Current affairs : December 9, 2016 for all competitive exams
Centre
unveils discounts to fuel switch to digital mode
Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley on Thursday announced a raft of incentives to accelerate the switch
from cash that include discounts for payments made digitally for fuel at petrol
pumps, suburban railway services, insurance premiums, and for use of RFID at toll
plazas on national highways.
1. Service tax, on digital transactions of up to Rs. 2,000,
would also be waived.
2. Digital payments for petrol and diesel at government-run
petrol pumps will get a discount of 0.75 per cent.
3. Discount of 0.5% on sub urban rail season tickets paid
for digitally.
4. All railway passengers buying online ticket will get free
insurance of Rs.10Lakh
5. 8% discount on life insurance. 10% discount on general
insurance from PSU firms.
Committee calls
for Mann’s suspension
Holding him guilty of
putting the security of Parliament House and its occupants at risk, a
parliamentary committee has recommended suspension of Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP,
for the rest of the winter session for live-streaming a video of Parliament on
social media last July.
- The session is scheduled to end on December 16.
Centre scraps import duty on wheat to ease supply,
check prices
The government has scrapped
the 10 per cent import duty on wheat with immediate effect in the face of an
imminent shortage of the cereal this year.
- This was a long-anticipated announcement as the
industry had been raising doubts about the government’s wheat production
estimate of 93.5 million tonnes in 2015-16 and had instead pegged it
between 80 million tonnes and 84 million tonnes. India’s demand for wheat
this year, on the other hand, is likely to be over 94 million tonnes.
Raymond to
promote Khadi as fashion garment
Khadi & Village
Industries Commission (KVIC) has entered into an agreement with Raymond Ltd. to
promote Khadi as a fashion garment in India and abroad.
- In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Raymond will
source Khadi fabric from artisans and market the products after
value-addition.
- This PPP initiative is aimed at helping artisans and
boosting income of rural women.
Ancient Buddhist
site set to come alive with cultural programmes after two
millennia
Anupu, a hitherto little
known site of Buddhist excavation on the banks of River Krishna near
Nagarjunasagar Dam will host cultural programmes from Friday afternoon, against
the backdrop of an amphitheatre, after 1,700 years.
- A 3-day Infosys Foundation Anupu Festival–2016 will showcase cultural programmes against the backdrop of the amphitheatre for the first time after it was reconstructed on an 80-hectare stretch at Anupu by the Archaeological Survey of India.
DST-Intel Collaborative Research for Real-Time River
Water and Air Quality Monitoring
Recognizing the importance of developing the online River Water and Air
Quality Monitoring (WAQM) systems, Department of Science and Technology (DST),
Government of India and Intel are collaborating to jointly initiate “DST-Intel
Collaborative Research for Real-Time River Water and Air Quality Monitoring”
soliciting proposals from Academic/Research Institutions and providing
grant-in-aid support to the selected project(s).
- This will be a joint programme of Public-Private
Partnership (PPP) mode.
- The aim of this 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.
Himachal Pradesh becomes 18th State to join UDAY
Government of India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the
State of Himachal Pradesh and the State DISCOM under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance
Yojana (UDAY), for operational and financial turnaround of the DISCOM.
- Himachal Pradesh is the 18th State to sign MoU under
UDAY.
- UDAY is an effort to make these DISCOMs financially
and operationally healthy, to be able to supply adequate power at
affordable rates, and enable the Governments to make efforts towards 100%
Village electrification and 24X7 Power For All.
Triple talaq is ‘cruel’, ‘most demeaning’ to
women
Observing that the judicial conscience is “disturbed”, the Allahabad High
Court has held that triple talaq is “cruel” and raised a question whether the
Muslim Personal law could be amended to alleviate the sufferings of Muslim
women.
- The court also noted that personal laws of any
community cannot claim supremacy over the rights granted to the
individuals by the Constitution that provides for equality and
non-discrimination.
A more muscular rice variety takes on wheat
A rice variety that packs more protein to match wheat has been released by
Karnataka’s University of Agricultural Sciences – Bengaluru.
- The rice strain, which offers an option to those who
are not comfortable switching over to wheat for supplementary protein, is
now available for commercial cultivation.
