1. India ranks 60th in Inclusive Development Index:
- India ranked 60th among the 79 developing countries in 2017 Inclusive Development Index (IDI) released in World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ‘Inclusive Growth and Development Report’.
- The index is based on 12 performance indicators and countries are ranked on IDI scores based on a scale of 1-7.
- It has three pillars Growth and Development, Inclusion and Intergenerational Equity, and Sustainability in order to provide a more complete measure of economic development than GDP growth alone.
- Top 5 developing economies are Lithuania (1st), Azerbaijan (2nd), Hungary (3rd), Poland (4th), Romania (5th).
2. IMF cuts India’s FY17 growth rate to 6.6% from 7.6%:
- The World Economic Outlook (WEO) update released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut India’s growth rate for the fiscal year 2016–17 to 6.6% from its previous estimate of7.6%.
- India’s growth rate was cut due to the temporary negative consumption shock of demonetisation. It has dampen India’s growth by 1% point in the FY2017 and 0.4% point in FY2017, compared with IMF’s earlier projections.
- Global economic activity will pick up pace in FY17 and FY18, especially in emerging markets and developing economies. Global growth is forecast at 3.4% in FY17 against 3.1% in FY16.
3. 25 children including 13 girls selected for National Bravery Awards:
- Twenty-five children, including 13 girls have been selected for the national bravery awards 2016.
- The coveted Bharat award has been conferred on 8-year-old Late Kumari Tarh Peju of Arunachal Pradesh, who sacrificed her life while saving two of her friends from drowning.
- The prestigious Geeta Chopra award has been conferred on 18 year old Tejasweeta Pradhan and 17-year-old Shivani Gond of West Bengal who showed immense courage fearlessly helping police and NGO in uncovering an international sex racket leading to the arrest of the mastermind in Delhi.
- The Sanjya Chopra award has been given to 15-year-old Sumit Mamgain of Uttarakhand who displayed outstanding bravery in fighting a leopard to save his cousin.
4. Timothy Gonsalves committee recommends reservation for girl students in IITs:
- The sub-committee under chairmanship of professor Timothy Gonsalves has recommended reservation for girl students in IITs to address the issue of slump in number of female students entering the prestigious institutes.
- The recommendation of the committee will be taken up in the meeting of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) for a final decision, which will decide whether the reservation will come in effect from 2017 or from 2018.
- The committee has suggested creating up to 20% supernumerary seats for girls out of the total number of seats. But only candidates who have already qualified in JEE-Advanced will be considered.
5. India Signs Financing Agreement of $48 million with World Bank for Nagaland Health Project:
- India has signed a financing agreement with World Bank for 48 million dollars for Nagaland Health Project.
- About six lakh people will directly benefit from the Health Project with improvements in higher-level facilities as well as system-wide investments.
- The objective of the project is to improve health services in Nagaland. Communities in targeted locations will benefit from project activities at the community and health facility levels.
6. Mysuru Printing Press Breaks Record by Printing Highest No. of Currency Notes in a December 2016:
- The Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran PvtLtd, a fully controlled subsidiary of RBI has set records in currency note printing.
- The RBI Note Mudran printing press in Mysuru printing highest number of currency notes in December 2016 breaking all its past record.
- It printed 10.9 million currency note in a day that even broke the world record made an American currency printing press of printing 8.7 million notes in a day.As per the data, 1350 million currency notes were printed in December 2016 in Mysuru which employess 650 workers who work for 12 hours in two shifts.
7. Market Regulator SEBI Tightens Mergers & Acquisitions Norms Among Unlisted Firms:
- The Capital market regulator of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on January 14 tightened the norms associated to Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) of Indian companies.
- The public shareholding of the resultant entity created by the merger of an unlisted and a listed company has to be more than 25%.
- The unlisted entity can only merge with those companies that are listed on exchanges such as the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE.
8. Tamil Nadu: 170th Sadguru Sri Thyagaraja Aaradhana festival ends on 17 January 2017:
- The 170th Sadguru Sri Thyagaraja Aaradhana festival has concluded at Tiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu.
