The Election Commission named folk singer Maithili Thakur as Bihar’s state icon on January 2, 2023. Thakur, who studied Indian classical and folk music, was recently awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for her contribution to Bihar folk music in 2021. The singer will create awareness among the voters for their participation in the electoral process.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Goa’s new Zuari bridge. The bridge is an important link between North and South Goa.

During the opening of the National Championship ” Tehri Water Sports Cup ” at Tehri Lake on December 28, 2022, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh announced the establishment of a world-class Kayaking-Canoeing Academy in Tehri, Uttarakhand. The youth of Uttarakhand will be equipped to play at the national and international levels by giving all facilities as well as free training at this academy.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been named the secretariat for Science 20 (S20), one of the G20’s groupings. The G20 is being presided over by India and the theme of the S20 in 2023 is ‘Disruptive Science for Innovative and Sustainable Development’.  Discussions will take place throughout the year in various regions of India.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully launched the Extended Range (ER) variant of the BrahMos air-launched supersonic cruise missile against a ship target from a SU-30MKI fighter aircraft on December 29, 2022. “The missile fulfilled the targeted mission objectives in the Bay of Bengal region,” the IAF said.

The Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), ARTPARK (AI and Robotics Technology Park) and Google have partnered together for the ‘Project Vaani’ Initiative. The digital project aims to map the language diversity of India by collecting speech sets of about a million people across 773 districts. The project aims to record over 150,000 hours of speech, part of which will be transcribed in local scripts. The goal is to boost the development of automatic speech recognition, speech-to-speech translation and natural language understanding.

Suryakumar Yadav of India has been nominated for Men’s T20I Cricketer of 2022. Batters from three continents have been named to 2022 shortlist. Suryakumar Yadav had a fantastic 2022 in the shortest version of the game, becoming the second batter in the format to hit more than 1000 runs in a year. He finished the year as the leading run-scorer, with 1164 runs scored at a crazy strike rate of 187.43.

The draft rules for a new city ranking system based on financial performance and beauty were recently announced by the Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs. The goal of the ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’ is to evaluate and reward urban local governments based on their resource mobilization, spending performance, and fiscal governance systems.

The Ministry of Railways has devised a new plan to modernize over 1,000 minor stations over the next few years. The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is a component of its station rehabilitation initiative. Rooftop plazas, larger platforms, ballast-less rails, and 5G connection are among the primary characteristics of the proposed stations.

Dharmadam, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s constituency has achieved the position of complete library constituency in India, the first in India.

India-assisted 720 Megawatts Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Power Project has been recently handed to Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) in Bhutan. With this project, India and Bhutan have successfully completed four mega hydroelectric power projects. The commissioning of the project has increased Bhutan’s Electrical Power Generation Capacity by 44 per cent.

Cuban social worker and human rights activist Dr Aleida Guevara has been selected for the first KR Gouri Amma national award in 2022.

Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal launched a host of new initiatives, including the right-to-repair portal and an NTH mobile app, and opened new premises of the National Consumer Helpline center in the national capital. A memorandum of understanding was also signed between the Consumer Affairs Department and IIT (BHU), Varanasi as well launched a capacity-building program of consumer commissions.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated banks in the country to renew their locker agreements with existing locker customers by 1 January 2023.

India is ranked fifth on the global list of the best cuisines for 2022, according to Taste Atlas. The ranking is based on audience votes for ingredients, dishes, and beverages.

According to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a huge statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be installed and a research centre will be built as part of his grand memorial in Gwalior.

Bandhan Bank signs Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Defense for Defence Pensioners under SPARSH.SPARSH is known as the System for Pension Administration Raksha, a platform to deal with all defense pensioners’ activities. The MoU was signed by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), Ministry of Defence. SPARSH is a unified system to bring pension services to the doorstep of veterans. This was implemented by the Ministry of Defense on July 2021.

The Aurangabad chapter of the BJP named a star after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary, which was observed as ‘Good Governance Day’ across the country, revealed Aurangabad BJP president Shirish Boralkar. The distance of the star from Earth is 392.01 light years. It is the closest star to the Sun.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been elected as the Prime Minister of Nepal again on December 25, 2022. President Bidya Devi Bhandari named Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of the CPN-Maoist Centre as Nepal’s next Prime Minister. According to a statement published by the President’s Office here, Prachanda has been chosen as Prime Minister of Nepal under Article 76 Clause 2 of the Constitution.

Prime Minister Modi declared December 26th to be Veer Bal Diwas, commemorating the martyrdom of Sri Guru Gobind Singh’s sons, Sahibzadas Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh. He also participated in a historic programme marking Veer Bal Diwas at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.

Harmanpreet Singh was named the captain of the 18-member Indian squad for the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup.
Hockey India announced the squad for the FIH men’s World Cup scheduled from January 13 to 29, 2023 in Bhubaneswar – Rourkela, Odisha. Amit Rohidas will be his deputy for the event. The Men in Blue will play its opening game against Spain at the newly built Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela.

In 2023 Russia will begin supplying India with the third squadron of the S-400 air defence missile system. India has already deployed its first two missile system squadrons to monitor the Ladakh sector, the Chicken’s Neck Corridor in West Bengal, and the whole northeastern area. India and Russia have agreed on a three-year contract of around 35,000 crores to purchase five squadrons of S-400 air defence missiles.

PV Sindhu is among the top 25 highest-paid female athletes on Forbes annual list. India’s badminton star PV Sindhu is the only player in the top 25 in Forbes’ annual list of the highest-paid female athletes in the world. Sindhu, the 2016 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist, occupies the 12th spot on the list. Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka tops the list. The 27-year-old made 7 million US Dollars of her earnings, having won a singles gold and doubles silver at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year in Birmingham. For the third straight year, Osaka tops Forbes’ annual list of the World’s highest-paid female athletes.

Viacom18 Media has secured exclusive media rights to broadcast the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Paris in 2024, in India and the subcontinent region.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in Lok Sabha introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill, which seeks to promote ease of business. The bill seeks to decriminalise minor offences by amending 183 provisions in 42 Acts. The Bill was later referred to a 31-member joint committee of Parliament for scrutiny. The bill will also help in reducing the burden on the judiciary.

Better Life Foundation Founder Sethrichem Sangtam has been honoured with the first Rohini Nayyar prize for outstanding contribution to rural development.

England cricketer Sam Curran breaks IPL auction record. England all-rounder Sam Curran became the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) most expensive ever buy in the players’ auction. Curran returned to the Punjab Kings for the staggering sum of 185 million Indian rupees ($2.23 million) following a fierce bidding war involving the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Curran, who was player-of-the-series in England’s T20 World Cup triumph in Australia this year, previously featured for the Punjab Kings in 2019. The fee for Curran surpassed the previous highest bid of 162.5 million rupees, paid by the Rajasthan Royals for South African all-rounder Chris Morris last year. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and England batter Joe Root went unsold.

The Indian Railways completed the construction of a tunnel on a 111-kilometre section of the Udhampur-Katra railway line in Kashmir. The ‘escape tunnel’, which is the longest of its kind in the country, is located at an elevation of 12.89 meters.

The Assam cabinet has approved the proposal for the grant of industry status to the tourism sector in the state, to boost investments and generate employment. With this grant, restaurants, cafeterias, health clubs, spas and wellness centres, among others, in the state are eligible for incentives under the industrial policy.

Two heritage sites from Gujarat — the Sun Temple at Modhera and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hometown Vadnagar, a historic town were added to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Rock-cut Sculptures and Reliefs of the Unakoti, Tripura were also added to the tentative list.