♦ Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba commissioned new Naval Air Base "INS Kohassa" at Diglipur in Andaman and Nicobar Island.

♦ The air base is situated at the northernmost part of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

♦ The new air base will be used for both defence and civil aircraft.

♦ The air base will be used to handle the operation of helicopters and small aircraft like the Dornier.

♦ Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire has been appointed as new Prime Minister of Burkina Faso.

♦ Dabire worked as commissions for 10 years at the West African Economic and Monetary Union. He served as ministers under former President Blaise Compaore between 1994 and 1996.

♦ He was head of the department of health between 1992 to 1997 and Higher Education and Scientific Research between 1997 to 2000.

♦ India signed MoU with Sri Lanka to modernize Facilities to Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of Eastern University in Batticaloa district of Srilanka.

♦ The MoU was signed by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Secretary, Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education M.M.P.K. Mayadunne.

♦ The project involved renovation of the auditorium and construction of a new building with recording cum editing facilities for the institute through a grant of over 27 crore Sri Lankan rupees from the Government of India.

♦ Telangana government has set up "Save Tiger Protection" to save the big cat population in the state.

♦ The State and Central government will share the cost of the force with 112 members headed by the assistant conservator of the forest on 40 : 60 basis.

♦ Fund amount 2.25 also crore was sanctioned to protect the tiger and to prevent forest fire accidents in the areas of Amarabad and Kawal tiger reserves.

♦ Private sector Lakshmi Vilas Bank has reappointed Parthasara Mukherjee as its managing director when the lender is struggling to raise Rs 2000 crore from investors.

♦ Reserve Bank of India (RBI0 has approved his reappointment.

♦ Mukherjee will head Lakshmi Vilas Bank for another two years.

♦ Kristin Scott Thomas appointed as the President of French Academy's most prestigious ceremony, Cesar Awards.

♦ This actress assumed the chair of President after it had been headless for the past two years.

♦ The president herself is a three-time Cesar nominee for her roles in "I've Loved You So Long," "Leaving", and "Sarah's Key".

♦ Bihar has been ranked the Top state in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as per Crisil Report.

♦ The state has topped the list by clocking a growth rate of 11.3% in the financial year 2017-2018.

♦ Andhra Pradesh has been ranked at second spot with GSDP growth rate 11.2%.

♦ Gujarat has been ranked at third spot with GSDP growth rate 11.1%.

♦ Madhya Pradesh which was the top in 2017 with GSDP growth rate of 14% has lost its position with a growth rate of 7.3% in 2018.

♦ In 2017 Bihar was ranked at the 8th spot.

♦ 12 out of 17 non-special states performed better in 2018 as compared to the previous five years.

♦ In fiscal 2018, Jharkhand, Kerala, and Punjab performed poorly and ranked at the bottom 

♦ For the first time ever, India has been ranked in Bloomberg Innovation Index.

♦ India has been ranked at 54th position among most innovative countries with a score of 47.93 out of 100 according to the Blomberg 2019 Innovative Index.

♦ South Korea has retained the top position for the sixth time in a row with a score of 87.38, followed by Germany with a score of 87.30,  Finland with a score of 85.70, Switzerland, Island, Singapore, Sweden, U.S., Japan, and France in the top 10.

♦ India, Mexico, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia are the new entrants in the Annual Bloomberg Innovation Index.

♦ The countries and sovereigns have been ranked on the basis of their overall ability to innovate considering seven-equal weighted metrics including Research and Development spending, Manufacturing Categories and Concentration of high-tech public computers.

♦ China may overtake the United States as the world's largest retail market this year according to a report published by Research firm eMarketer. 

♦ Research firm eMarketer predicted that China will become the world's biggest retail market in 2019.

♦ The report predicted that China's total retail sales will grow 7.5% to reach 5.636 trillion U.S. dollars in 2019, while that of the United States will grow 3.3% to 5.529 trillion.

♦ The Country celebrates its 70th Republic Day on 26th January with a grand military parade held in Rajpath, New Delhi.

♦ The Constitution of India came into effect on 26th January 1950.

♦ The Constitution had replaced the Government of India, Act 1935.

♦ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's is the chief guest of this year's Republic Day.