Daily Current affairs - December 23rd, 2017 for all competitive exams
UNICEF has released the 2017 edition of its annual flagship
publication “The State of the World’s Children Report”.
Themed “Children in a digital world”, the latest report provides
country-level examples to give a sense of the kinds of barriers girls and women
confront.
- With
less than one-third of India’s internet users being females, the country’s
girls and women risk becoming further marginalised in society and at home
if they remain digitally illiterate in the backdrop of the country making
a public push towards a more digital economy.
- Globally,
12% more men than women used the internet in 2017. In India, where only
29% of all internet users are female, girls in rural areas often face
restrictions on their use of ICTs solely because of their gender.
- Digital
gender divide is caused by a number of factors — social norms, education
levels, lack of technical literacy and lack of confidence among them — but
is often rooted in parents’ concern for the safety of their daughters.
The United Nations
Childrens' Fund is a United Nations program headquartered in New York City
that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and
mothers in developing countries.
CEO: Anthony Lake
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India unveils anti-smog cannon in fight against Delhi pollution
With pollution levels in Delhi showing no signs of
improvement and the city having smog as one of the main issues faced, the state
government has introduced its latest weapon to combat the deadly smog.
- The
Delhi government has tested ‘anti-smog guns in the capital to deal with
the winter smog.
Anti-smog
gun is a device that sprays atomised water into the atmosphere to reduce air
pollution. Connected to a water tank and mounted on a vehicle, the device
could be taken across the city to spray water to settle dust and other
suspended particles.
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Ganga Gram Project
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has launched
the Ganga Gram Project under the Namami Gange Programme, for holistic
sanitation development in villages on the banks of River Ganga.
- These
villages will set the bench mark of cleanliness and integrated effort of
development. These will be converted into Ganga Grams by 31st December
2018.
Ganga Gram
vision is an integrated approach for holistic development of villages
situated on the banks of River Ganga with active participation of the
villagers. The objectives of Ganga Gram Project include solid and liquid
waste management, renovation of ponds and water resources, water conservation
projects, organic farming, horticulture, and promotion of medicinal plants.
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Namami Gange
programme was launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river
Ganga in an effective manner with the unceasing involvement of all
stakeholders, especially five major Ganga basin States – Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
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First-ever
transgender toilet inaugurated in Odisha
The Bhubaneswar
Municipal Corporation (BMC) has constructed Odisha’s first toilet facility
for transgender in Vani Vihar Square.
- The
facility was inaugurated by Culture and Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra
Panda, Bhubaneswar (north) MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, Mayor Ananta Narayan
Jena and Deputy Mayor K Shanti.
- The
10-seater toilet with one seat reserved for the transgender has been
India’s third such toilet facility.
- It
made Odisha India’s third state and Bhubaneswar, the third city after
Bhopal and Mysore to have toilet facility for this section of society.
Rajasthan government approves
1% reservation for Gujjars, 4 other castes
The
Rajasthan Government approved one percent reservation for members of the Gujjar
community and four other backward castes.
- Earlier
in August, the Rajasthan government decided to raise OBC reservation from
21 to 26 per cent for granting five per cent reservation to Gujjars and
four other castes.
- The
total reservation in the state stood at 49 per cent and this move was set
to once again cross the 50 per cent legal ceiling.
NGT notice
to Centre, Uttarakhand govt.
The
National Green Tribunal issued notices to the Uttarakhand government and the
Centre after a petitioner alleged that an unknown virus was adversely affecting
wildlife in the Himalayas.
- A
Bench headed by NGT acting Chairperson U.D. Salvi, issued notices to the
State government, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change and
the Ministry of Wildlife and Environment of Uttarakhand, over the
allegations.
- Petitioner
Gaurav Bansal claimed that the Himalayan blue sheep were affected by the
‘unknown virus.’
The biodiversity of
the Gangotri National Park in Uttarkashi is endangered because of an unknown
virus or disease. Furthermore, it is also important to mention that the
Himalayan blue sheep of the Gangotri National Park are getting blind because
of the said virus or disease
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The National Green
Tribunal has been established on 18.10.2010 under the National Green Tribunal
Act 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to
environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural
resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment
and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and
for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It is a specialized
body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes
involving multi-disciplinary issues.
National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (NGT), is an Act of the Parliament of India which enables creation of a special tribunal to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues.[3] It draws inspiration from the India's constitutional provision of Article 21, which assures the citizens of India the right to a healthy environment. |
Publish
first NRC draft for Assam by December 31: SC
The
Supreme Court is standing firm by its order directing the government and the
authorities to publish the first draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC)
for Assam by December 31, 2017.
- A
Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman shot down fears
expressed by the Centre that a volatile situation may arise if the draft
NRC was published on or before December 31.
