1. The Union government launched a "Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) e-box BOX" in August 2016 for easy and confidential registration of complaints regarding sexual offence against children. This information has recently given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Krishna Raj in the Rajya Sabha.
2. India has been ranked 102nd among 136 nations in the 2016 Enabling Trade Index (ETI), as per recently published 'Global Enabling Trade Report 2016 of World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation. The list is topped by Singapore followed by the Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR, Luxembourg and Sweden. The index assesses the extent to which economies have in place the factors facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to their destinations. It takes into consideration various factors, including domestic and foreign market access, border administration, transport and digital infrastructure and operating environment.
3. India has recently signed Rs. 5,000 crore deal for 145 M777 ultra-light howitzers guns with the United States, which will be deployed in high-altitude areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, bordering China. The purchase of guns will be India's first deal for artillery guns since the Bofors scandal in 1980s. The deal was inked at the 2-day meeting of the 15th India-US Military Cooperation Group (MCG) held in New Delhi.
4. Praveen Mahajan, a former IRS officer, has became the first woman President of the All India Tennis Association (AITA). She succeeded Anil Khanna. Prior to this appointment, Mahajan was the first woman chief of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and was posted in Jodhpur as administrative member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
5. The Border Security Force (BSF) has recently celebrated its 51st anniversary of Raising Day on December 1, 2016. In 2016 (till date), BSF troops of Punjab Frontier have maintained excellent alertness and have seized over 219 Kgs heroin, 12 weapons, interdicted six Pak smugglers, two Indian smugglers and apprehended one Pak National and five Bangladeshi Nationals. BSF, the biggest border guarding force in the world, came into existence on December 1, 1965. It is deployed on Indo-Pakistan International Border, Indo-Bangladesh International Border, Line of Control along with Indian Army and in Anti-Naxal Operations.
6. India's one of the ancient practices "Yoga" has been inscribed as an element in the UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With this, Yoga has become the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. Previous ones includes Chhau dance,Buddhist chanting of Ladakh, Sankirtana-the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur, the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab and Ramlila- the traditional performance of the Ramayana.
7. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research. It is in news because ICMR has recently signed a MoU with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for cooperation in the area of zoonoses, anti-microbial resistance, nutrition and pesticide residues. This MoU will strengthen the ties between the two organizations and energize environment of mutual cooperation and collaboration. The headquarters of ICMR is located in New Delhi.
8. The 2016 India International Science festival (IISF) will be held in New Delhi from December 7 to 11, 2016. The festival is being organized by ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in collaboration with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA). The theme of the science festival is "Science for the masses". Approx 5000 young Indian scientists will showcase their scientific work to the public during the festival.
9. The 10-days Tripitak Sutrapath Mahotasava has started at Bodhgaya in Bihar. Over three thousand monks of various Buddhist countries are participating in this mahotasava. In this fest, monks would pay special offer to Lord Buddha. There will be special prayer for world peace.
10. Makkal Pavalar Inkulab, the legendary Tamil poet and activist, has recently passed away at Urappakkam in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was known for his poems like Naanga Manushangada, Kanmani Rajam, etc. His drama "Avvai" is considered to be the first modern Tamil drama and a prescribed textbook for many colleges.
11. A 9-time Olympic gold medallist, Usain Bolt from Jamaica has won the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) male Athlete of the Year award for a record sixth time. Beside him, Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana, who broke the 10,000m world record by over 14 seconds in winning Olympic gold in 2016 Rio Olympics, won the 2016 IAAF female Athlete of the Year award.The awards were handed out by IAAF at a gala ceremony in Monaco.
12. The National Pollution Control Day (NPCD) is celebrated every year on December 2 in India with an aim to make aware the people and industries about the need of Pollution Control Acts. This day is observed in the memory of those who lost their lives in 1984 due to the Bhopal gas tragedy and who were left severely affected due to leakage of poisonous gas "Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)" from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. This catastrophe was the worst in the world's industrial history and people there still continue to witness physical and mental disabilities.
13. Phulel Singh Sujlana, the former international hockey umpire and veteran administrator, has recently passed away, according to Mumbai Hockey Association Limited. Sujlana was the chairman of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) Umpires Board from 1985 to 1993 and chairman of its Technical Committee in 1985.
14. J Ravichandran has been appointed as the interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). He will be in charge till the NSE board appoints a new CEO. Ravichandran succeeded Chitra Ramkrishna, who quit the post due to personal reasons.
15. Kolkata has been bagged the C40 Award for best solid waste management improvement project of 2016 during the C40 Mayors Summit held in Mexico City. The Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project has achieved 60-80% segregation of waste at its source. The project aims to eradicate open dumping and burning of waste and to limit the concentration of methane gas generated in landfill sites. Kolkata is the only Indian city to receive the prestigious award. The C40 Cities Awards recognise the best and boldest work being done by mayors to fight climate change and protect people from risks.
16. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is observed every year on December 3 to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities since 1992. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities inevery aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The 2016 theme is "Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want". This theme notes the recent adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the role of these goals in building a more inclusive and equitable world for persons with disabilities. It has been celebrated with varying degrees of success around the planet.
17. Kehkashan Basu, a UAE-based Indian environmental activist, has won the 2016 prestigious International Children's Peace Prize for her fight for climate justice and combating environmental degradation. Kehkashan, based in the UAE was presented the award by Bangladesh's Nobel peace laureate Mohammad Yunus at a ceremony in The Hague, Netherlands. The International Children's Peace Prize is an initiative of Marc Dullaert, Chairman and Founder of the Dutch Kids Rights Foundation, and is awarded annually to a child, anywhere in the world, for his or her dedication to children's rights.
18. The 6th Heart of Asia (HoA) ministerial conference has started at Amritsar in Punjab on December 42016 with focus on tackling terror in region. The conference will discuss peace, cooperation and economic development in Afghanistan. The main conference has been inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation. The delegates from nearly 40 countries will participate in the conference including India, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan and representatives of 17 supporting nations were deliberating on a vast range of issues facing the region.The theme of the conference is "Addressing Challenges, Achieving Prosperity".
19. Rakesh Asthana, the 1984 batch IPS officer of Gujarat-cadre, has been appointed as the interim Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He succeeded Anil Kumar Sinha. It is the first time in last 10 years that no new CBI chief has been named to succeed the current chief. The CBI chief is selected through a collegium comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition or largest party in opposition in Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. The collegium has not been able to meet.
20. Bekal Utsahi, the renowned Urdu poet and former Rajya Sabha MP, has recently passed away in New Delhi. He was native of Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh. Utsahi was best known for his soulful and patriotic 'Geet', a form of poetic rendition popular both in Hindi and Urdu.
21. The Indian Women's cricket team has won the 2016 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup cricket tournament by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by 17 runs in the final at Bangkok, Thailand. With this win, India won their 6th Asia Cup crown.
22. The 7th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) has been held at Science City in Kolkata, West Bengal from December 1, 2016, The mega event is organized by the World Ayurveda Foundation with support of Ministry of AYUSH and the State Government of West Bengal. The focus of WAC is "Strengthening the Ayurveda Ecosystem". The major components of the program are public outreach session comprising of the Ayurveda Expo, the Ayurveda clinics for the general public and public lectures. To facilitate development and growth of AYUSH system of medicine, the Ministry of AYUSH has also organized AROGYA Expo from 1st-4th December, 2016 at Science City, Kolkata to coincide with the 7th WAC.
23. Srinidhi Shetty of India has won the 8th edition of Miss Supranational 2016 at the beauty pageant held at the Municipal Sports and Recreation Center of Krynica-Zdroj in Poland.
24. The first-ever International Gita Mahotsav will be held in Kurukshetra, Haryana on December 6, 2016. President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the Mahotsav and will also lay the foundation stone of Krishna circuit on the occasion. In a 5-day mega event, many spiritual leaders from different religions, scholars and artists from various countries will participate. The Mahotsav will set a world record with the recitation of Ashtadash Shaloki Gita by as many as 18 thousand students at one go. During Mahotsav, youths from 574 districts of the country will reach Kurukshetra, showcasing one Shloka each scripted on their traditional dresses.
25. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the online reader's poll for TIME magazine's Person of the Year 2016 with 18% of the vote. Though, TIME Magazine's Person Of The Year will be announced on December 7 and is selected by TIME Magazine editors.
26. NITI Aayog will provide Rs. 5 lakh for every district in India to encourage digital payment system. For availing the incentive, the district collector, commissioner or magistrates would have ensure that individuals transiting to digital payment mode should do at least two successful transactions by any of the five methods. These five modes are – unified payment interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Aadhaar Enabled Payments, e-wallets and Rupay debit/credit/prepaid cards. The top ten best performing districts of India will be awarded the Digital Payment Champions of India Award by NITI Aayog/Government of India. Similarly, the 50 Panchayats which go cashless will be awarded Digital Payament Award of Honour.
27. The first-of-its-kind app, "Stanpan Suraksha" has been launched by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram to promote breastfeeding. The mobile app has been developed by the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI). The app has a baby food promotion reporting mechanism where any person can click a photograph of inappropriate promotion around them of baby food and related equipment and send it to BPNI. The BPNI will document and analyse the reports and follow up with required action. This feature will empower people to keep check on the baby food industry.
28. The black & white comic book "The Walking Dead: A Continuing Story of Survival Horror" has been authored by Robert Kirkman. It is a compilation of stories that expand on the story that is well known to any zombie movie fan.
29. The annual bilateral maritime exercise "KONKAN 16" has started between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy from Dec 05, 2016 at Mumbai and will continue till December 16, 2016. The exercise will be conducted in two phases at Mumbai and Goa. The first phase, to be held from 05 – 09 Dec 16, would be a Command Planning exercise involving the two navies, where planners from both sides will undertake planning for combined maritime operations. The second phase is a LIVE EXERCISE (LIVEX), to be held from 12-16 Dec 2016 at Goa, which involves interaction between the IN Marine Commandos (MARCOs) and the Royal Marines.
30. The 12th edition of International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition "Petrotech-2016" has started at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on December 5. The 2016 theme is "Hydrocarbons to fuel the future – Choices and Challenges". The purpose of the global event is to bring Energy Ministers, industry leaders, professionals, academicians and domain experts from the energy sector on a common platform. It is a biennial platform for national and international experts in the oil & gas industry to exchange views and share knowledge, expertise and experiences. The 3-day mega event will see participation of six thousand delegates from 68 countries, including technologists, scientists, planners and policy-makers, management experts and service-providers.
31. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the acting President of Uzbekistan, has become the new President of Uzbekistan after winning the first presidential election since the death of authoritarian leader and President Islam Karimov in September 2016. Mirziyoyev worked as prime minister under President Karimov since 2003 until the leader's death in September 2016.
32. The United Nations (UN)' International Volunteer Day (IVD) is observed every year on December 5 to recognise the volunteers worldwide and their efforts in making peace and sustainable development a reality. The 2016 theme is "Global Applause – give volunteers a hand".
33. Indian Golfer Mukesh Kumar has won the 2016 Panasonic Open India golf title at Delhi Golf Club (DGC). With this win, he became the oldest golfer to win an Asian Tour title at the age of 51 years and 126 days.
34. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart, have been jointly named as the "Asian of the Year 2016" by Singapore-based newspaper The Straits Times as part of a group called the "The Disruptors". The "Asian of the Year 2016" award recognises entrepreneurs operating at the frontiers of technology's interface with business who have launched companies that have disrupted traditional business model for the benefit of end consumers.
35. The 5th edition of International Energy Forum (IEF)- International Gas Union (IGU) Ministerial Forum has been inaugurated by Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, in New Delhi. The Ministerial forum is being held as a parallel event to the 3-day Petrotech-2016.
36. The Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX) 2016-17 has been inaugurated by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), New Delhi.The forecast of the fog from the WIFEX model will be made operational for winter 2017-18. The aim of the observational campaign is to achieve the better understanding of the fog life cycle and improve capability in fog prediction.
37. The World Soil Day 2016 is observed every year on December 5 to connect people with soils and raise awareness on their critical importance in our lives. The 2016 theme is "Soils and pulses, a symbiosis for life", which focuses on the positive contributions of pulses to soil properties, such as fixing the atmosphere nitrogen and improving its biodiversity, fertility and structure.
38. Bernard Cazeneuve has been named as the new Prime Minister of France. He succeeded Manuel Valls, who resigned in order to make a bid for the Presidency 2017. Cazeneuve will be in charge of the Socialist government until June's Parliamentary elections. He has played a key role in managing France's security since the terror attacks in Paris in 2015.
39. The 2016 Indra NAVY joint naval exercise will be held between India and Russia from December 14 to 21 in the south-eastern Indian coastal city of Visakhapatnam and in the Bay of Bengal. The joint naval exercise will consist of two stages – coastal and naval. The coastal part will be held on December 14-18 in the city of Visakhapatnam, while the naval will take place in the Bay of Bengal on December 19-21.
40. B.S. Bhullar, a 1986-batch IAS officer of UP cadre, has been appointed chief of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Presently, Bhullar is posted as Additional Secretary in Civil Aviation ministry. The post was lying vacant for the past over 4 months after M Sathiyavathy, the first woman chief of the aviation regulator, was named as new Union Labour Secretary in July 2016. The DGCA is responsible for implementing, controlling, and supervising airworthiness standards, safety operations, crew training in India.
41. The Armed Forces Flag Day is celebrated annually in India on December 7 to honour the sacrifices of brave soldiers, airmen and sailors of India. The day is dedicated towards collection of funds from people for the welfare of the Armed Forces personnel.
42. The 2016 India International Science festival (IISF) has started at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Campus in New Delhi from December 7 and will continue till 11th of this month. The Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences has been organising India International Science Festival in association with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) to promote the science and technology developed by the Indian research labs and to inculcate the scientific temper among masses. The theme of the science festival is "Science for the masses". IISF-2016 is expecting a large number of visitors (more than 5 lakh) from all walks of life to experience the festival of science and to interact with Indian scientific community.
43. The Government of India (GoI) will establish a Center of Excellence in Information Technology at Egypt's oldest and most prestigious Al-Azhar University. This was announced by Indian Ambassador to Cairo, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, after meeting Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb in Cairo. The centre will be set up in the engineering department of the university early next year, as part of an effort to enhance cooperation in education between the two countries.
44. English has been ranked first in the top 10 most powerful languages in the world according to the 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI) published by World Economic Forum (WEF). It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada). The list is followed by Mandarin, French and Spanish. An Indian language "Hindi" has been ranked 10th in the 2016 PLI. The index measures the usefulness of a language to a representative human being and is not meant to apply to any particular person with their own set of conditions, preferences and geography.
45. The Vijayawada Parliamentary constituency has become the India's first parliamentary constituency to have health insurance for all from a new born to senior citizens. The constituency consists of 265 villages in Andhra Pradesh.The "Swastha Kutambham" health insurance scheme launched by Andhra Pradesh Government in association with Tata Trusts covers health for all in the rural areas and was introduced recently in the villages under Vijayawada MP Constituency. The health insurance will cover all the villagers for a year from December 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017.
46. Vijaya Bank has been adjudged "Best Bank for SME Lending" by The Associate Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) at the 4th SMEs Excellence Award function in New Delhi.The Vijaya Bank offers a wide range of personalized and online banking services including savings and current accounts, credit cards, debit cards, loans, mortgages, etc.
47. Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswamy (81), the noted political satirist and founder editor of Thuglak magazine, has recently passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as Cho Ramaswamy and was an advisor to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
48. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the remote sensing satellite "Resource sat-2A" into orbit by the PSLV C-36 launch vehicle at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Andhra Pradesh. The mission life of Resourcesat-2A is 5 years. The satellite carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Giga Bits each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations. These cameras will send clear and specific pictures of areas where exactly the various resources are located at an in depth level. The new satellite Resourcesat-2A is a follow on mission to Resourcesat-1 and 2. The Resourcesat-2A intends to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by the earlier two.
49. The Andhra Pradesh Government has recently launched AP Purse mobile application to promote digital transactions among the people in Vijayawada. The mobile app features 13 mobile banking and 10 mobile wallet options. By using this application, people can pay their bills and carry out their cashless transactions to solve the cash crunch problem in the state following demonitisaton of high value old currency notes.
50. Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar has been appointed as the 44th Chief Justice of India. He will be sworn-in as the CJI on January 4, 2017. The current Chief Justice TS Thakur will hold on to the office till 3rd January, 2017. Justice Khehar will be the first Sikh to hold the post of CJI and would remain in office from January 4, 2017 till August 4, 2017 i.e. till he attains the age of 65.
51. US President-elect Donald Trump has named by Time magazine as its Person of the Year 2016 for his stunning victory in the US Presidential election.
52. The 5th India-Arab Partnership Conference will be held in Muscat, Oman on December 14, 2016 with an objective to enhance the economic relations between India and Arab countries and Oman. The 2-day conference is jointly organised by the Oman Foreign Ministry, Arab League Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs of India. The theme of the conference is 'Partnership towards innovation and cooperation in Information Technology'. The conference will have ministerial representation both from the Indian and Arab side. About 500 Arab and Indian government officials, academicians, businessmen and investors are likely to participate in the conference.
53. The India-UK Conference on Ease of Doing Business has been jointly inaugurated by Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ramesh Abhishek and British High Commissioner Dominic Asquith in New Delhi. The 2-day conference will act as an opportunity to enhance the strategic bilateral partnership between the two countries to the next level. The conference will bring together officials from state and central Government in India with UK experts. It will include discussion on regulatory reform, inspection reform, tax administration and trade facilitation.
54. The "Laureates and Leaders" Summit for Children will be hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi from December 10 to 11, 2016. The purpose of the summit is to advance the fight against Child Labour, child slavery and violence against Children. The summit being organized by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation will deliberate on the way forward in building a strong moral platform for protecting children from violence, and ensuring a world where children are free to be just children. The aim is to channelize in support of the above cause the collective leadership and moral authority of Nobel laureates, world leaders, thinkers, representatives of United Nations Agencies, award winning child/youth leaders and eminent persons from academia, business, cinema, sports and civil society.
55. The Allahabad High Court has termed the Islamic practice of divorcing a woman by uttering the word 'talaq (Talaq-e-bidat)' thrice as unconstitutional. The order was passed by single judge bench of Justice Suneet Kumar while deciding two separate writ petitions that the triple talaq practice, sanctioned under Muslim personal law that governs marriage, property and divorce – violated the rights of Muslim women. The High Court held that this form of instant divorce is cruel and most demeaning which impedes and drags India from becoming a nation.
56. The Indian Army has launched a "Veterans Outreach App" i.e. dedicated to Army Veterans and Veer Naris. The app was launched by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Dalbir Singh Suhag and was prepared under the Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV). The app has specific features like "Ask a question" and "Locator Services" that enable locating Ex-Serviceman Cells, ECHS Polyclinics, Station Canteens and Sainik Aram Garhs all across the country. The app also facilitates route guidance on a google map to any chosen service facility. A link has also been provided to a "Pension Calculator" on the PCDA (P) web site called 'Suvigyai' which enables a veteran to check his/her pension entitlements.
57. Internationally acclaimed sculptor Adwaita Gadanayak is the newly appointed Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA). He succeeded Rajeev Lochan. Prior to this appointment, Gadanayak was the head of the School of Sculpture at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
58. The United Nations' (UN) International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) is observed every year on December 9 to promote and strengthen measures to prevent and combat corruption more efficiently and effectively. The day highlights the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in combating and preventing it. The 2016 theme is "United against corruption for development, peace and security".
59. The first elite men's senior national boxing tournament has started at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Sarusajai, Guwahati. The Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal has inaugurated the tournament.The elite boxing championship would immensely help the upcoming boxers of the state and motivate the young generation to take up boxing as a career. Around 350 players have participated and would be competing in 10 weight categories. The sporting tournament will conclude on December 13,2016.
60. The tropical cyclone 'Vardah' is expected to hit the Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Kakinada with the speed of 10 km/hr. The cyclonic storm over southeast Bay of Bengal has moved north- northwestwards and lies centered over southeast Bay of Bengal. Fishermen have been advised not to venture to the sea along and off Andaman Islands and adjoining sea areas during the next 12 hrs.
61. The Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, popularly known as Motera Stadium, is set to become the world's largest seating capacity cricket stadium. The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) has handed the stadium's renovation project to Larsen and Turbo (L&T). Presently, the stadium can house 54,000 people, but with the new plans, it is projected to seat about 1,10,000 people. This will almost double its seating capacity and will surpass the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which has a capacity of 1,00,024 people.
