UNWTO report: 2020 is Worst Year on Record

• The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has highlighted that the year 2020 the worst year on record.

• As per the report, the international arrivals have dropped by 74 percent.

• The destinations across the world allowed 1 billion fewer international arrivals than it was in 2019.

• The report further highlights that, the restrictions in the international travel has resulted in the loss of USD 1.3 trillion in export revenues.

• This loss in the export revenues is more than 11 times the loss that occurred during the global economic crisis in 2009.

• Headquartered- Madrid, Spain.

New Chief Executive Officer of the Ayushman Bharat scheme

• S. Sharma has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Ayushman Bharat scheme or the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana which is an insurance scheme by the National Health Authority's (NHA).

• RS Sharma, will replace Indu Bhushan.

• RS Sharma has worked as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

• He is also the head of the Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to combat the Covid-19 and the Covid-19 vaccine delivery technology platform-Co-WIN.

• He also works as a member of the National Expert Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Administration.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is a component under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme:

• The PMJAY scheme is second component of Ayushman Bharat. The first component of the scheme is the Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) which provide the primary health care to the people close to their homes. The scheme covers the secondary and tertiary hospitalization in all the private and public hospitals of India.

• The scheme was launched on September 23, 2018, in Ranchi, Jharkhand by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It provides a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year.

Chauri Chaura Centenary celebrations to be inaugurated

• The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura Centenary celebrations on February 4, 2021. On the occasion, the Prime Minister will also release a postal stamp that will be dedicated to the centenary year of the Chauri Chaura incident.

• The celebrations will also be joined by the families of martyrs and freedom fighters.

• The state-wide celebration will also be held and it will begin from 4th February, the celebration will continue for a year. The Chauri Chaura incident took place, in British India, on February 4, 1922 at Chauri Chaura. Chauri Chaura is a place in Gorakhpur district of the modern Uttar Pradesh. In the incident a large group of protesters who were participated in the Non-cooperation movement clashed with police and the police opened fire on them.

• Those protesters were protesting in the light of "Non-Cooperation Movement" called by Mahatma Gandhi.

• Following the incident, Mahatma Gandhi halted the non-co-operation movement on February 12, 1922.

• This movement was launched on September 4, 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi. This movement was started with the aim of self governance and obtaining full independence or Purna Swaraj. This was started in the light of withdrawal of the support by Indian National Congress (INC) for British reforms following the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

51st International Film Festival of India 2021 held in Goa

• The 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was held at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji, Goa. Due to COVID-19, it was conducted in hybrid mode i.e. 50 films out of 224 films across various categories are scheduled to be screened online. This hybrid mode format of IFFI was first in India and in Asia too.

• It was jointly organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) and the state Government of Goa along with Entertainment Society of Goa. The festival witnessed more than 126 films from 60 countries which included 50 Indian premiers, 22 Asian premiers, 7 World

• premieres and 6 international premiers

• This year the country of focus section was Bangladesh marking its 50th anniversary of liberation. Its 4 films were screened under this category viz. Rupsa Nodir Banke and Jibandhuli directed by Tanvir Mokammel, Meghmallar by Zahidur Rahman Anjan, Under Construction by Rubaiyat Hossain and Sincerely Yours, Dhaka by Nuhash Humanyun.

• Veteran actor, director and producer Biswajit Chatterjee has been presented with the Indian Personality of the Year Award on the occasion.

• A tribute was paid to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on the occasion of commemoration of his 125th birth anniversary by screening the film Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero by Shyam Benegal.

