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11th Indoor Cricket World Cup to be hosted by Australia in October

Australia is set to host the 11th edition of the Indoor Cricket World Cup from October 10 to 17. The tournament will be held at the state-of-the-art indoor cricket venues in Melbourne – Casey Stadium and CitiPower Centre, the World Indoor Cricket Federation announced.

Last held in Dubai in 2017, Australia is the reigning men’s and women’s champions and the host will be seeking to continue the run of never losing a World Cup in either division in the 25-year history of the tournament. Cricketers from up to 10 countries will compete in the tournament in four divisions: under-21 men and women and open men and women.

Christchurch’s Hagley Oval to host 2021 Women’s World Cup final

Christchurch’s Hagley Oval will host the summit clash of next year’s Women’s Cricket ODI World Cup, as announced on Thursday. The 50-over tournament which featuring 31 matches will run from February 6 to March 7 will be played across six cities.

Auckland will host a bumper opening weekend at Eden Park, before the focus shifts to matches in Wellington, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin and Christchurch. Hamilton and Tauranga will host the semifinals.

National Tourism Day is being celebrated in India

India’s National Tourism Day is celebrated on January 25 to raise awareness of the importance of tourism for the country’s economy. National Tourism Day was established to promote the tourism industry and recognize its contribution to the growth and sustainability of tourist destinations and local communities. According to statistics, over 7.7% of Indian employees work in the tourism industry and every year, the country is visited by millions of foreign tourists.

India’s rich history and cultural and geographical diversity make the country one of the most popular tourist destinations among foreign travelers. It offers various forms of tourism, including cultural, heritage, cruise, nature, educational, business, sports, rural, medical, and eco-tourism. National policies for the promotion and development of tourism are designed and carried out by the Ministry of Tourism.

Arunachal Pradesh: CM dedicates Padi Yubbe outdoor stadium to people

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu dedicated the Padi Yubbe outdoor stadium to the people of Lower Subansiri district. The stadium is named after the first cabinet minister from Apatani community and it has a seating capacity of 4000. The memorial statue of Padi Yubbe was also unveiled by the Chief Minister.

The Padi Yubbe Outdoor Stadium is the third after Pasighat and Daporijo to be completed and ready for use. Other big stadiums, in various stages of completion, are also coming up at Chimpu near Itanagar, and Aalo (West Siang) and Tezu (Lohit).

Scientists discover a new ‘archaea’ organism in Sambhar lake

Scientists at the NCMR-NCCS in Pune have reported a new kind of microorganism – ‘archaeon‘, which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan. Archaea are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts and hypersaline lakes. They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.

The new archaeon has been named Natrialba swarupiae. They named the species after Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, in recognition of her invaluable role in simplifying some of the provisions of the Biodiversity Act 2002 to ease the deposition of microorganisms in repositories for microbes (culture collections) located outside India.

World’s largest meditation centre to be inaugurated in Hyderabad

Hyderabad is all set to add one more global landmark. The world’s largest meditation centre and the global headquarters of the Heartfulness Institute will be inaugurated on January 28. To mark the 75th anniversary of the organisation, Kanha Shanti Vanam will be dedicated to the first guide of Heartfulness, fondly called Lalaji by the present global guide Daaji.

Baba Ramdev, the popular yoga guru, will be present on the occasion and address about 40,000 abhyasis or practitioners. Kanha Shantivanam, about 40 km on the outskirts of Hyderabad, spread over 30 acres, has one central and eight secondary halls. It can accommodate 100,000 practitioners at one go, making it the largest closed structure meditation centre in the world.

Three, three-day sessions will be held during January 28-30, February 2-4 and February 7-9, 2020, will host 1.2 lakh practitioners as part of mass meditation activity to commemorate the milestone of 75 years. The President of India Ramnath Kovind and Anna Hazare will address the practitioners on February 2 and 7, respectively.

