1) Armed Forces Veterans Day: 14 January
•In India, the Armed Forces Veterans Day is observed each year on 14 January since 2017 to acknowledge and honour the selfless devotion and sacrifice of our veterans in the service of the nation. The day was initially called Armistice Day. 2021 marks the 5th Armed Forces Veterans Day.
•The day is observed as a mark of respect and recognition of the services rendered by Field Marshal KM Cariappa OBE, the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces who retired on 14 January 1953.
2) India ranks 4th in ‘Break Out Economies’
•Rapidly digitalising India was ranked 4th in “Break Out Economies” in the third edition of the Digital Evolution Scorecard developed by Tufts University’s Fletcher School in partnership with Mastercard. China which leads the countries in the “Break Out Economies” group is more evolved digitally due mainly to its combination of rapidly growing demand and innovation.
•Third rank Indonesia, and India, which ranks number four in momentum, have displayed increasing digital momentum suggesting the potential to rapidly digitalise for both post-COVID economic recovery and longer-term transformation.
3) Naveen Patnaik inaugurates India’s first ‘Fire Park’ in Bhubaneswar
•The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik virtually inaugurated a first of its kind ‘Fire Park’, to educate and bring awareness on basic fire safety measures among the people, particularly the students. The ‘Fire Park’ is located inside the premises of the Odisha Fire and Disaster Academy in Bhubaneswar.
•The minister also launched an online portal, ‘AgnishamaSeva’ of Odisha Fire Service. The fire park will facilitate demonstrations on use of first aid fire-fighting equipment, rescue and disaster operations, visit the exhibition hall, screening of films and distribution of leaflets on fire safety.
4) Sadyr Japarov wins the presidential election in Kyrgyzstan
•The frontrunner in Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election, Sadyr Japarov, has won by a landslide. According to the Central Election Commission, Mr Japarov had won 79% of votes cast. Mr Japarov, who served time in jail for taking a rival hostage, will also have sweeping new presidential powers after voters by a similar margin opted to amend the constitution in a referendum.
•Kyrgyzstan has been in crisis since parliamentary elections last October. The results of those elections were disputed, leading to protests and the resignation of then-President Sooronbay Jeenbekov.
5) BofA Securities Projects GDP of India to Contract 6.7% in FY21
•The BofA Securities expects the GDP growth of India for the current financial year 2020-21 to contract by 6.7 per cent. Apart from this, BofA Securities has projected the Indian economy to grow at 9 per cent in 2021-22 if the vaccine distribution is done in the first half of the new fiscal year, but it expects GDP growth prospects at just at 6 per cent if the distribution is delayed to the second half of 2021-22 (October-March).
6) RBI forms six-member working group to regulate digital lending frauds
•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up a working group to study digital lending activities of the regulated and unregulated players, due to the growing instances of frauds in digital lending space. The group will suggest steps to regulate digital lending including online lending platform and mobile lending. The group will evaluate digital lending activities and assess the penetration and standards of outsourced digital lending activities in RBI regulated entities.
The six-member panel comprises of following four RBI internal and two external members:
1.Jayant Kumar Dash, Executive Director, RBI (Chairman)
2.Ajay Kumar Choudhary, Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Supervision (Member)
3.P Vasudevan, Chief General Manager, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, RBI (Member)
4.Manoranjan Mishra, Chief General Manager, Department of Regulation (Member Secretary)
5.Vikram Mehta, Co-founder, Monexo Fintech (External Member)
6.Rahul Sasi, Cyber Security Expert & Founder of CloudSEK (External Member)
7) UBS Projects GDP of India at -7.5% in 2020-21
•Swiss brokerage major UBS Investment Bank has projected the Indian economy to contract 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal FY21, ending March 2021. UBS further expects the economy to rebound at 11.5 per cent in FY22. For the FY23, GDP growth is expected to stabilise at 6 per cent.
8) IRDAI sets up panel to examine availability of health insurance products
•Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has set up a panel of experts called ‘Health Insurance Advisory Committee’ to examine the availability of health insurance products in the country, considering the need of the Indian society and recommend suitable products and processes. The expert committee will be headed by IRDAI Chairperson, Subhash Chandra Khuntia and will have a Member (Non-Life) as the vice-chairperson. The committee, which has a term of one year.
Members of the committee include:
•Nachiket Mor (Visiting Scientist, Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health),
•A K Chand (Professor and Neurosurgeon, Bangalore),
•B K Mohanti (Former Professor and Oncologist, AIIMS),
•K Hari Prasad (Anaesthetist, Hyderabad), and Pankaj Sharma (IRDAI).
9) Nomura Estimates India’s GDP to contract 6.7% in FY21
•The Japanese brokerage Nomura has revised upward, the GDP forecast for India in 2020-21 and now expects it to contract to 6.7 per cent. Nomura has further projected the GDP of India to rise to 13.5 per cent in FY22 (2021-22).
10) NITI Aayog and Flipkart collaborate to enhance WEP
•NITI Aayog and Flipkart, have come together to launch the revamped Women Entrepreneurship Platform. The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is a unified access portal which brings together women from different parts of India to realise their entrepreneurial aspirations.
•The idea of the platform was first mooted by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog who announced the setting-up of a Women Entrepreneurship Platform in NITI Aayog at the conclusion of the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in Hyderabad in 2017, with an overarching theme of ‘Women first, prosperity for all’.
