• Andry Rajoelina was sworn in as Madagascar President.

• US Based Indian poet Ranjani Murali was awarded the “Woman’s Voice Award” at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF). Ranjani Murali’s book “Clearly you are ESL” won the Great Indian Poetry Collectives (GIPCs) Editor’s Choice award.

• Virat Kohli has become the first player in history to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards following an extraordinary 2018. The International Cricket Council also announced the men’s Test and ODI teams of the year with Virat Kohli named captain of both sides. Note: ICC Chairperson: Shashank Manohar, Headquarters: Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Manu Sawhney has been recently appointed as the ICC’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

• Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research announced that the Centre for Advanced Materials of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) chose Eminent Scientist and Bharat Ratna recipient CNR Rao for the first Sheikh Saud International Prize for Materials Research.

• India is among the most trusted nations globally when it comes to government, business, NGOs and media. As per the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer report, China topped the Trust Index among both the informed public and the general population segments. India was at the 2nd place in the informed public category and 3rd place in the general population category.

• Microsoft India has launched a new e-commerce platform re-weave.in for handloom weavers under its Project ReWeave, part of its philanthropic initiatives. Note: Microsoft CEO: Satya Nadella, Headquarters: Washington, United States.

• Ten years after “26/11”, the Indian Navy commenced the largest coastal defence exercise ‘SEA VIGIL’ off the Indian coast.

• The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s premier container port got listed amongst the top 30 container ports globally, as per the latest Lloyds Report.

• Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Pema Khandu declared Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) as the “State Festival”. Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) is only conservation festival of Arunachal Pradesh.

• Andhra Pradesh cabinet has decided to cater 5% reservation each for Kapu community and the economically backward classes (EBCs) among the forward castes. The cabinet approved the decision of doubling the welfare pensions given under the NTR Bharosa Scheme. Pensions of Rs.1000 and Rs.1500 are doubled to Rs.2000 and Rs.3000 respectively.

• Noted Gujarati poet Sitanshu Yashashchandra has been awarded Saraswati Samman, 2017, for his poetry collection in Gujarati named “Vakhar”.

• Social media giant Facebook announced that it will create an independent Institute for Ethics in Artificial intelligence (AI) with an initial investment of $7.5 million over a period of five years. Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany will collaborate with this project.

• India has moved up one position to rank 80th on the global talent competitive index. Switzerland continues to top the list, released by INSEAD business school in partnership with Tata Communications and Adecco Group.

• Rishabh Pant was named the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Emerging Player Of The Year, following an impressive show in India’s first-ever Test series win in Australia. With an unbeaten 159-run knock in the 4th Test in Sydney, Rishabh Pant became the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a Test century in Australia.

• Mohammed Shami became the fastest Indian bowler to claim 100 ODI wickets, during the first one-dayer against New Zealand at Napier. Shami reached the milestone in his 56th match, with the wicket of opener Martin Guptill. The Indian record was previously held by Irfan Pathan, who got there in his 59th match, against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2006. The world record is currently held by Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who needed only 44 games to reach the mark.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana under which a group of Indian diaspora will be taken on a government-sponsored tour of religious places in India twice a year.

• Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba commissioned the new Naval Air Base ‘INS Kohassa’ at Diglipur in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced that he is breaking off diplomatic ties with the United States after his American counterpart Donald Trump recognized Opposition leader Juan Guaido as the South American country’s interim President. Note: Venezuela Capital- Caracas, Currency- Venezuelan bolívar.

• Yes Bank has appointed veteran banker Ravneet Singh Gill as its new MD & CEO and the lender has also received the RBI’s approval for the same. He will join the bank on or before March 1, 2019.

• Piyush Goyal has been named the interim Finance Minister and interim Minister of Corporate Affairs during Arun Jaitley’s indisposition. Goyal will retain his existing portfolios of coal and railways.

• National Girl Child Day is celebrated in India on 24 January. The theme of National Girl Child Day 2019 was “Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow”.

• 24th January was observed as International Day of Education.

• The Telangana government has decided to form a ‘State Tiger Protection Force’ to save the Big Cat population in the State.

• Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was elected as Malaysia’s new king by the members of the country’s royal families.

• IndiGo owner InterGlobe Aviation has appointed Ronojoy Dutta as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company with immediate effect.

• The government has instituted an annual award titled ‘Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar’. It will be announced every year on 23rd January,the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. This year, 8th Battalion of National Disaster Response Force located at Ghaziabad has been selected for the Award for its commendable work in disaster management.

• 25 January is celebrated every year as National Voters Day. National Voters Day Theme 2019 is “No Voter to be left behind”. 25th January is the foundation day of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which came into existence in 1950.

• India’s fastest indigenous train which will run from Delhi to Varanasi has been named as Vande Bharat Express. Its previous name was Train 18. It is a train built completely in India by Indian engineers in a span of 18 months. Note: Piyush Goyal is the present Railways Minister of India. John Mathai was the 1st Railways Minister of Independent India.

