Addapedia Odisha | Daily Current Affairs | 20 January 2024 | Download PDF

The Prime Minister will be the Chief Guest for the opening ceremony of the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 which will be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. 

Key Points:

• Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held in January or February for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. 
• Every year best 1,000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of ₹5 lakh for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events.

About:

• This is the first time that Khelo India Youth Games are being held in South India. 
• The Games will be played across four cities of Tamil Nadu, namely Chennai, Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore from 19th  to 31st  January, 2024.
• The mascot for the games is Veera Mangai. 
• Rani Velu Nachiyar, fondly called as Veera Mangai, was an Indian queen who waged a war against British colonial rule. 
• The mascot symbolises the valour and spirit of Indian women, embodying the strength of women power. 
• The logo for the games incorporates the figure of poet Thiruvalluvar.
• Over 5600 athletes will be participating in this edition of Khelo India Youth Games, spread across 13 days in 15 venues with 26 sporting disciplines, over 275 competitive events and 1 demo sport.  
• The 26 sporting disciplines is a diverse mix of conventional sports such as Football, Volleyball, Badminton etc. and traditional sports such as Kalaripayattu, Gatka, Thang ta, Kabaddi and Yogasana. 
• Silambam, a traditional sport of Tamil Nadu, is being introduced as a demo sport for the first time in the history of Khelo India Youth Games.

• The Andhra Pradesh government kicked off its comprehensive caste census to enumerate all communities in the State
• With this initiative, Andhra Pradesh has become the second State in the country after Bihar to take up a caste census.

• An unusually warm winter has impacted extreme winter sports like ice hockey and the 105-km Chadar trek in the cold desert mountains of Ladakh
• It is considered the country’s coldest place, where the minimum temperature can drop up to -40 degrees Celsius.
• Ladakh is the only region where ice formation, not snow accumulation, is a common phenomenon. 
• This helps locals to prepare for national and international events.

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates 29 bridges six roads constructed by the Border Roads Organisation
• The event was organi- sed on the Dhak Bridge, a 93-metre-long bridge over Dhak Nallah
• Eleven of the projects are in Jammu and Kashmir, nine in Ladakh, eight in Arunachal Pradesh, three in Uttarakhand, two in Sikkim and one each in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh.

• It is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. 
• BRO develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighboring countries. 
• This includes infrastructure operations in 19 states and three union territories (including Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Tajikistan and Sri Lanka.

• The Union Education Ministry directed all school and higher education regulators such as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the Indira Gandhi National Open University, the heads of Indian Institutes of Technology, Central Universities, and the National Institutes of Technologies, and the University Grants Commission to make study material available in regional languages for all courses in the next three years.
• Study material for all courses under school and higher education would be made available digitally in languages included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution

Odisha Regional Specific News

• Odisha government has issued guidelines for statewide awareness programme “Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha (Sahari)” to sensitise people on schemes and programmes under 5T Initiative.
• It aims at ensuring that the benefits of the welfare schemes reach the eligible and deserving people.
• The programme also seeks to ensure transparency and accountability in distribution of benefits as well as empower the people by providing information on the government schemes

• Hindalco plans to set up a manufacturing unit for specialised aluminum foil for lithium-ion batteries at Lapanga in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
• The unit to be set up with an investment of Rs 803 crore would help the aluminum conglomerate lead in the electric vehicle (EV) market with its new facility.

The Odisha government will roll out Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha (Sahari) drive to make citizens aware of different people-centric schemes and ensure their benefits reach those in need at the grassroots.

About

• The scheme is a state government initiative to boost rural infrastructure and promote Jagannath culture.
• The scheme has a budget of Rs. 3,397 crore for the financial year 2023-24.
• Under the scheme, 90,723 projects will be implemented in 6,794 panchayats across the state.
• Each panchayat will receive Rs. 50 lakh for the implementation of projects under the scheme.
• The projects will be selected by local people, community organizations, public representatives, and other stakeholders.

•  The Odisha government signed MoUs for different projects to the tune of Rs23,389 crore with 11 companies
• The projects will be set up in the districts of Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Sundargarh
• The agreements include pacts with Epsilon Carbon Private Ltd, which has proposed an investment of Rs10,000 crore in the state over 10 years, and Ind Barath Energy Utkal Ltd, which will set up an 800-MW ultra supercritical coal-based thermal power plant at Jharsuguda for Rs6,012.46 crore.

• The annual census of dolphins began in Odisha.
• The counting process started in Puri district.
• It has 173 dolphins including 154 Irrawaddy and 19 bottle-nose dolphins were found in brackish water bodies of Chilika.

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