Daily Current Affairs and GK | 19 and 20 January 2025

Topic: Summits/ Conferences/ Meetings

1. World Economic Forum 2025 annual meeting started in Davos, Switzerland.

• World Economic Forum 2025 annual meeting will take place from January 20 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, and other leaders related to business and politics will attend the summit.
• Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will head the Indian delegation.
• Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu, and Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan will attend the meeting.
• In this meeting, issues like inclusive growth, investment in social, physical and digital infrastructure and democratising technology will be discussed.
• German professor Klaus Schwab founded the World Economic Forum.
• WEF has become a forum for various stakeholders to meet and discuss global and regional socio-economic issues.

Topic: National News

2. Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched the toolkit for 9th edition of Swachh Survekshan.

• The toolkit for 9th edition of Swachh Survekshan (SS), the world’s largest urban cleanliness survey, has been launched.
• Swachh Survekshan was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2016.
• In 2024, a special category - Super Swachh League has been introduced for a separate league of cities excelling in cleanliness.
• For the very first time, the cities have been classified into 5 population categories: Very Small, Small, Medium, Big, and Million-Plus.
• In this year, Cleanliness Target Units (CTUs) and adopting Swabhav Swachhata Sanskaar Swachhata – behaviour change in daily lives have been included in the assessment.
• There are 12 cities in the Super Swachh League. Top 3 ranking cities in each population category will move into the league for the subsequent years.

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

3. Internet Governance Internship & Capacity Building Scheme announced by NIXI.

• The launch of the Internet Governance Internship and Capacity Building scheme has been announced by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
• The program was launched by Shri S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India and Chairman, NIXI.
• The program aims to create awareness and develop expertise on Internet Governance (IG) among Indian citizens.
• The program offers a bi-annual internship with two parallel tracks: a six-month program and a three-month program.
• Each intern will be mentored by subject matter experts from international organizations such as ICANN APNIC or APTLD, Special Interest Group members, high-ranking retired government officials, and faculty advisors from recognized institutions/universities.
• A fixed stipend of 20 thousand rupees per month will be provided to interns along with support to conduct mandatory outreach programs.
• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI):
  • Established on 19 June 2003, NIXI is a non-profit (Section 8) company under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
  • Its mandate is to promote access and adoption of the Internet in India by facilitating various infrastructure aspects to enable the Internet ecosystem to be managed and used by the public.

Topic: MoUs/Agreements

4. An MoU signed between India and the US on Cybercrime Investigations.

• An MoU signed between India and the USA to enhance cooperation and information sharing on cyber threat intelligence and digital forensics in criminal investigations.
• Ambassador of India to the United States, Shri Vinay Kwatra, and Ms. Kristie Canegallo, the Acting United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), signed the MoU.
• This MoU allows the relevant agencies of both countries to enhance the level of cooperation and training with respect to the use of cyber threat intelligence and digital forensics in criminal investigations.
• Cybercrime is closely linked to shared security challenges faced by India and the US, including terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, organized crime, and money laundering.
• The MoU on Cybercrime Investigation will enable further strengthening of India-US security cooperation as part of comprehensive and global strategic partnership.

Topic: Sports

5. The inaugural Kho Kho World Cup clinched by India Women with a commanding win over Nepal in the final.

• The Indian women's team created history by winning the inaugural Kho-Kho World Cup 2025 title on January 19 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
• The Indian Women's team dominated Nepal in a thrilling final, ensuring their victory with a resounding score of 78-40.
• On the same day, history repeated itself for India as the Indian Men’s team followed in the footsteps of their female counterparts, securing a 54-36 victory over Nepal in a thrilling final to win the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup on 19 January.
• Anshu Kumari from Team India was named the Best Attacker of the Match.
• Manmati Dhani from Team Nepal was awarded the Best Defender of the Match.
• Chaithra B from Team India was named as the Best Player of the Match.

Topic: International Appointments

6. As the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump took the oath of office.

• In Washington, DC, the president took the oath of office while US Chief Justice John Roberts was present.
• The US Vice President, JD Vance, also took the oath of office.
• India's representative at the swearing-in ceremony was External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
• Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Tim Cook of Apple, and Sam Altman of OpenAI were also among the attendees of swearing in ceremony.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Art and Culture

7. World Monuments Fund (WMF) has added Hyderabad's Musi River Historic Buildings to its 2025 World Monuments Watch list.