62. The Human Rights Day (HRD) is observed every year on December 10 to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 as the shared standard benchmark to protect human rights across the world. The 2016 theme is "Stand up for someone's rights today!", which emphasises on peace and harmony with respect for each other's rights.
63. The Union IT Minister Ravishankar Prasad has recently launched "Digidhan Abhiyan" to enable every citizen, small traders and merchants to adopt digital payments in their everyday financial transactions. During the campaign, citizens will be informed about various modes of digital payments by educating them to download, install and transact digital payments. Beside this, the IT Minister has also launched Digishala TV Channel. It is a free-to-air channel which will educate people about digital payment and is available on DTH service. The channel will encourage people for digital payment in their everyday life. The channel will be airing shows targeted at the rural and suburban population to inform them of various aspects of going digital like e-wallet, UPI, USSD, AADHAAR and usage of cards through talk shows and demonstrations. The services will initially be available in Hindi and English and later in local languages as well.
64. Nana Akufo-Addo has won the presidential election of the Republic of Ghana with an absolute majority over President John Mahama by 53.8% votes. He will be sworn in as President of Ghana on January 7, 2017. Earlier, Akufo-Addo served as attorney general and then as foreign minister in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, which held power in 2001.
65. Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is the South Korean Prime Minister, has become the acting President after Parliament voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye on December 9, 2016 over a corruption scandal. Due to the ratification of Park impeachment proposal, Hwang Kyo-ahn has assumed the presidential powers and duties as acting president.
66. India has been ranked 7th in the list of 163 countries most impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2016 released by Sydney-based think-tank "Institute for Economics & Peace". The list is topped by Iraq, followed by Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. The GTI score for a country is based on weightage assigned to the total number of terrorism-related incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage sustained in the year in question. The index also takes into consideration attacks that took place in the 4 previous years.
67. The book "Dipa Karmakar: The Small Wonder" has been authored by sports journalists Vimal Mohan, Digvijay Singh Deo and Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi. The book will have many untold stories of struggle and triumph besides rare archival photos from the Karmakars' private album as well as competition photos from the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. The book is set to release on August 2017.
68. The first edition of Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) will be held on the banks of river Mandovi in Panaji, Goa from December 16-23, 2016 to promote patronage of arts. The 8-day long festival will focus on performing, visual and culinary arts through a hundred events from the fields of music, theatre, dance, photography and food.
69. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has recently constituted committee to fight against the menace of online piracy.The committee will be chaired by Ajit Mohan of Hotstar and co-chaired by Uday Sodhi of SET India and Salil Kapoor of HOOQ. The mandate of the committee is to safeguard the interest of the digital entertainment businesses. The purpose of the committee is to create a self regulatory code of conduct, create drafts for standards and good business practices, create public awareness measures to minimise online piracy and help with regulatory and legal interventions as and when required.
70. The Committee on Digital Payments headed by Ratan P. Watal has submitted its final report to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his office in New Delhi.The committee has recommended a medium term strategy for accelerating growth of Digital Payments in India with a regulatory regime which is conducive to bridging the digital divide by promoting competition, open access & interoperability in payments. The Watal committee has also recommended inclusion of financially and socially excluded groups and assimilation of emerging technologies in the market, while safeguarding security of digital transactions and providing level playing to all stakeholders and new players who will enter this new transaction space.
71. President Pranab Mukherjee has launched a "100 Million for 100 Million" campaign organized by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The campaign is a global initiative that seeks to support 100 million youth to be the voice of the 100 million children and youth across the world who have been denied basic rights and freedom. The campaign is with the objective to mobilise 100 million youth and children for the upliftment of 100 million underprivileged children across the world.
72. The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has recently launched Narmada Seva Yatra at Amarkantak. The purpose of the 5-months long Yatra is to turn the Narmada river pollution free and unceasing river. The Narmada Sewa Yatra will create awareness about the conservation of the river. It will cover more than 1900 km in 16 districts. All the villages along the river will have Narmada Sewa Samiti to take follow up action on measures to be undertaken for its preservation. The trees will be planted along the banks of the Narmada and sewage water will be treated before it flows into the river.
73. Sunil Gavaskar has been bestowed with the Golden Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sports Journalists' Association of Mumbai (SJAM) at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Gavaskar was presented with a citation and a certificate which has details of all his 34 centuries.
74. Dr. Akshay kumar M Kale, who is well-known writer and scholar, has been elected as the President of the 90th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, which is scheduled to be held from February 3 to 5, 2017. The 3-day annual conference is expected to be attended by Marathi litterateurs from Maharashtra and other parts of the country. In the field of criticism of modern Marathi poetry, Kale's contributions have attracted the attention of scholars of Marathi language and literature throughout the state. The first Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was held in Pune in 1878 under the chairmanship of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade.
75. Paolo Gentiloni has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Italy by President Sergio Mattarella, after Matteo Renzi's resignation due to the results of the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, in which voters rejected constitutional reform. Previously, Gentiloni was Minister of Communications from 2006 to 2008, during the second government of Romano Prodi.
76. Iqbal Sayed from Mumbai, who works as a civil engineer with Reliance Infrastructure and Mumbai Metro, has become the first Indian to win a medal at the Mr. Olympia Amateur Asia 2016's classic bodybuilding category in Hong Kong. He won silver medal in the event after beating participants from 20 countries in the classic bodybuilding category.
77. The Madhya Pradesh government has become the first Indian state to launch the biggest and first-ever crop insurance claim distribution programme worth Rs 4,416 crore in Ujjain. With this, Madhya Pradesh has become the first Indian state where the claims under Prime Ministers Crop Insurance schemes are being disbursed. Under the Crop Insurance Scheme, the farmers who lost Kharif Crop in the year 2015 due to natural calamities will be benefited. The insurance claim amount will be provided to the farmers in their bank accounts through online procedure.
78. The first India-China think-tank forum has been held in New Delhi on December 9-10, 2016. The forum was jointly organized by the Institute of Chinese Studies, the Indian Council of World Affairs, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The theme of the forum was "Towards a Closer India-China Developmental Partnership" in which in-depth discussion on various issues such as country relations between India and China, strengthening India-China strategic communication, promoting economic ties, deepening people-to-people cooperation, and regional economic and security architecture took place. The 2nd India-China think-tanks forum will be held in Beijing in 2017.
79. The International Mountain Day (IMD) is observed every year on December 11 to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build alliances that will bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world. The 2016 theme is "Mountain cultures: Celebrating diversity and strengthening identity".
80. The Government of India (GoI) has tied up with Intel to form a public-private partnership to conduct research on water and air pollution monitoring. The Department of Science and Technology (DST)- Intel collaborative research for real-time river Water and Air Quality Monitoring (WAQM) initiative would consider proposals from academic and research institutions in the area of such online monitoring systems and provide grant-in-aid support to the selected projects. The aim of the initiative is to develop key technologies for sensing, communication and analysis of large-scale data collected from autonomous networks of perpetual/long-lived sensor nodes, followed by integration and deployment for water and air quality monitoring in real-time.
81. Antonio Guterres, the former Prime Minister of Portugal, has been sworn-in as the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations. Guterres, who led the UN refugee agency for 10 years, will succeed Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2017.
82. Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani has won his 11th World Billiards (150-Up format) Championships title in the summit clash in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Advani defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore. He beats multiple world champion Gilchrist by six games to three in a gripping final contest, to wrap up his 16th world title overall.
83. The Punjab Government has launched India's first amphibious bus project "Harike Cruise" at the Harike wetland near Amritsar. The amphibious bus project has cost the state government over Rs 11 crore. The bus will travel on land and in water. The bus will be run by the Punjab Tourism department has a seating capacity of 34 people and is equipped with life-jackets for everyone. The current route of the bus includes a 13-km ride from Amritsar to the Harike wetlands, which the bus is expected to traverse over 45 minutes. It will then traverse 4km on water.
84. Bill English, the leader of the National Party, has been sworn-in as the 39th Prime Minister of New Zealand at Government House in Wellington. He succeeded John Key, who had resigned due to personal reasons. Prior to this appointment, English was the Deputy Prime Minister from 2008 to 2016.
85. The Uttar Pradesh government has tied up with Tata Trusts to leverage digital platforms to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in the state. As part of the initiative, Tata Trusts have installed electronic Point of Sale devices (ePOS) to ensure operation of an Aadhaar-enabled Public Distribution System (AePDS) at fair price shops of the entire urban region of Lucknow.
86. China has successfully launched "Feng-Yun-4" a new generation weather satellite into geostationary orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The launch marked the 242nd mission of China's Long March series of rockets. The FY-4 series is an improved generation of geosynchronous meteorological satellites. The satellite will make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atmosphere, clouds and space environment of China and surrounding regions, significantly improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts.
87. The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel "Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT)" has officially begin its regular rail service on December 11, 2016 in Switzerland. The 57 km twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel (GBT) will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe. The tunnel has overtaken Japan's 53.9 km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.
88. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team, has won the prestigious 2016 Ballon d'Or award at an awards ceremony in Paris, France. With this, he won the 4th Ballon d'Or title in his career.
89. The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC) will launch "Vanjeevan" the National Resource Centre for Tribal Livelihood issues at Bhubaneswar, Odisha on December 22, 2016. Vanjeevan will be a programme to identify the problems in livelihood issues in select districts of six states having low HDI of tribal people in the first phase. The states are Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Telangana. The programme will focus on the identification of local resources, keeping in view the existing skill level.
90. The book "The Other One Percent: Indians in America" has been authored by Sanjoy Chakravorty and Devesh Kapur. The book is the first comprehensive and data-driven account of the selection, assimilation and entrepreneurship of Indians in America. The author explain the contours of the study, the political and social attitudes of Indian Americans and what their future could be in their host country.
91. The Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has been appointed as the UNICEF's newest Global Goodwill Ambassador at the UNICEF's 70th anniversary event in New York. As the Global Goodwill Ambassador, she has the responsibility to urge people from across nations to become the collective voice of oppressed children in the world and join forces to leave a better future for the coming generations.
