Indian women's hockey team registered another big win on the tour of South Africa, crushing the hosts 7-0 in the second match, with stalwart Rani, returning after a long injury lay-off, scoring her second goal in the series.

Q1. Name the Prime Minister of New Zealand  who has shocked the country on Jan 19  by announcing  that she would resign from office in a matter of weeks ?

1. Jacinda Ardern
2. Clarke Gayford
3. Kaja Kallas
4. Sanna Marin
5. None of These

 Q2. Name the India’s largest carmaker which has said that  it is recalling 17,362 units of its six models, Alto K10, S-Presso, Eeco, Brezza, Baleno and Grand Vitara, to rectify a possible defect in airbag controller ?

1. Hyundai Motors.
2. Mahindra and Mahindra.
3. Tata Motors
4. Maruti Suzuki
5. None of These

Q3. Name the interior minister of Ukraine who died in a helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb  on Jan 18 ?

1. Yevhen Yenin
2. Denys Monastyrskyi
3. Yurii Lubkovych
4. Ihor Klymenko
5. None of These

Q4. Name the  former Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF), has been appointed as India's Deputy National Security Advisor (Dy NSA) in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) ?

1. Pankaj Kumar Singh
2. Prakash Singh
3. Sanjay Arora
4. Rakesh Asthana
5. None of These

Q5.  Who among the following is the  president of Wrestling Federation of India  ?

1. Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh
2. Himanta Biswa Sarma
3. Sahdev Yadav
4. Anande Gowda
5. None of These

Answers

1------------------1  Jacinda Ardern

2-------------------4   Maruti Suzuki

3-------------------2 Denys Monastyrskyi

4-------------------1  Pankaj Kumar Singh

5------------------1  Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh

The chief ministers of four states formally inaugurated the second phase of 'Kanti Velugu', an eye screening programme, in Khammam on Jan 18 . They also inaugurated the newly constructed Khammam district Collectorate complex.

Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala along with Telangana Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao  have addressed  a massive public meeting of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Two Naxalites, including a woman divisional committee member of the banned CPI (Maoist), and as many supporters have been arrested in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari city.

The police have also detained a 16-year-old girl, who was travelling with the four, for allegedly being a supporter of Naxalites.

The police identified the divisional committee member as 50-year-old Kamla Bai Mattami, alias Saguna, a native of Gadchiroli district in neighbouring Maharashtra.

Dhamtari city is the headquarters of Dhamtari district where Naxalites have a presence in the Nagri-Sihawa area along the Odisha border.

The manufacturing unit of the Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL) situated at Korwa in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh has started the production of AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande had claimed that the first batch of 5,000 AK-203 rifles would be delivered to the Army by March, this year.

Alexander Mikheev, Director General of Rosoboronexport, the Russian partner, confirmed it by saying that Korwa Ordnance factory in Amethi has produced the first batch of 7.62 mm Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles.

The IRRPL was set up jointly between Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL) and Munitions India Limited (MIL) of India and Rosoboronexport (RoE) and Russia's Kalashnikov Concern in 2019. Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Concern are the subsidiaries of Rostec State Corporation.

A tribal organisation  on Jan 17 launched the country-wide 'Marang Buru Bachao Bharat Yatra' (Save Parasnath Hill) to free it from the alleged "clutches" of the Jain community.

The month-long march by Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan (ASA) seeks to garner support from across the country to "free" Parasnath Hill or 'Marang Buru'.

ASA president Salkhan Murmu said here that its members staged demonstrations in front of 50 tribal-dominated district collectorates in Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand simultaneously to press for its demand.

The tribals consider Parasnath Hill as the holiest 'Jeherthan' (place of worship).

The Jain community is protesting against the Jharkhand government's decision to turn the hill, which it considers among its holiest places, into a tourist destination.

The Shri Sammed Shikharji in Parasnath hill in Jharkhand's Giridih district, about 160 km from Ranchi, is among the holiest places of the Jains, including both Digambara and Shwetambar sects.

Twenty of the 24 Jain tirthankaras attained 'moksha' (salvation) on these hills.

The Centre's recent decision to do away with the discretionary Haj quota has had a positive response from the Muslim clerics who said that it will end discrimination among pilgrims.

The discretionary Haj quota was available to people in top constitutional posts and the minority affairs ministry.

A rare orange-coloured bat, which is a "near threatened" species, has been spotted in Chhattisgarh.

The animal, also known as the 'painted bat' and characterised by bright orange and black wings, was sighted at a banana farm in Parali Bodal village of the park on Jan 16 , the national park's director, Dhammshil Ganvir, said.

The bright orange-coloured bat was seen for the third time in the last few years in the Kanger Valley National Park located in the Bastar district, he said, adding that earlier it was seen in 2020 and 2022.

The national park is famous for its limestone caves which also provide a suitable habitat for bats, as per experts.

The painted bat, whose scientific name is 'Kerivoula picta', is a "near threatened" species and commonly seen in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, Ganvir said.