Daily Current affairs - December 1st, 2017 for all competitive exams
World AIDS day is being observed on December 1 since 1988.
- The day is celebrated every year all over the world on December 1st to raise the public awareness about Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS.
- World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day.
- It is a pandemic disease caused due to the infection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
- The World Health Organization will highlight the need for the 36.7 million people living with HIV and those who are vulnerable and affected by the epidemic, to reach the goal of universal health coverage.
Theme 2017 - Right to health
Slogan "Everybody counts"
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December 1 - Nagaland Statehood Day
Nagaland is all set to celebrate the 54th Statehood Day and the 18th Hornbill festival 2017 on December 01 at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama.
- President Ram Nath Kovind who is on a maiden visit to the state will grace the occasion and inaugurate the 10 day State Hornbill festival 2017.
Nagaland became the 16th state of India on 1 December 1963.
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The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year from 1 - 10 December, in Nagaland, Northeast India. It is also called the 'Festival of Festivals'. The festival is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state's tribes.
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December 1 - Border Security Force Raising Day
The Border Security Force (BSF) is the primary border guarding force of India.
It is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of the Union of India, it was raised in the wake of the 1965 War on 1 December 1965, “for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters connected there with”
- Border Security Force (BSF), the sentinels of Indian borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh, celebrated its 52st Anniversary of Raising Day on December 01.
The biggest border guarding force in the world, BSF came into existence on the eventful day of 1st December, 1965.
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Kathakar – International Storytellers Festival’ inaugurated in New Delhi
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju will inaugurate 7th edition of three day ‘Kathakar – International Storytellers Festival’ in New Delhi.
- Kathakar is the only oral storytelling festival in India and is a part of Ghummakkad Narain- the Travelling Literature Festival which was started under the aegis of UNESCO in 2010.
- The Festival is an attempt not only to preserve the art form but also create new audiences for the same.
- This year festival will be hosted in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Mumbai.
Kathakar is the only oral storytelling festival in India and is a part of Ghummakkad Narain- the Travelling Literature Festival which was started under the aegis of UNESCO in 2010.
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6th International Tourism Mart held in Guwahati
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in association with the North Eastern States is organising the “International Tourism Mart” (ITM) in Guwahati, Assam.
- The 6th International Tourism Mart, will put the spotlight on India’s “Act East Policy”, blossoming ties with ASEAN and the larger East Asia region, home to the world’s rapidly growing economies and India’s emerging tourism markets.
The International Tourism Marts are organised in the North Eastern States on rotation basis. The earlier editions of this mart have been held in Guwahati, Tawang, Shillong, Gangtok and Imphal.
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Cabinet approves investment cooperation and facilitation treaty between India and Brazil
The Union Cabinet has given its approval for signing and ratification of the Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Treaty (ICFT) between India and Brazil.
- The Treaty will result in increase of investment flows between the two countries. The ICFT between India and Brazil will provide appropriate facilitation to Brazilian investors in India and Indian investors in the Brazil.
- It is likely to increase the comfort level and boost the confidence of investors by assuring a level playing field and non-discrimination in all investment facilitation matters, thus providing conducive investment climate to investors. It would help project India as a preferred Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination to all Brazilian investors.
Cabinet approves MoU between India and Italy for cooperation in Agriculture and Phytosanitary issues
The Union Cabinet has approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Italy for cooperation in Agriculture and Phytosanitary issues. It replaces the earlier MoU signed in January, 2008 which is going to expire in January, 2018.
- The MoU provides for cooperation in the fields of Phytosanitary issues, agricultural production and a wide range of other sectors including animal husbandry, agricultural research, food processing and other additional fields as may be mutually decided by both the sides.
Cabinet approves setting up of National Nutrition Mission
The Union Cabinet has approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18.
The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the Ministries.
The proposal consists of
- Mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition
- Introducing a very robust convergence mechanism
- ICT based Real Time Monitoring system
- Incentivizing States/uts for meeting the targets
- Incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (awws) for using IT based tools
- Eliminating registers used by awws
- Introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (awcs)
- Social Audits
Setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others
- The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies. It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.
- More than 10 crore people will be benefitted by this programme. All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner i.e. 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20.
- Implementation strategy would be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right upto the grass root level. NNM will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20. NNM targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively. Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).
Cyclone Ockhi
The deep depression which had formed in the Bay of Bengal near Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu, bordering Kerala, has now intensified into a cyclonic storm named Ockhi.
The name Ockhi was given by Bangladesh which in Bengali means ‘eye’.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) started the tropical cyclone naming system in 2000.
