Weekly Current Affairs
Manoj Mukund Naravane
- Lt Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane will be the next Chief
of Army Staff of India. Lt Gen Naravane will succeed Gen
Bipin Rawat, who will retire on the 31st December.
Boris Johnson - British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson has won the historic
UK General Election as his Conservative
Party crossed the magic number of 326 required for a majority in the
Parliament. He is re-elected as a Prime
Minister of UK.
Impeachment of Donald
Trump - Donald Trump has become the third
US President in history to be impeached by
the House of Representatives. The
impeachment will led to setting up a trial in the Senate that
will decide whether Trump will remain in office or not. The House of
Representatives formally charged Donald Trump with abuse of power. Only two
previous presidents have been impeached in the US history. The House in 1998
impeached President Bill
Clinton while
President Andrew
Johnson was impeached in 1868.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune -
Abdelmadjid Tebboune, former Prime Minister (PM) of Algeria was elected
as the President of Algeria succeeding Abdelkader
Bensalah.
Miss World 2019 -
Tony-Ann Singh of Jamaica was announced as the winner
of the Miss World 2019 beauty pageant held
at the ExCeL London.
Sahitya Akademi Awards
- Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Sahitya
Akademi Awards in 23 languages.
English - Shashi Tharoor – An Era of Darkness (Non-Fiction)
Hindi – Chheelate Hue Apne Ko (Poetry) – Nand
Kishore Acharya
R N Ravi - Nagaland
Governor R N Ravi has been given additional
charge of Meghalaya. The decision has been taken by the
President of India in the wake of the “absence of leave” of Tathagata Roy,
Governor of Meghalaya.
Ravi Mittal - IAS officer Ravi
Mittal took charge as the new Secretary,
Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
Devesh Srivastava -
Devesh Srivastava has been raised to the position of Chairman
and Managing Director (MD) at the General
Insurance Corporation India (GIC Re).
Sridhar Patra -
Sridhar Patra was appointed as the chairman-cum-managing director of National Aluminium Company
Ltd (NALCO).
SURYA KIRAN-XIV - A joint military
training exercise “SURYA KIRAN-XIV” was
held in Salijhandi, Rupendehi district of Nepal.
The exercise was conducted between the armies of India and Nepal.
HDFC Bank Touched
Milestone - HDFC Bank has become the 3rd
Indian firm to cross $100 billion mark in market
capitalisation. HDFC Bank has joined the league of Reliance
Industries Ltd, which has a market cap of $140.74 billion,
and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
that has a market cap of $114.60 billion. With this achievement, HDFC
Bank is now ranked 110th in the list of
world’s most valued companies. Among the
world’s most valued banks and financial companies which have a market cap of
over $100 billion, HDFC Bank is ranked at 26th position.
Global Gender Gap
Report - India has slipped four places to rank 112th globally
as per the Global Gender Gap Report 2020. The
report was released by World Economic Forum (WEF) headquartered
at Geneva. Iceland has topped the
report and remains the world’s most gender-neutral country while Yemen
was ranked the worst (153rd)
in the report.
National Broadband
Mission - The Union government has launched National
Broadband Mission to provide Broadband access to all
villages by 2022. The mission aims to connect
600,000 villages across India with an investment of Rs 7
lakh crore in the next 4 years from both government and
private sector. The mission is a part of the National
Digital Communications Policy, 2018.
Mind Master - Viswanathan
Anand has launched his autobiography ‘Mind
Master’. Anand’s autobiography is co-authored by sports
journalist Susan Ninann.
Rohit Sharma - The top tier of
Spanish club football “La Liga” has announced
cricketer Rohit Sharma as its brand
ambassador in India.
BrahMos - India successfully
conducted a developmental trial of the land-attack version of BrahMos
supersonic cruise missile from Chandipur Integrated Test
Range, off Odisha coast.
NEFT and RTGS - The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has waived NEFT,
RTGS transfer charges for savings
account holders. The new rule will be effective
from January 1, 2020.
FASTags - FASTags or prepaid
rechargeable tags for toll collection have become mandatory for all vehicles
from 15th December 2019.
National Ganga Council - Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has chaired the first meeting of the National
Ganga Council. The meeting was held in Kanpur, Uttar
Pradesh.
Gandhi Citizenship
Education Prize - Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio
Costa announced the setting up of a Gandhi
Citizenship Education Prize. Portugal will be launching a
Gandhi Citizenship Education Prize, each year inspired by his different
thoughts and quotes.
Conference of
Presiding Officers - Lok Sabha speaker Om
Birla inaugurated the 79th Conference of Presiding
Officers of Legislative Bodies. The conference was held
in Dehradun.
Vijay Diwas - The nation
celebrates 16 December as Vijay
Diwas to commemorate India’s
victory over Pakistan in 1971 war. The Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 which
began on December 3 lasted for 13 days and officially ended on December 16,
after which Pakistan surrendered to India.
Google Earth - Search engine
giant Google has revealed that it’s
powerful mapping service, Google Earth now covers more
than 98 per cent of the world. Google
Earth is the software that lets you browse the globe with 3D representation.
