Current affairs : December 21, 2016 for all competitive exams
GARV-II App launched to track Rural
electrification
The government has launched GARV- II app to
track Rural Household Electrification. This is the next step in Government of
India’s aim to provide access to electricity to all households in the country.
- Under this module, village-wise and habitation-wise
base line data on household electrification for all States, as provided by
them, has been incorporated.
Digital India Awards 2016 – Healthy Ministry
wins gold in the Web Ratna Category
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has
won gold in the Web Ratna category in the recently concluded Digital India
awards, 2016, conferred by the Ministry of Electronics & IT to promote more
innovative e-governance initiatives by the government entities.
- The website of the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare conforms to the UUU trilogy. It is totally bilingual as per the
directions of Parliamentary Committee of official languages and is
accessible to all. Special features have also been incorporated in the
website for visually challenged users.
Can courts make life terms more rigorous, asks
SC
The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the
question whether courts are statutorily empowered to make life imprisonments
tougher for the convicts by adding ‘rigorous’ (harsh) to life sentence as the
law does not provide for this.
- The court would consider whether the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC) or any other penal law empowered the courts to add
the term ‘rigorous’.
NCRPB tells States to submit action plan to
curb pollution
With air quality deteriorating on a daily
basis, the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) has asked Delhi and
adjoining States to submit action plans to control air pollution in the
Capital.
- The Board will soon file an affidavit before the
Delhi High Court regarding the matter.
- Air pollution in Delhi is a matter of serious
concern and Delhi, along with Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab
are acting in unison to mitigate the suffering of the people.
Rs.
50,000 fine for airlines if planes empty human waste on air
The menace of human
waste being splattered on houses from airplanes while landing, today led the
National Green Tribunal (NGT) to slap a fine of Rs. 50,000 on the airline whose
aircraft empties toilet tanks on air.
- A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar
passed a slew of directions while disposing of a plea of a retired army
officer Lt. Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya.
Thiruvalluvar’s statue unveiled in Haridwar
Uttarakhand Chief minister Harish Rawat has
unveiled the statue of renowned Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar on the
premises of Mela Bhawan in Haridwar.
- The ceremony was attended by members of the Tamil
Sangam, in addition to officials from the Uttarakhand administration.
CBSE
for making Class X board exams mandatory
Board exams for Class X are set to become
compulsory for all CBSE students from 2018 as CBSE’s governing body on
“unanimously approved” a proposal in this regard.
- The decision will now have to be approved by the
government before it is implemented.
- Currently, it is optional for CBSE students to
choose either the board exam or a school-based examination
National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights gets SKOCH Awards for POCSO e-Box:
The National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (NCPCR) of Ministry of Women and Child Development has been
conferred the Skoch Silver and Skoch Order-of Merit award.
- The two awards were received by NCPCR for applying
technology to develop an electronic drop box, POCSO e-Box for registering
complaints on Child Sexual Abuse.
- POCSO e-box is a unique endeavour by NCPCR for
receiving online complaint of Child Sexual Abuse directly from the victim.
The system maintains confidentiality of the victim/ complainant.
9th World Confluence of
Humanity, Power and Spirituality held in Delhi
The ninth edition of World Confluence of
Humanity, Power and Spirituality, organised by ASSOCHAM in association with
Srei Foundation and Times Foundation, introduced a fresh culture of
‘Spirituality @ Work’ through its brand Sach Bharat, inspiring distinguished
industrialists, business leaders, industry captains and noted politicians to
imbibe spirituality at their respective work places and lives.
- The Confluence was inaugurated in the presence of
Hon’ble President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee, ASSOCHAM President Mr.
Sunil Kanoria and Srei Foundation Chairman Dr. Hari Prasad Kanoria.
Khanjar-IV:
During the recently held bilateral talks,
India and Kyrgyzstan have finalised plans for joint military exercises in the
New Year.
- The annual joint military exercises named
“Khanjar-IV” will be held in February-March. The “Khanjar-II” exercises
were held in March 2015 in Kyrgyzstan and “Khanjar-III” in March-April
2016 in Gwalior.
India and Kyrgyzstan signed
6 agreements to boost bilateral cooperation
India and Kyrgyzstan has signed 6
agreements/Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to boost bilateral cooperation
on 20 December 2016.
The agreements were signed in New Delhi
during the State visit of Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambaye.Agreements:
1. MoU on cooperation in the field of Tourism
2. Agreement on cooperation in the eld of Agriculture and
Food Industry
3. MoU on cooperation in the eld of Youth development: The
agreement was signed between the Union Ministry of Youth AIairs and the state
agency of Youth AIairs, Physical Education and Sports of Kyrgyzstan.
4. MoU on cooperation between Foreign Service Institute,
MEA, New Delhi and Diplomatic Academy of MOFA of Kyrgyzstan.
5. MoU in the field of cooperation in youth exchange between
NCC of India and Military Lyceum of Kyrgyz Republic.
6. MoU on cooperation in the field of Broadcasting and
exchange of audiovisual programmes: The MoU was signed between Prasar Bharati
of India and Public Broadcast Corporation of Kyrgyzstan.
