The Daily Brief – 25th January 2019

National Girl Child Day (NGCD) is celebrated in India on January 24th with an aim to raise awareness about Child Sex Ratio (CSR) levels and promote the empowerment of girls. The theme of National Girl Child Day-2019 is “Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow”. The International Day of the Girl Child is observed every year across world on October 11 to recognize girls’ rights and unique challenges faced by girls around the world. The National Girl child day was first initiated in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The ICC awards recognise and honour the best international cricket players of the previous 12 months. Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year are bestowed upon Virat Kohli where as Rishab Pant won ICC Emerging Player of the Year. The other awards were ICC Associate Player of the Year: Calum MacLeod, T20I Performance of the Year: Aaron Finch and ICC Spirit of Cricket award: Williamson.

According to the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019 report, India’s GDP growth is expected to accelerate to 7.6 per cent in 2019-20 from an estimated 7.4 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 2019 and growth rate may come down to 7.4 per cent a year later. India will march ahead as world’s fastest-growing large economy in 2019 as well as in 2020, much ahead of China.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a students’ satellite Kalamsat and an imaging satellite Microsat-R on PSLV C44 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on January 24, 2019, marking its first launch of the ISRO in 2019. The Kalamsat is a 10 cm cube nanosatellite weighing about 1.2 kg and has a life span of about two months. Kalamsat, prepared by a student and Chennai-based Space Kidz India, is a small satellite (10 x 10 x 10 cm) and is meant for HAM radio services.

Indian Navy’s largest-ever coastal defence exercise – ‘Sea Vigil’– which was conducted by the Navy and Coast Guard, in close coordination with State Governments and Union Territories concluded on January 23, 2019. The exercise, a first of its kind, was undertaken along the entire 7516.6 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India and involved all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories. The key aim of the exercise was to comprehensively and holistically validate the efficacy of the measures taken since the ’26/11′ attack in Mumbai.

The Union Government on January 23, 2019 instituted an annual award titled ‘Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar’ to mark the 122nd birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The award scheme will recognise the efforts of organisations or individuals who work to alleviate suffering of the affected population in the aftermath of any disaster. The Award carries a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh.

RBI approved the appointment of Deutsche Bank’s Ravneet Singh Gill as MD and CEO of YES Bank. He will succeed Rana Kapoor. Gill has been serving as the CEO of Deutsche Bank in India since 2012 and has been at the bank since 1991. He will join the private lender on or before March 1, 2019.

Uttar Pradesh celebrated its foundation day for the first time in 68 years on 23 January, 2019 as Vice President Venkaiah Nadu inaugurated the first ‘UP Diwas’ to begin the two-day celebrations in Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh was earlier known as United Province but through a Gazette notification, it got its name of Uttar Pradesh on January 24, 1950.