Daily Current affairs - December 19th, 2017 for all competitive exams
Goa Liberation day holds great significance in the history of Goa.
- It signifies the day when Goa was released of Portuguese dominance by assistance from the Indian Navy.
- The liberation helped the people of Goa to relieve themselves from the exploitative rules of the Portuguese.
- The liberation also made the independence of India complete as after the British left India, Goa was the only part that remained under the British rule.
Goa, Daman, and Diu was a union territory of India from 19 December 1961 to 30 May 1987. The union territory comprised the present-day state of Goa and the two small coastal enclaves of Daman and Diu on the coast of Gujarat.
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Indian Forest Act Amendment bill, 2017 tabled in Loksabha
The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 has been tabled in the Lok Sabha. The Bill seeks to amend the Indian Forest Act to exempt felling and transportation of bamboo grown in non-forest areas from the state permit.
- Last month, the government had come out with an ordinance to amend the Indian Forest Act, 1927 in this regard. This bill would replace this ordinance. Prior to issuance of the ordinance, the definition of tree in the Act included palm, bamboo, brushwood and cane.
Bamboo, though, taxonomically a grass, was legally defined as a tree under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Before this amendment, the felling and transit of bamboo grown on forest as well non-forest land attracted the provisions of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (IFA, 1927). This was a major impediment for bamboo cultivation by farmers on non-forest land.
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PM Modi to launch Delhi Metro’s new Magenta Line for Christmas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a part of the new Magenta line of Delhi Metro.
- The line helps citizens travel from Janak Puri and Noida.
- It will be inaugurated on December 25.
- The 12.64-km line will reduce travel time between Noida and south Delhi.
Losar Festival being celebrated in Ladakh
Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir is celebrating Losar Festival.
- The festival is celebrated to mark the new year and the celebrations continue for three days to nine days in different parts of Ladakh.
Losar Festival is an important festival in winter months. Because of several ritual performances and traditional events during the celebrations, it has now turned into one of major events for visitors in winter.
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Global conference on functional materials
International conference on advanced functional materials is being held in Telangana.
- The conference aims to address the application aspect of the functional materials in areas of societal relevance, to discuss current scientific issues and to ignite scientific temper in young researchers.
- Theme: ‘Applications of smart materials in the areas of nano-science and nano-technology, synthetic chemistry, sensors and computational materials science’.
- Host: Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) at Basar in Telangana is hosting the conference.
Goa sets up task force to fight drug menace
Goa government has formed an Anti-Narcotics Task Force, comprising members of various law enforcement agencies, to draw a comprehensive action plan to combat trafficking of drugs
- Goa being a global tourist destination, lakhs of tourists, international as well as domestic, visit the state every year and are the major target of drug peddlers/dealers.
BJP wins Gujarat Assembly elections for 6th consecutive term
The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections with a majority of 99 seats and 49.1% vote share, whereas the Congress secured 77 seats with a 41.4% vote share.
- BJP bags 99 seats in 182-member Gujarat Assembly; Congress gets 77 and others six.
- Notably, BJP had won 115 seats in the 2012 Gujarat Assembly elections.
BJP defeats Congress to form government in Himachal Pradesh
The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the 2017 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections with 44 seats and 48.8% vote share, whereas the Congress secured 21 seats with a 41.7% vote share.
- The BJP had earlier declared Prem Kumar Dhumal as its chief ministerial candidate.
- Results in the Sujanpur constituency, from where BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal is contesting, were the last to be declared. Dhumal lost by 1919 votes to his once-protege Rajinder Rana who contested on a Congress ticket.
- The election for the 68-member Assembly witnessed a record voter turnout of 74.6%.
Plea in SC seeks OBC status for farmers
The Supreme Court has called for a response from the Centre, the Gujarat Government and the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) on a PIL praying that ‘farmers’ be included in the category of Other Backward Classes (OBC) irrespective of their caste and religion.
- A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of farmers who do not fall in the creamy layer in OBC category to ensure uplift for such farmers as constitutional rights considering them as occupational group.
Citing apex court precedents in Indra Sawhney Vs. Union of India wherein it was categorically held that the benefit of reservation can be extended to OBCs, inter alia, based on quantifiable data, the petitioner sought the court to direct the government to “prepare the survey report as well as the review report about the development and progress for inclusion and exclusion of classes who are getting the benefit of reservation under the provisions of law, as well as the method adopted for identification of backward classes.
