Dear aspirants, to crack any type of competitive examination current affairs plays a significant role and for that we are providing daily important news that are most important for your examination. So we are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 31 January 2022.
Current Affairs 31 January 2022 includes all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, Business Standard, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, and all Government official websites.
News Headlines
1. Australia announces billion-dollar(US$700 million) package to protect Great Barrier Reef
2. IIT-Delhi’s 1,000 Made-in-India drones light up sky at Beating the Retreat held at Vijay Chowk
3. India, ASEAN approve digital work plan to combat use of stolen mobile handsets
5. IREDA and GSL signs MoU for Rooftop Solar Power Projects
6. BMC to start public awareness campaign ‘SPARSH’ against leprosy on 30th Jan
7. Bad Bank Receives All Approvals, Rs 50,000 crore Assets to be Transferred in Phase 1
8. India: 5th largest trading partner of Brazil in 2021
9. Ola rebrands quick commerce segment as Ola Dash; aims to set up 500 ‘dark stores’
11. TerraPay, NPCI International partner to enable real-time, international payments
12. Pushp Kumar Joshi to be new chairman and managing director of HPCL
13. $150-million India-UAE VC Fund set up to boost start-up ecosystem
News Details
1. Australia announces billion-dollar(US$700 million) package to protect Great Barrier Reef
- Australia unveiled a billion-australian dollar package to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef hoping to prevent the vast network of corals from being removed from UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
- UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
- The Great Barrier Reef has suffered three mass bleaching events during heatwaves in 2016, 2017 and 2020, leaving many affected corals struggling to survive.
2. IIT-Delhi’s 1,000 Made-in-India drones light up sky at Beating the Retreat held at Vijay Chowk.
- India’s biggest ‘Drone Show’ displaying 1,000 drones at the ‘Beating the Retreat’ ceremony.
- It was executed by Indian startUp ‘Botlab’ under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology and led by IIT Delhi alumni.
- ‘Beating the Retreat’ is a centuries-old military tradition dating from the days when troops disengaged from battle at sunset.
3. India, ASEAN approve digital work plan to combat use of stolen mobile handsets
- India-ASEAN Digital Work Plan 2022 was approved in the 2nd ASEAN Digital Ministers meeting.
- India and ASEAN nations have jointly approved a work plan under which they will develop a system to combat the use of stolen and counterfeit mobile handsets, among other things.
- The meeting was co-chaired by ministers from India and Myanmar.
4. Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched NIPER Research Portal to facilitate research & innovation in pharmaceutical sector
- India is the third-largest pharmaceutical manufacturing country.
- Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has launched the Research Portal of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) to make the research more purposeful and meaningful in the sector.
5. IREDA and GSL signs MoU for Rooftop Solar Power Projects
- Under the MoU, IREDA will assist GSL by providing its techno-financial expertise to set-up a rooftop solar power project at the headquarter of the company situated in Vasco da Gama, Goa.
- IREDA = Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited.
- GSL = Goa Shipyard Ltd.
- The two companies are PSUs under the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and the Ministry of Defence, respectively.
- IREDA Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) : Pradip Kumar Das.
- GSL Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) : Cmde.Bharat Bhushan Nagpal.
6. BMC to start public awareness campaign ‘SPARSH’ against leprosy on 30th Jan
- Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will start SPARSH, a public awareness campaign against leprosy under National Leprosy Eradication Programme.
- The campaign will last up to 14th February.
- BMC will organise exhibitions in all its 24 administrative zones.
- Slogan of the SPARSH programme this year is Kushrog muktikade Vatchal (way ahead towards leprosy free).
7. Bad Bank Receives All Approvals, Rs 50,000 crore Assets to be Transferred in Phase 1
- Under the new structure approved by RBI, the bad bank, the National Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd (NARCL), will acquire and aggregate the bad loan accounts from banks.
- India Debt Resolution Co. Ltd (IDRCL) will handle the resolution process.
- It is ready to commence operations with 15 cases worth Rs 50,335 crore to be transferred by March 31.
- A total of 38 accounts worth ₹82,845 crore have been identified for transfer to the NARCL.
8. India: 5th largest trading partner of Brazil in 2021
- India became the 5th largest trading partner of Brazil in 2021.
- The bilateral trade chain exceeded US$ 11 billion, an increase of 63% compared to 2020, and a significant difference from the level observed since 2015.
- For 2020, pharmaceutical products correspond to almost 30% of India’s exports to the country.
- In 2019, India was Brazil’s 7th largest import source country & 18th export destination.
9. Ola rebrands quick commerce segment as Ola Dash; aims to set up 500 ‘dark stores’
- Ola, has rebranded its quick commerce business as Ola Dash and aims to set up 500 so-called dark stores, or warehouses that do not have retail storefronts.
- The process will complete in the next six months across 20 Indian cities amid rising competition for quick commerce in the country.
- ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, parent of ride-hailing company Ola.
- The quick commerce service was launched in 2021 as Ola Store.
10. MoHUA-AFD Launch Swachhata Start-Up Challenge to Nurture the Evolving Ecosystem of Indian Waste Management Sector
- The Union Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry launched the ‘Swachhata Start-Up Challenge’.
- It has been launched to provide an impetus to innovative start-ups to come forward and drive catalytic transformation in the sanitation and waste management sector.
- The Challenge was launched in partnership with DPIIT and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
- DPIIT = Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
- The French Development Agency (French: Agence française de développement, AFD) is a public financial institution that implements the policy defined by the French Government.
11. TerraPay, NPCI International partner to enable real-time, international payments
- NPCI = National Payments Corporation of India.
- NIPL = NPCI International Payments Limited.
- NIPL, international payments arm of NPCI.
- NIPL has signed an MoU with TerraPay, to allow Indians with an active UPI ID to receive real-time, international payments into their bank accounts via TerraPay’s secure payments technology.
- TerraPay, Netherlands-based global payments infrastructure company.
- In December 2021, NIPL tied up Western Union to enable real-time bank account payout.
- NIPL CEO : Ritesh Shukla
12. Pushp Kumar Joshi to be new chairman and managing director of HPCL
- Pushp Kumar Joshi has been picked by government headhunter PESB to be the new chairman and managing director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).
- HPCL is India’s third-largest oil refining and fuel marketing company.
- Joshi, 58, has been on the board of HPCL for almost a decade now.
- He will replace Mukesh Kumar Surana, who superannuates on April 30 this year.
13. $150-million India-UAE VC Fund set up to boost start-up ecosystem
- VC = Venture Capital.
- A $150-million India-UAE venture capital fund to fuel the growth of start-ups in India and the UAE was launched from the India Pavilion at EXPO2020 Dubai.
- The VC Fund is a first of its kind to be set up in the UAE with a purpose to source, invest, and nurture promising start-ups through an accelerator to fuel the growth of India-UAE start-ups.