Current Affairs: January 2025, Week 4

• Smartkeeda presents the Full-Length Current Affairs MockDrill Series for January 2025, Weekly CA PDF 4 in English.

National & States Affairs

• Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated the "Bhagwat" exhibition at the Allahabad Museum, showcasing miniature paintings.
• The Allahabad Museum curated the "Bhagwat" exhibition, a series of 75 miniature paintings focused on the Leelas, Avatars, and Stories from the 12 Bhagwats of Lord Vasudev Krishna.
• Rajesh Prasad is the Director of the Allahabad Museum.
• Ashwini Vaishnav launched 'LISA', an Al system for inspecting linens in AC coaches at Ghorpadi Integrated Coaching Complex (GICC), Pune.
• 'LISA' (Linen Inspection and Sorting Assistant) was developed by the Pune division of Indian Railways.
• Indian Railways set up a 'Gram Tent City' near bathing ghats during Mahakumbh 2025, offering premium accommodations for Rs 6,000 plus taxes per person per night.
• The Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Forest Department, with J&K Forest Research Institute (JKFI), assigned 'Tree Aadhaar numbers' to heritage maple trees ('Chinar' or 'boonyi') under the "Digital Tree Aadhaar" initiative.
• The "Digital Tree Aadhaar" initiative, launched in 2021, geo-tagged 28,560 trees to document and conserve Chinar trees, which are a deciduous species from the Platanaceae family with a height of 30 metres.
• Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan launched “KaWaCHaM”, India's 1st fully integrated disaster risk warning system, at Kerala State Disaster Management Authority HQs, Thiruvananthapuram.
• The “KaWaCHaM" system (Kerala Warnings, Crisis and Hazard Management System), developed by KSDMA with NDMA and World Bank, aims to provide real-time warnings and alerts via 126 sirens at the taluk level.
• Bhupendra Patel inaugurated the “GIFT International Fintech Institute (GIFT IFI)” and “GIFT International Fintech Innovation Hub (GIFT IFIH)" at GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
• The initiative to set up the GIFT IFI and GIFT IFIH is supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• From January 27, 2025, Uttarakhand will become the 1st state in independent India to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
• The 'Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Act, 2024' will streamline personal laws and fix the minimum legal age for marriage at 21 for men and 18 for women.
• Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan felicitated 100 'Super-100' winners of the 4th "Veer Gatha” competition, launched in 2021, with each winner receiving a cash prize of Rs 10,000.
• MoS for Defence Sanjay Seth gave away prizes to the winners of the ‘National School Band' competition: the 1st prize in 'Pipe Band Girls' went to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Jharkhand, and the 1st prize in 'Pipe Band Boys' went to City Montessori School, UP.
• At Kottayam, during the valedictory session, the Rubber Board announced 2 new projects: “iSNR (Indian Sustainable Natural Rubber)" & "INR Konnect".
• At Hitec City, Hyderabad, NIFT Hyderabad celebrated its 40th anniversary with director Prof. Dr Malini Divakala highlighting "VisionNxt", developed by the Ministry of Textiles, which uses Al & El to analyze fashion trends.
• Pralhad Joshi announced a revision to the "Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) Policy" for 2024-25, aimed to enhance food security and boost ethanol production.
• As of March 2024, 98% of fuel used in road transportation is sourced from fossil fuels, while only 2% is provided by biofuels.
• Haryana launched the “Samman Sanjeevani" app for the 'Mahila Evam Kishori Samman Yojana' to track facilities being provided to BPL women and girls aged 10-45 years for sanitary napkins via Anganwadi centers and schools.
• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) launched the enhanced “Certificate of Origin (eCoO) 2.0 System", to simplify certification for exporters and enhance trade efficiency.
• From January 1, 2025, electronic filing of Non-Preferential Certificates of Origin is now mandatory via eCoO 2.0 platform.
• Kerala became the 1st state to introduce E-Way Bill (EWB), mandatory for movement of gold & precious stones costing Rs 10 lakh & above w.e.f. 20th Jan'25.
• As nearly a year after launching the "PM Surya Ghar" scheme, Pralhad Joshi reports 8.5 lakh households have installed rooftop solar, with the scheme projected to reach 1 crore household installations by March 2027, subsidizing 60% of the solar unit cost for systems up to 2 kW capacity.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the revision of ethanol procurement prices for Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) under the "Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP)" Programme.
• According to official data, free hospitalisation benefits worth over Rs 1.2 lakh Cr have been provided under "PM-JAY” since its launch in Sep 2018, benefiting more than 85.97 million people with healthcare worth Rs 5 lakhs.
• Tata Steel became India's 1st steel company to develop pipes for hydrogen transportation and the API X65 grade pipes are processed at Tata Steel's Khopoli plant in Maharashtra.

International Affairs

• The UN General Assembly proclaimed 2025 as the “International Year of Glaciers' Preservation" and established March 21 as 'World Day for Glaciers', with UNESCO and WMO leading the international efforts supported by 75+ int. organizations & 35 countries.
• India officially joined the “Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS)" or "Eurodrone programme", managed by Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR), based in Germany.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Georgia has officially been certified as malaria-free, being the 45th country and the 1st in WHO European Region to achieve this status.
• India and Oman signed a protocol to amend the "Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA)", in which taxpayers in both countries can avoid being taxed twice for the same income.

