TODAY ON January 30, 2023
GK News Highlights and Headlines

Highlights:

1. Sarvodaya Day: Tributes paid to Mahatma Gandhi in Mysuru
2. Solar hanging fences to be installed on forest fringes of Kannur
3. Supreme Court to hear plea to restrain from ‘censoring’ BBC documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots on February 3
4. Punjab National Bank has ₹70 bn exposure to Adani Group: MD
5. Budget session from tomorrow, President Murmu to address joint sitting of two Houses
6. The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London
7. Jailed godman Asaram convicted of rape by court in Gandhinagar
8. LIC reviews Adani response to Hindenburg's allegation
9. Indian hockey team head coach Graham Reid during the press conference ahead of India’s match against New Zealand during the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023.
10. Indian men’s hockey team chief coach Graham Reid resigns following World Cup debacle
11. India all-rounder G. Trisha and physical conditioning trainer Shalini after India won the women’s Under-19 World Cup in South Africa.
12. The victory would have been sweeter had I scored the winning runs: Trisha
13. In 2022, 165 death penalties handed out by trial courts, highest since 2000
14. Israeli troops kill man in West Bank: Palestine
15. G20 energy transition working group meeting in Bengaluru between February 5-7
16. Over 10 persons booked in Lucknow for burning pages of Ramcharitmanas

Headlines:

The Adani Group equated the allegations against its companies by the New York-based Hindenburg Research in a report

The Adani Group equated the allegations against its companies by the New York-based Hindenburg Research in a report last week to a “calculated attack on India”, its institutions and the India “growth story”. In a 413-page response to the 106-page Hindenburg Research report, which accused it of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”, the Adani Group said, “This is not merely an unwarranted attack on any specific company but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India.” The report by the New York firm has led to the Adani Group losing more than USD 50 billion in market value.

Engineering is the only undergraduate programme in the country that has registered a decline in student enrollment over the last five years

Engineering is the only undergraduate programme in the country that has registered a decline in student enrollment over the last five years even as overall admission numbers have increased at the Bachelor’s level, shows the latest report of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) released by the Education Ministry. According to AISHE 2020-21, the enrollment in B.Tech and BE programmes in the regular (or full-time) mode has dropped by 10% from 40.85 lakh in 2016-17 to 36.63 lakh in 2020-21. Although the data shows a marginal uptick of 20,000 in enrollment numbers for engineering programmes between the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21, the absolute admission numbers are still the lowest in five years.

Senior BJD leader and Odisha’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kisore Das died in hospital

Senior BJD leader and Odisha’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kisore Das died in hospital yesterday evening, hours after he was shot at from point-blank range by a police officer at Brajrajnagar in Jharsuguda district. According to police sources, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Gopal Das opened fire at Naba Das at Gandhi Chowk near Brajrajnagar town around 12.15 pm, minutes before the minister was to attend a programme. The accused, who was posted at the Gandhi Chowk police outpost, carried out the killing in the presence of police personnel and the minister’s supporters. Gupteswar Bhoi, Sub-Divisional Police Officer at Brajrajnagar, said the motive for the killing remains unclear and is being investigated.

Even as the Supreme Court has called for reforming death penalty sentencing, trial courts awarded 165 death sentences in 2022

Even as the Supreme Court has called for reforming death penalty sentencing, trial courts awarded 165 death sentences in 2022, the highest in over two decades, according to the Annual Death Penalty Report, 2022. The report will be released on Monday by Project 39A, a criminal reforms advocacy group with the National Law University, Delhi. The report says "This shift has been sharply influenced by the extraordinary sentencing of 38 persons to death in Ahmedabad in a single bomb blast case, representing the largest number of persons sentenced to death in a single case since 2016."

from jowar vegetable upma to bajra khichdi, ragi ladoo to bajre ka choorma — these will soon find a place on the menu of Parliament House canteens, alongside traditional favourites biryani and cutlets.

From jowar vegetable upma to bajra khichdi, ragi ladoo to bajre ka choorma — these will soon find a place on the menu of Parliament House canteens, alongside traditional favourites biryani and cutlets. As the government promotes the production and consumption of millets – in his Mann Ki Baat address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said every G20 summit event in India would feature millet dishes — Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has sought a special millet menu for Members of Parliament, who will now get to choose from the new menu, besides the old one.

The highly anticipated H1B visa filing season for fiscal 2023-24 will officially begin on March 1

The highly anticipated H1B visa filing season for fiscal 2023-24 will officially begin on March 1 when the US immigration agency will start accepting applications for skilled foreign workers visas, the most sought-after by Indian IT professionals. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Cash-strapped Pakistan’s government raised prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 35 each, giving another jolt to the country’s inflation-stricken people

Pakistan: Cash-strapped Pakistan’s government raised prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 35 each, giving another jolt to the country’s inflation-stricken people. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced in a televised address on Sunday morning, spoiling people’s weekly holiday as prices in the past had been adjusted on a fortnightly basis from the first to the sixteenth of every month. After the rise, the price of petrol was set at Rs 249.80 per litre, high-speed diesel at Rs 262.80, kerosene oil at Rs 189.83, and light diesel oil at Rs 187 per litre.