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Haryana Government announces free sanitary napkins in all schools
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Miss World Manushi Chhillar announced that the state government will provide free sanitary napkins for all girls in government schools.
- Chhillar, who hails from Haryana, is spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene through her project ‘Shakti’.
- The initiative will cost the Haryana government Rs.18 crore.
- The state government will also launch a programme to prevent anaemia among children in the state and Chhillar will be the brand ambassador for the programme
Uttar Pradesh tops the tally of crime data of 2016 released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
For overall crimes, Uttar Pradesh’s rate is 1,293, more than 10 times its Indian Penal Code (IPC) rate. Delhi’s overall crime rate is 958, about the same as its IPC rate.
- Annual data released by NCRB for 2016 indicated that UP topped the list with rising rates of violence such as crime against women and murder.
- Uttar Pradesh recorded 16.1 per cent of murders (4,889) while Bihar recorded 2,581.
- UP recorded 49,262 cases of crimes against women, the highest among all other states.
- West Bengal occupied the second spot with 32,513 cases.
The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, set-up in 1986, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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Maharashtra most-corrupt state for 3 years in a row
Maharashtra has been the most corrupt state in India for three years in a row, as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.
- The state recorded 1,016 corruption cases in 2016, which is around 23% of the total corruption cases in India during the year.
- Odisha was placed second with 569 recorded corruption cases, while Kerala (430) was placed third.
NITI Aayog to set up special Women Cell for entrepreneurs
NITI Aayog has announced plans to set up a special Women Cell for handholding Women Startups and entrepreneurs.
- NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant stated that the centre will extend support to women entrepreneurs in a big way.
- ATAL Tinkering labs will be specially setup at schools that women own to promote innovation and instill entrepreneurship among women at early stage.
- Telangana State Government also announced a series of measures to encourage women entrepreneurship in the state.
Railways to accept payment through UPI at booking counters
Indian Railways will accept payments through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app for booking railway tickets from reservation counters.
- Adding that the system has currently been launched for reserved tickets
- Indian Railways is also working to develop Bharat QR code option for booking tickets.
- Present Indian Railways Minister – Piyush Goyal
India’s GDP growth surges to 6.3% in September quarter
India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rebound to 6.3% in September quarter from a three-year low of 5.7% in the June quarter, government data showed.
- However, the pace of growth is still below 7.5% recorded in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
- Further, the economy grew at 6.1% in Gross Value Added (GVA) terms.
Fiscal deficit hits 96% of FY18 target
India’s fiscal deficit at the end of October hit 96.1% of the budget estimate for 2017- 18, mainly due to lower revenue realisation and rise in expenditure
- In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was Rs. 5.25 lakh crore during April-October of 2017-18, according to data of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
- During the same period of 2016-17, the deficit stood at 79.3% of the target. For 2017-18, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2% of GDP.
- Last fiscal, it had met the 3.5% target. The CGA data showed that the government’s revenue receipts were at Rs. 7.29 lakh crore in the seven months of the current fiscal.
Clean Sea-2017 conducted at Port Blair
The Regional Level Marine Oil Pollution Response Exercise titled ‘Clean Sea – 2017’, was recently conducted at sea off Port Blair.
- The objective of the exercise was to ascertain preparedness of the Indian Coast Guard, resource agencies and other stakeholders in responding to a major oil spill in line with the provisions of NOS-DCP (National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan).
- Indian Coast Guard is responsible for marine environment protection in the maritime zones of India and is the coordinating authority for response to oil spills in Indian waters. The Force has drawn up a National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP) and has established three pollution response centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair.
- India promulgated National oil spill Disaster contingency plan (NOS-DCP) in the year 1996. Coast guard was designated as central coordination authority.
Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS)
An Indo-Spanish technical cooperation (government to government) agreement has been signed. This agreement will provide institutional mechanism for mutual cooperation in the field of urban transport and especially in implementation of Regional Rapid Transit Systems (RRTS) project.
- The agreement will enable availability of technical advice on specific issues, besides providing training and collaboration in the technical areas of Track, Signalling, Rolling Stock, Safety, Multi modal integration, station design etc.
- RRTS, first of its kind project in India, with design speed of 180 kmph will use state of the art technologies for track structure, rolling stock and signalling system. Expertise and experience in India on these technologies for higher speeds being limited, International expertise will be tapped for efficient implementation of project, operation of system and developing capacity in the country.
- RRTS will significantly reduce the travel time between important NCR towns. On completion, RRTS will emerge as the fastest, comfortable and safe mode of transport in NCR.