- The high-protein variety has been under development at UAS-B for nearly 10 years, with Rs. 92 lakh in funding from the Union Department of Biotechnology.
India, U.S. talk defence partnership
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and United States Secretary of Defence
Ashton Carter have finalised India’s designation as a Major Defense Partner of
the United States.
- This was announced in the recent India-US joint
statement on Carter’s visit to New Delhi. This status puts India on a par
with the closest allies and partners of the U.S.
- The designation as a Major Defense Partner is a
status unique to India and institutionalises the progress made to
facilitate defence trade and technology-sharing with India to a level at
par with that of the United States’ closest allies and partners, and
ensures enduring cooperation into the future.
Shilp Guru Awards:
The Shilp Guru Awards were launched by the Development Commissioner
(Handicrafts) on 15th November, 2002, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the
resurgence of Handicrafts in India.
- 9 Shilp Gurus and 19 National Awardees received the
awards for the year 2015.
- The main objective of the awards is to give recognition to masters for their excellence in craftsmanship and valuable contribution to Indian Handicrafts.
SIMCON 2016:
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting is organising the 28th State
Information Ministers Conference. Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for I&B
will chair the conference.
- The two day conference will promote partnership in
the dissemination process between Centre and States, enabling effective
communication to the people and on sector specific collaboration in the
Films, Broadcasting & Information sector.
- The conference is being organised on the theme – “Reform, Perform & Transform – A New Dimension of Communication” and is expected to provide a synergy for a robust communication outreach process.
Vardah:
It is the season’s third cyclonic storm.
- Vardah has formed in the Southeast Bay of Bengal.
- It has already hit Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The
cyclonic storm is expected to further intensify into a severe cyclone and
will continue to move towards the north and then recurve in the northwest
direction towards Andhra Pradesh Coast.
India to set up center of
excellence at Al-Azhar University, Egypt
In order to enhance
cooperation in education sector between India and Egypt, Center has decided to
set up a center of Excellence in Information Technology at the Al-Azhar
University which is the oldest and most prestigious the University of
Egypt.
Pakistan Lifts Undeclared Ban
on Import of Ginned Cotton from India
Pakistan has removed an
“undeclared” ban on import of ginned cotton from India.
- Earlier from November 23, The Department of Plant Protection (DPP) of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research had banned the cotton imports from India through Wagah and Karachi port as the shipments did not fulfil phyto- sanitary conditions.
Nana Akufo-Addo wins Ghana
presidential election
Ghana's main opposition
leader Nana Akufo-Addo has won the country's presidential election with an
absolute majority.
- Private radio stations have projected a massive victory for Nana Akufo-Addo over President John Mahama.
IDFC Bank appoints Veena
Mankar as Non-Executive Chairperson
The board of directors of
IDFC Bank has approved the appointment of Veena Mankar as Non-Executive
Chairperson, with effect from December 9, 2016, up to July 26, 2018.
- The appointment is subject to approval by the
Reserve Bank of India.
- Anil Baijal stepped down from the board on December 8, 2016 at the end of his tenure from the shaft of Non-Executive Chairman. IDFC Bank Ltd.
Two Banks of Abu Dhabi to
Merge as the Biggest Bank in Gulf Nation
Stockholders of the National
Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank on December 7, 2016, approved to merge
into the biggest bank of all Gulf Countries with an asset of $ 178 billion.
- After the merger the combined company will be named
as NBAD.
- The FGB shareholders will receive 1.254 NBAD shares for each FGB share they hold and FGB stockholders will own 52% of the new bank.
Harry Potter tops Amazon's
best-selling books of 2016
Amazon, which started as an
online book retailer, has announced Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as the
best-selling book of 2016.
- The playscript by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, was also named this year's 'Most Wished For' and 'Most Gifted' book.
Vistaar appoints ex-Sebi chief
C B Bhave as non-executive Chairman
Vistaar Financial Services,
an MSME-focused financing firm, today said it has appointed former Sebi chief C
B Bhave as non-executive Chairman and Independent Director.
- Prior to SEBI, he has worked as the Chairman and Managing Director of National Securities Depositories Ltd (NSDL).
