Today's Current Affairs 10th January 2023

NATIONAL

PM Launches Aspirational Block Programme, Calls for "India-First" Approach

• Prime Minister has launched the government’s Aspirational Block Programme (ABP), which is aimed at improving the performance of blocks lagging on various development parameters. The Aspirational Blocks Programme is on the lines of the Aspirational District Programme that was launched in 2018 and covers 112 districts across the country.
• NITI Aayog in partnership with the states will release a quarterly ranking of these blocks based on their performance on development indicators covering sectors such as health, education and nutrition among others.
• The Centre had announced its intention to launch this initiative in the Union Budget 2022-23.The programme will cover 500 districts across 31 states and Union Territories initially. Over half of these blocks are in 6 states—Uttar Pradesh (68 blocks), Bihar (61), Madhya Pradesh (42), Jharkhand (34), Odisha (29) and West Bengal (29).

 SPORTS

Sania Mirza announces her retirement from professional Tennis

• Indian Tennis Player Sania Mirza (36-year-old), the former doubles World No. 1 , has confirmed her retirement from professional Tennis. She announced that the Dubai Tennis Championships, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 event in Dubai in February 2023 will be her last match. Prior to her last appearance, she is going to play in women’s doubles at the Australian Open in 16 to 29 January 2023 alongside Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina.
• She has won six Grand Slam doubles titles.She won her first grand slam in 2009 by winning Austraian Open Mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi. The pair also won the French Open 2012.
• Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis of Switzerland won 3 women’s doubles – Wimbledon 2015, the US Open 2015 and the Australian Open 2016.
• In 2007, She was ranked among the 30 and also reached her career-high ranking of world number 27(Singles).

Tallon griekspoor wins maharashtra open tennis tournament

• Tallon Griekspoor was coming into the Maharashtra Open ATP 250 final winning a staggering 96.77 % of his service games. His opponent, Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, 26, had dropped just one set leading into the title clash, and after piercing a hole through the Dutchman’s serve to go a break up 5-4 in Saturday’s opener, looked to be the favourite for the crown.
• But Griekspoor, ranked 95, had very different plans. And egged on by a packed, noisy, underdog-loving Pune crowd, turned around the one-set deficit to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 for his first title at this level.
• The two had played a lot of junior tennis together, and in the 2021 season, had gone on a Challenger-winning spree, Griekspoor taking eight of those titles, Bonzi claiming six. Both were in their first-ever ATP World Tour final, serving quite well – and it was only that mistake late in the first set when Griekspoor double-faulted that gave the Frenchman an edge.

 IMPORTANT DAYS

Startup India Innovation Week: January 10^th To January 16^th

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry is organising Startup India Innovation Week from 10th January 2023 to 16th January 2023 to celebrate the Indian Startup Ecosystem as well as National Startup Day (16th January 2023).
• Startup India Innovation Week 2023 aims to engage startup ecosystem stakeholders across the nation during 10th January-16th January 2023 and spur the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in India.
• Startup India Innovation Week 2023 will include Knowledge Sharing Sessions for entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and other enablers, involving relevant stakeholders from the startup ecosystem such as government officials, incubators, corporates and investors.
• As a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, various startup related events are being organised in more than 75 places across the country to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation by involving the startup community across length and breadth of the country.

World Hindi Day: 10^th January 2023

• World Hindi Day or Vishwa Hindi Diwas is celebrated on 10th January every year to promote awareness about the language across the world. It is also the day when Hindi, India’s national language, was spoken for the first time in the United Nations General Assembly. It was on this day in 1975 that the first World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur. Since then, such conferences are organised in different parts of the world every year.
• The theme this year is “Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence”. This year, the 12th World Hindi Conference will be organised in Fiji by the Foreign Ministry in collaboration with the Fiji government from February 15 to 17. The location for the 2023 event was decided during the 11th World Hindi Conference held in Mauritius last year.

 SUMMIT'S & MOU's

India to host Voice of Global South Summit next week, over 120 nations invited

• India will host ‘The Voice of Global South’ Summit on January 12-13, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said. As many as 120 countries will participate in the summit. The virtual summit is significant as India currently holds the presidency of the G20 group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier indicated that priorities would be shaped in consultation with developing countries.
• The ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ under the theme ‘Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose’ envisages bringing together countries of the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform.
• The MEA said that the summit envisages ten sessions, four sessions on January 12 and six sessions on January 13. Each session is expected to witness the participation of leaders or ministers from 10-20 countries.
• The inaugural and concluding sessions would be at the head of state or government level and hosted by the Prime Minister. The theme of the Inaugural Leaders’ session is ‘Voice of Global South – for Human-Centric Development’ and that of the Concluding Leaders’ session is ‘Unity of Voice -Unity of Purpose’.

 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Kerala University wins ‘Overall Championship’ at youth festival held in Tirupati

• University of Kerala bagged the ‘Overall Championship’ at Padma Tarang, the 36th Inter University South Zone Youth Festival at Sri Padmavati Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam (SPMVV) in Tirupati. Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, came the runners-up. With more than 700 registered participants from universities across South India converging on the campus.
• The SPMVV is hosting the event for the third time in collaboration with the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). In all, there will be 27 competitive events during the five-day festival. Of the eighteen universities that deputed student contingents to the event, Kerala ranked first with seven varsities.

 BOOKS & AUTHOR

Assam CM publishes ‘Chief Minister’s Dairy No 1’, former CJI Ranjan Gogoi releases book

• Former Chief Justice of India and member of the Rajya Sabha Ranjan Gogoi has released a book titled ‘Chief Minister’s Diary No.1’ containing the account of events of the first year in office of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The book featured accounts of daily activities he undertook as a chief minister.
• Assam Chief Minister said that without bringing his personal life into the limelight, the book featured accounts of daily activities he undertook as a Chief Minister. His diary essentially featured the growth initiatives that Assam witnessed over the last 11 months.
• Ranjan Gogoi is presently a member of the Rajya Sabha. He served as the 46th Chief Justice of India for 13 months from 2018 to 2019.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

RBI:  Some Lenders still Continuing with Libor Contracts

• With the end near for the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told banks and other financial institutions to stop using the benchmark as soon as possible and mandatorily by December 31 and move to any Alternative Reference Rates (ARR). Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and Sterling Overnight Interbank Average Rate (SONIA) are the two popular alternatives, but are nowhere near as popular internationally as Libor, which is being phased out by this year’s end.
• Libor had to be scrapped after a rate fixing scandal was unearthed a few years back. In August 2020, the RBI had advised banks to move away from Libor.
• Almost all banks that deal in foreign exchange by now are ready with the transition to ARR, but they have not yet decided which one will be the most reliable ARR.
• With the demise of Libor, the popular Indian benchmark Mumbai Interbank Forward Outright Rate (MIFOR), which uses Libor as a benchmark, has to be scrapped too.