General Knowledge(GK) (or) General Awareness

English football player, Beth Mead (27) has been awarded the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year(2022) as she was the player of the tournament and top scorer at Euro 2022.

 

* Beth Mead has defeated Germany in the finals at Wembley to win England’s first major women’s football trophy.

 

* She has competed against Ben Stokes and Ronnie O’Sullivan for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2022 award.

 

* While, Sarina Wiegman (England's manager) has won the Coach of the Year..

Source : Economic Times

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has extended a USD 400 million loan to mortgage major HDFC for financing green affordable housing units, as part of their efforts towards supporting climate goals.

 

The companies in separate statements on Friday(23rd Dec 2022) said this loan will help close the urban housing gap and improve access to climate-smart affordable homes by boosting green housing, which will go some ways in supporting the country's shift towards a more sustainable growth path, creating jobs and ensuring long-term business growth.

 

HDFC said it has earmarked 75 per cent or USD 300 million of the IFC funding for financing green affordable housing units.

 

It is estimated that 275 million people in the country or 22 per cent of the over 1.4 billion population do not have access to adequate housing, and rural housing shortage is twice that of urban areas. As of 2018, the urban housing shortage was 29 million units, increasing by over 54 per cent since 2012..

Source : Zeebiz

Sam Curran became the most expensive buy in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Auctions on Friday(23rd Dec 2022), receiving a price of INR 18.5 crore from Punjab Kings. Curran previously played for PBKS and has returned to the team where he began his IPL career. 

 

Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals were the first two teams to pursue the 24-year-old before Chennai SuperKings entered the race. Later on, PBKS arrived and engaged in a fierce combat with CSK.

 

The Mohali-based team eventually secured their man for 18.5 crores, making him the most expensive player in the auction's history.

 

Curran's first franchise in the IPL was PBKS before moving on to CSK later on. The 24-year-old missed the IPL last year and will now play in the following season.

 

Sam Curran reacted to the news by reacting on becoming the most expensive player in IPL auction history..

Source : DNS India

Veer Guardian 23 : Indian Air Force (IAF) and Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) are set to hold their maiden bilateral air exercise, “Veer Guardian 23”, from January 16 to 26 at Hyakuri air base and Iruma air base in Japan.

 

“To promote mutual understanding and strengthen defence cooperation between the Air Forces and enhance JASDF’s tactical skills,” the JASDF said on the aim of the exercise in a statement on Thursday(22nd Dec 2022).

 

The IAF is fielding four Su-30MKI fighters from No. 220 squadron under the Western Air Command and one IL-78 mid-air refueller, along with a contingent of around 150 personnel who will be transported by two C-17 transport aircraft. The JASDF would be fielding four F-15s and four F-2 fighter jets for the exercise.

 

Japan also participated for the first time in the multilateral exercise MILAN hosted by the Navy early this year.

The two countries also operationalised the logistics support agreement, Reciprocal Provision of Supply and Services Agreement, in March this year.

The defence cooperation between the two countries has significantly expanded in recent years, especially in the maritime domain with Maritime Domain Awareness emerging as a key focus area..

Source : The Hindu

The United States has announced that it would provide its key Patriot missile defence system to Ukraine. The Patriot missile system can be used as a shield against short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and incoming jets.

* This will be the first-ever handover of such a defence system to Ukraine and strengthen the Ukrainian defence.

* The White House stated that the Patriot missile system would be part of another 1.85 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine.

 

* The package also includes military vehicles, mortars, ammunition for HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems), and small arms.

 

* The aid has been announced at a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Washington to strengthen the military ties between the two countries.

* The roughly eight-hour visit of the Ukrainian President to Washington included an Oval Office meeting with President Joe Biden and a joint news conference at the White House.

 

* Mr Zelensky also spoke before Congress, urging Washington to further ramp up military aid. Ukrainian President told Congress that he proposed a peace formula in his meeting with President Biden which he hoped would result in joint security guarantees for decades to come..

Source : AIR

Goa will host India’s maiden World Table Tennis (WTT) series event from February 27 to March 5, 2022 here, it was announced on Thursday(22nd Dec 2022).

 

The top tier WTT Star Contender Goa 2023 will be staged at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor stadium, located at the Goa University Campus here.

 

“We are happy that Goa has been chosen as the host for a WTT event for the very first time in India,” state tourism minister Rohan Khaunte said in a press conference.

 

 

Stupa Analytics, a homegrown sports analytics firm, will be the tournament host with active support from the Goa government.