Government nominates Debashish Panda on SBI Central Board

The Central government has nominated Debashish Panda, Special Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Finance Ministry as a director on the Central Board of State Bank of India. He is appointed with immediate effect replacing the earlier nominee Ravi Mittal.

SBI, the country’s largest bank had posted a 218 per cent jump in standalone net profit for the September quarter to Rs 3,011.73 crore. The lender had posted a profit of Rs 944.87 crore in the same quarter last year. Under exceptional items, the bank reported a net profit of Rs 3,484.30 core on sale of partial investments in subsidiary SBI Life Insurance Company.

Fresh slippages had halved to Rs 8,800 crore from Rs 16,000 crore on a quarterly basis. The asset quality of the bank improved with gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio coming in at 7.19 per cent, down 276 bps yearly and 34 bps sequentially. Net NPA ratio was at 2.79 per cent, down 205 bps YoY and 28 bps QoQ.

Indigenously-developed military systems to be showcased at DefExpo 2020

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will display various indigenously-developed military systems and technologies at the 11th edition of DefExpo 2020, that will be held in Lucknow from 5th to 9th February. In the 5-day event, DRDO will exhibit more than 500 products from all technology clusters. The theme of the event will be “Digital Transformation of Defence”.

It will showcase over 23 products in the India Pavilion, which has been set up to showcase the combined strength of DRDO, public and private sector in defence manufacturing. The participation of DRDO at the expo is marked with the live demonstration of Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun MK IA, Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP), Counter Mine Flail, 15m Advanced Composite Modular Bridging System (ACMBS) and modular bridge.

Grandmasters B Adhiban and S L Narayanan wins in Gibraltar chess

Indian Grandmasters B Adhiban and S L Narayanan registered impressive wins in the third round of the Masters’ category of the ongoing Gibraltar chess festival. Adhiban and Narayanan scored wins over Martin Petrov of Bulgaria and Tingjie Lei of China while young GM Raunak Sadhwani securing 1.5 points shared the point with higher-ranked David Navara.

Apart from Adhiban and Narayanan, there are a few other Indians on 2.5 points, including Vaibhav Suri and Karthikeyan Murali. Young Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat International Master Padmini Rout to take his tally to 2.

He had lost to fellow Indian P V Nandhidhaa in the opening round. D Gukesh, another rising star from India and the second youngest GM ever, was held to a draw by Adrian Gschnitzer. GM Karthikeyan Murali, took a draw against Ori Kobo to take his tally to 2.5.

Georgia’s Ivan Cheparinov, Kyrsa Leandro of Argentina, Vasif Durarbayli of Azerbaijan, Pier Luigi Basso of Italy and Maksim Chigaev from Russia are ahead of the field with three points after the third round.

79th Foundation Day of ‘Income Tax Appellate Tribunal’ inaugurated by CJI

The 79th Foundation Day celebrations and All India Members’ Conference of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India A. Bobde on 24th January. The two-day event held several sessions of interaction in which eminent speakers addressed variety of subjects.

The CJI underlined the need for Artificial Intelligence in the judicial system but added that it should never be allowed to substitute human discretion necessary for decision making. He also stated that imposition of excessive tax is a kind of social injustice on the people.

The delegations included the President, ITAT, Mr. Justice P.P. Bhatt, the Solicitor General of India, Shri Tushar Mehta, the Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Shri Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, the Vice President, ITAT, Delhi Zone, Justice P.P. Pannu, among others participated in the event.

24X7 call centre launched by Government for coronavirus management

The government has set up a 24X7 helpline number to attend to queries about the novel coronavirus (nCov) as number of cases rose across the world. A 24X7 call centre is active for responding to queries on nCov2020. Anyone seeking information can call on the number 011-23978046.

Seven central teams will visit states and designated airports of New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi to review the end-to-end preparedness for management and control of Novel Coronavirus in India. The team will consist of a public health expert, a clinician and a microbiologist.