- The
first draft is to be published after scrutinising the claims of
citizenship of 2.38 crore persons in the northeastern State.
The Supreme Court is
hearing a writ petition filed by Assam Public Works (APW) in July 2009 for
identification of Bangladeshi foreigners in the State and deletion of their
names from the voters’ list.
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Supreme
Court creates history with winter vacation bench
Creating a
first in its 67-year history as the final frontier of
justice, the Supreme Court set up two vacation benches for
disposal of urgent cases.
- The
cases are the where poor accident survivors and kin of victims have been
waiting for years to get compensation.
- In
the last few years, the SC has been able to bring down pendency.
India and
China had special representatives meet about peace
India and
China underlined the significance of maintaining peace and tranquillity along
the border pending a final resolution of the boundary question.
- The
countries held the 20th round of their special representative talks,
undertaking a“comprehensive review” of earlier rounds.
- This
was the first round of talks between the special representative’s national
security adviser Ajit Doval and China’s state councillor Yang
Jiechi since the Doklam standoff.
China
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Capital
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Beijing
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Currency
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Renminbi
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President
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Xi Jinping
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Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
In a sign that India’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
negotiations could slow further, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has
taken a strong stand that the country should restrain itself from concluding
any such pact from which it would not gain in the medium term. The Ministry has
called for observance of due restraint and not conclude trade arrangements
which are not to India’s medium term advantage.
- A
lot of India’s free trade agreements have not served as well as they could
have.
- The
statement is significant coming ahead of the ASEAN-India commemorative
summit to be held on January 25, where the issue of the long-delayed
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will likely take centre
stage.
RCEP is
proposed between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states
with which ASEAN has existing FTAs (Australia, China, India, Japan, South
Korea and New Zealand).
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UNSC imposes
new sanctions on North Korea, cuts off most fuel
The UN
Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North
Korea in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile.
- The
resolution adopted by the council includes the return home of all North
Koreans working overseas within 24 months and a crackdown on ships
smuggling banned items.
The United
Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of
the United Nations, charged with the maintenance of international
peace and security as well as accepting new members to the
United Nations
Council President:
Koro Bessho(Japan)
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Sun-like
star found eating its own planetary offspring
Researchers
have found evidence to show that a Sun-like star 550 light years from the earth
is slowly consuming its “offspring” — crushing one or more planets in its orbit
into vast clouds of gas and dust — like the ancient Greek god Cronus who
devoured his children.
- The
discovery that the star, RZ Piscium — located in the constellation Pisces
— is an insatiable “eater of worlds” was published in The
Astronomical Journal .
- The
researchers found the star’s temperature to be about 5,330 degrees Celsius
— only slightly cooler than the sun. The study also showed that the star
could be relatively young.
- The
discovery may shed light on a brief but volatile period in the history of
many solar systems, including our own.
Odorrana arunachalensis
Odorrana arunachalensis is a recently discovered frog
species from Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Subansiri district, one of the five
discovered in India in the recent times and the 59th in the world.
- The
species is sighted during the wet season, from April to September. They
are not seen in the dry seasons.
- It
is a genus of true frogs (Ranidae) from East Asia and surrounding regions
including India. This new species inhabits moss and fern covered rocky
stratum along hill streams in mixed wet tropical forest type.
The new
species was discovered from Talley Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS). Talley is
a plateau with dense forest of silver fir trees, pine clad plateau of
beautiful grandeur, and a vast wasteland.
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Amazon adds
Firefox browser to Fire TV and it supports YouTube
Amazon
rolled out Mozilla Firefox and Amazon Silk browsers to its Fire TV
devices.
- Major
company Amazon is compensating users after Google threatened to remove
YouTube from Fire TV.
- With
Fire TV, customers already have access to more than 500,000 movies and TV
shows.
Facebook
signs deal with music label Universal Music
Facebook
and record label Universal Music Group have signed a deal that will let users
of the social networking site share videos that have the label’s music in them.
- At
present, if Facebook’s users upload videos that contain Universal’s music,
the videos get taken down. The companies did not say when users would be
able to share music in videos.
- They
hinted that more music features could be coming soon.
Reliance Jio
emerges as the highest bidder for RCom assets
Reliance
Jio Infocomm Ltd appears to have emerged as the highest bidder for most of
the assets put on the block by the beleaguered Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance
Communications Ltd.
- The
Mukesh-Ambani led firm reportedly has its eye on RCom’s fibre assets,
spectrum and tower infrastructure.
Sundaram
arm’s FD gets ‘FAAA’ rating
Rating
agency Crisil has upgraded the fixed deposit (FD) rating of Sundaram BNP
Paribas Home Finance Ltd. to ‘FAAA’, the highest rating, with stable outlook.
- Sundaram
Home Finance has a deposit base of over Rs. 1,000 crore and close to
20,000 depositors. The company is looking to raise Rs. 2,000 crore this
year to fund its growth plans.
