• The 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2023 will take place in January in Indore. Every year on the 9th of January, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas holiday is observed to honour the contribution of the Indian community living abroad who contributes to the growth of India. Additionally, it honours Gandhi’s journey back to India from South Africa on the 9th of January, 1915.
•  Since 2015, its structure has changed to recognize Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) once every 2 years and to organise Pravasi Bhartiya Divas Conferences with involvement from policymakers, stakeholders, and experts from the abroad community.

• Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, has opened a Palm leaf Manuscript Museum featuring modern audio-visual technology at the Central Archives in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
• The museum, which is being promoted as the “World’s First Palm-Leaf Manuscript Museum,” was created by the Archives Department in partnership with the Kerala Museum of History and Heritage at INR 3 crore (about $420,000).

• President Droupadi Murmu virtually laid the foundation stone of state-owned energy firm SJVN’s 1,000 MW Bikaner Solar Power Project in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
• This project is being implemented by SJVN Limited through its wholly owned subsidiary SJVN Green Energy Limited (SGEL). It is being developed on 5000 acres on outright purchased land near village Banderwala, district Bikaner of Rajasthan which is one of the highest solar yield areas of the country.

• Indian-origin Manpreet Monica Singh has been sworn in as a Harris county judge, becoming the first female Sikh judge in the US.Ms Singh was born and raised in Houston and now lives in Bellaire with her husband and two children.
• She was sworn in as a judge of the Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4 in Texas.Ms Singh's father immigrated to the US in the early 1970s.A trial lawyer for 20 years, she has been involved in numerous civil rights organizations at the local, state, and national levels.

• Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, a Maharatna CPSE of Ministry of Power, has ranked first in the services sector, in the Public Enterprises Survey 2021-22 by Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Ministry of Finance.
• The PSU has ranked first across categories like Gross Block, Value Addition, Net Profit, Net Worth, Dividend Declaration and Contribution to Central Excheque.Power Grid Corporation of India has also been ranked third amongst the top ten profit making Central Public Sector Enterprises in the survey.

• Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy was elected as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives on Saturday, ending days of bitter Republican infighting that ground the lower chamber of US Congress to a standstill. McCarthy, 57, has replaced Nancy Pelosi, 82 of the Democratic Party, as US House Speaker. Notably, he was not able to muster a majority of the votes on the floor from the Congressmen-elect even after 14 rounds of votes.

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance announced an association with the world’s top T20 batter Suryakumar Yadav, to launch a new digital-first campaign - “360° Financial Protection with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance".
• The campaign's central message is how ICICI Prudential Life Insurance offers a comprehensive suite of protection products providing all-round life cover that offers 360 degree financial protection in any critical situation, together with trust, dependability and consistency.

• The Indian Army signed an agreement with the Government of Assam to offer the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) at 8 medical colleges and hospitals in Assam.The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare has approved the empanelment of government medical colleges in Assam with the ECHS.
• The ECHS benefits will be offered at the medical college and hospitals in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, Barpeta, Tezpur, Diphu, and North Lakhimpur.It will facilitate the cashless and capless treatment of almost12 lakh beneficiaries.

• The Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession has decided to confer Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud with the ‘Center on the Legal Profession Award for Global Leadership’.
• CLP’s highest professional distinction will be presented to CJI Chandrachud on January 11.Justice Chadrachud, who became chief justice in November 2022, holds an LLM and an SJD from Harvard Law School.

• Senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former West Bengal governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi passed away at 88. Born on November 10, 1934 in erstwhile Allahabad, Tripathi was also a senior advocate at the Allahabad High Court.
• He joined RSS when he was just 12 and later switched to Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He was jailed in Naini Central Jail in 1953 for participating in the ‘Kashmir Andolan’ and again in 1990 for taking part in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Download Daily GK PDF of 09 January 2023