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• India has issued a note verbale to Pakistan's Foreign Office protesting against the treatment of its diplomats.


• This includes attempts to hack into social media accounts of officers and a Pakistani security official who "aggressively" kept a watch on the Indian high commissioner and deputy high commissioner while they attended a wedding reception at a hotel in Islamabad.

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• The Parliament of Macedonia has passed the resolution to amend the constitution of the country to rename it as the Republic of Northern Macedonia.


• The name change will help resolve a decades-long dispute with neighboring Greece opening the way for Skopje to join NATO and the European Union.

Source: Cick Here

• China has surpassed its rivals in fielding some of the world's most advanced weapon systems by acquiring foreign technology in exchange for granting access to its market.


• The increasing military might will "enable China to impose its will in the region", the report added.

Source: Cick Here

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched a slew of Central government projects worth over Rs.1,550 crore in Balangir district of Odisha for accelerating the state’s development.


• The prime minister dedicated to the nation the electrification of Jharsuguda-Vizianagaram and Sambalpur-Angul railway lines spanning 813 km and completed at a cost of Rs 1,085 crore.


• He also inaugurated the doubling of 14.2 km Barpali-Dungaripali and 17.3 km Balangir-Deogaon rail lines, completed at a cost of Rs 189.3 crore.


• Besides a Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP), spread over 28.3 acres and built at a cost of Rs 100 crore at Jharsuguda was also dedicated to the nation.


• He also inaugurated the 15 km-long Balangir-Bichhupali ailway line laid at a cost of Rs 115 crore. It is part of the new 289-km Balangir-Khurda road line which connects to Howrah-Chennai main line on Khurda Road and Titlagarh-Sambalpur line at Balangir.


• A new train on Balangir-Bichhupali route was also flagged off by PM Modi.


• Modi also inaugurated renovation and restoration works at Nilamadhav & Siddheswar Temple at Gandhaharadi in Boudh, Paschim Somnath group of temples, also in Boudh, and Ranipur Jharial group of monuments in Balangir.


• Furthermore six Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) one each at Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri, Phulbani, Bargarh and Balangir were also inaugurated by PM.


• Finally he laid the foundation stone for a permanent building of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sonepur, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 15.81 crore and also inaugurated a Kendriya Vidyalaya at Rayagada.

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• Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi inaugurated Regional Centre of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) at Mohali.


• Addressing at the function,she stressed on the need for training and development of elected women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to ensure that fruitful development would reach the top level through their active participation and actual empowerment.


• It is a premier organisation devoted to promotion of voluntary action research, training and documentation in the overall domain of women and child development. This organisation have already four such Regional Centres one each at Bangalore, Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow besides the Headquarters at New Delhi.

Source: Cick Here

• The First Annual Disarmament and International Security Affairs Fellowship Programme was organised by Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. The event will be concluded on 1st February 2019.


• The event was inaugurated by the United Nations Under Secretary General and High Representative for Disarmament, Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu, and Foreign Secretary, Shri Vijay Keshav Gokhale.


• The Fellowship Programme, which is being held at the Foreign Services Institute, New Delhi will be attended by Young Diplomats from 27 countries.


• Multiple issues related to disarmament and international security such as global security environment, weapons of mass destruction, certain conventional weapons, space security, maritime cooperation, security of cyberspace, export controls, emerging technologies etc. will be covered in the programme.


• The aim of the programme is to equip participants with knowledge and perspectives on various issues related to disarmament, non-proliferation, arms control and international security.

• Union Science & Technology Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated 2 national level initiatives in the field of Science and Communications.These initiatives are the first step in creating a national science channel for the country.


• The initiatives were: DD Science and India Science.


• These were launched by The Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Doordarshan(DD), Prasar Bharati.


• These were made official by singing of MOUs between Vigyan Prasar and Doordarshan.


• These are aimed to integrate and elevate science in everyday life and to make India reach in top 3 of countries propagating science and technology by 2030.


• The channels have been conceived and supported by the DST and are being implemented and managed by Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous organisation of DST.

Source: Cick Here

• India got its largest startup ecosystem when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated a 1.8-lakh-square-feet facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology.


• The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra-modern facilities of Maker Village that promote hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country's first international accelerator for hardware startups.

Source: Cick Here

• Government e Marketplace (GeM) has launched “Womaniya on GeM”, an initiative to enable women entrepreneurs and women self-help groups (WSHGs) to sell handicrafts and handloom, accessories and many other products.


