19 january 2022 current affairs

1. CURRENT AFFAIRS
19 January 2022
Dr.A.PRABAHARAN
www.indopraba.blogspot.com

2. Prime Minister Modi to host first India-Central Asia
Summit on January 27
• PM Modi will host the first India-Central Asia
Summit on January 27, 2022, in a virtual format.
• The summit will be held with the participation of
the Presidents of the Kyrgyz Republic,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan.
• This will also be the first kind of engagement of
its kind between India and the Central Asian
countries at the level of leaders.
• According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the
first India-Central Asia Summit is a reflection of
the growing engagement of India with the
Central Asian countries, which are also part of
the country’s extended neighbourhood.
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3. Union Budget Expectations 2022: What to expect
from Union Budget of India?
• The Union Budget 2022-23 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman during the budget session of the Parliament on February 1,
2022.
• The budget is much-awaited, especially this year with the Omicron
variant of COVID-19 causing the third wave of the pandemic in the
country.
• The Union Budget 2021 had largely focussed on healthcare and stimulus
packages to boost India's healthcare sector to deal with the COVID-19
pandemic more effectively and efficiently.
• This time, individuals especially the salaried class are waiting to see
which new reforms or announcements will be made especially in relation
to the income tax.
• FM Nirmala Sitharaman had not announced any change in the income
tax slabs for individual taxpayers last year.
• However, senior citizens above 75 years with only pension and interest as
income were exempted from income tax filing.
• This year hence, people are eagerly awaiting announcements concerning
income tax.
• The individual taxpayers in India are looking forward for a budget that
ensures they have more money to spend, especially in the wake of the
hurdles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The industry is also looking forward to some tax concessions.
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4. Tata Power Renewable Energy commissions two
solar power projects in Uttar Pradesh
• Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL), a 100 percent
subsidiary of Tata Power, has announced the
commissioning of two Solar Power Projects in Uttar
Pradesh.
• The two power projects worth 100MW with each having
50MW of capacity will be developed in the Prayagraj and
Banda regions of Uttar Pradesh.
• The two solar power plants are expected to generate over
221.26 million units of solar power annually.
• According to Tata Power Renewable Energy, around
1,59,600 modules were used to set up the solar project at
Prayagraj.
• • The solar power plant installation is expected to reduce
91,137 lakh tons of carbon emission every year.
• • The project involved the installation of 16 Inverters,
103.25 km of DC cable and 4,87,080 man-hours of work.
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5. Roberta Metsola becomes new President of
European Parliament
• Roberta Metsola is a member of the biggest Parliamentary bloc,
the European People’s Party.
• She was also already the frontrunner to replace the Centre-left
Italian parliament Chief under a deal that was struck by the
main political groupings.
• Metsola is no stranger to the European Union’s byzantine
corridors of power as she served as David Sassoli’s top vice
president of the Chamber.
• Her career has been intertwined with her Mediterranean
homeland’s membership of the EU.
• Her rise to a job dominated by lawmakers from bigger powers
can help shine the spotlight on often overlooked countries in
the EU.
• Metsola, as a student, campaigned for the successful ‘Yes’ vote
when Malta had decided to join the European Union in 2003.
• She headed to the elite College of Europe in Bruges that turns
out Eurocrats and went on to work in Brussels.
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6. Republic Day 2022 Guest: No Foreign Chief Guest
this year due to COVID
• There will be no foreign chief guest on India's Republic Day 2022 in the wake
of the current surge in COVID-19 infections across the country due to the
highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19.
• India had invited the heads of all five central Asian nations to be the Chief
Guests at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
• However, as per sources, the plans have been cancelled due to the third wave
of the COVID-19 pandemic and there will be no foreign chief guest this year.
• The leaders of the five Central Asian nations-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan were supposed to also hold a summit with PM Modi
to celebrate 30 years of establishment of ties.
• The summit is now likely to take place virtually.
• The month of January was expected to be a heavy month with several
diplomatic visits planned including PM Modi's visit to UAE, Defence Minister
Rajnath Singh's visit to Vietnam and the vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, which
was supposed to host investors and heads of state from across the world.
• All such visits have been either postponed or canceled due to the sudden spike
in Covid-19 cases in the country.
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7. New COVID-19 treatment guidelines include
Tuberculosis as comorbidity, advise against steroid
use
• he Union Health Ministry in its revised ‘Clinical Guidance
for Management of Adult COVID-19 Patients’ has
advised testing for Tuberculosis if cough persists and
also avoiding the use of the steroid.
• The revised clinical guidelines for coronavirus treatment
come days after NITI Aayog Member (Health) and chief
of the Covid Task Force Dr. V K Paul expressed concerns
and regret over the "overuse and misuse" of drugs like
steroids during the second wave of the COVID-19
pandemic.
• The health ministry has added active tuberculosis as a
high-risk factor that can potentially cause severe
disease and even mortality in COVID-19 patients.
• The Ministry underlined the need for COVID-19 patients
to undergo tests for tuberculosis and other conditions if
their cough persists for more than 2-3 weeks.
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8. NDRF Raising Day 2022: Date, Motto, History, Chief
and 5 facts about National Disaster Response Force
• The NDRF Raising Day is observed by the National
Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in India every year
on January 19. NDRF Raising Day 2022 marks the
formation of the disaster response force in the
country back in 2006.
• In 2022, the day marks the celebration of the 17th
NDRF Raising Day. The NDRF Raising Day highlights
the role of the NDRF personnel for their help and
assistance during disaster situations in India.
• On NDRF Raising Day 2022, Prime Minister Modi
lauded the disaster response force and said that it is
at the forefront of many rescue and relief measures
which are often in very challenging situations.
• He further added that the courage and
professionalism shown by NDRF are extremely
motivating and acknowledged that disaster
management is a vital subject for governments and
policymakers.
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9. Lt Gen Manoj Pande appointed as next Vice Chief
of Army Staff
• The Government of India on January 18, 2022, gave
its approval to the proposal for the appointment of
Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General
Manoj Pande as the next Vice Chief of Army Staff.
• The Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Pande
will be the next Army Vice Chief. He will be
the successor to Lt Gen CP Mohanty who is
scheduled to superannuate on January 31, 2022.
• The news regarding the appointment of the new
Army Vice Chief has come as the appointment of
the next Chief of Defence Staff is still awaited.
• The post of the Chief Defence Staff (CDS) got vacant
after the death of General Bipin Rawat in a chopper
crash on December 8, 2021.
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10. Pig heart transplanted into a human in historic first
• In a historic first, US doctors transplanted a pig heart into a
human patient at a Maryland hospital on January 10, 2022.
• The surgery went miraculously well and the patient was doing
well three days after surgery.
• The doctors transplanted a pig heart into the patient in the last
effort to save his life.
• It is though too soon to know if the operation will really work.
• It marks the first effort to use animal organs for life-saving
transplants.
• The transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified
animal can function in the human body without immediate
rejection.
• The patient is a 57-year-old man called David Bennett from
Maryland.
• There was no guarantee that the experiment would work but
he was dying and was not eligible for a human heart
transplant. The doctors had no other option but to try another
option.
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