Current Affairs January 05th 2022| Current Affairs News

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CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS

World Braille Day- Jan 4

• World Braille Day is an international day on 4 January and celebrates awareness of the importance of braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and visually impaired people
• The day is marked remembering the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille – for people with visual disabilities.
• Louis Braille was born on 4th January 1809 in the town of Coupvray in northern France.
• Braille is a tactile representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using six dots to represent each letter and number, and even musical, mathematical and scientific symbols

DRDO Celebrates 64th Foundation Day on 1st January 2022

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) celebrated 64th DRDO Day on January 1, 2022.
• The DRDO was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the then already functioning Technical Development Establishment (TDEs) of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTDP) with the Defence Science Organisation (DSO).
• Over 175 transfers of technologies happened in 2021.
• Now DRDO is working rigorously to achieve hypersonic systems and also working on the fifth-generation advanced combat aircraft.

About DRDO :

• Headquarters : New Delhi
• Minister of Defence : Rajnath Singh
• Chairman: Dr G. Satheesh Reddy
• It was formed in 1958 by the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of the Indian Ordnance Factories with the Defence Science Organisation.
• DRDO is India’s largest and most diverse research organisation.
• With a network of 52 laboratories, which are engaged in developing defence technologies covering various fields, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, land combat engineering, life sciences, materials, missiles, and naval systems.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL NEWS

PM inaugurates and lays the foundation stone of various developmental projects in Imphal, Manipur:

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated 13 Projects worth around 1850 crores and laid the foundation stone of 9 projects worth around Rs 2950 crore in Imphal, Manipur.
• These projects relate to diverse sectors such as Road Infrastructure, Drinking Water Supply, Health, Urban Development, Housing, Information Technology, Skill Development, Art and Culture, among others.
• The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of construction of five National Highway Projects to be built at a cost of more than Rs 1700 crore.
• He inaugurated the Steel Bridge built over the Barak River on NH-37, at a cost of over Rs 75 crore, which would decongest traffic between Silchar and Imphal.
• He also dedicated to the people of Manipur 2387 mobile towers built at a cost of around Rs 1100 crores.

Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 46th GST council meet in Delhi:

• The 46th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is being held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• The GST Council has recommended deferring the decision to change the rates in textiles recommended in the 45th GST Council meeting.
• Consequently, the existing GST rates of 5 % instead of 12% in textile sector would continue.
• The meeting holds significance as it is taking place ahead of the Union Budget for 2022-23, which is scheduled to be presented in Parliament on February 1, 2022.
• This will be the fourth budget of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government in its second tenure.

GST collection in Dec 2021 over Rs 1 lakh 29000 crores:

• The gross Goods and Services Tax, GST revenue collected in December 2021 is over one lakh 29 thousand crore rupees.
• Of which, CGST is 22 thousand 578 crore rupees, SGST is 28 thousand 658 crore rupees, IGST is 69 thousand 155 crore rupees and cess is nine thousand 389 crore rupees.
• The total revenue of Centre and the States in the month of December last year after settlements is 48 thousand 146 crore rupees for CGST and 49 thousand 760 crore rupees for the SGST.
• The revenues for the month of December 2021 are 13 percent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATE NEWS

First electric boat built for Kochi Water Metro Project handed over to KMRL:

• In Kerala, the first battery powered electric boat built for the Kochi Water Metro Project was handed over to the Kochi Metro Rail Limited at a function held at the Cochin Shipyard.
• The fully air-conditioned boat is among the 23 boats being built by the Cochin Shipyard for the 747-crore rupee Kochi Water Metro project.
• The boat has been christened Muziris after the prominent BC-era port, located about 25 kilometres away from Kochi city. The 50 seater boat can carry 100 passengers at a time.
• Kochi Water Metro system will have 78 ferries, linking 38 terminals spread over 76 route kilometres.

Click here to read more;

Jawaharlal Nehru Road renamed “Narendra Modi Marg

• Governor of Sikkim Ganga Prasad Chaurasia, inaugurated a road named Narendra Modi marg.
• The older route is called Jawaharlal Nehru Road, and was named after Jawaharlal Nehru.
• It is the second road linking Tsomgo lake and Nathula border pass with Gangtok.
• It is the 52 km long road & It is a double-lane road at 51 Kyongasala Gram Panchayat Unit.
• The road was constructed by the Border Roads Organization (BRO), & has now reduced the distance between Gangtok and Tsomgo lake by 15 kms.