92. India's largest indoor sports arena will come up in New Town area of Kolkata, West Bengal with a capacity to accommodate upto 15,400 people at one time. The proposed stadium will have solar power and will come up on 10 acres of land near the Deer Park in Eco Park. The facility will have lawn tennis, khokho khokho, kabaddi, badminton, basket ball and table tennis courts.
93. India has been ranked as the 4th most vacation deprived country in the world, as per recently released Expedia Vacation Deprivation report 2016. The survey was conducted online between September 12-29, 2016, across 28 countries by Expedia – an online travel company. The report revealed that 40% Indians don't use all vacation days as work schedule does not allow for vacation or don't have enough staff to cover and 32% are not able to take vacation days due to personal schedule. The list is topped by Spain and UAE, followed by Malaysia and South-Korea.
94. The 6th edition of Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) has inaugurated by Union Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on December 14, 2016. The 3-day conference seeks to address issues ranging from crowded city centres to peripheral expansion, metropolitan based urban population growth, megacities and urban corridors, among others. During the conference, ministers and senior officials from 68 countries in the region are expected to deliberate on challenges of urban planning and management. In it, the five working groups will deliberate on different sub-themes like Integrated Planning, Management and Governance Structures and on ensuring sustainable and natural disaster resilient urban development including climate change.
95. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has cut India's economic growth forecast to 7.0% from 7.4% for the financial year 2016-17 in the updated report of Asian Development Outlook 2016 due to weak investments, a slowdown in the country's agriculture sector and the lack of available cash due to the government's decision to ban high-denomination bank notes. Prior to this, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut India's growth forecast to 7.1% from 7.6% for FY 17 after the government's decision to ban high denomination bank notes. Beside this, Global rating agency Fitch has downgraded India's growth forecast to 6.9% from 7.4 % and rating agency Morgan Stanley has also cut the estimates to 7.3% from 7.6% for FY 17.
96. India is at 4th position in the list of top 10 defence spenders in the world, according to the recently published annual Jane's Defense Budgets Report by research firm IHS Markit. As per the report, India's defence budget was $50.7 billion in 2016, up from $46.6 billion in 2015. The worldwide outlook shows that global defense spending rose by 1% to $1.6 trillion in 2016, against 0.6% in 2015. The report has also estimated that India will surpass the UK in defence spending by 2018.
97. The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has become the 2nd airport in the Asia-Pacific region among all categories to achieve carbon neutral status. The airport has also declared the first in the Asia-Pacific region in the 5-15 million passengers per annum category to attain carbon neutral status. The Airports Council International (ACI) has certified Hyderabad International Airport with "Level 3+, Neutrality" under its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. It is the industry standard for assessment of airports' efforts to manage and reduce carbon emissions and a significant achievement. The carbon neutrality status is granted if the net carbon emission over an entire year is zero. This means the airport absorbs or offsets the same amount of emission that is generated.Prior to this, the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi has become the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve carbon neutral status.
98. The book "Many Everests: An Inspiring Journey of Transforming Dream into Reality" has been authored by Ravindra Kumar, who is an ex-seafarer, IAS officer & mountaineer. The book gives you a new approach to life, a new way to make and live a happy, successful and peaceful life. It has been written with the aim to spread the key to success amongst the common people and to ignite the minds of thousands of hopeless people especially youth and students.
99. PV Sindhu, an Indian female badminton player and Rio Olympics silver medallist, has been named as the 'Most improved player of the year 2016′ by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) at the Players' Reception and Gala Dinner in Dubai.
100. The Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been named as the Global Thinker 2016 for novel brand of Twitter diplomacy, compiled by the international Foreign Policy magazine. Swaraj was named in the 'Decision-makers' category of 14 other notable thinkers including Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau.
101. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked first among the 2016 World's Most Powerful People annual list of Forbes for a fourth straight year. In the list of 74 international personalities, US President-elect Donald Trump has stood at second position, followed by Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping and Pope Francis. Apart from this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked 9th among the top 10 most powerful people in the world by Forbes. Forbees stated that Modi has emerged as a key figure in the international effort to tackle climate change. It also took note of Prime Minister Modi's demonetisation decision.
102. The Economic Times Asian Business Leaders' Conclave 2016 has been held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 14-15, 2016. The purpose of the annual event was to deliberate the course businesses need to take to make Asia the most thriving region for trade in the world. Over 400 C-level executives from all across Asia and around the globe gathered to discuss trending leadership topics such as diversity and inclusion, disruptive technologies and innovation, talent management, corporate governance, etc.
103. The Haryana government has recently launched the Mahila Police Volunteer (MPV) initiative in Karnal and Mahendragarh districts of Haryana to bridge the gap between Police and Civil society. With this, Haryana has become the first Indian state to adopt this scheme. Mahila Police Volunteer is a joint initiative with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The MPV initiative will create a link between the police authorities and the local communities in villages through police volunteers who will be women specially trained for this purpose.
104. The 7th edition of India-Maldives joint military exercise "EKUVERIN 2016" has started at Kadhdhoo, Laamu Atoll, Maldives. The purpose of the 14 day joint exercise is to acquaint both forces with each other's operating procedures in the backdrop of amphibious and counter insurgency/ Counter terrorism environment and also to increase the existing military relationship between the Indian Army and the Maldivian National Defence Force.
105. V G Kannan, a former MD of State Bank of India (SBI), has took charge as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA). He succeeded M V Tanksale, who demitted office as Chief Executive on August 9, 2016 after being at the helm for three years. IBA is a self-regulatory organization of banks. The purpose of IBA is to promote and develop in India sound and progressive banking principles, practices and conventions and to contribute to the development of creative banking.
106. The 2016 International Civil Aviation Negotiations (ICAN) was recently held in Nassau, Bahamas from 5th to 9th December, 2016. During ICAN 2016, India signed Open Skies agreement with 6 countries viz. Jamaica, Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Sri Lanka.With this agreement, India will allow unlimited number of flights to 6 metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. The new arrangement will encourage connectivity and passenger travel between India and these countries.
107. India's first transgender school will be inaugurated by transgender rights activist and artist Kalki Subramaniam at Sahaj International School in Kochi, Kerala on December 30, 2016. The school will be led by six transgenders working with the TransIndia Foundation and will initially accommodate 10 transgender children, who will study under the National Open School system. The purpose of Transgender School is to provide transgenders security, salvation and sustainability. The school will provide education and examination equivalent to Class X and XII. The students have been selected from different sections of the transgender community itself, which includes a disabled person and a migrant.
108. Indian batswoman Smriti Mandhana has been named in the ICC Women's Team of the Year 2016, which will be captained by Stafanie Taylor, a West Indies player . This is the first time that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has named a women's team of the year. Beside this, Suzie Bates of New Zealand has become the first cricketer to clinch both the ICC Women's ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards.
109. Sunil Arora, an IAS officer of 1980-batch Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, a think tank that comes under the Corporate Affairs Ministry. He will serve for a period of 5 years or till attaining 65 years of age or until further orders, whichever is the earliest. Arora is the former Information and Broadcasting Secretary and was also serving as an advisor at Prasar Bharati. IICA focuses on matters impacting functioning of corporates and work towards capacity building with various stakeholders including regulators and professionals, among other activities.
110. The Government of India (GoI) will contribute $500,000 to United Nations' Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for the year 2016-17. The CERF is a humanitarian fund to promote early and coordinated action and response to save lives, to increase response to time-crucial requirements based on demonstrable needs and to strength the core elements of humanitarian response in under-funded crises.
111. The Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) has conferred the 2016 Global Agriculture Leadership Award to Tata Sons interim Chairman Ratan Tata in Mumbai, Maharashtra for his transformational role in scaling Tata Group as the globally admired group during his stint of two decades as Chairman. The ICFA is an apex body of India that act as think tank, policy research, trade facilitation, development catalyst and monitor centre for food and agriculture sector and serve as global platform for partnerships.
112. Amina Mohammed, the environment minister of Nigeria, has been named as the new UN's Deputy Secretary-General. She has been appointed on this post by Antonio Guterres, who is newly elected Secretary General of the United Nations and will succeed Ban Ki-moon in 2017.
113. The Haryana government has launched "Haryana Immunization Incentives and Information Programme" to increase immunization rates of children between the age group of 0-12 months. The programme would be implemented in 7 districts viz. Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Mewat, Palwal, Panipat, Rewari and Sonipat covering 140 Primary Health Centres (PHCs). The purpose of the programme is to significantly improve immunization coverage in lower performing districts, especially for girls, who in all 7 districts have lower immunization rates than boys.
114. The Rajasthan government has recently launched a subsidized meal scheme "Annapurna Rasoi" at the Jaipur Municipal Corporation campus for underprivileged people under which food will be provided at nominal rates. Initially, the scheme is introduced for 12 cities and in future will cover the state. As per the scheme, the poor and the needy will get breakfast for Rs 5 and lunch or dinner for Rs 8. The breakfast will include Poha, Upma, Sevaiyan, Idli Sambhar, Jwar Khichda, Bazra Khichada etc. while one can have Dal-chawal, Churma, Dal-dhokli and other items for lunch or dinner.
115. The world famous river island and seat of Vaishnavite culture "Majuli district" will soon become the India's first-ever carbon neutral district by 2020. To achieve this goal, the Assam government has launched a project "Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development in Majuli" ( SACReD Majuli) to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
116. The 9th World Confluence of Humanity, Power and Spirituality has started in New Delhi on December 16, 2016 to spread the message of inter-faith peace and harmony, to ignite the human spirit and to harness the potential of human beings towards selfless service. The annual convention is organized by ASSOCHAM, Srei Foundation and the Times Group. The theme of the convention is "Sach Bharat: Spirituality at Work".
117. The Swasthya Raksha Programme has been launched by the Ministry of AYUSH to promote health and health education in villages. The purpose of the programme is to organize Swasthya Rakshan OPDs, Swasthya Parikshan Camps and Health/Hygiene awareness programme and to create awareness about cleanliness of domestic surroundings and environment. The programme will also provide medical aid/incidental support in the adopted Colonies/villages.
118. The 6th BRICS Health Ministers' Meet has been held in New Delhi to strengthen intra-BRICS cooperation to promote health and acknowledge the renewed commitment to health by the BRICS leaders as expressed in the Goa Declaration of October 2016. The 7thBRICS Health Ministers meeting and Meeting of Senior Health Officials will be held in China in 2017.
