On January 12, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the 26th National Youth Festival in Hubbali, Karnataka. The event is being conducted on National Youth Day, which is commemorated on Swami Vivekanand’s birth anniversary, to honour and respect his values, teachings, and accomplishments. Every year, the National Young Festival is conducted to provide the country’s brilliant youth with national exposure while also galvanizing them toward national development.

The RBI has accepted the nomination of senior banker Surinder Chawla as the new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of India’s homegrown Paytm Payments Bank, according to One 97 Communications on January 8, 2023. Paytm’s payment bank has bolstered its executive team in preparation for the next phase of expansion. Chawla will lead Paytm Payment Bank for the next three years.

As part of the Government’s e-governance initiative, an online Invitation Management Portal was launched. The Aamantran portal can be used to extend e-Invitations to dignitaries/guests and Online Sale of Tickets to the general public for witnessing Republic day and Independence day events.

The Industries department of the Kerala government has launched a facility for entrepreneurs to submit their complaints or seek redressals using the WhatsApp platform. Under this facility, the complaint message will be attended to in 10 minutes and the complaints are expected to be settled within seven days. This is a temporary set-up until the statutory grievance settlement mechanism comes into effect.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated the state-of-the-art hockey stadium in Rourkela. The stadium has been named after legendary freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda. The stadium has been built at a cost of 261 crore rupees in a record time of 15 months. Along with the stadium, he also inaugurated the Hockey World Cup village which will house the teams of the upcoming hockey World Cup. The Stadium, being billed as the World’s largest with a sitting capacity of twenty thousand spectators, will be one of the two venues where the upcoming hockey tournament will be played. The Hockey World Cup, being hosted by Odisha for the second time, will also be played in the iconic Kalinga Stadium in the capital Bhubaneswar. The prestigious Cup will be vied for by as many as 16 teams, including that of India in the tournament that begins on the 13th to the 29th of January.

India to host Voice of Global South Summit. India will host a special virtual Summit on the 12th and 13th of January 2023 called ‘Voice of Global South Summit’. The theme of the Summit is ‘Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose. More than 120 countries have been invited to this summit. The initiative is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas and India’s philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The summit is India’s attempt to provide a common platform to discuss concerns affecting developing countries. India will work to ensure that the inputs from participating countries in the Voice of the Global South deliberations receive due cognizance globally.

RBI to issue green bonds in two tranches of Rs 8,000 crore each. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue Sovereign Green Bonds worth Rs 8,000 crore each in two tranches on January 25 and February 9. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help reduce the economy’s carbon intensity. The RBI will sell two bonds maturing in five years and 10 years worth, Rs 4,000 crore each, at every auction. Sovereign green bonds will be issued through Uniform Price Auctions. 5 per cent of the notified amount of sale will be reserved for retail investors and it will be eligible for Repurchase Transactions (Repo). These bonds will be reckoned as eligible investments for Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) purposes. In the second half borrowing calendar, the government announced raising Rs 16,000 crore through sovereign green bonds, which will be part of the overall Rs 5.92 lakh crore borrowing in the second half.

Military Tattoo & Tribal Dance Festival to be held in New Delhi. A Military Tattoo and Tribal Dance Festival – Aadi Shaurya – Parv Parakram Ka will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi on January 23 & 24, 2023. The two-day festival will showcase the prowess of the Armed Forces and the ethnic beauty of India’s tribal culture. As part of the Republic Day Celebrations 2023 and to mark the 126th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (celebrated as Parakram Diwas), this festival will showcase the prowess of the Armed Forces and the ethnic beauty of India’s tribal culture.

International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) has developed a platform to provide Aadhaar-like digital identities for nine countries. The Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) is a digital identity platform. Citizens of the Philippines, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ethiopia, the Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and the Togolese Republic will enrol on the platform.

The New York Film Critics Circle awarded SS Rajamouli Best Director. The actor came to the event with members of his family. His film, RRR, received two Golden Globe nominations in 2023. SS Rajamouli is creating history with his favorite project, RRR, starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan, which has won multiple honors in the West.

Delhi High Court has directed the city government to ensure free food and medical treatment to HIV-positive persons living below the poverty line. It also directed the government to strictly comply with the law dealing with the grievances of affected patients.

Captain Shiva Chouhan, an officer from the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, became the first woman officer to be operationally deployed at Kumar Post in the Siachen Glacier. The post is located at an altitude of 15,632 feet. Kumar Post is named after late Colonel Narinder Kumar, who was instrumental in the Indian Army launching ‘Operation Meghdoot’ and securing the Siachen Glacier in 1984.

Sunil babu was a renowned art director and was known for his across film industries in India. He passed away in Ernakulam, Kerala on January 4, 2023. Sunil died in a private hospital from a heart attack, according to reports. The Malayalam art director has worked in the cinema industries of Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. He is well-known for his contributions to Bangalore Days, Ghajini, and Banglore Day. Sunil Babu also appeared in Vijay’s forthcoming flick Varisu.

Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister, today launched the “National Genome Editing & Training Centre” at the National Agri-food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) in Mohali, Punjab. The “National Genome Editing & Training Centre” (NGETC) is a one-of-a-kind institution that will serve as a national platform to adapt multiple genome editing technologies, including CRISPR-Cas9-driven genome alteration.

India’s unemployment rate reached a 16-month high of 8.3 per cent in December 2022 according to a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). CMIE added that the increase was partly due to the increase in the labour participation rate.  The urban unemployment rate increased to 10.09 per cent in December while the rural unemployment rate was marginally lower at 7.44 per cent. At 37.4 per cent, Haryana reported the highest unemployment rate among states, followed by Rajasthan at 28.5 per cent and Delhi at 20.8 per cent.

Croatia switched to the euro and entered Europe’s borderless zone as Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called a historic moment for his country. The Balkan nation bid farewell to its kuna currency and became the 20th member of the Eurozone. It is now the 27th nation in the passport-free Schengen zone. It is the world’s largest zone which enables more than 400 million people to move freely around its members. The country of 3.9 million people joined the European Union in 2013.

President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the ninth President of Guyana,  is one among the 21 recipients of the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA). He will also be the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will be held this time in Indore. US-based businessman Darshan Singh Dhaliwal and DSB Group CEO Piyush Gupta are among 21 recipients.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachand inaugurated the country’s third international airport in Pokhara built with Chinese assistance. The Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA), a flagship project of Nepal-China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation, was constructed with Chinese loan assistance. Besides the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Gautam Buddha International Airport was upgraded as an international airport in May 2022.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Medium-term Strategy Framework for the period 2023-2025 named ‘Utkarsh 2.0’ was launched by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The first strategy framework (Utkarsh 2022) covering the period 2019-2022 was launched in July 2019. Utkarsh 2.0 retains the six Vision statements as well as the Core Purpose, Values, and Mission statement of the 2022 version.

Indian Science Congress’s 108th edition was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University is hosting the five-day 108th session of ISC. He emphasised the nation’s expanding energy requirements and urged the scientific community to develop any advances in the area that would help the nation. The scientific community in India should try to make India a “aatma nirbhar,” according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on Tuesday (self-reliant). In his speech to the Indian Science Congress, the speaker emphasised that scientific advancement should be motivated by meeting India’s needs.

Amazon Future Engineer is a program aimed at increasing access to computer science education for children and young adults. It was launched in India in the year 2021. National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS), Ministry of Tribal Affairs has partnered with Amazon to empower teachers and students in the field of digital education.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the Siyom bridge in Arunachal Pradesh, along with 27 other infrastructure projects completed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Built for 724 crore rupees, these projects will hugely augment India’s border infrastructure, mostly along the Chinese border, from Ladakh to Arunachal. 21 other bridges, three roads and three additional infrastructure projects in Arunachal Pradesh, J&K, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Punjab and Rajasthan, were virtually inaugurated by Rajnath Singh from the Siyom bridge site. Singh also virtually inaugurated the 27 other projects of the BRO. Out of these, eight have been constructed in Ladakh, four in Jammu and Kashmir, five in Arunachal Pradesh, three each in Sikkim, Punjab and Uttarakhand and two in Rajasthan.

The unemployment rate in India rose to 8.30 per cent in December 2022, the highest in 16 months, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). It was 8 per cent in November. While urban unemployment rose to 10.09 per cent in December, from 8.96 per cent in November, rural unemployment moved to 7.44% from 7.55%, the data revealed. The urban unemployment rate rose to 10.09% in December from 8.96% in the previous month, while the rural unemployment rate slipped to 7.44% from 7.55%. The rise was “not as bad as it may seem,” as there was a simultaneous increase in the labour participation rate, which rose to 40.48 per cent in December, the highest in 12 months. Most importantly, the employment rate increased in December to 37.1%, which again is the highest since January 2022.

Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen created a unique feat when he won both the World Rapid and World Blitz chess titles in Almaty. The 32-year-old became the holder of all three world chess championship titles in Classical, Rapid and Blitz for the third time in his career. As of 2022, no other player has ever won both the Rapid and Blitz titles in the same year.

According to the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, India’s first underwater metro service, the East-West Metro Corridor project is expected to be completed by December 2023.

Pakistan and India exchanged lists of their nuclear facilities as part of a 1988 pact that bars them from attacking each other’s nuclear installations.

The government has achieved the target of starting 1.5 lakh Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres across the country, as per the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Under Ayushman Bharat, the government had set a target of transforming existing 1.5 lakh Sub-Health Centres (SHCs) and rural and urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the country as AB-HWCs by December 2022.

In hockey, Madhya Pradesh clinched the title by defeating Odisha 6-5 in the Khelo India Youth Games 2022 Men’s Under-18 qualifier title in Bhubaneswar.

03rd January marks the birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule, the first female teacher in modern India. She was born in Naigaon, a tiny hamlet in Maharashtra, on January 3, 1831. Her life is celebrated throughout India as a beacon of women’s rights. In 1840, she married Jyotirao Phule at the age of nine years.