About Sikkim :

• Capital: Gangtok
• Governor: Ganga Prasad
• Chief minister: Prem Singh Tamang
• National Parks : Khangchendzonga National Park,
• Wildlife Sanctuaries : Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary, Barsey Rhododendron Wildlife Sanctuary, Fambong Lho Wildlife Sanctuary, Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary, Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kitam (Bird) Wildlife Sanctuary

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND ECONOMY

RBI unveils framework to enable small value digital payments in offline mode:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a framework to enable small value digital payments in offline mode using any channel or instrument such as cards, wallets and mobile devices.
• An offline digital payment means a transaction which does not require internet or telecom connectivity.
• Under this new framework, which is applicable with immediate effect, offline payments can be made in face-to-face (proximity) mode only.
• Payment instruments will be enabled for offline transactions by Authorised Payment System Operators and Participants (Banks and Non-banks) based on explicit consent of the customer.
• Offline transactions using cards will be allowed without a requirement to switch on the contactless transaction channel.

Click here to read more;

NPCI Bharat BillPay introduces Unified Presentment Management System for recurring bill payments:

• NPCI Bharat BillPay (NBBL), the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India, has introduced ‘Unified Presentment Management System’ (UPMS) for recurring bill payments.
• UPMS will enable the customers to set up standing instructions from any channel and for any mode on their recurring bill payments.
• The bills will be automatically fetched from the billers and presented to customers for their action, in terms of auto-debit and bill payment management.

Click here to read more;

CURRENT AFFAIRS : BUSINESS NEWS

Govt approves 19th tranche of electoral bonds

• Ahead of assembly elections in five states, the government approved the issuance of the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, which will be open for sale from January 1 to 10, 2022.
• State Bank of India (SBI), in the XIX Phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches.
• The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities, such as Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

About Electoral bonds :

• Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
• The bonds do not have a maximum limit and are issued in the multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh and 1 crore.
• It can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India.
• Only the political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than 1 percent of the votes polled in the last general elections to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the state, shall be eligible to receive the electoral bonds.
• An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue.
• The bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.
• The bonds were first issued in 2018.
• The sale of the first batch of electoral bonds took place from March 1-10, 2018.

The 18th tranche of the bond sale took place from September 1 to September 10, 2021

Click here to read more;

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOUR

Ramnath Goenka Award: Photo journalism award for documenting NRC struggles:

• Zishaan A Latif won the award for his photo essay, The arduous struggle for inclusion in the NRC, which was published in The Caravan in October 2019.
• The winner of the Ramnath Goenka Award in the Photo Journalism category documented the plight of people who were dropped from the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and put a face to an untold human story.
• Zishaan A Latif won the award for his photo essay, The arduous struggle for inclusion in the NRC, which was published in The Caravan in October 2019.

Smriti Mandhana nominated for prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year-2021 award

• India women’s team cricketer Smriti Mandhana was nominated for the prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year-2021 award.
• She has scored 855 runs in 22 internationals, at an average of 38.86 with one century and 5 half-centuries.
• Besides Mandhana, the other three cricketers

• England’s Tammy Beaumont
• Australia’s Lizelle Lee
• Ireland’s Gaby Lewis

About Smriti Mandhana :

• Mandhana was born on 18 July 1996 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
• In June 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named her as the Best Women’s International Cricketer.
• In December 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded her with the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the best female cricketer of the year.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

Sudans PM announces resignation amid political deadlock    

• Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid a political deadlock and widespread pro-democracy protests following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democratic rule.
• He signed a political agreement with the military in November, roundtable discussion is needed to reach a new deal.
• Hamdok’s resignation came after Sudanese security forces violently dispersed the pro-democracy protesters against the October 25 military coup

About Abdalla Hamdok :

• Abdalla Hamdok was born on 1 January 1956 in Al Dibaibat, in South Kordofan Sudan.
• He is a Sudanese public administrator who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Sudan from 2019 to 2022.
• He served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

About Sudan :

• Capital: Khartoum
• Currency: Sudanese pound
• Continent: Africa

Vinod Kannan takes over as CEO at Vistara

• Vinod Kannan took over as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vistara airline.
• He replaced Leslie Thng who was the CEO from July 16, 2017 to December 31, 2021.
• Deepak Rajawat has been elevated to take up the role of Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer.
• He was the Divisional Vice President and Head of Corporate Planning with the airline until December 31, 2021.
• He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore and University of California, Los Angeles.
• He spent over two decades working with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and has held several senior positions in the airline’s head office in Singapore as well as overseas.
• Vistara as the Chief Strategy Officer in June 2019 and took over as Chief Commercial Officer in January 2020.

