Current Affairs – 17 January 2023

National Kid Inventors’ Day

Kid Inventors’ day was created several years ago by people who wanted to celebrate the achievements of the youngest inventors as well as encourage more children to be creative. Just because children possess less knowledge of how the world works, that doesn’t mean they can’t have ideas for practical and useful inventions.

Indian Railway to run Bharat Gaurav train between Ayodhya and Janakpur

• Indian Railways is going to run its Bharat Gaurav Deluxe AC Tourist Train on a very special tour “Shri Ram-Janaki Yatra: Ayodhya to Janakpur” covering the two most significant pilgrimage sites Ayodhya and Janakpur from the neighbouring countries India and Nepal.
• The tourist train will start from Delhi on 17th Feb 2023 and this initiative will strengthen the bilateral relations and also promote the cultural relations between the two countries.

India announced the donation of pentavalent vaccines to Cuba

• India has announced, the donation of 12,500 doses of pentavalent vaccines to Cuba.
• The pentavalent vaccine provides protection to a child from five life-threatening diseases Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib.
• It was announced during the Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi’s official visit to Cuba.
• Both the leaders discussed various issues including, the development of indigenous vaccines against Covid and woman’s empowerment.

Rajasthan becomes the first state to implement a blindness control policy

• Rajasthan has become the first state to implement a policy to control blindness, with the objective of ensuring the “right to sight”.
• The policy has been introduced with the aim to bring light in the lives of more than three lakh people suffering from visual impairment in the state.
• The prevalence rate of blindness in the country was 1.1 percent in 2020 and work would be done to bring it down to 0.3 percent through the blindness control policy.
• Under the policy, the Rajasthan government will mandatorily run Keratoplasty Centres and Eye Banks at all government medical colleges.

India’s richest 1% own more than 40% of total wealth: Oxfam

• The richest one percent in India now own more than 40 percent of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 percent of the wealth, according to an Oxfam report
• A one-off tax on unrealized gains from 2017–2021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have raised Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year.

World Economic Forum 2023 Summit begins in Davos

• The 53rd edition of the annual World Economic Forum Summit has begun in Davos, Switzerland from 16 to 20 January 2023.
• The five-day-long conclave featuring business leaders, political figureheads, investors and academics is being held physically for the first time in three years.
• More than 2,700 delegates are expected to convene at Davos during the mega summit.

UK Treasury Adviser Clare appointed as OECD Chief Economist

• UK’s Clare Lombardelli has been appointed as the new Chief Economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• She will replace France’s Laurence Boone, who has held the post since 2018.
• She is currently UK Treasury’s chief economic adviser.
• Lombardelli has 20 years of experience in economic analysis. She will lead the OECD’s economic work, replacing France’s Laurence Boone, who has held the post since 2018.

Writer K Venu received Federal Bank Literary Award 2023

• Noted writer K Venu has bagged the first-ever Federal Bank Literary Award 2022 for his autobiography ‘Oranweshananthinte Katha’.
• The award was presented by the chairman and independent director of the Federal Bank, Balagopal Chandrasekhar.
• It was presented at an event held as part of the ongoing sixth edition Kerala Literature Festival, Kozhikode beach.
• The prize money was handed over by Nandakumar V (executive vice-president of the bank).