Daily Current Affairs and GK | 16 January 2025

Topic: International News

1. A new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region announced by NATO.

• A new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region is being launched by NATO following a string of incidents in the area that have raised concerns about possible Russian activities.
• At a meeting in Helsinki with the leaders of NATO countries located on the Baltic Sea, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that the effort would be dubbed Baltic Sentry.
• Announcing the new operation, Rutte highlighted that more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables.
• He added that 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) of these cables facilitate an estimated $10 trillion in financial transactions daily.
• The mission will involve frigates and maritime patrol aircraft, and will "increase vigilance in the Baltic."
• A small fleet of naval drones will be deployed "to provide enhanced surveillance and deterrence."
• The fleet is made up of hundreds of old tankers with uncertain ownership and safety practices, evading sanctions and funneling oil revenues to Moscow.

Topic: Sports

2. ICC named Jasprit Bumrah as the Men’s Player of the Month for December 2024.

• The ICC has named Indian pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah the Men’s Player of the Month for December 2024, recognizing his extraordinary performances during India’s tour of Australia.
• On 14 January, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the honour, recognising Bumrah's dominance over world-class opposition teams.
• Bumrah won the award beating Australia's Pat Cummins and South Africa's Dan Paterson.
• Bumrah led India's bowling attack in three tough Test matches, taking 22 wickets at an extraordinary average of 14.22, cementing his status as one of the best bowlers in world cricket.
• For his exceptional contribution, he was also awarded the Player of the Series title in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-2025 in Australia.
• The ICC named star Australia all-rounder Annabel Sutherland as the Women's Player of the Month for December 2024.

Topic: Space and IT

3. Pixxel became the first private company in India to have its own constellation of satellites.

• Pixxel and Digantara announced the launch of their satellites through the SpaceX rocket.
• These satellites will monitor the earth and objects orbiting around it.
• Pixxel has created its own constellation of satellites by using cutting-edge hyper-spectral frequency. It will allow observation of the earth in more than 150 bands.
• It will be very useful in different sectors such as agriculture and defence.
• Digantara Aerospace announced the launch of the world's first commercial satellite - Space Camera for Object Tracking (SCOT).
• This will be used for surveillance of objects as small as 5 cm orbiting the Earth for safer space operations.

Topic: Important Days

4. National Startup Day 2025: 16 January

• National Startup Day is celebrated every year on January 16.
• It is observed to commemorate the role of startups in driving entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, self-reliance and collaboration.
• In 2022, 16 January was declared to be celebrated as National Startup Day.
• India with 1.6 lakh government-recognized startups has the third largest Startup ecosystem in the world.
• Startups have created more than 1.6 million jobs across the country.
• Under the Startup India initiative, startups have to register with the Commerce Ministry’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to get the benefits.
• Startups in India get many benefits including self-certification allowed for labour laws and environmental laws, rebate in patent filing, tax exemption under section 80IAC, exemption from Angel tax, etc.
• India has currently more than 110 Unicorns. As of January 13, 2025, more than 4,000 startups have received funds under Startup India’s Fund of Funds programme.