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Plea on martyr status for Bhagat Singh dismissed
The Delhi High Court dismissed a petition seeking to give martyr status to freedom fighters, including Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.
- The court’s decision came after the petitioner was unable to reply to the query whether there is any law under which the court has the power to issue any such direction.
- Advocate Birender Sangwan had in his petition sought a grant of ‘shaheed’ status to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru who were hanged by the Britishers in 1931.
Bhagat Singh and Rajguru had in 1928 fatally shot a British junior police officer, John Saunders, in Lahore after mistaking him for a British police superintendent.A special tribunal was constituted by Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India, which had sentenced the duo along with Sukhdev to death by hanging at Lahore Jail.
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World Migration Report 2018
WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2018 has been released. This World Migration Report 2018 is the ninth in the series. Since 2000, International Organization for Migration has been producing world migration reports to contribute to increased understanding of migration throughout the world.
- Indian tops the world in the number of migrants sent abroad. About 16.59 million Indian live abroad. Mexico sent out 13 million migrants, the second highest number.
- The United Arab Emirates has the largest number of Indian migrants, who number 3.31 million, up from 978,992 in 2000, followed by the US with 2.3 million, up from 1.04 million.
- In Europe, there are 1.3 million people from India.
International Organization for Migration established in 1951, IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.
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U.S. vetoes UN call on Jerusalem’s status
The United States was further isolated over President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when it blocked a United Nations Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn.
- The remaining 14 members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Mr. Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem”.
- The draft UN resolution had also called upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
It was the first veto cast by the United States in the Security Council in more than six years.
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London gets it’s first female bishop
Sarah Mullally was appointed Bishop of London, the first female to take the job in the Church of England.
- Mullally will succeed Richard Chartres to become the 133rd bishop of London.
- Sarah will be formally installed as the bishop at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral in the new year.
- She was the former and youngest Chief Nursing Officer for England, before she was ordained in 2001.
- Mullally became Bishop of Crediton in southwest England in 2015.
French Town creates world record by stitching longest wedding dress train
A Guinness World Record has been set in France for the world’s longest wedding dress train, measuring over 8,095 meters long.
- Dynamic Projects, with the help of 15 volunteers, spent two months stitching individual pieces of the train before sewing them all together.
- The team also incorporated part of the previous record- breaking garment that measured 1,203.9 metres.
- The wedding dress was unveiled in Caudry, a French town famous for its production of lace, 11 years after the Guinness World Records title was first set there.
Yes Bank, EIB to co-finance $400 million for clean power projects
Yes Bank and the European Investment Bank will co-finance $400-million funding for renewable power generation in the country.
- The new financing programme will streamline financing for a range of renewable energy projects being built and operated by leading Indian corporations and private sector developers.
- Of the $400-million, the EIB will fund $200 million, while the rest will be supported by Yes Bank, the project promoters and other financial institutions.
Under this renewable power generation initiative, several solar projects in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka have been identified. Additional wind and solar projects are also being examined.
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Yes Bank
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Headquarters
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Mumbai
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CEO
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Rana Kapoor
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Tagline
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Experience or Expertise
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The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's nonprofit long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome.
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India finishes 1st at junior boxing championship in Germany
The Indian junior boxing contingent finished at the top of the medal tally after the boxers clinched six gold, four silver, and one bronze medal at the fifth International Sven Lange Memorial Tournament in Germany.
- Boxer Bhavesh Kattamani, who won a gold in the 52kg category, was chosen as the tournament’s best boxer.
- India was named the tournament’s best team.
Kerala Kings beat Punjabi Legends to win 1st-ever T10 title
Kerala Kings thrashed Punjabi Legends by 8 wickets at Sharjah to become the first-ever T10 Cricket League champions.
- Chasing 120 runs in the final, skipper Eoin Morgan along with Paul Stirling added 113 runs for the second wicket to hand Kings the victory with 12 balls remaining.
- The inaugural edition of the tournament saw participation from various international cricketers.
Grigor Dimitrov beats Simona Halep to win Balkan athlete of year
Bulgaria’s world number three tennis player Grigor Dimitrov has been named Balkan Athlete of the Year.
- Dimitrov, who won the biggest title of his career when he captured the season-ending ATP Finals in London last month, became the first Bulgarian to scoop the prize after female wrestler Stanka Zlateva in 2010.
- The 26-year-old, who has claimed three more titles on the tour this year and also reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, beat another tennis player – Simona Halep, the first Romanian to reach the summit of the women’s rankings.
