General Affairs
PM Narendra Modi's Mantra To Win The Nobel Prize
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India has opened its most intense dialogue with the winners of one of the world's most prestigious awards, the Nobel Prize. Nine Nobel winners attending the Vibrant Gujarat summit will interact with hundreds of students and others at the Science City in Ahmedabad.
Opening the event on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his own mantra for a Nobel to students. "Be inspired and be daring, have courage and be your own person and don't imitate," he said.
"That is how our honoured guests succeeded and that is what you should learn from them," advised the Prime Minister.
India last won the Nobel Prize in Science more than 80 years ago, when CV Raman was honoured for his work in physics.
Nobel Laureates including India's Venkatraman Ramakrishnan are participating in a countrywide outreach program to engage with Indian scientists. This includes a five-week long exhibition on "ideas that changed the world" put up at the Science City by the Nobel Foundation.
About 150 schoolchildren specially selected after a countrywide contest will interact with the Nobel laureates.
India has won just four Nobel Prizes in the history of the award and in all, about 15 people of Indian origin have won, says Lars Heikenstein, Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden. Indian winners include Rabindranath Tagore, CV Raman, Amartya Sen and Kailash Satyarthi.
Earlier, speaking at the Indian Science Congress in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu declared a huge reward for the first person to win a Nobel Prize from his state - an extra 100 crores in prize money besides about $1 million given by the Nobel Foundation.
Opening the event on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his own mantra for a Nobel to students. "Be inspired and be daring, have courage and be your own person and don't imitate," he said.
India last won the Nobel Prize in Science more than 80 years ago, when CV Raman was honoured for his work in physics.
About 150 schoolchildren specially selected after a countrywide contest will interact with the Nobel laureates.
India has won just four Nobel Prizes in the history of the award and in all, about 15 people of Indian origin have won, says Lars Heikenstein, Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden. Indian winners include Rabindranath Tagore, CV Raman, Amartya Sen and Kailash Satyarthi.
Earlier, speaking at the Indian Science Congress in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu declared a huge reward for the first person to win a Nobel Prize from his state - an extra 100 crores in prize money besides about $1 million given by the Nobel Foundation.
At Vibrant Gujarat Summit, PM Narendra Modi Kurta, Jacket Is A Big Hit
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's signature short-sleeve kurtas and colourful jackets have become a fad at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit with a company putting up a stall here to sell 'Modi Kurta' and 'Modi Jackets'.
The biennial investor meet, touted as 'Davos of the East', has a host of companies putting up pavilions but the eye catcher is a stall by Jade Blue selling 'Modi Kurta' and 'Modi Jacket'.
The idea is not so much to clinch huge sales but rather to showcase and create awareness about the offerings, said a store representative.
The stall, he said, has generated an overwhelming interest among Indian as well as foreign delegates. In fact, the stall here even sold a few 'Modi jackets' to foreign delegates within hours of setting up.
Both 'Modi Kurta' and 'Modi jacket' are registered brands and are also available at Jade Blue stores across the country.
Priced at about Rs. 1,595 for kurta and about Rs. 5,900 for jackets, the brand is also available online on e-commerce platforms.
Another attraction at the stall is the selfie stand where customers can click a selfie with a Narendra Modi cut out.
PM Narendra Modi has turned the khadi kurta and Nehru bundi waistcoat into a chic accessory and Jade Blue is trying to encash on it.
The biennial investor meet, touted as 'Davos of the East', has a host of companies putting up pavilions but the eye catcher is a stall by Jade Blue selling 'Modi Kurta' and 'Modi Jacket'.
The stall, he said, has generated an overwhelming interest among Indian as well as foreign delegates. In fact, the stall here even sold a few 'Modi jackets' to foreign delegates within hours of setting up.
Priced at about Rs. 1,595 for kurta and about Rs. 5,900 for jackets, the brand is also available online on e-commerce platforms.
Another attraction at the stall is the selfie stand where customers can click a selfie with a Narendra Modi cut out.
PM Narendra Modi has turned the khadi kurta and Nehru bundi waistcoat into a chic accessory and Jade Blue is trying to encash on it.
BJP President Amit Shah Prays At Patna Sahib
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BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday prayed at the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib, the birthplace of the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.
"Amit Shah has bowed his head and offered prayers at the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib," a district police official said.
Amit Shah, who arrived in Patna on a day long visit to attend a function to release a book on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, was warmly welcomed by hundreds of party leaders and workers.
However, over 100 BJP supporters on motorcycles, who were part of the party brigade to escort Amit Shah from the Patna airport, violated traffic rules as they didn't wear helmets.
"Most of the slogan shouting BJP workers with flags and head bands violated traffic rules by not wearing helmets," police said.
Last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the main function of Parkash Utsav to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh here.
Guru Gobind Singh was born on December 22, 1666. He was anointed the supreme leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the last of the living Sikh gurus.