Prompt correction action (PCA)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has once again clarified that
prompt correction action (PCA) is imposed to encourage banks to improve their
financial health. The reiteration comes in the wake of rumours on social media
that some of the banks that are under PCA could be closed down.
- PCA
norms allow the regulator to place certain restrictions such as halting
branch expansion and stopping dividend payment.
- It
can even cap a bank’s lending limit to one entity or sector. Other
corrective action that can be imposed on banks include special audit,
restructuring operations and activation of recovery plan. Banks’ promoters
can be asked to bring in new management, too. The RBI can also supersede
the bank’s board, under PCA.
The PCA is
invoked when certain risk thresholds are breached. There are three risk
thresholds which are based on certain levels of asset quality, profitability,
capital and the like. The third such threshold, which is maximum tolerance
limit, sets net NPA at over 12% and negative return on assets for four
consecutive years.
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SKOCH award for Telangana
MA&UD
Municipal
Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department of Telangana State
has won two SKOCH awards for bringing major reforms and using latest
technologies for accurate assessment of properties and related taxes.
- The
initiative helped the government to demarcate the building area and assess
exact property tax for payment.
- Another
SKOCH award was received for introducing GIS based survey of property
taxes in Nalgonda town which witnessed cent per cent growth in property
tax collections without increasing taxes. They have also identified tap
connections which were earlier not under tax net.
Vijay Rupani
retained as BJP’s Gujarat chief minister, Nitin Patel his deputy
The BJP
decided to continue with Vijay Rupani as Gujarat’s chief minister, while
Nitin Patel will remain his deputy.
- The
decision was taken at a meeting supervised by Union finance minister Arun
Jaitley in Ahmedabad.
- In
the polls held earlier this month, Rupani won Rajkot West seat with over
53,000 votes and Nitin Patel retained his Mehsana seat.
Forbes Top 100 Indian
Celebrity List: Virat Kohli tops list among sportspersons
Virat
Kohli continues to remain head and shoulders above other sports personalities
in the latest Forbes list where they name the highest earners.
- India
skipper’s tally reads Rs 100.72 crore, putting him in third place in the
100 celebrities list, behind Bollywood actors Salman Khan (Rs 232.83
crore) and Shah Rukh Khan (Rs 170.5 crore).
- They
had finished top three in 2016 also but their cumulative earnings have
dropped by almost 20 per cent.
- PV
Sindhu, fourth in sports personalities list and 13th overall, is the
highest money gainer (in percentage terms) with her brand rising after the
2016 Olympic silver medal.
The methodology for
calculation of the figure and the subsequent rankings is based on estimates
of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities.
In order to
ascertain the figures, Forbes took independent estimates from industry
insiders, talent management agencies, film and TV production companies,
publishers, music industry professionals, sports consultants, advertising and
media agencies, brand marketers, celebrity managers and other relevant
experts.
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Kumi Naidoo is next Secretary
General of Amnesty International
South
African human rights activist Kumi Naidoo has been appointed as the next
Secretary General of Amnesty International.
- He
will take over from Indian activist Salil Shetty in August 2018. Mr.
Shetty has been heading the Amnesty since 2010.
- Kum
Naidoo, an Indian-origin born in Durban, was formerly International
Executive Director of Greenpeace.
- He
was also the Founding Chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty
and Secretary General and CEO of CIVICUS, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation.
Amnesty
International is the largest human rights movement globally, with a global
presence including offices in more than 70 countries, 2,600 staff and seven
million members, volunteers and supporters worldwide.
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Professor
Dhirendra Pal Singh takes the appointment as UGC chairman
Professor
Dhirendra Pal Singh, director, National Assessment and Accreditation
Council, takes the appointment as the chairperson of University Grants
Commission (UGC) by the Government of India.
- He
takes the appointment as the UGC chairman for a period of five
years, according to the order issued by the Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT).
- The
post has been lying vacant since April 2017 after the retirement of
professor Ved Prakash.
- Singh
has been serving as director of NAAC, an autonomous institution of
UGC since August 2015.
Actor
Ranveer Singh partners with EPL in India
Bollywood
actor Ranveer Singh has formed an official partnership
with English Premier League in India.
- The
Bollywood actor will help promote the Premier League to fans in the
country and globally.
- This
partnership with Ranveer will also strengthen the relationship between
the EPL and the ISL.
Rohit Sharma
equals David Miller’s record of fastest T20I hundred
Rohit
Sharma created history becoming the first Indian to score two tons in
T20 Internationals.
- Sharma
equalled South African David Miller’s record of fastest century in T20Is,
smashing a 35-ball ton against Sri Lanka in the second T20I in Indore.
- This
match also set a record for India as its highest score of 260 in T20I.
