GK Capsule January 2022

Welcome to Endeavor’s GK Capsule for the month of January 2022. India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day this month. A set of civilian and gallantry awards were announced on the occasion. On the international front, tensions rose between USA-Russia over Ukraine and between Saudi Arab-Yemen. Domestically, India finally received its new Chief Economic Advisor after a wait for 3 months. Let’s look at these and other news highlights of the month.

In the category of ‘International News’–

The tension between Russia and Ukraine has reached a very high point, with Russia deploying more than 1,00,000 troops on its border with Ukraine on 30th January. Ukraine says that Russia is trying to destabilize the country. Despite the warnings of serious consequences from the US and European leaders, Russia has continued to increase military build-up near Ukraine. Russia says NATO’s expansion in the Russian neighborhood threatens its interests. NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military grouping of western countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded a ban on further expansion of NATO to include Ukraine, Georgia, or other countries in Russia’s neighborhood. Russia is demanding NATO to stop its military cooperation with Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. In response, the U.S. has taken a mixed approach. The US has declined to stop its military cooperation with Ukraine, but said that it is open to discussing other issues, including deployment of missiles in Eastern Europe near the Russian border. The U.S. has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine or taking other direct military measures against Russia in the event of an invasion. But Washington has threatened to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia if it makes any military move. The crisis has unleashed a flurry of diplomatic moves with the U.S., NATO, and the European Union holding talks with Russian officials.

In the category of ‘Science & Tech’ –

China has built an ‘artificial Moon’ research facility that is capable of simulating low-gravity conditions using magnetism. The first-of-its-kind facility in the world will simulate lunar conditions and the environment for scientists to test new tech and future missions. The facility can replicate low gravity environments for as long as one wants, making China less dependent on zero-gravity planes to train astronauts, and environments to test new rovers and technologies. The mini-moon is about two feet in diameter and the artificial surface has been made with rocks & dust similar to the moon. The artificial Moon research facility is also expected to help determine the possibility of human settlement on the lunar surface. Earlier, China successfully created an ‘artificial Sun’ which is a nuclear fusion reactor that superheated to a temperature five times hotter than the sun.

Watch the video to catch up on all the highlights:

• Learn more about Endeavor’s GK Capsule.
• Subscribe to our YouTube Page and watch all major news updates of the month.
• Check out important GK Lectures from our Free Learning Resources section.

To read the GK Capsules, kindly download the PDFs by filling out the form below.