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• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or Non Resident Indian Day is observed on 9 January every year by the Union Government till 2015.


• Now it is celebrated once in every two years to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India.


• On 9 January,1915, Mahatma Gandhi came to India from South Africa and became the greatest Pravasi who led India's Freedom Struggle and made India free from British or colonial rule.

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• President Donald Trump made a somber televised plea for border wall funding Tuesday night, seeking an edge in his shutdown battle with congressional Democrats as he declared there is “a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.”


• Trump argued for funding on security and humanitarian grounds as he sought to put pressure on newly empowered Democrats amid an extended partial government shutdown.

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• Deadly winter weather blasted Europe for yet another day Tuesday, trapping hundreds of people in Alpine regions, whipping up high winds that caused flight cancellations and increasing the risks of more deadly avalanches.


• At least 13 people have been killed in weather-related accidents in Europe over the last week, most of them from avalanches.

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• Conservative rebels inflict government defeat over 'no-deal' Brexit.


• Tory MPs help prompt a Commons loss for the PM amid threats of more action to prevent the UK leaving the EU without an agreement.

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• Democrats pushed back just minutes after, also in a national address, laying the blame for the shutdown back at the President’s feet, accusing him of throwing “temper tantrums” to have his way.


• President Donald Trump used the gravitas of an Oval Office national address to blame Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown and seek $5.7 billion for a wall , telling Americans there was a “humanitarian crisis — a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul” unfolding at the border.

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• The Rajya Sabha members have a busy day ahead as key bills come up for passage on Wednesday, the last day of winter session.


• The session has been extended by a day as government scrambles to pass a constitution amendment bill to provide quota for poorer sections among general category, a bill on the Citizenship Act and one on instant triple talaq.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Solapur town in Maharashtra on Wednesday to lay the foundation stones of a number of projects and address a gathering.


• Modi’s visit to Maharashtra, his third trip to the state in four months, assumes significance with the uncertainty over the alliance between his BJP and the Shiv Sena as leaders of both parties have asked their cadres to be ready to fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls independently.

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• Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswam announced the formation of a new district Kallakurichi by bifurcating Villupuram district which is one of the large districts in the State.


• With this, the state will now have 33 districts.


• The decision was taken because the previous coverage of the district Villupuram was huge and and it was becoming difficult for the administrators to govern the district.

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• Asserting that terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said Wednesday the menace is spreading its head like a "multi-headed monster" and is "here to stay" as long as states continue to use it as a state policy.


• Rawat, speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue here, also said that there was a need to control social media as it was becoming a source of spreading radicalisation.

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• The Bandhan-Gruh Finance merger deal has allowed HDFC an exit at a really attractive valuation. A stake in Bandhan Bank, in return, is simply a cherry on top


• Bandhan Bank Ltd’s merger with Gruh Finance Ltd appears to be a deal that was born out of compulsion and is anything but sweet for minority shareholders of the bank and the mortgage lender, analysts said.


• The crash in share prices of Bandhan Bank and Gruh Finance following the merger announcement points to that effect. In the past two days, Bandhan Bank has dropped by around 10% to ₹477.05 on BSE, while Gruh Finance, controlled by Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC), has plunged by around 20% to ₹256.

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• 9 January 2019 Current Affairs: Jana Small Finance Bank launched Current Account with Auto-Sweep facility.


• The facility will enable bank's existing and potential new customers to auto sweep-in and sweep-out the idle funds in the current account to Sweep Fixed Deposit and earn high interest.


• For a tenor of 365 days on sweep deposit, the customers will be able to earn interest of 8.5 percent.

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• 09 January 2019 Current Affairs: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted NBFC – P2P (Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer) Certificate to IndiaMoneyMart and this certification will enable IndiaMoneyMart to expand operations and target loan disbursals worth INR 100 Crore by the end of financial year 2018-19.


• The step will validates IndiaMoneyMart’s strong framework to make lending and borrowing transparent, digital and convenient in confrontation to the regulatory requirement.


• IndiaMoneyMart is offering loans starting from Rs. 10 thousand to Rs 10 Lakhs for a tenure ranging between 3 months to 36 months.

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• The decision has put to rest concerns that BCCI would be forced to host IPL 2019 outside India as the dates might have clashed with Lok Sabha elections due by May


• The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held entirely in India from 23 March 2019, laying to rest fan and advertiser fears that 2019 Lok Sabha elections will play spoilsport with the popular T20 cricket tournament.


• The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) met in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the T20 venues and decided that the tournament will be hosted in the country.

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• Virat Kohli has shown he is fair to his players, leads from the front as the No. 1 batsman in the world and has brought in a culture of fitness.


• It’s a test of character. That’s why it’s apt that the five-day game is called Test cricket. This Indian team led by Virat Kohli has shown plenty of character to become the first to win a series in Australia.

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• The Khelo India Youth Games 2019, which will see a host of athletes in action, is set to officially kick off in Pune on Wednesday.


• Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will attend a virtual torch ceremony at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in the evening, a media release said.

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• India’s new ambassador to China, Vikram Misri, took charge of the post.
  
• He reported to Hong Lei, Deputy Director General of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.


• He is a 1989-batch India Foreign Service (IFS) officer, and replaced Gautam Bambawale who retired in November 2018.


• Prior to this appointment, Misri served as Indian envoy in Myanmar.


• Earlier, he has served in various capacities at the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as well as in the Prime Minister’s Office.

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• The chairman of National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), Shri Pranav R Mehta, has taken over as the president of Global Solar Council (GSC) from January 1, 2019.


• He is dubbed as the Solar Man of India.


• He has been conferred with the ‘Visionary Disruptor Award’ by Solar Future Today, which he will be receiving on 15th January, 2019 at the sidelines of World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

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• Civil aviation security head and senior IPS officer Kumar Rajesh Chandra was appointed as the Director General of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) up to 31st DEC 2021 for a tenure of around 2 years.


• Kumar Rajesh Chandra , a 1985 IPS officer of Bihar cadre ,is at present the director general of the bureau of civil aviation security (BCAS)


• He will succeed SS Deswal, chief of indo-tibetan border.


• The SSB has about 80,000 personnel, guards India’s borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

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• NASA’s transiting exoplanet survey satellite (TESS) has discovered a planet named HD21749b orbiting around the star HD 21749, which lies about 53 light years from earth in the faint constellation reticulum. TESS does this work by carving the sky up into overlapping sectors, studying each one for 27 days at a time.


• Discovery team leader Diana Drogomir, institute of astrophysics and space research said that the planet has a density of water, a thick atmosphere and has an average surface temperature around 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

HD 21749b completes one orbit of its host star, which is nearly as bright as our sun , every 36 earth days.

• It is a “sub Neptune”, around three times bigger than earth and 23 times more massive then earth, which means it’s likely gaseous rather than rocky.

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• Reliance Jio Infocomm launched the Kumbh JioPhone application, especially designed for millions of pilgrims who will congregate during this year’s Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj.


• The new app which will be available to both existing and new JioPhone users will contain information on Kumbh, real-time travel information (special trains, buses etc.), booking tickets and receiving updates, ‘Yatri Ashray’ at stations, emergency helpline numbers, area routes and maps, pre-published bath and religious day schedules and railway camp mela.