current affairs 04 january 2022

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched a 100-day reading campaign "Padhe Bharat".

Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has launched Padhe Bharat.
The campaign has been organized from January 01, 2022 to April 10, 2022.
The launch of the 100-day Reading Campaign is in line with the National Policy on Education (NEP) 2020, which emphasizes on promoting a joyful reading culture for children by ensuring age availability.
Suitable reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal language.
International Mother Language Day (21 February) has also been associated with this campaign to encourage children to study in their mother tongue/local language.
To promote the local language and culture of our society, an activity called Kahaani Padho Apni Bhasha Main (story reading in your language) will be organized across the country on this day.

France holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months starting from 1 January 2022 until 30 June 2022.
The presidency comes at a critical period for French President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to run for re-election in April.
If Macron loses the 2022 election, his successor will take over the remainder of the term to preside over the meetings.
This is the 13th time that France has held the position of rotating president.
The motto of France as President of the European Union is Recovery, Strength, Belonging.
France will work to put the continent's digitization and climate protection at the forefront.
The presidency of the European Union takes place every six months between the member states of the 27-nation bloc.
Upon completion of the six-month presidency, France would be replaced by the Czech Republic.

Shanghai has opened two new metro lines, maintaining its rank as the city with the largest metro network in the world.
With the new lines, the total length of Shanghai's metro network has increased to 831 km, the longest in the world.
China's Shanghai opened two new metro lines - the first phase of Line 14 and Line 18.
The opening of the two new lines will bring the total number of fully automated metro lines in Shanghai to five, with an operational length of 167 km, ranking first in the world for the first time.
The city will now enjoy 20 metro lines with 508 stations, of which 83 are transferable.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched an online service for verification of identity and submission of life certificates for state government pensioners.
The Chief Minister virtually launched the new initiative while attending an orientation program for 153 newly recruited officers of the Odisha Civil Services.
Pensioners can now submit identity and life certificates using an artificial intelligence-based video-verification process.
This will be of great help to the pensioners as they can submit their identity and life certificates digitally without visiting any government office using their mobile phones.
This facility will also be available at Mo Seva Kendras located across the state.
Patnaik said the introduction of digital life certificates and e-dairy are part of his government's 5T and Mo Sarkar initiatives.

India captured the Under-19 Asia Cricket Cup by defeating Sri Lanka by nine wickets in a rain-stopped One Day International final in Dubai via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
In the match, Sri Lanka chose to bat first and scored 106 runs in the allotted 38 overs for nine wickets.
India looks to be a far better team, winning a record seven Asia Cup titles.
Rashid and Harnoor finished the competition as the top two leading scorers with 133 and 131 runs respectively in four matches.
India's only defeat in the competition was against Pakistan.