Iranian Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh announces her defection

1.World Bank predicts Sri Lanka’s economic growth at 3.3% for 2020

The World Bank has forecast Sri Lanka’s economic growth at 3.3% for 2020 saying the growth is likely to remain below four per cent in the next three years.The bank said, in its latest report of World Bank’s January 2020 Global Economic Prospects, that for 2021 and 2022, it maintains the same forecast of 3.7 percent of economic growth in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s new government headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said recently that one of its targets include achieving a 6.5 per cent economic growth per annum from 2020 and a GDP growth of 6,500 U.S. dollars per capita.

Sri Lanka’s growth had dipped below 3 per cent last year which was attributed to Easter attacks and policy uncertainty during the previous government.

Previously, The World Bank (WB) has lowered India’s GDP growth to five per cent for the fiscal year 2020-21 from its earlier estimated six per cent.

2.Iranian Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh announces her defection

Iran’s Olympic medalist, Kimia Alizadeh took to her instagram to announce that she is leaving the country.Alizadeh is the only woman from Iran to have won the Olympic medal.

She made history at the Rio Olympics in 2016, when she won the bronze medal for her country in Taekwondo.

Alizadeh did not announce any future plans or the country which she has gone to, but she said that she will remain the daughter of Iran.

3.Japan Coast Guard Ship ‘Echigo’ arrives in Chennai

The Japan Coast Guard Ship ‘Echigo’ has arrived in Chennai on a five-day goodwill visit.It will be participating in the Annual Joint Exercise ‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ with the Indian Coast Guard off Chennai.

This is the 19th such exercise being conducted between the two Coast Guards since 2000.

Four Indian Coast Guard ships, their aircraft and a vessel from the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology – NIOT are participating in the exercise along with the Japanese vessel.

4.Raisina Dialogue to begin

India’s flagship global conference on geopolitics and geo-economics Raisina Dialogue began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the inaugural session in New Delhi. Seven former heads of state or government will share their views on important challenges facing the world.

The fifth edition of the prestigious Raisina Dialogue, jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation, will bring together 700 international participants from over a 100 countries.

The three-day conference will see participation of 12 foreign ministers, including from Russia, Iran, Australia, Maldives, South Africa, Estonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Uzbekistan and the EU.

5.Register all drones by January 31 or face action: Civil Aviation Ministry

Government has announced a scheme for voluntary registration of all drones and their operators.The registration can be done by the 31st of this month. The Civil Aviation Ministry said in a notice that those who fail to register will face action.

A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Co-Chair Committee on Drones last year had estimated that the number of illegal drones in India are likely to be between fifty to sixty thousand.

6.Bhogi being celebrated in south India

Bhogi is being celebrated in Tamil Nadu and several other parts of southern India.It marks the last day of the month of Margazhi in the Tamil calendar.

On Bhogi day, redundant or unusable materials are disposed of, to welcome the auspicious Pongal festival.

Bhogi is a prelude to the grand Pongal festivities.

7.Yogi Adityanath govt implements police commissionerate system in Lucknow, Noida

The Uttar Pradesh government switched to the commissionerate system of policing for Lucknow and Noida, giving magisterial powers to the top cops in both cities.Lucknow and Noida will now have an additional director general level officer as police commissioner.

The state government announced the names of the state’s first police commissioners senior IPS officers Sujit Pandey for Lucknow and Alok Singh for Noida.

The commissioners in both the districts will have magisterial powers.

8.Retail inflation jumps to about 5-yr high of 7.35 pct in Dec 2019

Retail inflation rose to about five-and-half year high of 7.35 per cent in December 2019, surpassing the RBI’s comfort level, mainly due to rise in prices of vegetables as onions.As per the data released by National Statistical Office (NSO), the spike in inflation in the vegetable segment was 60.5 percent during the month compared to December 2018.

The overall retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 2.11 per cent in December 2018 and 5.54 per cent in November 2019.

The previous high in retail inflation was witnessed at 7.39 per cent in July 2014, the year the Narendra Modi-led Government assumed office for the first term.

The Central Government has mandated the Reserve Bank of India to keep inflation in the range of four per cent with a margin of two per cent on the either side.

9.Former Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal acquires DHFL General Insurance

Former co-founder and CEO of e-commerce giant Flipkart recently acquired DHFL General Insurance from the Kapil Wadhawan-led Wadhawan Group of companies for ₹100 crore.The deal is seen as a distress sale for Kapil Wadhawan-led financial services group, which used to run the debt-laden DHFL.

With this acquisition, Bansal has entered into the insurance business.

The investment is also seen as part of his strategy to enter into the financial services industry.

10.Robert Abela sworn in as Malta’s new prime minister

Robert Abela has been sworn in as Malta’s 14th prime minister in a ceremony at the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta.The newly-elected Labour leader succeeds Joseph Muscat.

Abela is the son of former President of Malta George Abela.