119. The Thal Favang Kut festival has started at Aizawl in In Mizoram with enthusiasm and fervour. The 3-day long festival is being organised by Department of Tourism, Government of Mizoram. Thal Favang Kut is a post harvest festival which is celebrated after harvesting the paddy. It is celebrated every year in Mizoram to thank the Almighty as well as to promote tourism in the state.
120. V K Sharma has become the new chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for 5 years. Sharma, who is the managing director of LIC, was acting as chairman since September 2016 when the then chairman S K Roy resigned from the post due to personal reasons.
121. Rajiv Jain, an IPS officer of 1980 batch of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed as the new Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) for a period of two years. Currently, he is working as Special Director in the IB. He will take over the post from Dineshwar Sharma on January 2017, who completes his two-year tenure on December 31, 2016. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is the internal intelligence agency of India and reports to Ministry of Home Affairs.
122. Anil Kumar Dhasmana, an IPS officer of 1981-batch Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a period of two years. Dhasmana's domain of expertise is considered to be Balochistan, counter-terrorism and Islamic affairs. He will succeed Rajinder Khanna, who completes his two-year tenure on January 31, 2017. RAW is the external intelligence agency of India and the head of RAW is designated "Secretary (Research)" in the Cabinet Secretariat and is under the direct command of the Prime Minister and reports on an administrative basis to the Cabinet Secretary of India, who reports to the Prime Minister.
123. The Vice Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt General Bipin Rawat will be the new Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army. Lt. Gen Rawat is known for his balanced approach towards soldiering, compassion, and connect with civil society. He will succeed General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who will retire on December 31, 2016. The primary mission of the Indian Army is to ensure national security and unity, defending the nation from external aggression and threats, and maintaining peace and security within its borders. The President of India serves as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army.
124. The Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS), Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa will be the new chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF). He will assume the post of Air Chief on January 1, 2017 after Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha retires. The primary responsibility of IAF is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict. The President of India serves as Supreme Commander of the IAF.
125. The Himachal Pradesh has recently achieved 100% Aadhar saturation on the basis of population of year 2015. With this, Himachal Pradesh has become the 6th State/UT in India to achieve this mile stone. The other states which achieved 100% Aadhaar coverage are Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. Apart from this, Himachal Pradesh has recently opened its first Cyber Crime Police Station at state police headquarter in Shimla. The main purpose of this police station is to deal with increasing crime based on misuse of information technology by the High tech criminals. The cyber offences like hacking of government web sites and its data, prevention and detection of cyber terrorism & financing all types of cyber fraud cases would be investigate by this police station. The police station officials will also create general awareness among the masses to prevent them from falling victim to high-tech and cyber criminals. To tackle cyber-crimes in this hill state this kind of police station was the need of hour which has been now fulfilled.
126. The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently launched its mobile wallet application 'State Bank MobiCash' in partnership with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). MobiCash will allow users to deposit cash through BSNL retail outlets and withdraw funds from their account. Initially, the new wallet services will be available in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar and will expanded pan-India by the end of December 2016.
127. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently laid the foundation stone of the first-ever "Indian Institute of Skills" at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The Institute has been conceptualized by Prime Minister Modi during his visit to Singapore's Institute of technical education. The first-ever of its kind institute will be open by the Skill Development Ministry in partnership with the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore. Beside this, Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Kaushal Pradarshini (Skill Exhibition) for the youth. The Exhibition will showcase state-of-the-art vocational training practices of various sectors. He will also launch a number of skill development initiatives including Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and Drivers' Training Institutes.
128. Stephanie Del Valle, a Puerto Rican musician and model, has won the 66th edition of the Miss World pageant "Miss World 2016" in Washington, United States on December 18, 2016. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and its capital is San Juan.
129. Indian Junior Men's hockey team has won the 2016 Men's Junior Hockey World Cup tournament by defeating Belgium in the final match by 2-1 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. From India, Gurjant Singh and Simranjeet Singh scored the goals against Belgium in the game. This is India's 2nd world cup title. Earlier, India won the Junior World Cup trophy in 2001 in Hobart, Australia.
130. The United Nations (UN) International Migrants Day (IMD) is observed every year on December 18 to protect the rights of migrant workers and members of their families.This year, 2016, marks the 26th anniversary of the UN's International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
131. The Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal has recently launched Grameen Vidyutikaran mobile application 'GARV-II' App in New Delhi to track rural household electrification and citizen engagement window 'SAMVAD'. GARV-II is an upgraded version of its earlier version, which hosts village-wise, habitation wise baseline data on household electrification on all states.
132. India's first cashless bazaar has come up in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Now, over 900 shops of this 'Smart' bazaar are providing customers the facilities of cashless payments using POS, UPI and other digital systems. Currently, Chhattisgarh is leading in the nation in training its people in digital transactions. According to data on a central government website, Chhattisgarh has trained over 5 lakh people in cashless payments in first 10 days of training.
133. Karun Kaladharan Nair, an Indian cricketer from Karnataka, has recently hit the triple century in the fifth and final Cricket Test against England at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. With this, Nair became only the 2nd Indian batsman to hit a triple-hundred in international cricket history after Virender Sehwag and the 3rd player after Bob Simpson and Sir Garfield Sobers to convert their maiden Test centuries into triple centuries.
134. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare won gold in the Web Ratna category at the 2016 Digital India awards. The 2016 Digital India awards have been conferred by the Ministry of Electronics & IT to promote more innovative e-governance initiatives by the government entities. Web Ratna award felicitates a Ministry or Department of the Government of India (GoI) which has a comprehensive web presence and display the level of accountability in terms of quantity, quality, spectrum of coverage and innovation ascertaining user satisfaction. Level of convenience provided to the citizen for availing the services, usability and accessibility are also assessed.
135. Anupam Mishra (68), who recently passed away in New Delhi, was the noted environmentalist, Gandhian ideologue, a journalist, an author and an authoritative voice in the field of water conservation in India. He was well known for his written books such as "Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Taalab" and "Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein", the landmark works in the field of water conservation.
136. The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot has released the first issue of a National Newspaper 'Saanjhi Saanjh' for senior citizen in New Delhi. This newspaper for senior citizen is edited by J.V Manisha Bajaj, Secretary of Harikrit, an NGO for elderly people. The bilingual newspaper has 8 pages which will be published from Delhi by Harikrit publishers. The newspaper will carry important and useful news pertaining to elderly persons besides inspirational stories. It will serve as a bridge between old and new generations.
137. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recently lowered the interest rate on Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) deposits to 8.65% for the current fiscal FY 17 (2016-17) from 8.8% in 2015-16. The decision was taken by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)'s central board of trustees i.e. chaired by Bandaru Dattatreya, the Union Minister of Labour and Employment. As per EPFO, interest income from PF investments for 2016-17 has been estimated mainly on the basis of interest income received or receivable in this financial year, including surplus from previous year of Rs. 410 crore.
138. The Union Government has recently formed an inter-ministerial task force on Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which will be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra. Mishra will look into all the strategic aspects of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan. The other members of the team include NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Secretaries in ministries of Finance, Environment, Power and Water Resource.
139. The Assam government has appointed Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra as the state's tourism brand ambassador for two years to promote the new brand entity "Awesome Assam". The actress will not charge a fee for the brand ambassador assignment. She will charge professional charges for the work she will do in photoshoots and television commercials.
140. Dr. Saumitra Chaudhuri (62), an eminent economist and a former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission, has recently passed away in New Delhi. He was one of the longest serving members of the Planning Commission of India. Before being part of Planning Commission, Dr. Chaudhuri worked as Economic Advisor and Research Co-ordinator with ICRA Limited, a full service credit rating agency, for 16 years (1993-2009) and was executive editor of the research publication — Money and Finance. Dr.Chaudhuri had over 25 monographs and papers spanning issues of industry, the financial sector, regional development and fiscal policy.
141. Andy Murray, a Scottish professional tennis player, has won the BBC sports personality of the Year 2016 at the Genting Arena in Birmingham, England. With this, he became the first person to win award 3 times.
142. The India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival (INCF-2016) has started in Kathmandu, Nepal on December 19, 2016 to promote cultural exchanges between the two neighbours. The festival is an initiative of South Asia Foundation (SAF) and aims to promote crafts based bilateral relations and enhance cultural exchanges between the artisans of India and Nepal. The 5-day festival will highlight more than 70 theme based pavilion with focus on folk crafts of India and Nepal, cultural events, live demonstration by crafts-persons, design workshops to be conducted by qualified designers, trade facilitation and exclusive buyer-seller meet among others. The SAF, set up in 1991, has been working to enhance the livelihood of the artisans of the region and contributing towards strengthening the crafts sector of both the countries.
143. The United Nations' (UN) International Human Solidarity Day is observed every year on December 20 to celebrate unity in diversity. The day reminds people on the importance of solidarity in working towards eradicating poverty. Its purpose is to eradicate poverty and promote human and social development in developing countries, in particular among the poorest segments of their populations.
144. Atletico de Kolkata has won the 2016 Hero Indian Super League (ISL) by defeating the Kerala Blasters in a penalty shootout by 4–3 in the final at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, Kerala.
145. The Maharashtra forest department will launch a state-wide call centre facility from January 6, 2017 for registering complaints or getting information about issues related to forests and wildlife. The facility would enable citizens to complain about illegal wildlife trade, poaching, forest fires and encroachments on reserved land, among others. With this facility, Maharashtra will become the first Indian state to have 24×7 helpline for forests.
146. M C Mary Kom , an Olympic bronze-medallist and a five-time world champion, has been honoured with the 'Legends Award' by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for her trailblazing boxing career in Montreux, Switzerland. Beside her, Vikas Krishan has also won the AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) Best Boxer trophy at the AIBA's 70th anniversary event.
147. India will host the 5th edition of the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCSS) in 2017 in which over 100 countries are expected to participate. GCCS will deliberate on issues related to promotion of cooperation in cyberspace, norms for responsible behaviours in cyberspace and to enhance cyber capacity building. The purpose of the GCSS conference is to promote practical cooperation in cyberspace, to enhance cyber capacity building and to discuss norms for responsible behaviour in cyberspace.
