Current Affairs in Short: 5 January 2022

Ex-Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair is now ‘Sir Tony’

• The former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair, along with Baroness Amos and Duchess of Cornwall, will be appointed as a member of the Order of the Garter. It is England’s oldest and most senior order of chivalry.

• The former PM of the UK will now be known as ‘Sir Tony’. The appointments are the personal choices of the Queen, who has up to 24 ‘knight and lady companions’. Tony Blair has become ‘Sir Tony’ from January 1, 2022, as he joins the order as a ‘knight companion’.

• Baroness Amos has also become the black member of the order. He is a former cabinet minister.

• The ceremonial order which was founded in 1348 is a recognition of significant public service and is made without Prime Ministerial advice.

Viktor Saneyev, three-time Olympic triple jump champion, dies at 76

• The former world record-holder and three-time Olympic triple jump champion Viktor Saneyev has passed away at the age of 76.

• The Soviet Union man had won his Olympic Titles in three consecutive games, first in 1968, second in 1972, and third in 1976. Saneyev also won an Olympic Silver Medal four years later in Moscow and won two European Titles in 1969 and 1974.

• Viktor Saneyev was born in Georgia in 1945. He started his Olympic career at the age of 23 and made his debut by securing Gold with a world record leap of 17.39m.

• Saneyev later worked as a coach in Australia and passed away in Sydney.

Multiple task force for 6G development set up by Government

• The Department of Telecommunication has formed 6 academic-driven task forces under the Technology Innovation Group on 6G Technology.

• In a notification, the Department also mandated the immediate deliverables by March 31, 2022, including the mapping of 6G activities and capabilities worldwide.

• In December 2021, the government had also formed a 22-member innovation group which is headed by K Rajaraman for creating a vision for the 6G roadmap development in India.

• The Department has also empowered the chairpersons of the newly created task forces to bring in global experts for mentorship whenever necessary.

India to host 46 nations in Exercise Milan 2022

• India has invited a total of 46 nations to participate in Exercise Milan in Vishakhapatnam. The multinational naval exercise is scheduled to be held from February 25, 2022.

• The theme of the Milan Exercise is ‘Camaraderie, cohesion, and collaboration’. The countries that are invited for the naval exercise are the US, UK, Russia, Israel, Iran, Australia, South Korea, Japan, France, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Brazil, and UAE among others.

• 41 countries were invited to participate in 2020 and 30 of them had confirmed, however, the drill was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• An official website of Milan-22 has also been launched by the Eastern Naval Command Chief Staff Officer (Technical) Rear Admiral Sanjay Sadhu.

Omicron is predominant strain in cities: Govt

• As per the Health officials, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has become a predominant strain in Indian cities. They also added that the mass gatherings must be avoided to slow the transmission.

• Balram Bhargava, ICMR DG stated that the exponential increase in COVID-19 in the country is mainly driven by the Omicron upsurge in the Indian cities and metros.

• The Health Ministry also noted that India has seen over 6.3 times increase in cases in the last 8 days and a sharp increase in the positivity rate from 0.79% on December 29, 2021, to 5.03% on January 5, 2022.