• A tribute was also paid to filmmaker Satyajit Ray marking his birth centenary by screening his classic works.
• Opening film of festival : Another Round, a 2020 Danish comedy drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg.
• Closing film of the festival: Wife of a Spy, a 2020 Japanese historical drama romance television film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

• Channel Partners : DD India and DD National

• International Jury:

• The Awards have been decided by the IFFI 51 International Jury comprising eminent filmmakers from across the world, with Pablo Cesar (Argentina) as its Chairman. The members are:
• Prasanna Vithanage (Sri Lanka), filmmaker
• Abu Bakr Shawky (Austria), writer and director
• Priyadarshan (India), director, screenwriter and producer
• Rubaiyat Hossain (Bangladesh), director, writer and producer
• About International Film Festival of India (IFFD:
• Established in 1952, it is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, the festival aims at providing a common platform for global cinemas for understanding film cultures of different nations in the context of social ethics and values while promoting cooperation with each other.

About Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB):

• Union Minister- Prakash Keshav Javadekar

• Secretary-Amit Khare

UAE's new Citizenship Policy

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced its new citizenship policy. The government has planned to offer citizenship to a select group of foreigners. The UAE has thus become the first Gulf Arab nation that formalized the process of giving expatriates a bigger stake in the economy.

• The government has formulated following conditions to provide citizenship:

• Investors should own a property in the UAE.

• They are required to obtain one or more patents approved by the UAE Ministry of Economy or any other reputable international body. Doctors and specialists should be specialised in a unique scientific discipline or the scientific principles that are highly required in the UAE.

• Scientists should be an active researcher in a university or research center.They should have practical experience of at least 10 years in the same field. Individuals with creative talents like intellectuals and artists should be pioneers in the culture and art fields. They should be a winner of one or more international award.

Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index

• Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index was recently released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The index measures the readiness in adopting the personalised healthcare of 11 health systems in the Asia-Pacific region.

• This is a newly launched index. It measures the progress of a health system towards personalised healthcare.

• The health systems that were evaluated includes: India, China, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and New Zealand.

• It measured the performance across 27 indicators of the personalised health across 4 categories that are called as the Vital Signs'

• The four vital signs include Policy Context, Health Information, Personalised Technologies and Health Services.

• Report highlights that Singapore was the best performer among all the 11 health systems.

• Taiwan bagged the second position while Japan, and Australia stands at the third and the fourth position of the index respectively

• India was ranked at 10th position out of 11 health systems. Indonesia was ranked last at 11th

• India was ranked at 10th position overall. But in the four vital categories India's rank is- 10 in the health information indicator, 11" in the health services, 9th in the Personalised Technologies indicator while 5th in the Policy Context indicator.

L&T Bags contract for Bullet Train Project

• The Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has bagged a contract worth Rs 1390 crore for the Mumbai Ahmedabad bullet train project. This project is India's first such project. L&T has bagged the contract for the project from the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL).

• The contract for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet corridor have been given to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) - IHI Infrastructure Systems Consortium.

• L&T has been given the contract for the procurement and fabrication of 28 steel bridges for Crossing Over Rivers, roads, railway lines, highways and other structures for the Mumbai Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor.

• The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train Project is a 508 km long corridor. It will operate at speed of 320 km/hour. The train corridor will pass through Gujarat, Maharashtra and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

• The bullet train project is also funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

STARS Project

• The Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education, and the World Bank have signed the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS) project

• STARS project is a centrally sponsored scheme that seeks to strengthen the school education system

• The agreement has been signed with an aim of improving the quality and governance of school education in six states of India.

• The 6 Indian states include Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Odisha

• The STARS project will be benefitting approximately 250 million students in the age group of 6 to 17 years coming from the 1.5 million schools.

• Apart from the students, the project will also benefit 10 million teachers across the six states.

It also supports India's aim of "Education for All".

• The STARS Project carry forward the vision of the National Education Policy 2020 that envisages the equitable education for all

• The total cost of the STARS project is Rs 5718 crore.

• The world bank has provided financial support worth $500 million which stands around Rs. 3700 crores. This loan has been provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) which is the lending arm of the World Bank. The world bank has provided the final maturity of 17.5 years for the $500 million along with a grace period of 5 years.

• The STARS project was approved by the Union Cabinet under NEP 2020 in October 2020.

