Source: Cick Here

• The World Day of War Orphans was initiated by the French organisation, SOS Enfants en Detresses. Held on 6th January each year.


• This special day enables the International Community to recognise the plight of a particularly vulnerable group.

Source: Cick Here

• Prime Minister Theresa May said that Britain would be in uncharted territory if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament later this month, despite little sign that she has won over sceptical law makers.


• Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 but May’s inability so far to get her deal for a managed exit through parliament has alarmed business leaders and investors who fear the country is heading for a damaging no-deal Brexit.

Source: Cick Here

• In China’s latest move to control and indoctrinate the Muslim ethnic minority population in the communist nation, it passed a law that aims to “Sinicize” Islam within the next five years.


• According to a report from China’s leading English daily, Global Times, the Xi Jinping-government held talks with eight Islamic associations and came to a consensus over the need to “guide Islam to be compatible with socialism and implement measures to Sinicize the religion.”

Source: Cick Here

• Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya stated that 4677 Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana’ (PMBJP) Kendras became functional in 35 States/UTs of the country.


• Also unbranded generic medicines worth Rs. 417 crores (MRP) have been sold through PMBJP Kendras till December 2018.


• The medicines are procured only from WHO-GMP certified manufacturers, Thus, PMBJP has saved approximately Rs. 1668 crores to the citizens of country.

Source: Cick Here

• The 27th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), which has the UAE‘s third largest emirate Sharjah as its 2019 guest of honour,inaugurated in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The event will conclude on 13th January.


• To promote the idea of inclusive learning through a series of exhibitions of audio, silent, tactile and Braille books, the Book Fair’s theme is “Books for Readers with Special Needs”.


• It is co-organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) and the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).


• The nine-day-long fair, was inaugurated by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and H.E.


• Sheikh Fahim Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Executive Chairman of the Department of Government Relations, United Arab Emirates. Besides a NBT calendar was also launched during the first day of the event based on the theme ‘Readers with Special Needs’.


• During the fair,International Disability Film Festival was organized for the First time where over 45 documentaries from 27 countries.

Source: Cick Here

• The Minister of state (I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep S Puri launched the fourth edition of annual cleanliness of Urban India known as “Swachh survekshan 2019”.


• The Survey will be conducted across 4237 towns and cities between 4th January to 28th January 2019 by independent third party.


• The survey is completely paperless and digital and will be completed in a record time of 28 days. For the first time the survey will be conducted without giving any prior information.


• Data will be collected from 4 broad sources which are Service Level Progress, Direct Observation,Citizens feedback and Certification.


• MoHUA has introduced an important component of Certification (Star Rating of the Garbage Free cities and open defection free Protocols) on two different aspects.


• The cities would be evaluated on the basis of the star rating achieved by them as per the protocol of MoHUA will has 12 parameters.


• 5% weightage has been allotted in the swachh Survekshan to Open Defecation Free (ODF) Certification.


• The Survey will contain 5000 marks in Swachh Survekshan 2019 as compared to 4000 marks of Swachh Survekshan 2018.


• 7 cities which are Indore, Ujjain, Khargone, Shahganj, Rajnandgaon, Ambikapur and Bhilai have been already given ODF++ certification and 35 cities have been given ODF+.


• Mysuru and Indore had been ranked as the No. 1 city in Swachh Survekshan 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Source: Cick Here

• A 10-day long Indian Panorama Film Festival began at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.


• Indian Panorama Film Festival, being organized by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of I&B, was inaugurated by Secretary, Ministry of I&B, Shri Amit Khare.


• The opening feature film ‘Olu’ directed by ShriShaji N Karun.

Source: Cick Here

• The Ministry of Culture announced that Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) declared 6 monuments as ‘protected and of national importance’ under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, in 2018.


• These sites are 125-year-old Old High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra.


• The Group of Temples in RanipurJharail in Bolangir district of Odisha.


• 2 Mughal era monuments in Agra- Haveli of Agha Khan and Hathi Khana.


• The NeemranaBaori in Alwar district of Rajasthan.


• The Vishnu Temple in Kotali, Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand.


• No new monument was included in the list of sites of national importance In 2016 and 2017.


• The last monument to be included in the list, in 2015, was the Vishnu Temple in Nadavayal in Kerala’s Wayanad district.

Source: Cick Here

• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on United India Insurance Co for violating norms regarding settlement of motor claims.


• The insurer also violated file and use guidelines issued by the Authority.

Source: Cick Here

• The Ministry of Finance, Government of India has revised the interest rates on select Time Deposit Small Saving Scheme for the quarter ending on 31st March 2019. The Interest rates on one-year time deposit is hiked from 6.9% to 7% whereas the interest rate on three-year time deposit has been changed from 7.2% to 7%.