• The all-women Assam Rifles contingent created history this year by participating for the first time in a Republic Day (26th January) parade. Contingents of the Navy, India Army Service Corps and a unit of Corps of Signals were all led by women officers. Capt Shikha Surabhi from the Corps of Signals became the first woman to perform bike stunts.  Bhavana Kasturi, a lady officer, for the first time led a contingent of the India Army Service Corps and Capt Bhavna Syal, a third-generation officer in the armed forces, led the transportable satellite terminal’s contingent.

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, has developed an app Roshni that would help the Visually Impaired to recognise currency notes. Roshni is the first Android app, which recognises INR currency notes.

• Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI)has set up a panel headed by Praveen Kutumbe, to identify domestically systematically important insurers (SIIs). Note: IRDAI Chairperson- Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Headquarters- Hyderabad.

• The Oxford Dictionaries announced ‘Nari Shakti’ as the Hindi Word of the Year.

• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced the launch of the Employment Scheme ‘Yuva Swabhiman Yojana’ for youths from the economically weaker sections in urban areas. Under this scheme, 100 days of employment will be provided to youths from economically weaker sections in urban areas. They will also be given skill training.

• The Kerala government has floated a ‘Pravasi Dividend Pension Scheme’to provide regular pension to Non-Resident Keralites on a one-time payment of 5 lakh. A non-resident Keralite can invest an amount ranging from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.50 lakh, as a whole or as 6 installments paid within 3 years. Each beneficiary will be entitled to receive pensions ranging from Rs 5,000-50,000 every month, 3 years after the total amount is deposited, at a dividend rate of 12%.

• The Pakistan government declared sugarcane juice as the “national drink” of the country. 

• “Black Panther”took home the top award for best performance by a cast in a motion picture at the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards. On the TV front, “This Is Us” nabbed the ensemble award for drama, while “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won the comedy prize.

• Assam government has conferred the Republic Day Journalism Award 2019 to veteran journalist and former editor Dhirendra Nath Chakraborty.

• Bharat Ratna was awarded to Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumously), Dr Bhupen Hazarika (Posthumously) and Pranab Mukherjee in 2019.

• India ranks 6th in the GDPR Readiness Index,global networking leader, according to CISCO.

• SBI Card and Etihad Guest,the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, have joined hands to launch a travel-specific Visa credit card for members and Indian travellers. This is the first international co-brand partnership of SBI Card, the country’s second-largest credit card issuer.

• The 2019 Indonesia Masters, officially the DAIHATSU Indonesia Masters 2019, is a badminton tournament that takes place at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno in Indonesia. Anders Antonsen won the men’s singles title and Saina Nehwal won the women’s singles title.

• The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually in Melbourne Park, Australia. Novak Djokovic from Serbia won the Men’s Singles event and Naomi Osaka of Japan won the Women’s singles event.

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced “Jiban Sampark” project in partnership with UNICEF India to generate awareness about the development and welfare initiatives of state government among the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of the state.

• A 1-km long cable-stayed “Atal Setu” on the Mandovi river in Goa, a third such bridge to connect the state capital with North Goa, was opened to the public by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

• India’s Kartik Sharma won the New South Wales men’s Amateur Golf Championship in Australia.

• Nepal batsman Rohit Paudel has become the youngest male cricketer to score an international fifty at the age of 16 years and 146 days, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s previous mark.

• Data Protection Day (Data Privacy Day) was observed on Jan 28.

• The Reserve Bank of India has stated that it will inject 37,500 crore into the system through the purchase of government securities, under Open Market Operations (OMOs), in February to increase liquidity. Note: RBI 25th Governor: Shaktikant Das, Headquarters: Mumbai,  Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata.

• J. Alphons,Union Minister for Tourism, has inaugurated the first project under the Swadesh Darshan Project of the Union Ministry of Tourism at the Zero Point, Gangtok, Sikkim.  Swadesh Darshan Scheme is one of the flagship schemes of Ministry of tourism for development of thematic circuits in the country in a planned manner.

• Kerala based private sector lender Federal Bank has appointed Dilip Sadarangani as the part-time chairman.

• Dubai International Airport (DXB) has retained its position as the world’s busiest airport.

• India has been ranked 54th in Bloomberg’s 2019 list of most innovative countries in the world – ‘2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index’. South Korea has topped the Index.

• Transparency International has released the Global Corruption Index 2018. India ranked 78^th.

• The Civil Aviation ministry launched the country’s first Geographical Indication (GI) store at Dabolim International Airport in Goa.

• The central banks of the UAE and Saudi Arabia have launched a common digital currency called “Aber”, which will be used in financial settlements between the two countries through Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologies.

• 30th January 2019, is celebrated as World Leprosy Eradication Day. This year’s theme for World Leprosy Day is ‘ending discrimination, stigma, and prejudice’. Leprosy,also known as Hansen’s disease is a highly contagious infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.