Daily Current Affairs: January 21, 2022

Daily Current Affairs (January 21, 2022) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness, Static GK, and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness, and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

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National News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to unveil the world’s second-largest statue in Hyderabad

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to unveil the world’s second-largest 216-foot tall statue of the eleventh-century social reformer and saint Ramanujacharya in Hyderabad.
• This outdoor 216 ft statue will be known as ‘Statue of Equality’. It will be the world’s second-tallest statue featuring a sitting posture. It is composed of ‘panchaloha’, a combination of five metals comprising gold, silver, copper, brass and zinc.
• Sri Ramanujacharya liberated millions from social, cultural, gender, educational and economic discrimination with the foundational conviction that every human is equal regardless of nationality, gender, race, caste or creed. He opened the doors of temples to all people, including those subjected to extreme discrimination.

State News

Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya observe their fiftieth statehood day on 21 January

• This year (2022) marks the fiftieth statehood day of Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya.
• Tripura and Manipur were granted the status of union territories while Meghalaya was a part of Assam.
• In 1969, Meghalaya received the recognition of an autonomous state through the Assam Reorganisation (Meghalaya) Act, 1969.
• On 21 January 1972, the North East Reorganisation Act, 1971, was implemented that provided statehood to the three North-East states — Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur.

Banking & Economy

National Stock Exchange remains the world’s largest derivatives exchange for the third consecutive year

• National Stock Exchange (NSE) is the world’s largest derivatives exchange for the third consecutive year in 2021 in terms of the number of contracts traded, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA).
• The NSE was ranked fourth by the number of trades in cash equities, as per the statistics maintained by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) for 2021.

National Stock Exchange (NSE)

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• MD and CEO: Vikram Limaye

Union Government notifies the new unit-linked insurance policies taxation rules

• The Union Government notified new rules to calculate capital gains tax on the proceeds of high-premium unit-linked insurance policies (ULIPs), following the amendments to income tax and securities transaction tax rules.
• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) released a notification explaining the mechanism for determining whether ULIPs are tax-exempt as per Clause (10D) of Section 10 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Union Budget 2021had proposed to remove the tax-exempt status on the proceeds of ULIPs if the annual premium exceeded ₹2.5 lakhs.
• ULIPs are insurance policies that offer the potential of wealth creation while providing the security of a life cover.

Ranks and Indices

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tops the list of most popular world leaders: Morning Consult Political Intelligence

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to top the chart of global leaders with the highest approval ratings, ahead of the United States President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• He remains the world’s most popular leader with an approval rating of 71 per cent of India’s adult population, according to the US-based global leader approval tracker, Morning Consult.
• Morning Consult conducted surveys based on real-time polling data about political elections, elected politicians and voting problems.
• This survey is currently tracking the approval ratings of government leaders of Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Britain and the United States.

Oxford University Press chooses ‘anxiety’ as the Children’s Word of the Year 2021

• Children have chosen ‘anxiety’ as their Word of the Year for 2021, according to new research from Oxford University Press (OUP).
• While ‘anxiety’ was the top choice, chosen by 21 per cent of children, it was followed by challenging (19 per cent), isolate (14 per cent) and well-being (13 per cent).
• Teachers named ‘resilience’ as their top choice, chosen by 31 per cent, followed by ‘challenging’ (19 per cent) and ‘well-being’ (18 per cent).

Appointments

Vinod Rai was appointed as an Independent Director of Unity Small Finance Bank

• Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai was appointed as an Independent Director of Unity Small Finance Bank. His appointment was approved by the Reserve Bank of India.
• He has been the Chairman of Banks Board Bureau (BBB) and was the Independent Director at IDFC for two terms.
• Unity Small Finance Bank is a 51:49 joint venture between Centrum Group and BharatPe.

Agreements and MoUs signed

ICICI Direct partners with Wealth Desk to offer portfolios providing holistic wealth management to users

• WealthDesk and ICICI Direct have entered into a partnership to offer readymade portfolios called Wealth Baskets, an internet-scale investing technology platform that is developing the Unified Wealth Interface (UWI), which would allow retail clients to invest through their broking accounts across mobile applications and websites.
• The users of ICICI Direct can now invest in more than 40 Wealth Basket portfolios from a wide range of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-registered professionals with investment sizes ranging from ₹1000 to over ₹10 lakhs.
• These Wealth Basket portfolios can be long-term, short-term, balanced, asset allocation-based, thematic, sectoral and other portfolios providing holistic wealth management.

Defence News

India successfully test-fires a new version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile

• India successfully test-fired a new version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile off the coast of Odisha in Balasore.
• This missile is a joint venture between India and Russia where the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) represents the Indian side and NPO Mashinostroyeniy from the Russian side.
• This missile derives its name from two rivers — the Brahmaputra in India and the Moskva of Russia.
• This BrahMos missile supersonic cruise missile can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land platforms.
• The BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.

Iran, China and Russia hold joint naval drills in the North Indian Ocean

• Iran, China and Russia held their third joint naval drills in the North Indian Ocean.
• Iran, China and Russia started joint naval drills in 2019 in the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman.
• The goal of this Joint naval drill is to improve regional security and its foundations, as well as to expand multilateral cooperation between Iran, China and Russia to support world peace, maritime security and the creation of a maritime community with a shared destiny.
• These drills will include various tactical exercises such as rescuing a burning vessel, releasing a hijacked vessel and shooting air targets at night.

Sports News

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is set to retire after the 2022 season

• India’s most celebrated tennis star and former Wimbledon doubles champion Sania Mirza and is set to retire after the 2022 season.
• She became the first Indian to win a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) singles title in 2005.
• She was ranked by the WTA as India’s No. 1 player.
• She has won six Grand Slam titles in her career.
• She was named one of the ‘50 Heroes of Asia’ by Time in October 2005.
• She was appointed as the UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia during the event held to mark the International Day to End Violence Against Women on 25 November 2013.
• She was named in Time magazine’s 2016 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Smriti Mandhana was named in the ICC T20I Women’s Team of the Year 2021

• India opener Smriti Mandhana was named in the ICC T20 Women’s Team of the Year 2021 for her superlative show in the T20 format in 2021.
• She was the Indian team’s vice-captain in T20format and was India’s highest scorer in T20in 2021.
• She was the only Indian on the team, which also included several English players, including Nat Scriver being named captain.
• ICC Women’s T20I Team of the Year 2021: Smriti Mandhana, Tammy Beaumont, Danni Wyatt, Gaby Lewis, Nat Sciver (captain), Amy Jones (wicketkeeper), Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Sophie Ecclestone, Loryn Phiri and Shabnim Ismail.

Obituary

Former Supreme Court judge S. Ranganathan passed away

• Former Supreme Court judge Ranganathan passed away at the age of 94.
• He enrolled with the Bar Council in 1952 and commenced his legal practice before joining the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) as its judicial member in 1964.
• Later, he became the President of ITAT and got elevated as a judge of the Delhi High Court in 1977. He became a Supreme Court judge in 1987 and retired from service in 1992.

Veteran mountaineer and retired Indian Army officer Major Hari Pal Singh Ahluwalia passed away

• Retired Indian Army officer, trained mountaineer, author and social worker Major Hari Pal Singh passed away at the age of 85.
• He was one of the first Indians to conquer Mount Everest and has also been a former President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and the Delhi Mountaineering Association.
• He has written over 13 books, including his autobiography ‘Higher Than Everest’.

Daily CA- 21 January One-Liners

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