- The Aaradhana festival which was inaugurated on 13th of this month was a treat to carnatic music lovers. Sadguru Thyagaraja is one of the great musical trinity alongwith Muthusamy Dikshithar and Shyama Sastrigal.
9. BHEL Commissions 500 MW Thermal Unit In West Bengal:
- Government owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL) has commissioned new 500 MW Thermal Unit in West Bengal.
- This was the second 500 MW at Sagardighi Thermal Power Station (TPS) Phase II project in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
10. IIMC to start post graduate course in Urdu journalism:
- Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu launching apost graduate course in Urdu journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi .
- The Executive Council of the IIMC, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has recently approved the course.
11. Kozhikode Corporation becomes 1st Elederly-friendly corporation in Kerala:
- Kozhikode Corporation was declared as the first Elderly-Friendly Corporation in Kerala.
- The Kozhikode Corporationstate government has planned to setup Senior citizen’s club, Day care centres as a part of Vayomitram project for the welfare of the elder people in the state.
- As part of the elderly friendly status, the Corporation has begun to collect basic details of all the senior citizens in the city through its 543 Anganwa.
12. Richest 1% own 58% of total wealth in India: Oxfam Study
- According to study conducted by rights group Oxfam, India’s richest 1% now hold a huge 58% of the country’s total wealth, indicating rise income inequality. It is higher than the global figure of about 50%.
- It shows that 57 billionaires in India now have same wealth ($216 billion) as that of the bottom 70% population of the country. Globally, just 8 billionaires have the wealth as the poorest 50 % of the world population.
- The total global wealth in the year 2016 was $255.7 trillion of which about $6.5 trillion was held by billionaires, led by Bill Gates ($75 billion), Amancio Ortega ($67 billion) and Warren Buffett($60.8 billion).
13. Sports Minister Vijay Goel inaugurates Khelo India competitions:
- The Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel inaugurated the Khelo India National level Competitions on various sports for Under-14 and Under-17 children in New Delhi.
- The competition has been organized by Sports Authority of India under aegis of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in Swimming, Cycling and Wrestling.
14. Future Group’s & SBI Card launch premium co-branded card:
- Future Group’s fashion and lifestyle departmental store Central joined with SBI Card launched a second co-branded credit card tooffer benefits to consumers in the premium lifestyle and fashion space.
- The Central SBI SELECT and SELECT+ Cards will offer an accelerated reward points structure.
15. Baidu names former Microsoft exec as COO
- China's Baidu Inc said it has appointed a former Microsoft Corp executive as chief operating officer.
- Qi Lu will take charge of products, technology, sales and marketing, and spearhead a push into AI.
- Baidu has been refocusing its business strategy after the introduction of new advertising regulations.
16. Kiran Doshi won The Hindu Prize 2016:
- Kiran Doshi won The Hindu Prize 2016 for his book titled 'Jinnah Often Came to Our House' at the 7th edition of The Hindu Lit for Life festival 2017 held in Chennai from January 14-16, 2017.
- The festival was inaugurated by contemporary artist Gulamohammed Sheikh.
17. Eugene Cernan, last man on the moon, dies at 82:
- US astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon, died Monday at age 82.
- Cernan was the spacecraft commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972.
- He died following ongoing health issues.
18. 'Black hole man of India' C.V. Vishveshwara dead:
- Professor CV Vishveshwara passed away in Bengaluru following a bout of illness.
- He was among the first to study 'black holes' even before the word was coined.
- Vishveswara made an important calculation that was used in the discovery of gravitational waves by LIGO detectors in 2015.
19. National award-winning filmmaker Deepak Roy dead at 67:
- Deepak Roy, known for his movie "Limit to Freedom" which won him a National award in 1996 under the category of best investigative film, has passed away at the age of 67 after suffering a cardiac arrest.
20. Valtteri Bottas replaces Nico Rosberg at Mercedes and joins Lewis Hamilton:
- Valtteri Bottas has been confirmed as Lewis Hamilton's new team-mate for the forthcoming Formula One season after he was finally unveiled by Mercedes at their headquarters.
- Bottas, who replaces world champion Nico Rosberg following his shock decision to retire from the sport, had long been favorite for the vacant seat.
1. France's Iris Mittenaere wins Miss Universe 2016:
