CURRENT AFFAIRS December Week III 

Awards and Honours

Appointments

National Round-Up

• Asia Pacific countries that account for over 55% of global urban population have resolved to adopt ‘Urban Plus’ approach taking urban planning and development beyond city limits to prevent unmanageable and unsustainable  urban expansion.
• The Department of Telecom (DoT) is set to launch a portal — Tarang — with data on all mobile towers and transmitters across the country in a month that will allow a user to check the radiation compliance status.
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) has comes into effect. Any unaccounted cash or deposit in a bank account can be disclosed under the scheme before April 1, 2017.
• Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel to inaugurate Conference on Youth Development in New Delhi.
• Swasthya Rakshan Program has been initiated to organize Swasthya Rakshan OPDs, Swasthya Parikshan Camps and Health/Hygiene awareness programme.
• The Centre has decided to set up a single, permanent Tribunal to adjudicate all inter-state river water disputes subsuming existing tribunals, a step which is aimed at resolving grievances of states in a speedy manner.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation of Indian Institute of Skills in Kanpur with the aim of making youths more employable and self-reliant.
• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has inaugurated Karnataka’s first air ambulance service at HAL airport in the state capital.
• In a first in the country, the Maharashtra forest department will launch a state-wide call centre facility from January 6.
• Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has established a new global skin bank in the Shah Satnam Ji Specialty Hospital in Sirsa from the revenue that was generated from his movie “MSG 2 – The Messenger”.
• Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Ramgopal Yadav will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 39 projects of Ghaziabad Development Authority’s (GDA) valued at Rs 1,260 crore.
• India will host the fifth edition of the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCSS) in 2017 in which over 100 countries are expected to participate, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
• National Mathematics Day in India is celebrated on December 22. . It commemorates the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician.
• The NGT has imposed a complete ban on burning of waste in open places across the country and announced a fine of Rs 25,000 on each incident of bulk waste burning.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid foundation stone for a cancer centre and a super speciality hospital besides touring Kabir Nagar area to inspect laying of underground cables, installation of heritage streetlights and lighting of heritage buildings.
• The Union Water Resources Ministry has reconstituted a committee that was tasked with assisting the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
• According to Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), India suffers from huge gender pay gap.
• The President of India has promulgated the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Fifth Ordinance, 2016 (8 of 2016) on 22nd December, 2016.
• A ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ index, spearheaded by NITI Aayog along with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to nudge States towards transformative action in the Health sector was launched.
• AYUSH Minister Shripad Yesso Naik has inaugurated the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homeopathy (NEIAH) to provide health care to the people of north eastern states.
• The Government of India calendar 2017 that features Prime Minister Narendra Modi on each page draws flak on social media.
• The theme of the calender is “Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Aage Badh Raha Hai”.
• In an initiative to harness renewable energy, a 3.5 MW solar power project was inaugurated at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport in Bengaluru.
• The Defence and Research Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully flight tested the Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft.
• The government of India gave the go ahead to the IAF to purchase one more C17 heavy transport aircraft and also gave the nod to the Coast Guard’s proposal to acquire six multi-mission maritime aircraft for Rs 5,500 crore.
• Google India has partnered Ministry of Consumer Affairs for rolling out a nationwide ‘Digitally Safe Consumer’ campaign.

Snippets from the States

• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated and laid foundation stone of more than over 5,500 projects in about six hours, at 13 different places in Lucknow.
• Union government is all set to launch its second centre of excellence for sericulture in Bengaluru.
• The Warangal police have secured its place in the Guinness Book of World Records by organising the largest self-defence training class, for 21,276 female students simultaneously.
• Himachal Pradesh has achieved 100 % Aadhar saturation on the basis of population of year 2015, making it the sixth state after Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh to have achieved this milestone.
• Bengaluru will host India’s first ‘Beer Mile Run’, wherein a participant will be required to drink a pint of beer, run a quarter mile, and then repeat the process until a mile is completed.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay foundation stone for the grand memorial of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the metro rail projects in Mumbai and Pune.
• Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal has launched ‘Atal-Amrit Abhiyan’ scheme. The initiative is a health assurance scheme
• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched “Biju Sishu Surakshya Yojana” for care and protection of HIV-positive orphan children in the state.
• Gujarat government has announced Aerospace and Defence Policy-2016 to attract investment into fields of aerospace and defence design, development and manufacturing in the state.
• Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has inaugurated two new districts Pherzawl and Noney. Pherzawl carved out of Churachandpur the district, and Noney from Tamenglong district in Manipur.N
• Odisha government has decided to construct more 2,000 kilometre of cement concrete roads under the Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana in rural areas by March 2017.