• Interest on Small Saving Schemes is revised every quarter by Ministry of Finance, Government of India Rates of Savings Deposit Scheme is 4.0%, 5-Year Time Deposit is 7.8%,5-Year Recurring Deposit is 7.3%,5-Year Senior Citizen Savings Scheme is 8.7%,5-Year Monthly Income Account is 7.7%,5-Year National Savings Certificate is 8.0%.


• Interest rates applicable to Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra and Sukanya Samriddhi were remains unchanged at 8%, 7.7% and 8.5% respectively.


• Now, Investment in time deposits of one-year, two year and three year maturity periods will fetch interest at same rate 7%.

Source: Cick Here

• The United Bank of India (UBI) and Srei Equipment Finance have entered into an agreement for financing the Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) and agriculture sector.


• Under the agreement UBI plans to leverage the co-lending model to offer credit at blended interest rate of 11-12 per cent.


• The Bank will leverage low its low cost loans with Srei Equipment finance to enable purchase of equipment and vehicle in the seamless manner.


• The Bank is eyeing around 200 crore business over the period of three months by this agreement.

Source: Cick Here

• 29 years old Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera smashed 13 sixes against New Zealand in the 2nd ODI to break the 22 years old record of maximum sixes in an ODI innings by a Sri Lankan player. The previous record was held by Sanath Jayasuriya who smashed 11 sixes in an innings.


• Thisara Perera’s maiden century in which he scored 140 runs in just 74 balls,Since it pulled off a thrilling victory of 21-runs for New Zealand.

Source: Cick Here

• The Water Resources Minister of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Devineni Umamaheswar Rao received the ‘Central Board of Irrigation and Power Award-2019‘ for better planning and construction of Polavaram Irrigation Project on the Godavari River.


• AP Water Resources Minister, Rao received the award in the category of “Best Implementation of Water Resources Project” .


• The Minister of State (IC) Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh honoured Devineni Umamaheswar Rao at Scope convention Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi.


• The multi-purpose Polavaram irrigation project which has been accorded the status of a national project is under the final phase of construction in West Godavari district and East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and its reservoir spreads to parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.


• So far, 64 per cent of the project work is completed and the target is to complete the project by December 2019.


• About Rs 15,380.97 crore has been spent on the project. Out of which, an amount of Rs 6,727.26 crore has been reimbursed by the central government and the remaining Rs Rs 3,517.84 crore is still awaited.

Source: Cick Here

• Home Minister Shri Rajnath singh presented the prestigious 13th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards to 29 winners in 18 categories across Print, Broad cast and purely digital to recognize the outstanding contributions of journalists in 2017 in New Delhi.


• The Award aims to celebrate the excellence in journalism and recognize the courage and commitment of the journalists.


• The award was instituted by The Indian Express Group in 2005 as part of centenary year celebration of its founder, Ramnath Goenka.

Source: Cick Here

• Bandhan Bank announced the resignation of independent director Krishnamurthy V Subramanian following his appointment as the chief economic advisor (CEA) to the government.


• On December 7, 2018, the government appointed Subramanian as the CEA for a period of three years.


• He replaced Arvind Subramanian, who resigned from the post in June 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• Dr. Rakesh Aggarwal assumed charge as the new director of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry. He succeeded Dr S Vivekanandan.


• He is also an elected fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences (India) and National Academy of Medical Sciences (India).

• Scientists from Washington University of United states of America (USA) successfully launched a telescope (X-Calibur instrument) from the McMurdo Station in Antarctica that will analyze X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial bodies.


• The X-calibur instrument is carried aloft on a helium balloon intended to reach an altitude of 130,000 feet which is four times the cruising altitude of commercial airliners.


• Neutron stars are object of very small radius around 30 km and a very high density composed of closely packed neutrons.

Source: Cick Here

• a warning was issued by The India Meteorological Department (IMD) that a Cyclonic storm “PABUK” over Andaman Sea and neighbourhood is moving towards west-northwestwards with a speed of 21 kmph.Cyclone warning for Andaman Islands is “ORANGE MESSAGE”.


• IMD issued guidelines to people living on the Andaman islands to remain at safe place and suspended all fishing operations in the Andaman sea and southeast and east central Bay of Bengal on 5th & 6th January 2019.


• The Cyclone PABUK will cross Andaman by the evening of 6th January and move towards Myanmar coast and weaken gradually during 7th and 8th January.


• PABUK was originated in the Gulf of Thailand and created landfall in Nakhon Si Thammarat province of Thailand on 4th January 2019.


• The Met department said, Pabuk is very likely to move northwestwards and cross Andaman Islands around tomorrow evening as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 70-80 kmph gusting to 90kmph.