"Amit Shah has bowed his head and offered prayers at the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib," a district police official said.
Amit Shah, who arrived in Patna on a day long visit to attend a function to release a book on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, was warmly welcomed by hundreds of party leaders and workers.
Last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the main function of Parkash Utsav to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh here.
Guru Gobind Singh was born on December 22, 1666. He was anointed the supreme leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the last of the living Sikh gurus.
Mulayam Singh's Climbdown Has Desired Effect: A Meeting With Son Akhilesh Yadav
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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav walked over this morning from his Lucknow home to meet his estranged father Mulayam Singh Yadav next door - the houses are interconnected. The two huddled together for over 90 minutes in a meeting watched closely for signs of a reconciliation.
It is not known yet what happened at the one-on-one meeting between father and son. At the last such meeting between father and son, neither had yielded ground. Akhilesh Yadav is now meeting supporters at his office at 5 Kalidas Marg.
But today's meeting comes after a significant climbdown by Mulayam Singh, who said on Monday evening that, "Akhilesh will be the Chief Minister after the election, there is no confusion about it." he also said earlier in the day that "there is no dispute between my son and I."
Amid a bitter tussle for control of the party, Mulayam Singh has earlier asserted several times that only he will decide who will be the Chief Minister if the Samajwadi Party is re-elected in up, where assembly elections will be held in seven phases from next month.
There is another major difference today - Mulayam Singh's brother Shivpal Yadav and close aide Amar Singh are not present. Akhilesh Yadav's rebellion against his father is constructed around a demand that Shivpal and Amar Singh be removed from decision making; the young Chief Minister accuses them of instigating Mulayam Singh against him. Mulayam Singh has so far not indicated that he could meet his son's demand on his two associates.
On Akhilesh Yadav's side is another uncle Ram Gopal Yadav, who is accused by the Mulayam Singh camp of misguiding the son. Ram Gopal has spearheaded Akhilesh's solo campaign, calling a party meeting on January 1 in which the Chief Minister was declared Samajwadi Party president instead of his father. He also carried to the Election Commission six boxes of documents to prove that Akhilesh commands the loyalty of most party leaders and lawmakers and so is the real leader of the Samajwadi Party and must be assigned the party's "cycle" symbol to contest the UP elections.
As Mulayam Singh, who too met the Election Commission to stake claim to the party symbol on Monday, declared that there was no "rift" with his son, Ram Gopal urged the poll panel to take a quick decision on which faction would get the "cycle," indicating that team Akhilesh is no mood to bend.
To display that the party backs him, Akhilesh Yadav has held a series of meetings attended by the vast majority of his party's legislators and top leaders. Their signatures, pledging allegiance to him, have been furnished to the Election Commission to back his claim to the party symbol, the cycle. Mulayam Singh has filed his own petition, alleging that as the founder, the "cycle" belongs with him. The easy recall of the symbol among voters makes it election gold.
The Yadavs have danced around a compromise for weeks, only to circle back to their points of dispute. But for now, Mulayam Singh's remarks will allow his party to wonder anew if his son and he will find a way to ride the cycle in tandem.
It is not known yet what happened at the one-on-one meeting between father and son. At the last such meeting between father and son, neither had yielded ground. Akhilesh Yadav is now meeting supporters at his office at 5 Kalidas Marg.
But today's meeting comes after a significant climbdown by Mulayam Singh, who said on Monday evening that, "Akhilesh will be the Chief Minister after the election, there is no confusion about it." he also said earlier in the day that "there is no dispute between my son and I."
There is another major difference today - Mulayam Singh's brother Shivpal Yadav and close aide Amar Singh are not present. Akhilesh Yadav's rebellion against his father is constructed around a demand that Shivpal and Amar Singh be removed from decision making; the young Chief Minister accuses them of instigating Mulayam Singh against him. Mulayam Singh has so far not indicated that he could meet his son's demand on his two associates.
On Akhilesh Yadav's side is another uncle Ram Gopal Yadav, who is accused by the Mulayam Singh camp of misguiding the son. Ram Gopal has spearheaded Akhilesh's solo campaign, calling a party meeting on January 1 in which the Chief Minister was declared Samajwadi Party president instead of his father. He also carried to the Election Commission six boxes of documents to prove that Akhilesh commands the loyalty of most party leaders and lawmakers and so is the real leader of the Samajwadi Party and must be assigned the party's "cycle" symbol to contest the UP elections.
As Mulayam Singh, who too met the Election Commission to stake claim to the party symbol on Monday, declared that there was no "rift" with his son, Ram Gopal urged the poll panel to take a quick decision on which faction would get the "cycle," indicating that team Akhilesh is no mood to bend.