148. The Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) has recently signed MoU with UK-based Motivation Charitable trust to manufacture affordable state-of-art wheel chairs according to WHO guidelines in India. The ALIMCO is a non-profit making organisation, working under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to manufacture artificial limb components and rehabilitation aids for the benefit of the physically handicapped. The headquarters of Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) is located at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
149. Tamil writer Vannadasan has been selected for 2016 Sahitya Akademi award for his book "Oru Siru Isai", a collection of short stories. He has been active in the modern Tamil literary field for more than 30 years and contributing immensely to the literature, particularly in the field of short story and poetry.
150. The book "Asura: Tale of the Vanquished: The Story of Ravana and His People" has been authored by Anand Neelakantan. The author depicts the Ramayana focusing on the Ravana and Bhadra's characters and their view points. This tale has attempted to escape from the dullness of recounting stories from the point of view of a victor.This narrative is a blend of history, religion and mythology. The book has aimed to demystify the blunders done by the Deva clan, which is represented as conventional and prejudiced. Also, it throws light on the liberation enjoyed by the Asuras.
151. Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has bagged the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, after he has been named the 'ICC Cricketer of the Year' at ICC Awards 2016 in Dubai. Additionally, he also won the ICC?Test cricketer of the Year 2016 award. With this, he became the 2nd Indian player after Rahul Dravid to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year. In 2016, Ashwin picked up 72 wickets in 12 test matches at an outstanding average of 23.90 and scored 612 runs at an average of 43.17. He is the only Indian in ICC's Test Team of the Year. Apart from this, Virat Kohli has been named captain of the ICC?ODI?Team of the Year, while Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma also featured in the ODI?Team of the Year.
152. The National Mathematics Day (NMD) is celebrated every year on December 22 to commemorate the birth anniversary of great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan and to recognize his contribution to mathematics.
153. K N Jagannatha Varma (77), the famous Malayalam actor, has recently passed away in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. He is known for his hit films like New Delhi, Pathram and Lelam.
154. Has been ranked 4th in 2016 Global Wind Power Installed Capacity Index with cumulative installed wind power generation capacity of India is 25,088 MW. The index was released as part of Global Wind Report: Annual Market, the flagship publication of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The list is topped by China, followed by United States and Germany with cumulative installed wind power generation capacity of the USA is 1,45,362 MW, 74,471 MW and that of Germany is 44,947 MW.
155. The world's first chat operating system "Flock OS" has been launched by Flock, a free instant messaging service for work and business environments. The FlockOS is an ultra-powerful platform which enables developers to build apps, bots and integrations on top of Flock. Developers have also the provision to use customized apps within their organizations or can also publish them on the Flock App Store so that it will be available for all Flock users.
156. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recently successfully launched solid fuel rocket "Epsilon-2" from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. Through Epsilon-2, the Arase satellite has successfully launched into orbit to study the Van Allen belts around the earth. The former name of Arase satellite was Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG).
157. Arjun Bhati from India has won the Kids Golf World Championship 2016 by defeating South Africa's Methu Denish during the three-level final match in Malaysia. The Kids Golf World Championship is a special opportunity for boys and girls between ages 5 to 18 years to play in a world competition organized by US Kids Golf Foundation. The competition is the international version of US Kids Golf tournament and provides good opportunity for young people to compete and earn world amateur ranking points.
158. Girija Vaidyanathan, an additional chief secretary and commissioner of land administration, has been appointed the new Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. She succeeded P.Rama Mohana Rao, whose properties were raided by the Income Tax authorities.
159. The 2016 SASTRA-Ramanujan award for mathematics has been jointly awarded to Dr. Kaisa Matomaki of the University of Turku, Finland and Dr.Maksym Radziwill of McGill University, Canada at the International Conference on Number Theory at SASTRA University at Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu for their recent revolutionary collaborative work on multiplicative functions in short intervals. The award citation and the shared prize money of $5,000 were presented by Prof. Steven Weintraub from Lehigh University who is also the Associate Secretary of the American Mathematical Society.
160. Hindi author Nasira Sharma has recently won the 2016 Sahitya Academi Award 2016 for his novel "Parijat". He is among the 24 authors named for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2016. The awards comprising a casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a Cheque of Rs. 1 lakh will be presented to the authors on February 22, 2016.
161. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been ranked first on the 2016 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List with an estimated income of Rs 270.33 crore. The Forbes' ranking is based on two parameters: estimates of entertainment-related earnings and estimates of fame during the period October 2015 to September 2016. Beside him, Shah Rukh Khan has been ranked second, followed by Virat Kohli, actor Akshay Kumar and MS Dhoni.
162. The National Consumer Day (NCD) is observed every year in India on December 24 to promote the basic rights of all consumers. On this day, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had received the assent of the President. This year, in 2016, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs will celebrate the NCD with the theme "Alternate Consumer Disputes Redressal" at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
163. The first 2G (Second Generation) ethanol bio-refinery will be set up at village Tarkhanwala in Bathinda, Punjab with an approximate investment of Rs 600 crores. The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), a Central Government Public Sector Undertaking, will set up the project. The foundation stone laying ceremony for the project will held on December 25, 2016. The purpose of the bio-refinery is to encourage production of Second Generation (2G) Ethanol from agricultural residues to provide additional sources of remuneration to farmers, address the growing environmental concerns and support the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme for achieving 10% Ethanol Blending in Petrol.
164. Indian Women's Under-18 team has clinched the bronze medal in the 2016 Women's Under-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament at the National Hockey Training Centre in Bangkok, Thailand by defeating Republic of Korea by 3-0. For their creditable bronze-winning performance, Hockey India announced cash rewards of Rs. 1 lakh for each player and Rs. 50,000 for each of the support staff. Beside this, China has clinched gold where as Japan won silver medal in the 2016 Women's Under-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament.
165. The Argentina national football team has won the 2016 FIFA Team of the year title.
166. Shiva Keshavan from India has recently won gold at the 2016 Asian Luge Championship in Nagano, Japan. He dominated the event and finished the 2 heat race with a time of with a time of 1 minute, 39.962 seconds and top speed of 130.4 km/h to clinch the title. Shiva will take part in the 2017 World Championship in Innsbruck, Austria and will compete in the World Cup circuit in the lead up to the qualification process for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea.
167. The first-ever joint military exercise "Pratikar-I" will be held between Nepal and China on February 10, 2017. The focus of the military exercise will be on training Nepali forces in dealing with hostage scenarios involving international terror groups.
168. The Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan has recently launched a one of its kind Braille-Tactile children's book series "Tactabet" in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The alphabets books available in both Hindi and English are created to enable integrated and fun learning for visually impaired and kids with low vision. The child is not only able to learn his alphabets but instantly feel the shape of the word associated with each one of them. Tactabet is the brainchild of the team behind White Print, India's first English lifestyle magazine in Braille.
169. The Union minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting (I&B), M. Venkaiah Naidu has recently launched 'Google toilet locator' mobile app in partnership with Google. The app will integrate data on all public toilets–even those in private buildings–with Google maps. The app will have additional features such as cleanliness ratings, whether the toilet is of western or Indian style, or if it is free or paid. The app will have listings covering Delhi NCR, including Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad and Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Toilets can be located not just through the app, but on the desktop as well. The service will be accessible to users both in English and Hindi language.
170. Praful Patel,an Indian politician and businessman, has been re-elected as the president of All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the term 2017-2020. The AIFF is the organisation which manages the game of association football in India. The headquarters of AIFF is located at New Delhi.
171. In 1759, the Nicobar Islands were made a Danish colony, first named New Denmark and later as Frederick's Islands.
172. On 23 December 2016, the president has given his assent to declaration of Irular community (including Villi and Vettaikaran) in the Scheduled Tribes list. With this decision, Puducherry has got its first Scheduled Tribes.
173. The 'Performance on Health Outcomes' index has been launched by NITI Aayog to capture the annual incremental improvements by States, rather than focus on historical achievements.
174. Biotech Labs in Senior Secondary Schools (BliSS) is a scheme to encourage students to consider careers in biotechnology. This scheme envisages to establish labs in North-Eastern States viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Sikkim and Manipur.
175. Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan (VISAKA) was launched by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development (HRD) to make people aware about cashless economic system.
176. CPEC is an important part of China's Belt and Road initiative and links the Pakistani port of Gwadar with Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province.
177. An IRF contract is an agreement to buy or sell a debt instrument at a specified future date at a pre-determined price. The cash-settled IRFs provide market participants an option to hedge risks arising from fluctuations in interest rates, which depend on various factors, including RBI policy, demand for liquidity and flow of overseas funds.
178. India dished out a clinical performance to beat hosts Sri Lanka by 34 runs and lift the Asian Cricket Council Under-19 Asia Cup title on December 23, 2016.
179. France became the first country in the world to use drones for national mail service. French postal service announced a drone delivery program to deliver parcels on a 14-kilometre route once a week to reach mountainous regions. These mail drones will have a range of 19 km and a top speed of 30.5 kmph. They also have parachutes for safe emergency landing.
180. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an intergovernmental organization of twelve oil-producing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
181. Shankha Ghosh, the well-known Bengali poet, critic and academician, has been selected for the prestigious 52nd edition of the Jnanpith Award (2016) by the Government of India (GoI) for his poetic idiom and experiments with various poetic forms mark his greatness as a creative talent. With this, Ghosh has become the 6th Bengali author to win India's highest literary award after Mahasweta Devi, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Subhash Mukhopadhyay and Bishnu Dey. The Jnanpith Award is presented every year to a literary figure for their outstanding contribution in literature. The award carries a citation, prize money of Rs. 12 lakh and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati.
182. The Union government will launched the "Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana" for Merchants and "Lucky Grahak Yojana" for Consumers in New Delhi. The purpose of the schemes is to encourage people to move towards significantly higher usage of digital transactions through the offer of incentives. Both the schemes will be implemented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). For these schemes, only those transactions that take place through RuPay Cards, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) are eligible. The schemes will be launched with the first draw by the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on December 25, 2016. Winners will be selected on a daily and weekly basis under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and weekly basis under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana, leading up to April 14, 2014, when the schemes will culminate with a mega draw. The draws for these events will be taken out in 100 different cities around the country, in a ceremony accompanied by a digital payments adoption fair "DigiDhan Mela".
