• World wetlands day is observed on February 2 every year with an aim to raise global awareness about the crucial role of wetlands for people and the planet. This day serves to the influence and positive production that Wetlands have had on the world and in terms brings communities together for the benefit of Mother Nature. This day, also raises global awareness because wetlands play a significant role not only in people but in the planet.
• Theme: “It's Time for Wetlands Restoration,”

• Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister (CM) Shri YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that Visakhapatnam popularly known as Vizag will be the new capital of the AP at the International Diplomatic Alliance meeting in New Delhi.The CM further announced that the AP government is organising the ‘Global Investors Summit’ in Visakhapatnam on March 3 and 4, 2023.
• The announcement of the new capital comes 9 years after the formation of Telangana state and Hyderabad being given as its capital. The Andhra government in 2015 had announced that Amaravati would come up as the new capital.

• According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.1% in 2023 and 6.8% in 2024.
• IMF Chief Economist and Research Department Director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas attributed the decline in India’s growth rate during 2023 largely due to external headwinds.The growth of the Indian economy is set to decline from 6.8% in 2022 to 6.1% in 2023.The IMF World Outlook further stated that global growth is projected to fall from around 3.4% in 2022 to 2.9% in 2023 and rise to 3.1% in 2024.

• Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh was recently conferred a Lifetime Achievement Honour by the India-UK Achievers Honours in London for his contribution to economic and political life.
• The Honour, announced at an awards ceremony last week, will be handed over to Dr Singh in New Delhi by the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK at a later date.The India-UK Achievers Honours by NISAU UK, in partnership with the British Council in India and the UK's Department for International Trade (DIT), celebrate the achievements of Indian students who studied at British universities and the Lifetime Achievement Honour is a nod to Dr Singh's academic achievements at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

• Inflation has risen to a 48-year high in crisis-hit Pakistan, where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is visiting for urgent talks, according to data released on February 1 by the country's statistics bureau.
• Year-on-year inflation in January 2023 was recorded at 27.55 percent, the highest since May 1975, with thousands of containers of imports held up at Karachi port. Pakistan's economy is in dire straits, stricken by a balance-of-payments crisis while it attempts to service high amounts of external debt.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed V. Ramachandra as a member of the Advisory Committee of Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd. (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd. (SEFL) with immediate effect. This follows the resignation of Farokh N. Subedar from the Advisory Committee with effect from January 31, 2023.
• The Advisory Committee will now comprise of Venkat Nageshwar Chalasani, former Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India, T. T. Srinivasaraghavan, former Managing Director, Sundaram Finance Ltd., V. Ramachandra, former Chief General Manager, Canara Bank.

• Sports brand Puma India has on-boarded Indian women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur as its new brand ambassador, part of its commitment towards the women’s business, especially in the sports segment in India.
• She was roped in over a social experiment that uncovered the country’s overall mindset towards gender perception in sports. The brand had posted a cryptic teaser video of a player taking position at the stumps and quizzed the audience to guess its next brand ambassador. According to the 5000 responses, 80% of the consumers assumed the brand ambassador to be a male cricketer.

• The Indian Institutional Ranking Framework (IIRF) has published the list of the top business and management schools for the academic year 2023, according to which, IIM Ahmedabad has taken over the top spot this year, followed by IIM Bengaluru and IIM Kolkata in second and third place, respectively.
• However, IIM Lucknow has jumped from first to fourth place this year, in the IIRF MBA Ranking 2023 list. The IIRF ranking 2023 has been released by the aspirants of business, management, and finance streams. The public universities too the top three spots, while among private colleges, Mittal School of Business of Lovely Professional University (LPU), Jalandhar, rose from 84th place last year to 41st in 2023, and MYRA School of Business, Mysuru, rose by 60 ranks to get ranked at 30th in 2023.

• Former wrestler Babita Phogat has joined the oversight committee formed to investigate the allegations on Wrestling Federation (WF) of India.
• The Oversight Committee is also doing an enquiry into the allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and/intimidation, financial irregularities and administrative lapses of the WFI, as leveled by prominent sportspersons.The committee was formed during IOA’s emergency Executive Council meeting earlier this month, which was attended by the likes of Abhinav Bindra, and Yogeshwar along with IOA president PT Usha and joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey.

• Australia’s Usman Khawaja bagged the inaugural Shane Warne Men’s Test Player of the Year award following brilliant performances in the last 12 months.
• The left-hander has been Australia’s leading run scorer in Tests since making a comeback in January 2022. Khawaja amassed 1020 runs at an average of 78.46.He capped off the voting period with an unbeaten 195 during the rain-affected New Year’s Test against South Africa.The SCG – his third consecutive Test century at the venu.

Download Daily GK PDF of 02 February 2023