The team will also visit the tertiary hospitals attached to the airports for reviewing the isolation wards and availability of Personal Protective Equipment and masks. The decision was taken by the Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan at a review meeting held in New Delhi.

Agreement to upgrade Ashuganj-Akhaura road signed by India and Bangladesh

India and Bangladesh signed an agreement to upgrade the 58-kilometre long road between Ashuganj river port and the Akhaura land port in Bangladesh into a 4-lane highway. The deal was signed between the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) of Bangladesh and an Indian Company Afcons Infrastructure Limited, to upgrade the 39 km long road between Ashuganj river port to Dharhar area.

The RHD and an India-Bangladesh joint venture firm will take up the work of upgrading the remaining part of the road from Dharhar to Akhaura. The project is part of the dollar 2 billion second line of credit extended by India to Bangladesh in 2016. Both governments have identified 46 projects in Bangladesh that would improve connectivity within the country and out of the country.

Nepal wants India to take back demonetised notes worth Rs 7 crore

Nepal’s Central Bank is saddled with Rs 7 crore of demonetised Indian currency but India is not making “adjustments” to take back the notes, hoping the scrapped notes would be accepted by its neighbour. The land-locked country depends on India for trade and supplies. Indian currency is widely used in Nepal for day-to-day transactions, especially in the border areas.

The Indian government on November 8, 2016 announced the ban on old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to curb black money in the system. Of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation on November 8, 99.3 per cent or notes worth Rs 15.31 lakh crore have returned to the banking system.

Rs 1,624 crore infused in Indian markets by FPIs

Foreign portfolio investors have infused a net sum of Rs 1,624 crore into the domestic capital markets in January so far. As per latest depositories data, Foreign portfolio investors put-in a net of 13,304 crore rupees, in equities and withdrew a net 11,680 crore rupees from the debt segment between January 1 and 24. This translates into a total net inflow of 1,624 crore.

The latest investments came despite challenges such as enhanced geopolitical tension between the US and Iran and dwindling domestic economic growth. On the domestic front there are some signs of India shaking away the slowdown with business activity picking up and this is reflecting in the investments coming into equities. Besides, after the limit to which FPIs can invest in debt instruments has been increased, more inflows into the debt category can be expected.

India celebrated its 71st Republic Day 

India on 26th January celebrated its 71st Republic Day, honouring the historic date when the country completed its transition towards becoming an independent republic after its Constitution came into effect. Many states joined the nation to celebrate the Republic Day on Sunday morning.

The day was celebrated with great fervour all across the country. In Delhi, the parade for the Republic Day began at Rajpath with President Ram Nath Kovind unfurling the national flag and receiving a 21-gun salute. The chief guest for this year’s republic day parade was Brazilian president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro.

‘Bharat Parv 2020’ begins in New Delhi to celebrate spirit of India

Bharat Parv 2020, a festival to celebrate the spirit of India has begun at Red Fort ground in New Delhi. It will continue till 31st of this month. The theme of this year’s Bharat Parv is ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat‘ and Celebrating 150 Years of Mahatma Gandhi.

The objective of Bharat Parv is to encourage people to visit different tourism places of the country and to inculcate the spirit of ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. Bharat Parv has many attractions for public including display of Tableaux of the Republic Day parade, performance by armed forces bands and cultural Performances from different regions of the country.

More than 50 food stalls, 79 handicrafts stalls and 27 theme pavilions have been setup. The festival will remain open  for  public from 12 Noon to 10 PM till 31st of this month. The entry to the event for the public  is free, however, they have to carry identity card for the entry.

Padma Awards 2020 Announced

Padma Awards – one of the highest civilian Awards are given in three categories: “Padma Vibhushan” exceptional and distinguished service; “Padma Bhushan” distinguished service of outstanding quality; and “Padma Shri” distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year and conferred by the President of India.

This year the President has approved conferment of 141 Padma Awards including 4 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Shri Awards. 33 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 Posthumous awardees.