• Another Indian location on the WMF's list of 25 sites at risk from the water crisis and climate change is Gujarat's "Bhuj Historic Water Systems."
• The British Residency (now Koti Women’s College), Osmania General Hospital, Telangana High Court, and State Central Library are important buildings along the Musi River.
• WMF published a list of sites from 29 nations that it believes require preservation and advocacy.
• The New York-based organization's biannual nomination-based lobbying program highlights structures and locations that are impacted by natural catastrophes, tourism, conflict, and climate change.
• One of the Krishna River's principal tributaries is the Musi River.

Topic: State News/ Maharashtra government

8. Maharashtra government formed a 16-member committee to draft first-ever AI policy.

• The Maharashtra government has announced the formation of a 16-member committee for submitting recommendations on the Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025.
• Maharashtra would become the first state to develop a dedicated AI policy.
• The committee will be chaired by the director of the Directorate of Information Technology, Mumbai.
• Maharashtra’s AI Policy will build upon the framework of India's AI Mission Policy.
• It will suggest measures to complement the Central government’s AI Mission.
• The India AI Mission is focused on advancing the nation’s AI capabilities with initiatives such as the IndiaAI Datasets Platform, Application Development Initiatives, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, etc.

Topic: National Appointments

9. Gyanendra Pratap Singh has been appointed Director General of the CRPF.

• Gyanendra Pratap Singh is a 1991 batch Indian Police Service officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved this appointment.
• He will remain Director General of the CRPF till the date of his superannuation on November 30, 2027.
• He has served both in the Assam Police as well as Central police organisations including SPG and NIA.
• CRPF is among the largest Central armed police forces (CAPF) in India.

Topic: Banking System

10. RBI has given permission to NRIs to open rupee accounts in authorized banks abroad.

• In the latest step towards internationalization of the rupee, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed overseas branches of banks to open rupee accounts for people living outside India.
• Individuals’ resident outside India will be able to settle transactions with other individuals’ resident outside the country by using the balances in their repatriable rupee accounts, such as Special Non-Resident Rupee Account and Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA), the RBI said.
• SRVAs require prior approval of RBI before opening, unlike rupee Vostro accounts.
• Under these new types of accounts, settlement through rupees is an additional arrangement to the existing system, which uses freely convertible currencies and will work as a complementary system, reducing dependence on hard (freely convertible) currency.
• In July 2022, SRVA was introduced, and since then several foreign banks have opened such accounts with banks in India.
• An MoU signed by the RBI with the central banks of the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Maldives to encourage cross-border transactions in local currencies.

Topic: National News

11. 1^st Foundation Day of the Lokpal of India celebrated on 16^th January.

• For the first time, the Foundation Day celebration of the Lokpal of India was held on 16th January at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi.
• On this day, 16 January 2014, the Lokpal of India was established with the implementation of Section 3 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.
• The Chief Guest of the function was the Chief Justice of India, Shri Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
• Justice N. Santosh Hegde, Padma Bhushan Anna Hazare, Attorney General R. Venkataramani, Supreme Court and High Court Judges, Lokayukta, Lokpal members, representatives of Bar Council and Delhi Judiciary and others attended the event.
• Officers from various organizations like CAG, CBI, CVC and CVOs of Public Sector Undertakings were also present on the occasion.
• Justice A.M. Khanwilkar is the current Chairperson of the Lokpal of India.

(Source: PIB)

Topic: Space and IT

12. ISRO conducted CROPS experiment to study plant growth in space.

• A batch of cowpea seeds has been successfully sprouted in space as part of the Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies (CROPS) experiment.
• The Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies experiment was sent through PSLV-C60 POEM-4.
• Under the CROPS experiment cowpea seeds sprouted in 4 days.
• The CROPS payload has been developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).
• It has been designed to develop and evolve ISRO’s capabilities for growing and sustaining flora in extra-terrestrial environments.
• ISRO also successfully operated India’s first space robotic arm.
• The Relocatable Robotic Manipulator-Technology Demonstrator (RRM-TD) is India’s first space robotic manipulator with walking capability.
• It has been developed by IISU and is a 7 Degree of Freedom (DoF) robotic arm.

Topic: Indian Economy

13. India’s electronics exports rose 35.11 per cent to USD 3.58 billion.

• In December 2024, India's electronics exports rose to 35.11 per cent to USD 3.58 billion.
• In December 2024, electronic goods exports reached their highest.
• In October and November, electronic goods exports were USD 3.43 billion and USD 3.47 billion, respectively.
• Engineering exports have increased 8.35 per cent and reached USD 84 billion.