International Film
Festival - The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal
Nath will inaugurate the International Film Festival in Shilpkala
village of Khajuraho.
Indian peacekeepers -
Indian peacekeepers have been recognized for their strong contribution to building peace in conflict-affected South
Sudan as well as for going above and beyond their duties
to support local communities.
Best Performance in
PMGSY - Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been
selected for the national award by Union Rural
Development Ministry for best performance in the implementation of Pradhan
Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
Virtual Police Station - Chief
Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated
the Virtual Police Station at Andhra
University. This is the first such facility in the State
of Andhra Pradesh.
National Energy
Conservation Awards - Bureau of Energy Efficiency has organised
the “29th National Energy Conservation Awards” under the
guidance of Ministry of Power, Government of
India. India celebrates the National Energy Conservation Day every
year on 14th December to recognise and
celebrate the efforts towards energy conservation.
Nuad Thai - Thailand’s famous
2000-year-old massage, Nuad Thai was added to UNESCO’s
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) prestigious
heritage list.
Sustainable
Development Cell - The Coal Ministry will
establish ‘Sustainable Development Cell’ (SDC) for
promoting sustainable coal mining in the country.
Bharat Bond ETF - Edelweiss
Asset Management Company (AMC), a subsidiary of Edelweiss
Capital Limited (ECL) has launched India’s 1st Corporate Bond ETF
(exchange trade fund) called the Bharat
Bond ETF.
Danny Aiello - Veteran film
actor Danny Aiello, known for his roles
in the movies Do The Right Thing and The Godfather Part II passed away.
Carnival of Aalst - UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), has removed the ‘Carnival
of Aalst’ of Belgium from its Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity List.
Matrimonial Site for ITBP - In a unique approach,
the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has
started a dedicated matrimonial site for
its staff. The website started will be managed by ITBP and only the staff
will be able to access it.
GeM Samvaad - Government
e-commerce portal GeM has launched a national outreach programme,
“GeM Samvaad”, to bring on-board more local sellers.
Tansen Samaroh - In Madhya
Pradesh, popular classical music festival ‘Tansen
Samaroh’ began with traditional style in Gwalior.
Orange festival - Chief Minister N.
Biren Singh inaugurated the State-level Orange festival at
district Tamenglong in Manipur.
Tamenglong district is largest producer of orange fruit in Manipur.
President’s colours - The state police
of Gujarat were honoured with ‘President’s
colours’. They were presented the president’s colours for their
outstanding services. It is the highest honour given to a police force in
India. The previously awarded states were Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura and Assam.
BBC Sports Personality
of the Year - England cricketer Ben Stokes has
been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019.
ADB Loan - The Government
of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
have signed a $250 million loan for Energy
Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).
Shriram Lagoo - Veteran actor Shriram
Lagoo passed away.
International Migrants
Day - The International Migrants Day is
organized across the world on 18th December to protect the
rights of migrant workers and members of their families.
GST Council - The Goods
and Services Tax or GST Council has fixed a uniform tax
rate of 28% on both state-run
and private lottery.
Ek Bharat Shrestha
Bharat - Indian Railways has decided to grant 50% concession
for the youth participating in the “Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat” programme.
Madras Waste Exchange
- Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu launched India’s first waste exchange
platform namely “Madras Waste Exchange” (www.madraswasteexchange.com)
to buy and sell municipal solid waste online.
India and US 2+2
Dialogue - India and the US have signed an agreement to
facilitate the transfer of defence technology.
During a 2+2 dialogue held at
Washington DC, the top foreign affairs and defence leaders on growing strategic
relations between the world`s largest and most powerful democracies.
Jalsathi Programme - Odisha Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched
the ‘Jalsathi’ programme to ensure
supply of safe drinking water to all households in the state.
Connected Home over IP
- “Amazon.com Inc”, “Apple Inc” and Alphabet Inc’s “Google”
have announced a partnership to lay
the groundwork for better compatibility among
their smart home products. Zigbee
Alliance, whose members include IKEA and NXP Semiconductors among others, will
also contribute to the project, titled ‘Connected Home over
IP’.
Anti Hijacking Exercise - The Indian
Navy, in collaboration with Indian
Coast Guard, Cochin Port Trust and all other
concerned stakeholders, conducted a large-scale anti-hijacking exercise off the Port of Kochi.
Summit Development - Summit on “Environmental
Sustainability and Economic Development” was held in Delhi.
ADB and India Signed Agreement - The Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and the Government
of India has signed a $490 million loan.
The loan is signed for public-private partnership (PPP)
project through the hybrid-annuity model
(HAM) to upgrade about 1,600 km of state highways and
major district roads in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Pinaka - An upgraded version
of the indigenously developed Pinaka-guided rocket system with
enhanced strike range and guidance system was successfully test-fired from the
DRDO’s Proof and Experimental Establishment firing test range off Odisha coast.
The system has a maximum range of 40 km for Mark-I and 75 km for Mark-II and
can fire a salvo of 12 HE rockets in 44 seconds. It
is mounted on a Tatra truck for mobility.
Human Solidarity Day -
International Human Solidarity Day is organized across the world
on 20th December.
