NATIONAL NEWS

India Energy Week 2023

• India Energy Week 2023 (IEW 2023) being organised during India's G20 Presidency will be held in Bengaluru between 06 February and 08 February 2023.
• Hardeep S Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs, inaugurated the curtain raiser.
• The Curtain Raiser marks the beginning of number of preparatory events being hosted in the run up to the India Energy Week 2023.
• This will provide a unique opportunity to showcase India as an engine of global economic growth and a driver of global consumption.
• It covers themes such as Energy Security, pathways for decarbonization, Resilient Energy Supply Chains, Emerging Fuels such as Biofuel and Hydrogen, Investments in Upstream and Midstream Sector etc.

National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research

• Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated ICMR’s National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research (NARFBR) at Genome Valley in Hyderabad to address zoonotic threats.
• It will provide the ethical care and use and welfare of laboratory animals used during research.
• It will not only serve as a state-of-the-art facility for ethical animal studies but also apply to basic regulatory animal research.
• It will help in capacity building of new researchers and quality assurance checks as well as create procedures for new drugs, vaccines and pre-clinical testing within the country.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Tokyo Makes Solar Panels Mandatory for New Homes

• The Japanese capital's local assembly passed a new rule mandating that all new homes in Tokyo built by large-scale home builders after April 2025 must install solar power panels to cut household carbon emissions.
• The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 2,000 levels.
• This new rule for newly built homes mandates about 50 major builders to equip homes of up to 2,000 square metres with renewable energy sources, mainly solar panels.

U.N. Commission on the Status of Women

• Iran has been suspended from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
• The US proposal at the UN Economic and Social Council to remove Iran from the panel received 29 votes.
• It is a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main organs within the United Nations.
• It has been described as the UN organ promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• The Economic and Social Council has expressed serious concern over the actions taken by the Government of Iran since September 2022 through the draft to remove Iran from the remaining 2022-2026 term of the 'Commission on the Status of Women'.

BANKING

PNB Housing Finance Opens 'Roshni'

• PNB Housing Finance on 16 December 2022 announced that it has opened 'Roshni' branches in various locations, including tier II and III cities for deepening its customer base in the affordable housing segment.

• Under the Roshini initiative, PNB Housing Finance will offer retail home loans to individuals in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

• Under the Roshini scheme the borrowers can get loans for purchase of house property, self-construction, home extension/renovation, plot purchase plus construction, loan against property, among others.

• PNB Housing Finance Limited is a subsidiary company of Punjab National Bank.
• It is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) which provides housing loans to individuals and corporations.

AU Small Finance Bank and HDFC Life

• AU Small Finance Bank, and HDFC Life company has entered into a bancassurance agreement under which the customers of the AU Bank can access the entire life insurance product the HDFC life company.
• In Bancassurance a bank enters into an agreement with an insurance company. The Bank makes its customer database available to the Insurance companies.
• Bancassurance sector is regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

SPORTS

Morocco to Host the Football Club World Cup

• World football governing body FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced on 16 December 2022 that Morocco will host the football Club World Cup in 2022.

• The tournament will take place from 01 February to 11 February 2023.

• It is an international club football championship where the continental club champions participate every year.
• The most recent edition of the tournament was held in the United Arab Emirates in February 2022 which was won by the English football club Chelsea.

India Wins Blind T20 Cricket World Cup

• India defeated Bangladesh by 120 runs in the final to win the 3rd T20 World Cup for Blind played at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka on 17 December 2022.

• It was the third title for India having won it in 2012 and 2017.

• All the three T20 World Cup for Blind has been hosted by India.
• It was organised by the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI).
• CABI is the apex body for organising, developing cricket for blind in India. It is a member of the World Blind Cricket Council.
• The 4th T20 World Cup for Blind will be held in Pakistan in 2023.

AWARDS & PRIZES

NMDC Wins IEI Industry Excellence Award 2022

• National Miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) won the coveted IEI (Institution of Engineers, India) Industry Excellence Award 2022 in Chennai.

• NMDC, the largest producer of iron ore in the country, was honoured at the 37th Indian Engineering Congress for its outstanding performance and high level of business excellence.

• The Institution of Engineers (India) has given the Industry Excellence Award to NMDC, after reviewing the business operations, financial performance, environmental performance, research and development, CSR and corporate governance policies of a company.

Mrs World 2022 Title

• Sargam Kaushal has won the title of Mrs. World 2022, becoming the winner among contestants from 63 countries.

• The title has returned to India after 21 years.

• Mrs. Polynesia was named the first runner-up, followed by Mrs. Canada as the second runner-up.

• Mrs World is the first beauty pageant for married women.
• The pageant was conceived in 1984 and traces its roots to the Mrs. America pageant.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

CEO of 2032 Olympic Organising Committee

• American executive Cindy Hook has been appointed as CEO of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• She is currently a member of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Singapore Economic Development Board.
• Prior to this, Hook worked for the international professional services network in the U.S. and in Australia.

Prime Minister of Ireland

• Indian origin Leo Varadkar was elected as the prime minister of the Republic of Ireland for the second time on 17 December 2022.

• Michael Martin has become the deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

• Leo Varadkar was earlier Prime Minister of Ireland from 2017 to 2020.

• After the 2020 general election Martin’s Fianna Fail party and Varadkar's Fine Gael party entered into a coalition deal under which powers were to be shared between the two parties.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

NASA Launches International Mission ‘SWOT’

• The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) have launched the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission.

• The objective is to track nearly all the water on Earth’s surface. The mission has a lifespan of three years.

• The SWOT mission was launched through a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Launch Complex at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States of America.

• SWOT will cover the entire Earth’s surface between 78 degrees south and 78 degrees north latitude at least once every 21 days.
• The satellite will measure the height of water in freshwater bodies and the ocean on more than 90 per cent of Earth’s surface.
• This information will provide insights into how the ocean influences climate change, how a warming world affects lakes, rivers and reservoirs and how communities can better prepare for disasters, such as floods.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Migrants Day

• International Migrants Day is observed every year on 18 December.

• It is to recognize the important contribution of migrants and also to highlight the challenges they face.

• The UN Migration Agency defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence.
• The United Nations General Assembly on 04 December 2000 passed a resolution to observe 18 December as the International Migrants Day.