About Vistara :

• Founded : 2013
• Headquarters : Gurugram, Haryana
• Chairman : Bhaskar Bhat
• CEO : Vinod Kannan
• It is an Indian full-service airline, with its hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
• Vistara, is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Sons Private Limited and Singapore Airlines (SIA).

CURRENT AFFAIRS : ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

Tech Mahindra acquires 100% stake in Allyis India, Green Investments

• Tech Mahindra announced that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Tech Mahindra (Americas) Inc. has approved the proposal to acquire 100 per cent equity shares in Allyis India Pvt Ltd and Green Investments LLC, holding company for Allyis Group.
• Tech Mahindra will pay total consideration of up to $125 million, including employment-related and performance-related earnouts.
• The acquisition will bolster Tech Mahindra’s capabilities in Digital Experience Solutions, Learning & Development, Marketing, Instructional Design; Engineering: Cloud & Automation, BI & Analytics, Technical support services
• Allyis India Pvt Ltd and Green Investments LLC offer technology consulting and managed services for organizations to help reduce costs, improve performance, and meet their objectives.
• Allyis India Pvt Ltd was incorporated in 2018 whole Green Investments LLC was incorporated in 2013.

About Tech Mahindra :

• Chairman :Anand Mahindra
• MD & CEO: C. P. Gurnani
• Headquarters: Pune, Maharashtra, India
• Founded: 1986
• Tech Mahindra is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company.

CURRENT AFFAIRS : ENVIRONMENT

Two new plant species discovered in Western Ghats  

• Researchers from SNM College Maliankara, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and the Payyanur College have reported two new plant species Fimbristylis sunilii and Neanotis prabhuii from the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats regions in Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad districts.
• The findings by the research teams have been detailed in the plant taxonomy journal Phytotaxa.

About Fimbristylis sunilii :

• Fimbristylis sunilii has been named after plant taxonomist C.N. Sunil, retired professor and research guide of Botany, SNM College.
• It is Collected from the grasslands of Ponmudi hills, Thiruvananthapuram.
• It is a perennial plant of the Cyperaceae family, it stands 20-59 cm tall and was collected from an elevation of 1,100 meters.
• It has been provisionally assessed as data deficient (DD) under the IUCN Red List categories.

About Neanotis prabhuii  :

• Neanotis prabhuii is a prostrate perennial herb named after K.M. Prabhukumar, Senior Scientist at CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow.
• It is discovered in the Chembra Peak grasslands of Wayanad, it hails from the family Rubiaceae and grows on high-altitude grasslands.
• It grows up to 70 cm in length and is many-flowered with the petals pale pink in colour.
• Neanotis prabhuii has been categorised data deficient (DD) in the absence of any detailed observations and data on populations

Researchers discover two new species of rare fireflies

• Researchers have discovered two new species of very rare wasp-like flower flies namely Monoceromyia flavoscutata and nigra from north-eastern India and the Western Ghats.

Research Team :

• The species were discovered by researchers H. Sankararaman, a Ph.D scholar from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, Anooj S.S., an assistant professor of entomology at the Kerala Agricultural University, Padannakkad, and Ximo Mengual, a scientist from Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum, Germany.
• The study was recently published in the Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology.

About the species :

• The species belong to the Syrphidae
• The members of the genus are extremely rare with only 12 species reported from India previously & the discovery of new species happening in India after 80 years.
• flavoscutata, discovered from Thadiyankudisai in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, was named after its yellow coloured thoracic ends .
• It can be differentiated from the closely resembling species based on the colouration of the thorax and the wing vein characters.
• nigra, discovered from West Siang of Basar district of Arunachal Pradesh, differed from the other species based on thoracic, abdominal and facial colouration and wing vein character.
• It was named as nigra based on the black-coloured thorax.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS NEWS

Kargil Winter Expedition canceled due to Corona

• The Kargil District Disaster Management Authority, DDMA, has canceled Kargil Winter Expedition due to the rise of Covid 19 cases in Ladakh region.
• The Expedition which includes various events like Snow Horse Polo, Snow Soccer, Snow Bashing etc .
• It was scheduled to begin from 22nd January for 7 days.