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Established in 1944.
• Headquartered in Washington. It offers loans to the middle-income developing countries.

• Rajasthan- 5th state to complete Urban Local Bodies Reforms

• Rajasthan has become the 5th state in the country to successfully complete the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) reforms. This was specified by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.

• Rajasthan now become eligible for additional reform linked borrowing.

• Thus, the State has been granted permission by the Department of Expenditure an additional financial resource of 2,731 crore rupees.

• Other states that have completed the Urban Local Bodies Reforms include- Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. In total, these five states have been granted a total additional borrowing permission of 10,212 crore rupees after completing the reforms.

• State is required to notify floor rates of property tax in ULBS as well as the floor rates of user charges with respect of the provision of water-supply, drainage and sewerage.State needs to place a system of periodic increase in floor rates of property tax or user charges with respect to the price increases.

• In the light of covid-10 pandemic, the government had identified Four citizen centric areas for reforms in order

• to meet the demand of resources. Those areas include the Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System, Ease of doing business reform, Urban Local body or utility reforms and Power Sector reforms. 10 States have implemented the One Nation One Ration Card System, 7 States have worked on the ease of doing business reforms while 5 States have implemented the local body reforms; so far.

• Amit Shah Chaired 69th plenary Meeting of North Eastern Council (NEC) in Shillong, Meghalaya

• Union Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) inaugurated and chaired the 2 day 69th meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Shillong. Meghalaya.

• It was notified that 30% of the Central Government 's budget will be used for the development of underdeveloped areas.

• Notably, the Union Budget has been increased by 24 percent to Rs. 3,13,000 crores from 89,000 crores.

• If the North-East Council sets a target by 2022 under 'Ease of Doing Business' in consultation with every state, it will also help in attracting investment.

• Central GovernmentAssistance to North-East in COVID times:

• A total credit of Rs 7,923 crore has been made which include the following:

• 75 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were provided to 3 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.

• About 30,000 metric tons of pulses and 50 lakh gas cylinders were distributed free of cost. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, Rs 553 crore have been transferred to the farmers' account.

• Rs 1,707 crore has been credited to Jan Dhan Yojana account holders as a one-time lumpsum so that they can make a livelihood.

• Rs 2,530 crore have been transferred to beneficiaries accounts under different schemes.

• About North Eastern council

• constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament, NEC is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region which consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

• Headquarter- Shillong

Indian Air Force & FASF hold first edition of Bilateral Air Exercise 'Desert Knight-21'

• Indian Air Force (IAF) and French Air and Space Force (FASF) participated in the 1st Edition of Bilateral Air Exercise 'Exercise Desert Knight-21 (Ex DK-21)' held at Air Force Station, Jodhpur.

• The Bilateral 1st of its kind exercise involved the participation of Rafale fighter jets from both sides.

• India & France are also jointly set to conduct wargames codenamed Exercise SKYROS in January at Jodhpur.

• SKYROS is a war game which will involve Rafael Fighter Jets from both Countries

• It will be the 1st Major Wargame of IAF involving the participation of IAF

Other regular Defence Exercises between India & France are;

• Varuna - Naval Exercise
• Garuda - Air Exercise
• Shakti - Army Exercise

About Indian Air Force (IAF):

• Chief of Air staff (CAS)- Rakesh Kumar Singh Badhauria Headquarters, New Delhi

• About France:
• President - Emmanuel Macron
• Capital - Paris

Indian Navy conducts Joint Tri-Service Military Exercise 'AMPHEX-21' in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

• The Indian Navy conducted an Joint Tri-Service Amphibious Military Exercise 'AMPHEX-21' in Andaman & Nicobar group of Islands.

• Defence Exercise 'KAVACH' for defence of Andaman & Nicobar Islands was also a part of AMPHEX-21 exercise, KAVACH took place in Andaman Sea & Bay of Bengal under the command of Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC), which is the sole Joint Services Command of the Country

• Both exercises witnessed participation from all service components of Indian Armed Forces - Indian Army, Air Force, Navy & Coast Guard.

