• The Army Day in India is celebrated on 15 January every year, to salute the valiant soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect the country and its citizens. This year marks the 74th Indian Army Day. The day is marked to commemorate the day when General (later Field Marshal) KM Carriappa took over the command of the Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Commander-in-Chief of Indian Army post Independence.

• The Indian Army is one of the most powerful militaries of the world, competing with superpowers like the US, Russia and China. The motto of the Indian Army is ‘service before self’ and its mission is to ensure national security and national unity, defend the nation from external aggression and internal threats, and maintain peace and security within its borders. Salute to the brave soldiers, who risk and sacrifice their lives to protect us. Even the Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965 had given the slogan like “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”.

• India has announced a financial assistance of USD 900 million loan to Sri Lanka to help the island nation in building up its depleted foreign reserves and for food imports.
• It must be noted that Sri Lanka is currently facing a shortage of almost all essential commodities due to a shortage of dollars to pay for the imports.
• India is extending the support through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

• As per the weekly Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, the foreign exchange reserves of India declined by $878 million to USD 632.736 billion in the week ended January 7, 2022.
• In the previous week ended December 31, India’s reserves dropped by $1.466 billion to $633.614 billion.
• The decline was mainly due to a fall in gold reserves and foreign currency assets (FCA).
• In the reporting week, FCAs decreased by $497 million to $569.392 billion.
• Gold reserves declined by $360 million to $39.044 billion.
• The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell by $16 million to $19.098 billion. 
• India’s reserve position with the IMF dipped by $5 million to $5.202 billion.

• HDFC Bank has bagged the ‘Best Private Bank in India’ award at the Global Private Banking Awards 2021, organised by Professional Wealth Management (PWM).
• The PWM is a magazine published by the Financial Times, the world’s leading global business publication.
• PWM is specialises in analysing the growth strategies of private banks and the regional financial centres in which they operate.

• Lazypay, a Buy Now Pay Later solution by PayU Finance, has partnered with SBM Bank India to launch LazyCard.
• With this partnership, Lazypay aims to foray into the card business segment.
• LazyCard will provide a credit limit of up to  Rs. 5 lakh.
• The card can be availed at zero joining fee and zero annual fee.

• Small businesses-focused online lending platform Indifi Technologies has collaborated with Google Pay to provide instant loans to eligible medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) merchants through the Google Pay platform.
• The Google Pay merchants will be given the option of availing a pre-approved loan from Indifi in the app itself, based largely on their payment receipts data.
• The range of the loans will be between Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 lakh.

• The International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) has given its approval to the All India Sports Council of the Deaf (AISCD) to organise the World Deaf T20 Cricket Championship in 2023.
• The first World Deaf T20 cricket championship will be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala from January 10 to January 20, 2023.
• India will be hosting this kind of international event with the approval of the ICSD for the first time.
• A minimum eight countries are expected to take part in the championship.

• Minister of State for Culture, Meenakashi Lekhi has launched the ‘North East on Wheels Expedition’ in New Delhi to promote the Culture of Northeastern States. The Bike Expedition is scheduled between 8th to 16th April this year to mark the celebrations of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
• 75 Bikers participating in this expedition will be selected from all over the country and will cover about 9000 km in the North East Region in 6 groups. The expedition will also promote the Dekho Apna Desh initiative of the Ministry of Tourism. The Riders will also carry the message of the importance of Road Safety.

• The 20th Dhaka International Film Festival begins at Dhaka, Bangladesh. The festival will showcase 225 films from 70 countries under 10 categories will be screened across various venues in Dhaka between 15-23 January. The film festival is being organized in a hybrid mode with many films being streamed online during the festival. The DIFF will also organise the 8th edition of the ‘Women in Cinema’ international conference, as well as the 4th edition of the ‘West meets East’ screenplay lab during the festival.
• The Indian entries to the 20th DIFF include films like Koozhangal directed by P S Vinothraj, Avijatrik directed by Subhrajit Mitra, Mayar Jonjal directed by Indranil Roychowdhury, and Aandaal directed by Shareef Easa among the 35 entries.

• Olympic and world medallist sprinter Deon Lendore, who specialized in the 400 metres, has passed away in an unfortunate car crash in Texas, USA.
• He was just 29-years.
• The Trinidad and Tobago sprinter won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
• He claimed silver medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing.

Download Daily GK PDF of 15 January 2022