U-19 Asia Cup 2021 title : India defeat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets

•  In cricket, India defeated Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the final of the U-19 Men’s Asia Cup 2021 to seal their eighth title at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates.
•  India under the leadership of Yash Dhull won through the Duckworth Lewis method (DLS) as the match was reduced to 38 overs due to rain interruption.
• Sri Lanka posted a total of 106 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 38 overs.
• However, Raghuvanshi and Rasheed stitched an unbeaten 96-run stand to take India home in the summit clash.

About 2021 Under-19 Asia Cup :

• The 2021 Under-19 Asia Cup was the 9th edition of ACC Under-19 Cup.
• The cricket tournament was played in the United Arab Emirates from 23 December 2021 to 31 December 2021.
• Eight teams contested in the tournament, including five full members and three qualified members.
• Player of the series : Harnoor Singh Pannu
• Most runs : Shaik Rasheed (133)
• Most Wickets : Zeeshan Zameer (11)

Veteran Pakistan All-rounder Mohammad Hafeez Retires From International Cricket  

• On Jan 03, 2021, Veteran Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, who captained his national team in every format of the game, announced his retirement from international cricket, ending a Pakistan career spanning more than 18 years.
• The 41-year-old top-order batter hafeez signed up for Lahore Qalandars in the upcoming edition of the Pakistan Super League.

About Mohammad Hafeez :

• Mohammad Hafeez born on 17 October 1980 in Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan.
• Hafeez had announced his retirement from Tests in 2018.
• He represented Pakistan in 392 international matches in which he scored 12,789 runs and took 253 wickets.
• He has played 55 Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is for the country including three ICC ODI World Cups and six T20 World Cups.
• He won 32 Player-of-the-Match awards, the fourth-highest among Pakistan players in all international cricket, with only Shahid Afridi (43), Wasim Akram (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (33) placed ahead of him.
• Hafeez also earned nine Player-of-the-Series awards across formats.
• He is the only Pakistan player to have played in all but one T20 World Cup so far – incidentally, the one they ended up winning in 2009 – and holds the Pakistan record for most T20 World Cup appearances.
• Overall, Hafeez played in three 50-over World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2019), six 20-over World Cups (2007, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2021) and three ICC Champions Trophies (2006, 2013 and 2017).
• In the ICC Player Rankings, Hafeez achieved the highest Test rankings of 22nd in batting, 29th in bowling and fifth in all-rounders.
• In the ODI rankings, Hafeez’s highest ranking was 13th in March 2014, while he topped the bowling and all-rounder charts in August 2012 and January 2013.

About Pakistan Cricket Board :

• Founded: 1949
• Located at Lahore, Pakistan
• Chairperson: Rameez Raja
• CEO : Faisal Hasnain

CURRENT AFFAIRS : OBITUARIES

Pioneer of street photography Sabine Weiss Passes away

• Swiss-French photographer Sabine Weiss Passed away at the age of 97.

About Sabine Weiss :

• Sabine Weiss born on 23 July 1924, in Switzerland and became a naturalized French citizen in 1995.
• She was regarded as the last of the French humanist photography school of post-World War II that reimagined the evocative powers of images, which included Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis and Brassai.
• Her work covered eight decades, pioneering what was to become known as street photography.
• Weiss photographed the condition of ordinary people in Paris & she wanted to immortalize “the snotty-nosed kids,” “the beggars” and “the little piss-takers” in her photos.
• Her work has featured in 160 exhibits and is shown in permanent collections of several leading museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
• He coined the “photographie humaniste” with her everyday images, and traveled the world for magazines such as Vogue, Life, Time and Newsweek.

World-renowned Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey Passes away

• On Jan 02, 2021, Richard Leakey, a world-renowned Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter passed away at the age of 77.

About Richard Leakey :

• Richard Erskine Frere Leakey was born on 19 December 1944 in Nairobi.
• He spearheaded campaigns against the ivory trade to save the dwindling African elephant population.
• Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife conservation.
• He was Director of the National Museum of Kenya, founded the NGO WildlifeDirect and twice as board chairman at the Kenya Wildlife Service.
• He was a co-founder of the Safina Party in 1995.
• Leakey also served Kenya’s head of civil service from July 1999 to March 2001.

