Today's Current Affairs 5th January 2023

INTERNATIONAL

China becomes the first country in Asia and second in the world to launch Hydrogen powered Train

• China’s CRRC Corporation Ltd. Launched a hydrogen urban train, and it is the first in Asia and the second such train in the world. Germany introduced green trains a few months back. The hydrogen trains have a speed of 160 km per hour and the operational range without refueling is 600 km.
• The trains launched by Germany have a record of 1175 km range set. The Indian Railway on the other hand is moving fast to induct the ‘World’s Greenest Train’ soon.
• India will get its first-ever Indigenous Hydrogen trains by December 2023. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav informed that Indian Railways is working on new environment-friendly trains and the engineers are designing them.

 NATIONAL

Manipur: Gaan Ngai festival of Zeliangrong community to be celebrated on 4th January

• The Gaan Ngai of the Zeliangrong Community celebrated in Manipur. The Gaan Ngai festival is one of the major festivals of Manipur which is celebrated every year after harvesting. The festival also marks the end of the year when the farmers have stored their foodgrains in their granaries. During the festival, the Zeliangrong Community shows their gratitude by offering the Almighty a good harvest and praying for a better and prosperous life in the coming year.
• It is a custom to produce new fire by rubbing dry wood and split bamboo pieces and distributing them to every household on the day of the festival to mark the beginning of the new year.
• The Gaan Ngai is a post-harvest festival. It is mainly performed by the followers and devotees of the Zeliangrong Indigenous religion of ‘Poupei Chapriak’ and ‘Heraka’.

 APPOINTMENS & RESIGNATIONS

Bank of Singapore hires CEO from Julius Baer

• Bank of Singapore (BoS), the private banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), announced that it has appointed Jason Moo as its new CEO. BoS’s announcement comes after Bloomberg’s article on Dec 26, 2022. Moo will succeed Bahren Shaari officially from March 6 onwards.
• Moo comes with over 25 years of experience in private banking, wealth management and capital markets. This includes 22 years in Goldman Sachs, as well as time spent in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore. From 2017 to 2019, Moo was the CEO for Goldman Sachs (Singapore). Moo joins BoS from Julius Baer where he was head of private banking, Southeast Asia and branch manager Singapore.
• Aside from Singapore, he has also worked in New York and Hong Kong. Shaari was appointed CEO in 2015. Under his leadership, the bank successfully integrated Barclays Asia after the acquisition, and grew its assets under management from US$55 billion to US$109 billion as at September 30 2022.

EC names folk singer Maithili Thakur its Bihar icon

• Folk singer Maithili Thakur was appointed the state icon for Bihar by the Election Commission. The singer will create awareness among the voters for their participation in the electoral process. This recognition will give her (Maithili) more impetus to spread Bihar’s folk music across continents and generate awareness about the importance of participating in the electoral process.
• Maithili, born in Bihar’s Madhubani district, along with her two brothers, were trained by their grandfather and father in folk, Hindustani classical music, harmonium and tabla. She has rendered traditional folk songs of Bihar in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Hindi.
• Thakur, trained in Indian classical and folk music, was recently selected for the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar of the Sangeet Natak Akademi for her contribution to the folk music of Bihar for 2021.

 AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Odisha Wins World Habitat Awards 2023 For Slum Upgradation Program

• Odisha won the UN-Habitat’s World Habitat Awards 2023 for Jaga Mission, a 5T initiative of the state. The awards recognise and highlight innovative, outstanding and revolutionary housing ideas, projects and programmes from across the world. The Jaga mission is the land titling and slum upgrading program that aims at empowering the lives of slum dwellers.
• Jaga mission is the world’s largest land titling and slum upgrading program which aims at empowering the lives of slum dwellers. Under the inspiring leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Government of Odisha has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the first slum-free state in India and is leading the Jaga Mission programme to upgrade all of the state’s 2,919 slums.
• In the last 05 years of the initiative, 1,75,000 families have been granted land tenure security. 100% households in 2,724 slums have been provided with pipe water connections, 707 slums transformed fully into Liveable Habitats, 100% households in 666 slums have individual toilets, and 8 cities have become slum-free.

Central Government Declared Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards 2023

• 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award: 27 Indians living overseas have been chosen by the Indian government for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards (PBSA), for outstanding achievements both in India and abroad. The award is the highest honour conferred upon Indians living abroad, including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) or organisations/institutions established and run by them.
• The jury that selected the recipients comprised Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar as its chairman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as its Vice-Chair, among other distinguished dignitaries from different fields. The awards will be conferred upon the recipients by President Droupadi Murmu during the 17th edition of the PBSA, which is scheduled to be held from 8-10 January in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

 BANKING AND ECONOMY

In the January 2023 round, RBI Survey for Price Movements, Inflation Assessment Launched

• The Reserve Bank of India has launched the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) which will provide useful inputs for monetary policy. In the January 2023 round, the survey will be conducted across 19 cities. It aims to capture subjective assessments of price movements and inflation, based on individual consumption baskets.
• The survey will be conducted in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Thiruvananthapuram.
• The agency — Hansa Research Group, Mumbai — has been engaged to conduct the survey of this round on behalf of the ventral bank.
• The selected households will be approached by the agency and they will be requested to provide their response. Other individuals, who are not approached by the agency, can also participate in this survey by providing their responses using the linked survey schedule.

 India aims for $17 bln cut in food, fertiliser subsidies in 2023/24

• India aims to cut spending on food and fertiliser subsidies to 3.7 trillion rupees ($44.6 billion) in the fiscal year from April, down 26% from this, to rein in a fiscal deficit that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Spending on fertiliser subsidies will likely fall to about Rs 1.4 lakh crore. That compares with nearly Rs 2.3 lakh crore this year.
• Food and fertiliser subsidies alone account for about one-eighth of India’s total budgetary spending of ₹39.45 trillion this fiscal year, but reducing these subsidies could be politically sensitive given the impending elections.
• The government anticipates allocating roughly 2.3 trillion for food subsidies in the upcoming fiscal year as opposed to 2.7 trillion for the year that has just ended on March 31.
• The amount spent on fertiliser subsidies will probably decrease to roughly 1.4 trillion in contrasts to 2.3 trillion this year.

Cabinet approves National Green Hydrogen Mission

• The Union Cabinet approved an initial outlay of Rs 19,744 crore for the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Addressing the nation on its 75th Independence Day in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a national mission for green fuels in line with the Centre’s stated target of making India energy-independent before completing 100 years of Independence. The mission will have four components that aim at enhancing domestic production of green hydrogen and promote the manufacturing of electrolysers — a key constituent for making green hydrogen.
• The initial outlay for the mission will include Rs 17,490 crore for strategic interventions for green hydrogen transition (SIGHT) programme, Rs 1,466 crore for pilot projects, Rs 400 crore for research and development (R&D), and Rs 388 crore towards other mission components.
• The initial target is to produce 5 million tonnes (mt) of green hydrogen annually. It will include two financial incentive mechanisms for the domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and the production of green hydrogen.
• The mission will also support pilot projects in emerging end-use sectors and the production pathways. Regions capable of supporting large-scale production and/or utilisation of hydrogen will be identified and developed as green hydrogen hubs.
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