183. The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan has recently launched an 'Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)' in association with the Bengaluru's National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances in New Delhi. Initially, the OCMC deal with only cases related to e-commerce companies and will facilitate online and even physical mediation between consumers and companies. Apart from this, ministry has also launched 'Smart Consumer' mobile App and helpline no. '14404' for consumer related grievances and also launched Microsite based on the theme "Digitally Safe Consumer Campaign" to help consumers for being vigilant and not falling prey to cyber frauds.The basic purpose of the Centre is to encourage consumers and companies to go for pre-litigation and provide them with an option to settle disputes amicably.
184. Jeje Lalpekhlua, the Mohun Bagan and Chennaiyin FC striker, has been named the 2016 All India Football Federation (AIFF) Player of the Year. He will be presented a prize of Rs. 2.5 lakh along with the glittering Trophy. Beside this, AIFF inducts two '2016 AIFF Award for Special Recognition' awards for Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Uvena Fernandes. They will be bestowed with Rs. 1 lakh and a trophy piece.
185. The ICICI bank has recently launched "EazyPay" a mobile-based application for merchants that allow consolidation of all modes of payments, including digital wallets, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), QR code, and credit & debit cards. The app is a one-stop solution for all merchants to collect payments from their customers, allows multiple users to connect to the same account. This makes it possible to be used for cash-on-delivery payments.
186. The veteran Kannada film actor, Chetan Ramarao (76) has recently passed away in Mysuru, Karnataka. Ramarao had acted in more than 350 films in his career spanning almost five decades.
187. The Good Governance Day (GGD) is observed every year in India to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The day was established to honor Prime Minister Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the Indian people of accountability in government. From December 25, 2016, the Good Governance campaign will be undertaken for 100 days during which Ministers and Members of Parliament (MoP) will travel across the country and attend programmes highlighting the government's key initiatives. The effort of the government is to improve delivery systems, to promote digital transformation and take forward the connectivity revolution in all sectors.
188. The book "On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism" has been authored by noted journalist Marie Colvin. It is a collection of author's finest work that includes her various interviews with Yasser Arafat and Colonel Gadaffi, reports from East Timor in 1999 where she shamed the UN into protecting its refugees, accounts of her terrifying escape from the Russian army in Chechnya and reports from the strongholds of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers where she was hit by shrapnel, leaving her blind in one eye and many more.
189. The 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup will be held between July 7–21, 2018 in London, England. Recently, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has adopted some changes regarding to 2018 Hockey World Cup viz. a 16-team competition per gender, 4 pools of 4 teams each, winners of each pool qualifies for Quarter Finals, last placed team in each Pool eliminated, ranking of eliminated teams based on their performance at the time of elimination, etc. It was also decided that the 2022 Hockey World Cup would also be a 16-team competition, per gender. The 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup will held from 28 November to 16 December 2018 in Odisha, India.
190. India has won the 2016 Asian Cricket Council Under-19 Asia Cup title by defeating Sri Lanka by 34 runs in the final at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The international tournament was the part of the qualification process for the 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand from January 12 to February 4, 2018.
191. IDFC Bank has recently launched the aadhaar-linked cashless merchant solution "Aadhaar Pay" that uses a retailers' smartphone to enable digital payments. It has been developed by IDFC Bank in association with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). There are no transaction fees for both merchants and customers. The IDFC Aadhaar Pay will enable millions of merchants across the country to facilitate cashless purchases for customers in a cost-effective and scalable way.
192. The book "India-US Relations in the Age of Uncertainty: An uneasy courtship" has been authored by BM Jain. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of US-India relations from estranged democracies to strategic partners.
193. The Google India will launch "Digitally Safe Consumer" campaign with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in 2017 to raise awareness and protect consumer interest on the internet. As part of the campaign, Google will work on educating consumer organisations in India, help in training members of the Consumer Affairs department and also work with officials in the National Consumer Helpline.
194. George Michael (53), the British pop superstar and founding member of Wham!, has recently passed away at Goring, England. He sold more than 100 million albums in his career.
195. Rupak Kumar Dutta, the senior IPS officer, has been appointed as the new special secretary in the internal security department of the Ministry of Home Affairs and will be at the post till October 31, 2017 i.e. the date of his superannuation. Dutta served for nearly 14 years in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and was special director in CBI since 2014 and had handled two important Supreme Court-monitored cases such as the 2G spectrum allocation and coal block allocation cases, in which several politicians and businessmen are facing trial. Besides Dutta, M K Singla is already working as Special Secretary (Internal Security). Thus,it is for the first time that two Special Secretaries would work in the Home Ministry for the crucial internal security division.
196. Dinanath Bhargava (89), an international fame painter, has recently passed away in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was the co-artist in the team that sketched the national emblem 'Lion Capital of Ashoka' and decorated the pages of the Constitution's manuscript. The wash paintings made by him are unique in the world.
197. The Odisha Government will launch a new malaria control programme "Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMAN)" for 5 years with a total spending of Rs. 120 crore. The programme will be implemented in 8,000 villages of all 79 blocks of eight high malaria endemic southern districts: Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangapur, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Gajapati, Nuapada and Kandhamal. This programme includes mass screening for malaria with treatment of positive cases along with intensified surveillance, mosquito control measures and regular health education activities throughout the year.
198. The powerful typhoon "Nock-Ten" has recently hit the coast near Catanduanes Island in Philippines with winds up to 140 km/ hour. The typhoon, locally known as Nina in the Philippines, damaged homes, uprooting trees and knocked down communications. The typhoon is expected to pass across the main island of Luzon, before heading into the South China Sea.
199. Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan has been conferred honorary doctorate at the 6th convocation of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad for extraordinary contribution towards promotion of Urdu language and culture. Beside him, Rekhta Foundation founder Sanjiv Saraf has also conferred the 'honorius causa' (doctor of letters) at the convocation.
200. The Madhya Pradesh government has recently launched "Nagar Uday Abhiyan" on December 25, 2016 in all 378 urban bodies in the state. The main aim of the Nagar Uday Abhiyan is to assess services provided to citizens and bring them at standard live, inform lower income class people residing in slums in urban areas about public welfare schemes and provide benefit of Antodaya, also inform them about works carried out for urban development and ensure contribution of citizens and other agencies in urban development schemes. The first phase will be held between December 25 and 28; the 2nd phase will be conducted between January 3 and 15 and the 3rd phase will take place between January 20 and February 5, 2017.
201. The Assam Government has recently launched a health insurance scheme "Atal-Amrit Abhiyan" to provide coverage against several critical illnesses. The scheme will offer coverage against 437 illnesses in six disease groups viz. cardiovascular, cancer, kidney, neo-natal, neurological conditions and burns. Both Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) families, with annual income below Rs 5 lakh, are eligible for the scheme.
202. China has successfully tested the newest version of the J-31stealth fighter "FC-31 Gyrfalcon", the 5th generation fighter jet. The twin-engine jet is manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC). The new FC-31 has better stealth capabilities, improved electronic equipment and a larger payload capacity.
203. Vera Rubin (88), an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates, has recently passed away in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1974, Rubin discovered that the stars at the edges of galaxies moved faster than expected. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves. To reconcile her observations with the law of gravity, scientists proposed there was matter we cannot see and called it dark matter. Dark matter is an unidentified type of matter comprising approximately 27% of the mass and energy in the observable universe.
204. The Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) has recently launched "Bank Sakhi" innovative scheme for employing women in villages to promote and improve the cashless transactions in rural areas at a programme held at Adavi Somapura village in Gadag district, Karnataka. A "Bank Sakhi" is someone who has been a member of a self-help group involved in conducting banking and book-keeping activities of the group. As a "Bank Sakhi", she will provide a range of financial services on behalf of the bank to her community. The local self-groups which provide capacity enhancement, training and financial awareness in the community, will support her. The Bank Sakhi is paid a commission by the bank for different services, which covers her costs and provides her with an income.
205. The book "Emperor Chandragupta" has been authored by Adity Kay. This is the story of a youth who fought against all odds – within and without – to become one of the greatest emperors ever known. This is the story of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire in India.
206. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake (83), the former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, has recently passed away Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2010.
207. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for the Chardham highway development project (or the Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna) at Parade Ground in Dehradun, Uttarakhand to improve connectivity to the Char Dham pilgrimage centres (Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath) in the Himalayas. The purpose of the project is to develop around 900 km of national highways. These highways will be built in Uttarakhand at an approximate cost of Rs.12,000 crore.
208. Samit Gohel, the opening batsman of Gujarat, has broke a 117-year-old record in the first-class cricket by notching up the highest score while carrying his bat through the innings of 359 not out during his team's Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Odisha at Jaipur, Rajasthan. Gohel broke the record of Surrey's Bobby Abel, who had scored 357 for Surrey against Somerset at the Oval in 1899 to register the highest score by an opener carrying his bat in first-class cricket.
209. Lt Gen Vinod Vashisht is the newly appointed Director General of National Cadet Corps (NCC). Prior to this appointment, he was the Commandant at Officers Training Academy at Gaya, Bihar. He succeeded Lt Gen A Chakravarty, who retired on August 31, 2016.
210. The registration fees for Hindus and other minority community people from three neighbouring countries namely Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, as Indian citizens have been reduced to as low as Rs.100 from Rs.15,000. The new rules will be applicable to minority communities- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians-from these nations and living in India on Long Term Visa. Though, for minority community people from countries other than the three, the fees will be Rs 10,000 for registration in India and Rs 15,000 if registered elsewhere. The changes have been made after amending various provisions of the Citizenship Rules 2009. The new rules also allow the minority members from the neighbouring countries to take oath of allegiance as an Indian citizen in front of Sub-Divisional Magistrate, in case of absence of Collector, Deputy Commissioner or District Magistrate.
211. Nedumkayam, Nilambur in Malapuram District of Kerala has become the India's first cashless and digital tribal colony. The people of this colony, in spite of threats from the Maoists, are all set for digital transactions. The declaration was made after adequate training for the entire tribal people of the colony in cashless transaction and digital literacy. The training was completed with the support of National Service Scheme, volunteers of an Arts and Science College at Kondotty and Jan Sikshan Sansthan, of Malappuram district.