Banking, Finance, Insurance & Economic Affairs

• Larsen & Toubro has secured a significant order to construct Uzbekistan's 1st Al-enabled & sustainable 10 MW data centre in Tashkent.
• IDBI Bank's Board reappointed Rakesh Sharma as MD & CEO of IDBI Bank for 3 years w.e.f. Mar 19, 2025.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is conducting 2 Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auctions amid systemic liquidity deficits to alleviate liquidity tightness in the banking system.
• BHIM partnered with the FinTech Yatra 2025 as a Principal Partner to advance financial inclusion & digital literacy, is powered by NPCI BHIM Services Ltd (NBSL).
• In Jan Dhan Yojana accounts, over 1 in every 5 accounts (21%) have become inoperative with Bank of Baroda has the highest number of inoperative accounts – that’s 29 million.
• IDFC FIRST Bank + RuPay launched “FIRST EAON RuPay Credit Cad”, obtained by securing an FD with Customers getting yearly interest of 7.25%.
• The RBI penalized Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Bank of India, & Canara Bank for deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
• As per the RBI’s annual report on the "Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (IOS) increasing banking customer complaints by 32.81%, reaching 9.34 lakh during year ended Mar 2024 with Loan and advances accounting for 29.01% of them.
• SEBI launched a digital knowledge repository, "Dharohar - Milestones in the Indian securities market".
• The Union Finance Ministry notified the new “Unified Pension Scheme (UPS)" workers covered by 'NPS', effective from April 1, 2025.
• GlobalData report finds 3 Indian banks (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI) among the top 25 global banks in market capitalization for q4 2024.
• Slice is set to rebrand as "Slice Small Finance Bank Limited (Slice SFB)", following merger with North East SFB, and to raise funding of $250-$300 million.
• Narayana Health Insurance introduced “Arva” insurance plan.
• Tata AIA Life Insurance launched “Shubh Muhurat" to help parents save for their child's wedding
• CheQ, the leading credit management platform, unveiled “CheQ Wisor", the country's first Al-powered credit card expert tool.
• MobiKwik + Cred = launched “e wallets” by partnering with RBI and Yes Bank to be first non-banks to offer CBDC, supports txn of Rs 10,000 with daily limit Rs 50,000 .
• The RBI’s measures to inject over Rs 1.5 lakh crore into money markets marks the greatest monetary easing in covid -19 crisis.
• Punjab National Bank(PNB) became became the first Indian bank to go live with Clari5 "advanced NCRP Integration Solution".
• YES Bank collaborated with RBI Hub to promote Fintech innovations.
• YES Bank + RBIH + SPJIMR = to launch "Frictionless Finance Accelerator Programme" promote Fintech innovations & spur financial inclusion in India.
• Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) introduced 1st blockchain-based digital currency, “BIMCOIN”, which is designed exclusively for the BIMTECH's ecosystem.
• Reserve Bank of India fixed an interest of 6.6 % on Government of India Floaring Rate Bonds ending 2035 and set to the Reserve bank of India.
• (Kotak Mutual Fund) has launched Kotak MSCI India ETF is first fund replicate India’s MSCI with is ( passive assets.
• Reserve Bank of India composed Digital Payments Index which increased by 465. 33 for for month of Sept 2024 from previous of 445.
• SEBI (Exchange Borad) has introduced a wed based portal “Integrated Seib portal Technical Glitches(isport)”.
• According to (IBBI) Indian utilitiescan use to verify the identity of users.

Defence Affairs

• Rajnath Singh has flagged off “Sanjay”, a battlefield surveillance system jointly made by India army and BEL(Bharat electronics limited).

Sports & Games

• jannik Sinner and liga Swiatek won International Tennis” 2024”world champions award.
• Manush Saha secured 86th senior nationals India.
• 60 ODIshs team won the Soorma Hocky tournament.

Science & Technology

• Haryana with the “Samman Seojven App”with the “Mahalie kvam kishen app” and the occasion is national girl child.
• GOFT launced enhanced certificates of origin Ecosystem (e CO 2.0 system.
• Kehala introducing ways bill in 20 the of January 2025.
• India becoming on with 1 in it for small medium enterprise called “Integrated coffee” is working in Tanzania and expanding innovation.
• Elon mark richest person 2025 - 4 Billons

Appointments & Resignations

• According the appointments commerce an extent in the tenure of Malika shrivasta a as chair Person’s in select Board (PESB).
• Michael Martin leader of fianna fail is been selected is as the president of Ireland.
• Diploment Jitender Pal Sigh is serve to joint the sectary Pakitstan Afganistran Iran is been now as Indian Anibasoter to Isreal,
• Belrus Avtorat was Alexa won consecutiv 7yearas Belarus.
• The United states President donald pump has appoints to genal peter

Awards, Rewards, Recognitions & Prizes

• Javen Antar has was is honour and Rafiq has was a honour film in Mumbai.
• Alventr Rayar has launched well four and is been launched by arew 12. and Is indaramati.
• Goverment is Approvla (non cmm) with finicial of 33. 3cro for and.

Schemes & Initiatives

• Yes Band + RBIN+ SRIMAIR IS for launch fintech “Friction less

Meetings, Conferences and Summits

• Prime Minnstir is inarugrate a nation game and is to get awat it has named teljashi

Ranks, Reports & Surveys

• The sercutites and Echanage of India, has launched a digtal knodlege repositiy on”dharohar
• Indian and to accound for 115 of globlas consuption of PPP in the yars2019.

MoUs, Collaborations & Partnerships###

• India and Is the highest miltary as per Global power 24and and 3 are also joined 22 to help that new to get.