Maharashtra
set to go digital
Maharashtra is going
all out with its plan to help rural areas go cashless. The State government
will train people in 30,000 villages to use credit, debit cards and mobile
wallets over the next three months.
- The State will set up ‘Digital Sewa Kendras’ in each
of these village gram panchayats and install 11,000 Point of Sale (PoS)
machines for transactions.
- The 10 lakh volunteers will train villagers in
Aadhaar-enabled payment systems (AEPS), use of debit/credit cards, Unified
Payment Interface (UPI), USSD-based mobile banking (on basic mobile
phones), and mobile wallets.
Chhattisgarh CM dedicates
country’s first cashless bazaar to people in Raipur
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has
launched India’s first cashless bazaar in Raipur.
- This ‘Smart’ bazaar consist of nearly Over 900 shops
which are providing the facilities of cashless payments using POS, UPI and
other digital systems to its customers.
- Chhattisgarh is currently leading in the nation in training its people in digital transactions.
India Achieves 4th rank in
Global Wind Power Installed Capacity Index
India has ranked 4th in the Global Wind Power
Installed Capacity index after China, USA and Germany with cumulative installed
wind power generation capacity of 28,279 MW in 2016.
- The Government is aiming to increase the share of clean energy through massive development and deployment of new and renewable energy in India to meet Energy security, Electricity shortages, Energy access and Climate change among others.
India Signs Open Skies
Agreement with Six Countries at ICAN 2016
International Civil Aviation Negotiations
(ICAN) – 2016 were held recently in Nassau.
- Open Skies agreement allows unlimited number of flights to six metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai, was signed with six countries namely Jamaica, Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Sri Lanka.
Huge ‘dead zone’ discovered
in Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal hosts a ‘dead zone’ of an
estimated 60,000 square kilometres — an area that contains little or no oxygen
and supports microbial processes that remove vast amount of nitrogen from the
ocean, scientists, including those from India, have found.
Corporation Bank bags award
Corporation Bank has bagged the SKOCH silver
award for attaining the position of number1 channel partner of LIC of India for
the past three financial years, according to a press release by the bank
here.
- It said that the bank was also awarded order of merit under other three categories. CK Gopal, General Manager of the bank, received the award in the presence of Nilesh Sathe, Member of IRDAI, and Sameer Kochhar, Chairman of SKOCH Foundation, in New Delhi recently.
Ukraine Nationalized Nations
Largest Private Bank ‘PrivateBank’
Privatbank, Ukraine’s largest private bank,
is being nationalised to protect the country’s financial system and preserve an
essential bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.
- It was running out of money because of the recession in Ukraine and questionable loans, the central bank said 97 percent of its corporate loans had been made to companies linked to its shareholders.
Flock launches world’s first
chat operating system
A free instant messaging service for work and
business environments, Flock has launched world’s first chat operating
system”FlockOS” by Bhavin Turakhia, Flock CEO .
- Flockos Developers can build apps by using Flock OS that provided a tightly integrated experience by using widgets. This OS provides setup slash commands, providing an additional option for users to interact with the app.
Queen
Victoria’s last letter to India unveiled at Victoria Memorial
Queen Victoria’s last
letter to India, written 116 years ago, is on display for the first time at the
Victoria Memorial, Kolkata one of the finest monuments built in her memory.
- This letter is an important piece of historical
correspondence between British India and Britain. The letter was gifted by
Lord Curzon in 1904.
India
mourns Russian envoy to Turkey
India condemned the
assassination of the Russia Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, in Ankara,
saying violence and terrorism could never have a justification.
- The External Affairs Ministry issued the statement hours after the envoy was shot dead while delivering a speech in an art gallery in the Turkish capital.
‘Surreal’
is named 2016 Word of the Year
Merriam-Webster’s
dictionary on Monday named surreal its Word of the Year 2016, the honour given
to the word or term with the sharpest spike in look-ups over the previous year.
- Surreal, definition: “marked by the intense
irrational reality of a dream.”
Veteran Malayalam Actor
Jagannatha Varma Passes Away at 77.
Veteran character actor Jagannatha Varma
passed away. He was suffering from age-related illness and was in the hospital
for the past ew days.
- The 77-year-old had acted in close to 200 films and
two dozen TV serials in a career spanning close to four decades.
India's boxing fed gets
permanent membership in world body
The International Boxing Association has
unanimously voted to induct the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) as one of its
permanent members.
- India was provisionally suspended in December 2012 for “possible manipulation” in the erstwhile Indian Amateur Boxing Federation’s elections. AIBA's chief also congratulated the BFI for organising and conducting the Nationals.
Praful Patel set to be
re-elected
Incumbent Praful Patel is set to be
re-elected unopposed as the president of All India Football Federation for
his third term.
- Patel, a former Union Minister, served as
acting president for one year after long-time head Priya
Ranjan Dasmunshi suffered a cardiac arrest in 2008.
- He took over as full time president in October
2009 before being re-elected for the top job in December 2012.
India beat England by
innings and 75 runs, win series 4-0
India has won the five-match test series
against England, 3-0-1.
- In the fifth and final test played at M. A.
Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, England wrapped up the second innings at
207 in 88 overs on 20 December 2016.
- Virat Kohli is the man of the series for his 655 runs in the series.