List of Padma Vibhushan 2020 winners – George Fernandes (Posthumous), Arun Jaitley (Posthumous), former Prime Minister of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth, Mary Kom, Chhannulal Mishra, Sushma Swaraj (posthumous) and Pejavara Adhokhaja Matha Udupi (Posthumous).

List of Padma Bhushan 2020 Winners – M. Mumtaz Ali, Muazzam Ali (posthumously), Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Ajay Chakraborty, Manoj Das, Balakrishna Doshi, Krishnammal Jagannathan, Former Nagaland Chief Minister SC Jamir, Uttarakhand’s well-known environmentalist and social worker Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi, Dr. Tsering Landol, eminent industrialist Anand Mahindra, Neelakanta Ramakrishna Madhava Menon (Posthumous), former Union Minister Manohar Parrikar (Posthumous), Prof. Jagdish Seth, Olympian badminton player PV Sindhu and industrialist Venu Srinivasan.

List of Padma Shri 2020 Winners – Guru Shashadhar Acharya, Dr. Yogi Aeron, Jai Prakash Agarwal, Jagdish Lal Ahuja Social Work Punjab, Kazi Masum Akhtar, Gloria Arieira, Khan Zaheerkhan Bakhtiyarkhan, Padmavathy Bandopadhyay, Dr. Sushovan Banerjee, Dr. Digambar Behera, Dr. Damayanti Beshra, Pawar Popatrao Bhaguji, Himmata Ram Bhambhu, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Gafurbhai M. Bilakhia, Bob Blackman,Indira P. P. Bora, Madan Singh Chauhan among others.

PhonePe extends to insurance, mutual funds, ATM

PhonePe, one of the leading digital payments firms in India backed by global retail giant Walmart, has announced to extend into the insurance, mutual fund and instant-cash segments to tap the fast growing digital payments industry, which is expected to touch $10 trillion by 2027.

The Bengaluru-based fintech firm has announced two major tie-ups with Aditya Birla SunLife Mutual Fund and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. PhonePe’s tie-up with Aditya Birla Sun Life Capital will allow its users invest in liquid fund. Under its tie-up with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, PhonePe offers its users cover on up to 1 million kilometres internal travel for a starting price of just Rs 216.

It also offers users instant refunds with no cancellation charges before the travel start date, and 24×7 international travel assistance to them throughout the journey, across 220 countries. Both leisure and business travellers can purchase travel insurance on the PhonePe app. 

The 2-day ‘Innovation Festival’ begins at Science Centre in Itanagar

In Arunachal Pradesh, the two-day  ‘Innovation Festival’ began at the Science Centre in Itanagar on Saturday. The festival is being organized by the Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science & Technology in collaboration with the National Innovation Foundation. More than 50 innovations are put on display by students from various educational institutions, grassroots innovators, artisans and entrepreneurs from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and other states.

The Innovation Festival, a first of its kind in the state, aimed to foster the culture of innovation among all people of the state, especially in all the educational institutions. The two-day programme will witness interaction sessions, technical session and discussion among the innovators and motivation by several eminent personalities, scholars and persons from educational institutions.

‘Malaria-free Bastar’ campaign launched by Chhattisgarh government

Bastar, the Red zone in south Chhattisgarh which has so far not received the deserving attention to fight the malaria menace, has the Annual Parasite Incidence (API) of over 10—rated among the highest in the country. API-10 is equivalent to 10 confirmed cases per thousand population and Bastar is among the very few geographical locations endemic to malaria parasites—Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum.

The prevalence of malaria cases recorded were highest during the months of January, July and November, as per the previous 3 years data. Hence, a three-phase ‘Malaria Free Bastar’ campaign would be carried out during these months to eliminate malarial parasites entirely. The state has come up with a plan to eliminate Malaria from Bastar through door-to-door ‘Mass Active Screening and Treatment’ process, which will continue till February 14 under the campaign.

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