• The initiative seeks to develop women entrepreneurship on the margins of society to achieve gender-inclusive economic growth. Government e-Marketplace is a 100% government owned company set up under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

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• According to an official release by Central Statistics Office (CSO), citing cooling food and fuel prices as the reasons, it stated that wholesale and retail inflation reduced to a multi month low with CPI falling to an 18-month low in December, 2018.


• India’s headline inflation rate based on the consumer price index (combined) reduced to an 18-month low of 2.19% in December, down from 2.33% in November, 2018. It was 5.21% in December 2017.


• Wholesale inflation (measured by WPI) softened to an eight-month low of 3.8% in December from 4.64% in November, 2018.


• Retail inflation remained below RBI’s target of 4%.


• Core inflation (excluding food, fuel and light, and transport and communications) was 5.7% in December, 2018. core inflation numbers implydemand side pressure. High core inflation, for examples due to health and education where inflation is constantly on the rise, is due to limited supply.

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• Sri Lankan Minister Eran Wickramaratne said The Bank of China has offered a loan of $300 million to Sri Lanka, which could be raised to $1 billion.


• The political crisis in Sri Lanka last year triggered by the ouster of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe adversely affected the country's economy. Sri Lanka faces record high repayments of $5.9 billion this year.

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• Asian Cup gold medallist Shakil Ahmed has set up a world record in indoor rowing by completing 1 lakh meters in above-40 years category in Kolkata.


• Shakil began his record-setting indoor rowing feat in Salt Lake stadium complex and achieved the milestone of covering 1 lakh meters of simulated distance in 10 hours.

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• Australia's Anthony Stuart took a hat-trick in his third ODI against Pakistan on January 16, 1997, becoming the second Australian to register an ODI hat-trick.


• Stuart dismissed Ijaz Ahmed, Mohammad Wasim and Moin Khan on consecutive deliveries, registering figures of 10-1-26-5. However, he was never selected again and thus became the first player with a hat-trick in his last ODI.

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• Gujarat Government announced to implement 10 percent quota for Economically Weaker sections of the general category in educational institutions and government jobs for general category poor candidates.


• This quota will be implemented for every job offers or admission process that is to start from January 14, 2019.

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• Ananth Narayanan, the chief executive officer of Myntra and Jabong, a unit of Walmart-owned Flipkart, quit the company to pursue external opportunities.


• Ananth Narayanan is expected to join as the chief executive officer of video streaming service Hotstar.


• Flipkart executive Amar Nagaram who previously headed consumer shopping experience has been appointed as the new head of Myntra and Jabong and will report to Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.


• Earlier in November Flipkart’s co-founder & group CEO, Binny Bansal, had also stepped down from the company following a probe into serious personal misconduct.

Source: Cick Here

• Private sector ICICI Bank appointed former SBI Managing Director B Sriram on its board as independent director for 5 years.


• Prior to this, Sriram was the managing director of IDBI Bank and before which he was the same in SBI.


• Besides him, ICICI also appointed management consultant Rama Bijapurkar as independent director.

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• Scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune suggested that albumin can be a better indicator of diabetes.


• This can be achieved based on measurements of levels of free albumin and albumin attached to glucose molecules in the blood.


• Glycation is binding of glucose to protein or lipid molecules and glycated hemoglobin is the percentage of glucose bound to hemoglobin.


• These albumin levels in blood influence glycation of haemoglobin which further helps in diagnosis of diabetes.

Source: Cick Here

• Sir Michael Atiyah, a British mathematician who received the 1966 Fields Medal, also known as the 'Nobel for Mathematics,' passed away at the age of 89.


• Atiyah was best known for his co-development of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. Atiyah was also the President of the Royal Society from 1990-1995.

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• 83 year old Shivajirao Deshmukh, former chairman of the state legislative council and senior Congress leader died follwing long illnesses while under treatment at Mumbai, Maharashtra. His last rites to be performed at Shirala on 15th January.


• He belongs to Shirala tehsil in Sangli district of western Maharashtra.


• Shivajirao Deshmukh served as revenue minister in the Vasantsada Patil government in 1976-85.


• He was also the former speaker of Maharashtra legislative assembly.


• He won the assembly polls four times from Shirala seat in 1978, 1980, 1985 and in 1990. In 2008 he was elected as Chairman of the upper house and continued till 2015.