• Corvettes, submarine & amphibious landing ships of Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and Amphibious Brigade of Army's Southern Command.

• Special Forces - Marine Commandos, Para Commandos

• Jaguar Aircraft & Transport Aircraft from Indian Air Force

'Ayushman CAPF' scheme for Personnel and Dependents of CAPF

• Union Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) attended a function in Guwahati, Assam where he launched the 'Ayushman CAPF' scheme for personnel and dependents of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), which will be fully implemented by May 1, 2021.It will cover around 28 lakh personnel of CAPF, Assam Rifles and National Security Guard (NSG) and their families under 'Ayushman Bharat: Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana' (AB PM-JAY).

• In this regard, an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Health Authority (NHA) and MHA

• He also presented Ayushman CAPF beneficiary e-health cards to some officers and personnel of the CAPFs.

• This pan-India scheme is a first of its kind convergence between Ayushman Bharat and CAPF co-led by MHA and the National Health Authority (NHA) to provide cashless healthcare services to the serving CAPF personnel and their family members.

• The joint initiative will provide cashless healthcare services to serving CAPF personnel from all seven forces -

• Assam Rifles, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), NSG and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) - and their dependents.

• CAPF personnel can receive a medical checkup once every year and their families once in three years.

125th Anniversary of "Prabuddha Bharat"

• The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi addressed the 125th anniversary celebration 'Prabuddha Bharata' which was organized on January 31, 2021 by the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati

• It is a monthly magazine of the Ramakrishna Order.

• This magazine was founded in the year 1896 by P. Aiyasami, B. R. Rajam lyer, G. G. Narasimhacharya, and B. V. Kamesvara lyer under the guidance of Swami Vivekananda.

• Prabuddha Bharata magazine was of great significance in spreading the message of the ancient spiritual wisdom of the country,

• The magazine comprises of the articles and translations by monks, scholars and other writers on humanities and social sciences.

• The publication of the Prabuddha Bharata magazine was started from Madras. The journal was published in Chennai for 2 years. After that, the magazine started publishing from Almora. From April 1899, the magazine started publishing from Advaita Ashrama. Since then, Advaita Ashram continuously edit the magazine and it is published and printed in Kolkata.

• This ashrama was founded in the year 1899. It was a branch of the Ramakrishna Math. The ashrama is located in Uttarakhand.

World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day

• India joined the world and Light Up Qutub Minar as a sign of unity to combat the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NDT).

• This was done to mark the second annual World NTD Day that will be observed on January 30th

• The World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day highlights the global community's commitment to end the diseases.

• The NDT diseases cause immeasurable suffering among the most marginalized communities of the world. On the occasion of World NTD day, 50 landmarks representing the 25 nations of the world lit up.

• The NTDs are a diverse group of communicable diseases that prevail in tropical and subtropical conditions. As per the WHO major NTDs are: Buruli Ulcers, Chagas Disease, Dengue, Chikungunya, Sleeping Sickness (Human African Trypanosomiasis), Hansen's Disease (Leprosy), Trachoma Mycetoma, chromo-blastomycosis, deep mycoses etc. As per the data, one in five people across the world are affected by NTD.

• India is home to the world's largest absolute burden of 11 of the major neglected tropical diseases.

World Leprosy Day 2021

• The last Sunday of January is celebrated as the World Leprosy Day every year. The day is observed all across the world. The day is celebrated to raise knowledge about the leprosy.

• As per the report, there were 2,08,619 new leprosy cases globally registered in the year 2018. This figure has come from 159 countries.

• In India, the day is being observed on January 30 in the year 2021.January 30 is selected as a remembrance of the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

• Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease. It is an infectious disease which is caused by a bacillus Mycobacterium leprae.

• The disease has been named after Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen who was a Norwegian physician.