 

WTT Series is the official professional table tennis series of events, with the world’s best players facing each other off in various category tournaments throughout the year with the four Grand Smashes being the ultimate prize to win.

 

The six Star Contender events pit 48 men and women in the respective singles main draws, with the top 30 world ranks eligible to play, four among whom will compulsorily have to be in the world top 20.

 

Star Contender events also boast of a 16-team doubles main draw and an eight-team mixed doubles main draw. Eight qualifiers each in singles and four in doubles get to scrap with the best while host countries are also provided with sufficient wild-card entries in both singles and doubles.

 

“The WTT Star Contender in Goa will showcase the new brand of Table Tennis to the Indian people, and we believe this will be the first of many WTT events in India. The world’s best Table Tennis players will love coming to Goa and together we will make history..

Source : The Print

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh 22nd Dec 2022 said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) of Government of India has signed 04 (four) cooperative documents specifically to collaborate in space exploration in the last five years.

 

* Dr Jitendra Singh said, the agreement with the USA is for accommodating USA instruments in India’s Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3.

* He informed that the agreement with Japan is to conduct feasibility study for a joint lunar polar exploration mission, while with UK for conducting feasibility study for collaboration in future space science missions.

 

* Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that Department of Space of Government of India provides training and capacity building in space science related technology including satellite services to neighboring small countries and other space-aspiring countries of the world.

* He said, India and Bhutan collaborated on the development of INDIA-BHUTANSAT Satellite carrying into payloads NanoMX, an optical imaging payload developed by ISRO and APRS-Digipeater, jointly developed by DITT, Bhutan and ISRO. The said satellite has been successfully placed in orbit on 26.11.2022.

 

A communication satellite ‘South Asia Satellite’ was dedicated by India to South Asian Countries in 2017..

Source : PIB

The current surge in Covid-19 infections in China is believed to be driven by the BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron that is circulating in that country.

This isn’t the first time that BF.7 has made news — in October 2022, it started to replace the variants that were then dominant in the United States and several European countries.

 

When viruses mutate, they create lineages and sub-lineages — like the main trunk of the SARS-CoV-2 tree sprouting branches and sub-branches. The BF.7 is the same as BA.5.2.1.7, which is a sub-lineage of the Omicron sub-lineage BA.5.

 

A study published in ‘Cell Host and Microbe’ journal earlier this month reported that the BF.7 sub-variant has a 4.4-fold higher neutralisation resistance than the original D614G variant — meaning that in a lab setting, antibodies from a vaccinated or infected individual were less likely to destroy BF.7 than the original Wuhan virus that spread worldwide in 2020.

 

But BF.7 is not the most resilient sub-variant — the same study reported a more than 10-fold higher neutralisation resistance in another Omicron sub-variant called BQ.1..

Source : Indian Express

India’s longest escape tunnel, which is 12.89 km long constructed on the 111 km under-construction Banihal-Katra railway line in Jammu and Kashmir was completed by the Indian Railways.

* The longest tunnel is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) project.

 

* This is the fourth tunnel on the Banihal-Katra route following the 12.75 km tunnel T-49, the longest tunnel of the Indian Railways, which was completed in January this year.

 

* The escape tunnel has been constructed to facilitate rescue work if an emergency situation arises. The tunnel is a modified horseshoe shape tunnel connecting the Sumber Station yard on the Southside and Tunnel T-50 after crossing Bridge no.04 over Khoda Nallah on the North side, at Khoda village.

 

* The officials have said that Tunnel T-49 is a twin tube tunnel comprising the main tunnel which is 12.75 km long and the escape tunnel which is 12.895 kms connected with 33 cross-passages.

 

* A government release said, “The Escape Tunnel passes through the Ramban formation of the Young Himalayas and besides this, various distributaries/Nallahs of Chenab River like Khoda, Hingni, Kundan nallah etc."..

Source : Mint

The Banking sector regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a penalty of Rs 2.66 crore on Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait BSC, India operations for non-compliance with directions on “Cyber Security Framework” in Banks on 19 December 2022.

In a statement, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the bank failed to implement systems to detect unusual and unauthorized, internal or external activities in its database.

 

The fines were imposed on the bank by RBI under the Banking Regulation Act 1949.

 

 

* Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) was incorporated in Bahrain in March 1971. 

 

* It is a foreign bank which started its India operation in 1986 as a scheduled commercial bank.

 

* It has four branches in India in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Hyderabad and at Aluva (Kerala).

 

* Country head and Chief Executive Officer: Mallikarjun Kota

Source : Business Standard