International Round-Up

• The Grand Palais in Paris put on an eye-catching party on ice to open their 2,700 square metre rink to the public.
• A 2,700-square-meter skating space, which is being considered the world’s largest non-permanent indoor ice rink, recently opened at the Grand Palais in Paris, France.
• Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani unveiled a “bill of rights” was guaranteeing freedom of speech, protest, fair trials and privacy.
• Pakistan Navy has undertaken live missile firing in the North Arabian Sea. Pakistan Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah witnessed the launch of the surface-to-surface anti-ship missile from sword class frigate PNS Aslat.
• The Pakistan Senate has passed a resolution seeking withdrawal of high denomination Rs. 5000 currency notes from circulation in order to curb the flow of black money.
• Beginning a new level of bilateral military engagement, Nepal will hold its first ever joint military exercise with China on February 10.
• France has just opened the first public solar panel road in the world. The road, called the Wattway, was officially opened by French Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal and Mayor Guy Monhée.
• The cabinet of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a record 5.05 trillion yen ($41.4 billion) defense budget for fiscal year 2016/2017.
• China launched a carbon dioxide monitoring satellite via a Long March-2D rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert.
• The French postal service is beginning an experimental drone delivery program to deliver parcels on a nine mile route once a week.
• Japan’s space agency has successfully launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2.
• Companies building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with annexed Crimea, a project close to the heart President Vladimir Putin, were targeted by the United States in an updated sanctions blacklist.

India and the World

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed Kyrgyz Republic as India’s valuable partner in pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace.
• The five-day India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival (INCF-2016) begins in Kathmandu, Nepal on December 19, 2016 to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries.
• The India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival (INCF), an initiative of South Asia Foundation (SAF) to promote cultural exchanges between the two neighbors.
• India and Tajikistan have signed four agreements, including one on exchange of financial intelligence, following delegation-level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
• India and Kazakhstan have inked a new protocol to take bilateral ties, especially in trade and economic relations, forward
• US President Barack Obama has signed into law the USD 618 billion defence budget for 2017, which enhances security cooperation with India and conditions nearly half of the funding to Pakistan on a certification that it is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network.
• International Civil Aviation Negotiations (ICAN) – 2016 were held recently in Nassau.Open Skies agreement allows the unlimited number of flights to six metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai, was signed with six countries namely Jamaica, Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Sri Lanka.
• India has signed a Grant Agreement of USD 5.19 million with International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) for Additional Financing for Financing Energy Efficiency at MSMEs Project- Programmatic Framework for Energy Efficiency on 13 December 2016.

Science and Technology

• Google has announced the roll out of its Railwire high-speed Wi-Fi at Udhagamandalam (Ooty) station, bringing Internet to 100 of the busiest railway stations across India.
• Researchers have collected stem cells from human amniotic fluid – the protective fluid that surrounds the baby in the uterus – and used them to treat mice with brittle bone disease.
• A free instant messaging service for work and business environments, Flock has launched world’s first chat operating system”FlockOS” by Bhavin Turakhia, Flock CEO on December 20, 2016Flockos.
• China has launched the first of its new generation weather satellites Fengyun-4.
• China commissioned its first seven-tonne helicopter. AC352 civil helicopter can be used for operations like search and rescue and law enforcement, marking a new advancement in its aviation industry.

Banking and Economy

• Privatbank, Ukraine’s largest private bank, is being nationalised to protect the country’s financial system and preserve an essential bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.
• State Bank of India (SBI) has launched ‘Mobicash Mobile Wallet’ in association with state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
• YES Bank, India’s fifth largest private sector bank has partnered with Ola, one of the popular mobile apps for transportation, to provide cash-on-demand at customer’s doorstep.
• A village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district has become the first village in the state to go ‘cashless’.
• Amazon India has launched its online wallet Amazon Pay Balance, in a bid to increase cashless orders.
• The Reserve Bank of India has said that it will issue Rs 50 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005, with inset letter ‘L’, ‘R’ in both the number panels, bearing signature of Dr Urjit R.Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, and the year of printing ‘2016’ printed on the reverse of the banknote.
• In a first and major step towards breaking gender stereotypes, Deutsche Bank (DB) has delinked parental leave from gender.
• The Reserve Bank has imposed penalty on five foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the FEMA.
• Employee’s Provident Fund Organization EPFO decided to lower the interest on EPF deposits for the current fiscal to 8.65%, from 8.8% provided in 2015-16, for its over four crore subscribers.
• The Lok Sabha has passed the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan yojna (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was introduced as some of the existing provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Important Days

Sports Point

Obituary