212. Sunderlal Patwa (92), the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and senior BJP leader, has recently passed away in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Patwa was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh twice from January 20, 1980 to February 17, 1980 when he was in the Janata Party and then from March 5, 1990 to December 15, 1992 when he led the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
213. Meghalaya will host the 2022 National Games, which is coinciding with its 50 years of statehood. The Meghalaya State Olympic Association president John F Kharshiing has stated that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has accepted Meghalaya's bid to host the prestigious games following the successful South Asian Games, which was co-hosted by Shillong and Guwahati in 2016. Meghalaya had pledged Rs. 5 crore as the bid amount for the game. Till date, only two states in the North-East have hosted the National Games – Manipur in 1999 and Assam in 2007.
214. The 24th edition of National Children's and Science Congress (NCSC) has started at Vidyapratisthan's Institute of Information Technology (VIIT) in Baramati, Pune on December 27, 2016. The focal theme of 5-day NCSC programme is 'Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development: With special emphasis on Accessibility for Persons with Disability'. The NCSC is an ideal and innovative programme for children to inspire, empower and expand their minds to world. It is a flagship programme of department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology.
215. The Maharashtra government will create a new ministry for welfare of Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), OBCs and Special Backward classes (SBCs) and will be headed by an independent minister.
216. Prof. Viral Acharya, an economics professor of the United States University, has been appointed as the new deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a term of 3 years. The post was vacant after elevation of Urjit Patel as the Governor of RBI in September 2016.
217. Deborah Herold of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has won gold in the Women Elite's 500m individual time trial event in the 69th Senior National Track Cycling at LNCPE velodrome in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In it, Kezia Varghese of Kerala bagged the silver while Anu Chutia of Assam has won bronze.
218. Dr. Satya Narayan, the well-known Rajasthani litterateur, has been chosen for the 26th edition of Bihari Puraskar for 2016 for his Hindi book titled, "Yeh Ek Dunia". The book is a meticulous depiction of various circumstances of life in the contemporary world. The award consists of a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakhs, a citation and a plaque. The Bihari Puraskar is a literary award instituted by K. K. Birla Foundation. It is named after the famous Hindi poet Bihari Lal Chaube and is awarded to an outstanding work published in Hindi or Rajasthani by a Rajasthani writer.
219. The book "I am a troll" has been authored by journalist Swati Chaturvedi. The author targets the trolling affair of ruling government in the social media. The book pointed that when the ruling government of a democracy carefully constructs, contrives and calibrates a social media culture where dissent towards a leader or an ideology or even a party is reciprocated in the worst possible manner, it is a matter of extreme worry and it becomes obligatory to initiate a dialogue and debate and especially when it becomes part of our daily existence. This very evil has been questioned in the new book of the author.
220. The 8th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be held at Mahatma mandir, Gandhinagar from January 10th to 13th, 2017. The central focus of the 2017 Global Summit is "Sustainable Economic and Social Development". The Summit will bring together Heads of States and Governments, Ministers, Leaders from the Corporate World, Senior Policy Makers, Heads of International Institutions and Academia from around the world to further the cause of development and promote cooperation.
221. The Swachh Swasth Sarvatra is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to achieve better health outcomes through improved sanitation and increased awareness and healthy lifestyles. It has been launched to strengthen Community Health Centres (CHCs) in 708 Open Defecation Free (ODF) blocks in India to enable them achieve higher levels of cleanliness and hygiene. Under it, Rs. 10 lakh of financial assistance will be given to the CHCs so that they can be strengthened to meet the standards of sanitation, hygiene and infection control. The initiative is a part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, under the National Health Mission. It is focused on the twin objectives of constructing toilets and enabling behavioural change, with the goal of making India Open Defecation free by 2nd October, 2019.
222. President Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated the 77th session of Indian History Congress (IHC) at University of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on December 29, 2016. Over 3,000 historians and research scholars will attend the 3-day session of Congress. The IHC is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians with over 10,000 members. It's current President is Radha Champakalakshmi of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
223. India's first Digi Dhan mela has been held in Gurugram, Haryana on December 26, 2016 to promote digital and cashless transactions. In it, a customer can purchase any item meant for sale by paying digitally only. All daily use items ranging from vegetables to general store, handicrafts, horticulture products, seed & fertilizers for farmers, etc., were available in this fair and the customers had to make payment through digital mode. The Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) working at the Common Service Centres educated the masses about how to use digital mode for making payments, instead of hard cash. The next Digi Dhan Mela will be organized in Dehradun on December 29, 2016 to promote plastic money.
224. Anil Baijal, a 1969 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as the new Lt Governor of Delhi. He succeeded Najeeb Jung, who recently resigned from the post. Baijal had served as Union Home Secretary under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government besides holding key positions in other ministries.
225. Prafulla Haldankar (79), the former international table tennis player, has recently passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was ranked first in India in 1961-62 season and also represented the country in two Asian Championships and two World Championships. After retiring from the game he was the coach of Indian Railways for many years. He worked for Western Railway and retired in 1995 as Chief Welfare Inspector from DRM office, Bombay Central.
226. The Government of India (GoI) will constitute a High Level Committee (HLC) to review institutionalization of arbitration mechanism in India. The committee will be headed by Justice B N Srikrishna, the retired Judge of Supreme Court. The terms of reference for the HLC are such as to analyze & review effectiveness of present arbitration mechanism, to review the facilities, resources, funding and manpower of existing ADR institutions and to review working of the institutions funded by the Government of India (GoI) for arbitration purposes.
227. Debbie Reynolds (84), the legendary actress of Hollywood, has recently passed away in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 2016. She is known for role in "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis", "Bundle of Joy", "The Catered Affair", etc. Reynolds died one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away. Carrie Fisher was the well-known actress, author and screenwriter who brought a rare combination of nerve, grit and hopefulness to her most indelible role, as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" movie franchise.
228. Indian Army has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar to set up a Research and Development (R&D) cell at the IIT campus. The research cell will work with the faculty and research students to identify problems and possible solutions for the Indian Army. The agreement will also enable the IIT and Indian Army to collaborate in areas including critical technology requirements of Indian Army, sharing of professional and technical knowledge.
229. The book "Watership Sown" was authored by Richard Adams, who died recently in England, United Kingdom. It is a classic adventure novel that have tale of suspense, hot pursuit and derring-do.
230. Pruthviraj Ayachi (16), who hails from Gujarat, has won the gold medal in the junior men's 50M Rifle Prone event at the National Shooting Championship in Pune, Maharashtra. He shot 209.5 in the finals and equals the score of the Rio Olympics' gold medalist.
231. The Ratan Watal committee has recently submitted report on promoting digital payments to the Union Government. The committee has suggested a separate regulator to deal with issues concerning payment, among others. The report suggested a host of fiscal incentives to promote digital transactions. It suggested withdrawal of all charges levied by government departments and utilities on digital payments and making it mandatory for government departments and agencies to provide option to consumers to pay digitally. The report also suggested putting a special emphasis on digital payments for recurring low value transactions and reducing custom duties on payments acceptance equipment. The committee has also suggested instituting awards to promote digital transaction.
232. India's first centre for digital investigation and training has been set up by the Haryana police in collaboration with National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) in Gurgaon to increase cyber policing and monitor social media content. The centre will keep a tab on sensitive and provocative content on social media besides imparting short-term and long-term training to selected police officials. The centre also has a social media monitoring lab to increase technological capabilities of the Haryana police. The technical experts from NTRO and the Government of India (GoI) will also extend support in trainings.
233. The Haryana Government will set up a pilot corridor for an innovative concept of 'Caterpillar Train (or C-Train)' that will fly over city's traffic, in Gurgaon city. The C-train includes a citywide network of lightweight, elevated train coaches running at about 100 kmph on a track supported by poles bent into arches. The cost is about $3 million for a pilot system and approx $20 million for full-fledged automated system.The concept of C-Train was co-developed by an Indian Railways engineer Ashwani Kumar Upadhyaya along with Emil Jacob for which they won a global award at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in 2016 for this innovative idea.
234. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched an Aadhaar-based mobile app "Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)" to promote easier digital payments and transactions at Digi Dhan Mela at talkatora stadium in New Delhi. The Bhim app is named after Dr B R Ambedkar and will empower small traders, tribals and farmers. The app is inter-operable with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and it connects directly to your bank account. The application is developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The application allows users to check the bank balance directly from the app. There is a limit of Rs 10,000 per transaction and a 24-hour limit of Rs 20,000.
235. The 2016 World Bhojpuri Conference has started in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh on December 29 to strengthen the links of people of Indian-origin, who once belonged to the Bhojpuri-speaking belt in India and had migrated to different parts of the world. The 4-day conference will deliberate on culture, religion, language and business among other issues, in which over 18 countries will participate. During the conference, a 'Bhojpuri Ratna' award and 'World Bhojpuri Karmayogi' award will be conferred on over 25 people.
236. The World Bank (WB) has recently approved a $235 million credit for the Bihar Rural Roads Project to improve and effectively manage rural road network of the state. The project will support the construction of about 2,500 km of rural roads under the Mukhiya Mantri Gram Sampark Yojana (MMGSY). The roads will be constructed using cost-effective designs and will incorporate engineering measures that ensure road safety. The project will also suggest better contract management practices to avoid time and cost over-runs. The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank's concessionary lending arm – with a maturity of 25 years, including a 5-year grace period.
237. The book "That thing called love" has been authored by Tuhin A. Sinha, the best-selling author and commentator. The book explores the trivialization of relationships in the current urban society in India. Recently, the author is in news because he has been appointed as the new spokesperson of the Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
238. Barbara Tarbuck (74), who was best known for her role as "Lady Jane Jacks" in General Hospital, has recently passed away in Los Angeles, United States.
239. The world's highest bridge "Beipanjiang Bridge" has been opened to traffic in China. The bridge soars 565 metres (1,854 feet) above a river and connects the two mountainous provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou and is expected to reduce road travel times from Liupanshui to Xuianwei from 4 hours to 2 hrs. The bridge overtook the Si Du River Bridge in the central province of Hubei to become the world's highest bridge.
240. The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot has recently launched the 'Mobile App and Facebook Page' of the National Trust on December 30 to mark the '2016 National Trust Foundation Day (NTFD)' on the theme "Celebrating Inclusion" to create support network for persons with disabilities by sensitizing unreached section of society. The National Trust is a statutory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, set up under the "National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities" Act (Act 44 of 1999), which was passed in the Parliament on December 30, 1999. Thus, the NTFD is observed every year on December 30 in India to create awareness for the welfare of persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment