA,Spain and Japan.
·
Bottom Ranked countries
are Mali at 119 and Sierra
Leone at 118th place.
8. FRAMEWORK ON ETHICAL USE OF AI IN
FINANCIAL SECTOR
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced
that it has constituted an 8 member committee to develop a framework for responsible and ethical
enablement of artificial intelligence (FREE-AI) in
the financial sector.
·
The committee will be chaired by Pushpak Bhattacharya.
·
The
committee has been mandated to examine the current level of AI adoption in
financial services, globally as well as in India.
·
The
committee will be required to review regulatory and supervisory approaches on
AI with focus on the financial sector worldwide.
9.
BRAND AMBASSADOR FOR KHO KHO WORLD CUP 2025
·
The
Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) has announced Indian
actors Salman Khan and Tiger Shroff as
the brand ambassadors for the inaugural edition of the Kho Kho World
Cup, which will be held in New Delhi.
·
The
Kho Kho World Cup 2025 features 21 men’s teams
and 20 women’s teams from 24 different countries.
·
World
Cup’s tagline #The World Goes Kho.
10.
ISSF JUNIOR WORLD CUP 2025
·
India will host the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF)
Junior World Cup 2025, with the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
·
The ISSF Junior World Cup 2025 will
feature competitions in the rifle, pistol,
and shotgun categories.
·
Junior World Cup competitions include both
Olympic and non-Olympic events.
