Today's Current Affairs 27th December 2022

INTERNATIONAL

Former Maldives president Yameen to appeal 11-year jail term

• The Maldives criminal court sentenced former president Abdulla Yameen to 11 years in prison and fined him $5 million after finding him guilty of corruption and money laundering charges related to receiving kickbacks from a private company. Yameen has denied any wrongdoing.
• He lost power in 2018 but has been declared presidential candidate for the Progressive Party of the Maldives for an election due in 2023. Already in 2019 he was sentenced to five years in jail and fined $5 million in 2019 for embezzling $1 million in state funds, which the prosecution said was acquired through the lease of resort development rights. After his sentencing, Yameen was shifted to house arrest in 2020 and was freed months later.

 NATIONAL

Piyush Goyal launches right to repair portal & new premise of National Consumer Helpline

• 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 National Consumer Helpline centre 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 programme of consumer commissions.
• These initiatives were launched on the occasion of the National Consumer Day. The theme was “Effective disposal of cases in consumer commission”. Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi was also present at the event.
• In July 2022 the Department of Consumer Affairs had set up a committee headed by the Additional Secretary Nidhi Khare to develop a comprehensive framework on ‘Right to Repair’.

Anil Kumar Lahoti next Railway Board Chairman, CEO from January 1

• Anil Kumar Lahoti has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Railway Board. The former General Manager of Central Railway was appointed as Member (Infrastructure) of the board a week ago, and will be taking over the chairmanship from Vinay Kumar Tripathi on January 1.
• Lahoti belongs to the 1984 batch of Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), and his appointment is a part of an overhaul at the top management of the railway board. Over the past months, no full-time appointments for the member positions were made in the railway board, as it was transitioning to a new integrated service.

 SPORTS

Anurag Thakur inaugurates Sports Science Centre in Udupi

• Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur inaugurated the Sports Science Centre here at M.G. Stadium in Udupi, Karnataka. This Sports Science Centre will bring together sports scientists and athletes. The sports science center has been set up by the government of Karnataka.
• The state government has set up two sports science centers at Udupi and Bengaluru. These centers will conduct research on medicines, nutritious food, treatment and rehabilitation measures for sportspersons, which would help them to boost their abilities. The Minister said that many more such sports science centers will come up. In the future. The government is making efforts to transform India into a sporting soft power. It has increased the sports budget from 854 crores before 2014 to 3,100 crore rupees this year and spent 2700 crore rupees to enhance sporting infrastructure as against 630 crore rupees earlier.

 IMPORTANT DAYS

International Day of Epidemic Preparedness 2022: 27^th December

• International Day of Epidemic Preparedness on December 27 serves the purpose of creating awareness about epidemics. This day encourages every individual, every institution, and every government to prepare its citizens in an appropriate manner and in accordance with national contexts and priorities, through education and awareness-raising activities, in order to highlight the importance of the prevention of, preparedness for, and partnership against epidemics.
• The International Day of Epidemic Preparedness reminds us what we went through during the two years of peak-COVID infections. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Family members could not conduct the last rites of their loved ones. Such grim situations could be avoided in the future if people remain alert and prepared.
• In its 75th session and 36th plenary meeting on December 7, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution which declared December 27 as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.

Celebrate Gwalior Gaurav Diwas Like A Festival, Says Shivraj

• Gwalior Gaurav Diwas is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is also known as the son of Gwalior. Gwalior Gaurav Diwas is celebrated on 25th December. On the occasion of Gwalior Gaurav Diwas, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewed the participation through video conferencing and appealed to the people of Gwalior to light lamps at their homes on 25th December 2022.
• Gwalior Gaurav Diwas is celebrated on 25th December, on the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• A huge statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be installed and a research center will be built as part of his grand memorial in Gwalior.
• The Gwalior Gaurav Diwas marked the 98th birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• The event was attended by Union Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Singh Tomar.
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born in Gwalior on 25th December 1924 and is known as the pride of Gwalior.

 RANKING

India Ranks 5th In World's Best Cuisines List; Gulati's Butter Chicken In Delhi Among Top Dishes

• Cuisines of the World: 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. Italy’s food came in first place followed by Greece and Spain. India received 4.54 points and the best rated foods of the country include “garam masala, malai, ghee, butter garlic naan, keema”, the rating said. It has a total of 460 items in the list. Furthermore, the best restaurants to try Indian cuisine are Shree Thaker Bhojanalay (Mumbai), Karavalli (Bengaluru), Bukhara (New Delhi), Dum Pukht (New Delhi), Comorin (Gurugram) and 450 others, according to the list.
• Japan, the United States of America, Turkiye, France and Peru were also among the top 10 countries with best cuisines. Chinese cuisine, which is the world’s most popular, however, ranked 11th on the list.

BANKING AND ECONOMY

Jio Invests Additional Rs 6500 Cr For 5G In Andhra Pradesh

• Reliance Jio announced it has launched True 5G services in Andhra Pradesh. The 5G services were launched in Tirumala, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Guntur districts. Apart from their existing investment of Rs 26,000 crore, additionally Jio has invested over Rs 6,500 crore for deploying 5G network in Andhra Pradesh. By December 2023, Jio True 5G services will be made available in every town, taluka, mandalam and village of Andhra Pradesh.
• Jio demonstrated the benefits of 5G in the field of healthcare, through Jio Community Clinic medical kit, and the revolutionary AR-VR device, Jio Glass. These benefits will bring phenomenal changes in the lives of people in Andhra Pradesh. The launch of Jio’s True 5G services will open doors to growth opportunities in the areas of e- governance, education, healthcare, IT and SME business.

Under SIDBI’s Mentorship, FIT Rank for MSMEs Launched by TransUnion CIBIL and Online PSB Loans Limited (OPL)

• With the intent of deepening credit flow to small businesses and also helping lenders avoid loan losses on such bets, credit information company TransUnion Cibil launched a ranking system for MSME borrowers. The ‘FIT Rank’ launched by TransUnion Cibil in association with Online PSB Loans, will rate the over 6 crore micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by drawing inputs from their current accounts, income tax returns and also Goods and Service Tax (GST) returns to arrive at a score between 1-10 to rate a borrower after taking consent to draw the relevant data.
• The ranking will give lenders an idea about the capacity of an enterprise to pay, its creditworthiness and also intention to pay from past experience.
• The product will go into the cash flows of an entity while arriving at the rank, and hence broaden the universe of entities who can borrow because at present, banks insist on collaterals.
• The lenders will be able to get the probability of default in a particular case because the engines have sifted through the data of many years while arriving at the rank.

India to become $10-trillion economy by 2035, forecasts by CEBR

• The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), which is a UK-based economics consultancy, predicted that India will become the third-largest economy by 2037. 14th edition of the report noted that over the next five years, the annual rate of GDP growth is expected to average 6.4%. After that, the growth is expected to average 6.5% in the subsequent nine years.
• As per the report, India seems “unstoppable in its momentum” to become the third economic superpower. The report has predicted that in 2035, India will become the third $10 trillion economy.
• While commenting on the Chinese economy, the report said that despite modest output performance in 2022, inflation was at an anticipated 11.6%. The Chinese economy, therefore, faces a potential stagflationary trade-off between growth and price rises.
• In last year’s report, it was mentioned that India will regain its position from France and the South Asian nation will witness an improvement in its World Economic League Table (WELT) ranking over the next 15 years.