UNION GOVERNMENT SCHEME

Kapila kalam Program.

Through the KAPILA Kalam Programme, the government will spread awareness with the help of educational programs about the importance of patenting an invention, to lead India towards self-reliance. It aims to tap the resources in the field of Intellectual Property to come ahead with their inventions and blend it towards Patents.

Launched on:

KAPILA Kalam Campaign. KAPILA is an acronym for Kalam Program for IP (Intellectual Property) Literacy and Awareness.

The KAPILA programme was launched on 15th October 2020 i.e 89th birth anniversary of former President and Scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

Ministry involved:

The program is under administrative contol of ministry of  education.

Current minister of education- Dharmendra Pradhan.

Objective:

The objective of KAPILA is to recognise, facilitate and felicitate the Intellectual Property, innovations and best practices in HEIs.

Benefits :

To overcome the current limitations in our innovation ecosystem especially in our HEIs, a systematic holistic effort ‘KAPILA: Kalam Program for IP Literacy and Awareness’ is proposed which will create appropriate awareness regarding the need of IP filing, mechanism and methodology involved in filing IP in India and globally, especially amongst students and faculty of higher education institutions.

KAPILA will help in establishing the much required IP filing ecosystem in large number of education institutions and thus create a culture of systematically protecting new ideas, research and innovation having national and global relevance.

About A.P.J. Abdul Kalam:

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist

He was the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007.

He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering.

Daily CA on Jan 05 :

• World Braille Day is an international day on 4 January and celebrates awareness of the importance of braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and visually impaired people
• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) celebrated 64th DRDO Day on January 1, 2022.
• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated 13 Projects worth around 1850 crores and laid the foundation stone of 9 projects worth around Rs 2950 crore in Imphal, Manipur.
• The 46th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is being held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• The gross Goods and Services Tax, GST revenue collected in December 2021 is over one lakh 29 thousand crore rupees.
• In Kerala, the first battery powered electric boat built for the Kochi Water Metro Project was handed over to the Kochi Metro Rail Limited at a function held at the Cochin Shipyard.
• Governor of Sikkim Ganga Prasad Chaurasia, inaugurated a road named Narendra Modi marg.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a framework to enable small value digital payments in offline mode using any channel or instrument such as cards, wallets and mobile devices.
• NPCI Bharat BillPay (NBBL), the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India, has introduced ‘Unified Presentment Management System’ (UPMS) for recurring bill payments.
• Ahead of assembly elections in five states, the government approved the issuance of the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, which will be open for sale from January 1 to 10, 2022.
• Zishaan A Latif won the award for his photo essay, The arduous struggle for inclusion in the NRC, which was published in The Caravan in October 2019.
• India women’s team cricketer Smriti Mandhana was nominated for the prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year-2021 award.

• Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation amid a political deadlock and widespread pro-democracy protests following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democratic rule.
• Vinod Kannan took over as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vistara airline & he replaced Leslie Thng who was the CEO from July 16, 2017 to December 31, 2021.
• Tech Mahindra announced that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Tech Mahindra (Americas) Inc. has approved the proposal to acquire 100 per cent equity shares in Allyis India Pvt Ltd and Green Investments LLC, holding company for Allyis Group.
• Researchers from SNM College Maliankara, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and the Payyanur College have reported two new plant species Fimbristylis sunilii and Neanotis prabhuii  from the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats regions in Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad districts.
• Researchers have discovered two new species of very rare wasp-like flower flies namely Monoceromyia flavoscutata and M. nigra from north-eastern India and the Western Ghats.
• The Kargil District Disaster Management Authority, DDMA, has canceled Kargil Winter Expedition due to the rise of Covid 19 cases in Ladakh region.
• In cricket, India defeated Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the final of the U-19 Men’s Asia Cup 2021 to seal their eighth title at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates.
• On Jan 03, 2021, Veteran Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, who captained his national team in every format of the game, announced his retirement from international cricket, ending a Pakistan career spanning more than 18 years.
• Swiss-French photographer Sabine Weiss Passed away at the age of 97.
• On Jan 02, 2021, Richard Leakey, a world-renowned Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter passed away at the age of 77.