- RRTS consists of three corridors viz., Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat sections with a total length of 380 kms.
Baloch ads cleared in U.K.
#FreeBalochistan campaigners have hailed the decision by Britain’s advertising regulator to allow a billboard campaign by the organisation to remain in place, despite the decision by Transport for London earlier this month to remove advertising on buses and taxis.
- In a letter to the World Baloch Organisation, which is running the campaign in London, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) confirmed that it would not pursue the matter any further as there did not appear to be a breach of the code.
- The advertiser had a “right to express their views”, despite the issue of Baloch independence being a “politically sensitive” issue.
- The ASA’s role was to assess what appeared within the ads, rather than making a “broader judgment about the intent of the ad, or the political cause, being advertised”.
Hasina inaugurates nuclear power plant construction
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated construction work on the much-awaited Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Ishwardi, located in the western part of the country.
- The plant is expected to add 2,400 MW of electricity to the national grid by 2024, helping the country meet its increasing demand for electricity.
- The mega project is being implemented by state-run Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with financial and technological support from Russia through its state nuclear agency, Rosatom.
- Though India cannot directly take part in the construction of nuclear power plants — as it is not a member of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group — it has signed individual agreements with Bangladesh and Russia.
Nokia to develop 5G mobile technology at its Bengaluru R&D centre
Finnish telecom major Nokia would develop 5G mobile network technology in India at its expanded Research and Development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru.
- As the next telecommunication standard, the fifth generation or 5G mobile networks, which are being developed by global telcos, are expected to be rolled out by 2020.
RPower signs $1 billion pact for Dhaka project
Reliance Power has signed agreements to set up the first phase of the integrated 750 MW gas-based power plant at Meghnaghat near Dhaka and 500 mmscfd(Million standard cubic feet per day) LNG Terminal at Kutudbia Island in Bangladesh for $1 billion.
- This represents the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bangladesh and the largest investment in Bangladesh’s energy sector.
- The firm had signed an MoU in June 2015 with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to set up a 3,000 MW, integrated combined cycle gas-based power project and a 500 mmscfd LNG terminal, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka.
Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik creates world’s longest red ribbon before World AIDS Day
Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik now has another world record to his name. On the eve of World AIDS Day, Pattnaik created the world’s longest red ribbon on the Odisha’s famed Puri beach to generate awareness about the fatal disease.
- The red ribbon is the universal symbol of awareness and support for people living with HIV-AIDS.
- The Limca Book of Records took cognizance of Pattnaik’s feat and his name has been registered in the world record for the longest sand art ribbon.
Dia Mirza appointed as UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador for India
Former Miss Asia Pacific, actor, producer, entrepreneur and environmentalist, Dia Mirza, was appointed UN Environment’s Goodwill Ambassador for India.
- A long-standing supporter of environmental conservation, Dia will take up the role to add more weight to her work on raising awareness of and seeking solutions to the environmental issue.
- As a Goodwill Ambassador, Dia will work with the United Nations to further spread the message on priority areas including clean air, clean seas, wildlife protection and climate change.
Yuvraj Singh awarded doctorate by Gwalior-based University
Yuvraj Singh has been awarded a doctorate degree in Philosophy Honoris Causa (Ph.D h.c.) by a university based in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.
- The institute awarded the Doctorate to Yuvraj for his “extraordinary sporting prowess and as a catalyst of change with great integrity and humility.”
- Along with Yuvraj, ISRO Chairman Dr. A.S. Kiran Kumar, film director Govind Nihalani, poet and literary-cultural critic Dr. Ashok Vajpayi, television news personality Rajat Sharma (Media), chemical engineer Dr. R.A. Mashelkar and activist Aruna Roy also received the honour.
Former Chief Justice of India Adarsh Sein Anand passes away
Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Adarsh Sein Anand passed away after prolonged illness. He was 81.
- Anand was the 29th CJI and served from October 10, 1998 to October 31, 2001.
Former India woman cricketer Sreerupa Mukherjee passes away
Former Indian women’s cricket team player and Coach Sreerupa Mukherjee passed away after suffering cardiac arrest. She was 65.
- Sreerupa had played two One Day Internationals for India against New Zealand and was a long time Bengal captain.
- She was also the cricket manager of the Indian women’s team during three World Cups — 1993, 1997 and 2000.
- She was also a well-known sports commentator for Doordarshan and All India Radio through mid-1980’s and till late 90’s.
London to host world chess championship in 2018
London will host the world chess championship match on November 9-28 next year with the current incumbent Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
- The announcement was made at a reception in London hosted by the 26-year-old Carlsen and former UK finance minister George Osborne.
