Why in News

• Indian movie titled Koozhangal (Tamil) directed by P S Vinothraj has won the best film award in the Asian Film Competition category at the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) 2022 in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 15th to 23rd January 2022.

Other Awards

• The best actor award was given to Jayasurya for Movie Sunny –directed by Ranjith Sankar.
• Indian Film, Semkhor (Dimasa language), directed by Assamese actor Aimee Baruah, has won the Special Audience Award.
• The best feature film award was given to Maryam Bahrololumi-directed film Shahrbanoo (Lady from the City) from Iran n the Women film maker’s section.

About DIFF

• The 20th DIFF 2022 was organised by the Rainbow Film Society established in 1977.
• The 9-day long festival featured 225 films drawn from 70 countries.

About Bangladesh

• Capital – Dhaka
• Prime minister – Sheikh Hasina
• Currency – Takka

Why in news?

• On 23rd January 2022, on the occasion of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Netaji Research Bureau, has honoured Shinzo Abe with the Netaji Award 2022.

About the Award

• The Consul General of Japan received the award on behalf of Shinzo Abe at the event held in Elgin Road residence of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
• In 2021, Shinzo Abe was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Vibhushan for Public Affairs.

About Japan

• Prime Minister – Fumio Kishida
• Capital – Tokyo
• Currency – Yen

Why in news?

• The World Bank has approved a loan of USD 125 million (around Rs 1,000 crore) to the government of West Bengal (WB) for Inclusive Social Protection’ operations.
• It will strengthen the capability of this state to expand coverage and access to social assistance and targeted service for poor and vulnerable groups of the state.

About the Loan Agreement

• Under the agreement, The WB government runs more than 400 programmes which provide social assistance, protection, care services and jobs through an umbrella platform, ‘Joy Bangla’, the state’s unified delivery system.
• Another initiative named ‘Duare Sarkar’, the programme which offers several government schemes benefits at the doorstep.
• The funding will also help in improving the monitoring of doorstep benefit delivery.

About West Bengal:

• Chief Minister – Mamta Banerjee
• Governor – Jagdeep Dhankhar
• National Parks – Gorumara National Park, Sundarban National Park, Jaldapara National Park Wildlife

About the Exercise

• The exercise was conducted over a duration of 20 days with an objective to validate operational plans of the Western Naval Command and enhance Inter-Service synergy among the Indian Navy, IAF, Indian Army and Coast Guard.
• The Western Naval Command (HQ- Mumbai) is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy.
• The other two are Eastern Naval Command (HQ- Visakhapatnam) and Southern Naval Command (HQ- Kochi).

About the Transparency International’s corruption index

• Transparency Internationalhas released the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2021.
• The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption .
• In 2020 India was ranked
• The results are given on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
• The ranking has been topped jointly by three countries- Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

About Transparency International

• Transparency International is an international non-governmental organisation founded in 1993 based in Berlin, Germany.
• Its non-profit purpose is to take action to combat global Corruption with civil societal anticorruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption.

Why in News

• Government of India announced Padma Awards for the year 2022 which have been announced on the occasion of Republic Day, 2022.

About Padma Awards

• The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and Padma Shri (distinguished service).
• The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.
• The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.
• The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna & Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.
• These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955.
• Padma Awards were announced every year except for brief interruption(s) during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997.
• They are given for distinguished and exceptional achievements/service in the following fields –
• Art
• Social work
• Literature and Education
• Public Affairs
• Science & Engineering
• Trade & Industry
• Medicine
• Civil Service
• Sports
• .Others

Link of list of Padma Awardees 2022 – https://www.padmaawards.gov.in/padmaawardees2022.pdf

Why in News

• Children have chosen ‘anxiety’ as their word of the year for 2021, according to new research from Oxford University Press (OUP).  In comparison, teachers have chosen ‘resilience’.
• OUP has drawn its results from the analysis of the evolution of children’s language, and how they use it to reflect their emotions and experiences, for over a decade now.
• It also drew from the largest children’s English language corpus in the world, the Oxford Children’s Corpus.

Why in News

• Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Haryana signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of a Adi Badri dam on 77 acres in HP near the Adi Badri area of Yamunanagar, Haryana for the revival of the Saraswati river.
• Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL) would be the executing agency for the Adi Badri dam and its related infrastructure
• The entire funding of the Project would be arranged by the Haryana Government.

About Saraswati River:

• The report from satellite claimed that the Saraswati originated at Adi Badri, an archaeological site which is located around 40 km away from Yamunanagar town of Haryana, at the foothills of the Shivalik mountains, near the Somb river.
• The Saraswati river existed more than 5,000 years ago, but disappeared underground because of earthquakes and other geographical developments.

Research on Existence of Saraswati river:

• The team was set up at the Kurukshetra University for conducting research on Saraswati River which has proved its presence through satellite images
• The Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board has also been established to develop 5 riverfronts on the rejuvenated Saraswati river namely at Pipli (near Sabarmati river, Gujarat), Pehowa, Bilaspur, Dosarka (on Panchkula-Yamunanagar road) and the Theh Polar (near Saraswati-Sindhu Civilisation archaeological site).

About Adi Badri Dam:

• The Adi Badri Dam will be constructed at the starting point of the Adi Badri river in Haryana for the continuous flow of water with a notified area of 200 Kilometre (km) from Adi Badri to Ghaggar river via Kaithal.

Why in News

• A new Jupiter-like planet that is around 379 light years away from Earth has been discovered through NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
• NASA launched TESS in 2018 on an all-sky survey mission to help discover exoplanets around nearby bright stars.

About Planet

• Citizen scientist Tom Jacobs of Bellevue, Washington (United States-US) has discovered a new gaseous planet called ‘TOI-2180 b’ from NASA’ Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS.
• It is almost three times more massive than Jupiter but has the same diameter
• The finding was published in the Astronomical Journal.

Why in News

• Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav delivers India’s statement at the Fourth Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation.
• Shri Bhupender Yadav congratulated the Government of Malaysia and Global Tiger Forum (GTF) for organizing the 4th Asia Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation and appreciated the efforts of the Government of Malaysia in creating a role model for mitigation measures with respect to linear infrastructure in tiger habitat

Key facts

• A “Pre-Tiger Summit” meeting was held at New Delhi in 2010, wherein the draft declaration on tiger conservation for Global Tiger Summit was finalised.
• India has achieved the remarkable feat of doubling the tiger population in 2018 itself, 4 years ahead of the targeted year 2022.