Daily GK Update: 29th January 2023

Sports

India women's cricket team defeated England by 7 wickets in the final to win the first-ever ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, held in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
BCCI secretary, Jay Shah announced a whopping cash reward of ₹5 crores for the entire India squad.
England captain and stellar all-rounder, Grace Scrivens has been named Player of the Tournament.
Player of the Match: Titas Sadhu (India)
India's Captain for U-19 Women’s T20: Shafali Verma

National & International Appointments

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with World Boxing Champion, Nikhat Zareen to represent NMDC as its brand ambassador.
She won a gold medal at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships (52 kg category).
She became the fifth Indian woman to win a gold medal at the IBA World Boxing Championships.
CMD, NMDC: Sumit Deb
Headquarters: Hyderabad

National Affairs

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Meta have jointly released the list of 120 startups and innovators for the XR Startup Programme.
It includes an Accelerator and a Grand Challenge.
Aim: To boost the emerging Tech ecosystem
Out of the startups selected in the Accelerator Programme, over 30% are from tier II or tier III cities across India.
It will discover, nurture, and accelerate Extended Reality (XR) Technology startups and innovators.

Obituaries

Veteran film actress, Jamuna passed away in Hyderabad at the age of 86 due to health issues.
She was born in 1936 in Hampi in Karnataka and started her career as a stage artist, debuting with Puttillu on Silver Screen.
She acted in about 200 Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi films.
She was identified with her role in ‘Satyabhama’ and became a household name for the mythological character.
She was a former Lok Sabha MP from Rajahmundry in 1989 from the Congress.

National Affairs

The iconic Mughal Gardens in Rashtrapati Bhavan has been renamed as the Amrit Udyan.
It would be open to the public from 31st January to 26 March 2023.
This decision is said to be part of the government of India’s ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'.
The cluster of about 15 gardens will collectively be known as Amrit Udyan.
Individual gardens within the sprawling Presidential Estate - Herbal Garden, Musical Garden, and Spiritual Garden - will retain their names.

National & International Appointments

A former chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military committee, Petr Pavel has become the new president of the Czech Republic.
He succeeded the former President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman.
In a run-off vote, he defeated billionaire Andrej Babis.
He has been a vocal supporter of the European Union and NATO, seeing the Czech Republic’s future as inextricably linked to their membership.
Czech Republic Capital: Prague

Banking & Finance

As per the Reserve Bank of India release, India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.727 billion to $573.727 billion in the week ended January 20, 2023.
As on January 13, 2023, the forex reserves of India stood at $561.583 billion.
The Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) stood at $503.65 billion.
FCA includes the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound, and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

National Affairs

India’s largest car manufacturer company, Suzuki Motor Corporation announced that it will use cow dung to power its CNG cars.
Suzuki signed an MoU with Asia’s largest dairy manufacturer, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
Suzuki has invested in Fujisan Asagiri Biomass which generates power from biogas derived from cow dung in Japan.
The biogas could be used for Suzuki’s CNG models which account for approximately 70 percent of the CNG car market in India.

Banking & Finance

Star Health and Allied Insurance has renewed its strategic corporate agency tie-up for bancassurance with Punjab National Bank (PNB) for a long-term period.
PNB will continue to distribute Star Health’s insurance products across all their branches pan India.
It is a testament to Star Health’s customer service, and track record.
Bancassurance: Contract between bank and insurance company to allow the insurance company to sell its products to the bank's client base.

Banking & Finance

Network People Services Technologies Ltd (NPST) has unveiled "Timepay Evok" as a UPI API engine to articulate its mission and relationship with digital merchants.
With unique API services, UPI as a payment gateway can be integrated for both websites and App driven solutions for large-scale merchants.
UPI has been identified as a revolutionary product in the payment ecosystem.
It was launched in 2016.
Co-founder, NPST: Deepak Chand Thakur