To display that the party backs him, Akhilesh Yadav has held a series of meetings attended by the vast majority of his party's legislators and top leaders. Their signatures, pledging allegiance to him, have been furnished to the Election Commission to back his claim to the party symbol, the cycle. Mulayam Singh has filed his own petition, alleging that as the founder, the "cycle" belongs with him. The easy recall of the symbol among voters makes it election gold.
The Yadavs have danced around a compromise for weeks, only to circle back to their points of dispute. But for now, Mulayam Singh's remarks will allow his party to wonder anew if his son and he will find a way to ride the cycle in tandem.
Admissions Under Economically Weaker Section, Disadvantaged Group Categories Begins Today
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Admissions to entry-level classes in Delhi under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Group (DG) categories will begin today, with the Delhi government announcing guidelines for the process.
"Admissions of EWS and DG category shall be made through computerised lottery system in the said schools against 25 per cent seats reserved. Filling of Unique Identification Number (Aadhaar Number) for online registration has been made compulsory for this session," said a notification by the Directorate of Education (DoE).
The application process for the two categories will begin today and will conclude on January 31. The first list will be displayed on February 28, and subsequent lists will come out on March 15 and 31.
Schools recognised by local authorities are not part of the online process and shall conduct admissions manually.
"Admission shall first be offered to eligible students belonging to EWS and Disadvantaged Group residing within 1 KM of the specific school. In case the vacancies remain unfilled, students residing within 3 KM of the school shall be admitted.
If there are still vacancies, then the admission shall be offered to other students residing within 6 KM of the school.
"Students residing beyond 6 KM shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within 6 KM area," the notification added.
Nursery admissions began on January 2 for 1,400 private schools while the guidelines for 298 private schools running on DDA land was announced last Saturday but the schedule has not been announced yet.
"Admissions of EWS and DG category shall be made through computerised lottery system in the said schools against 25 per cent seats reserved. Filling of Unique Identification Number (Aadhaar Number) for online registration has been made compulsory for this session," said a notification by the Directorate of Education (DoE).
The application process for the two categories will begin today and will conclude on January 31. The first list will be displayed on February 28, and subsequent lists will come out on March 15 and 31.
If there are still vacancies, then the admission shall be offered to other students residing within 6 KM of the school.
"Students residing beyond 6 KM shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within 6 KM area," the notification added.
Nursery admissions began on January 2 for 1,400 private schools while the guidelines for 298 private schools running on DDA land was announced last Saturday but the schedule has not been announced yet.
Business Affairs
Government Strongly Committed To Continuing Economic Reforms: PM Modi
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Strongly committing to continuing economic reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday promised to bring a paradigm shift in polity and economy by providing corruption-free regime and easing processes to make India the easiest place to do business.
Addressing the biannual Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, dubbed 'Davos of the East', that had Fortune 500 CEOs and global leaders in attendance, PM Modi said creating an enabling environment for business and attracting investments is his top priority.
"We have placed the highest emphasis on Ease of Doing Business," he said. "My government is strongly committed to continue the reform of the Indian economy."
Over the last two-and-a-half years, the government has worked relentlessly to realise India's potential and to set right the economy, he said, adding the results have been encouraging in substantial improvement in key macro-economic indicators like GDP growth, inflation, fiscal deficit, current account deficit as well as foreign investments.
"India has become the fastest growing major economy in the world. Despite the global slowdown, we have registered excellent growth. Today, India is a bright spot in the global economy. We are seen as the engine of global growth," he said.
Stating that highest emphasis has been placed on Ease of Doing Business, he said decisive steps to ease licensing processes and rationalise provisions and procedures relating to clearances, returns, and inspections have been taken.
"We are monitoring implementation of hundreds of action points across various sectors, aimed at improving the regulatory framework. This is part of our promise of Good Governance," he said.
As India moves closer to global best practices, the government's confidence has been boosted by the positive impact of our policies and practices. "This also gives us the motivation to further simplify our processes to become the easiest place to do business," he said.
"Every day, we are further rationalising our policies and procedures, to make it simple for businesses to establish and grow," he said. "We have liberalised our FDI regime in many sectors and in various ways. India is today among the most open economies."
The Prime Minister said the total FDI inflows since May 2014 have touched $130 billion, reflecting confidence of foreign investors in Indian economy.
Addressing the biannual Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, dubbed 'Davos of the East', that had Fortune 500 CEOs and global leaders in attendance, PM Modi said creating an enabling environment for business and attracting investments is his top priority.
"We have placed the highest emphasis on Ease of Doing Business," he said. "My government is strongly committed to continue the reform of the Indian economy."
Over the last two-and-a-half years, the government has worked relentlessly to realise India's potential and to set right the economy, he said, adding the results have been encouraging in substantial improvement in key macro-economic indicators like GDP growth, inflation, fiscal deficit, current account deficit as well as foreign investments.
"India has become the fastest growing major economy in the world. Despite the global slowdown, we have registered excellent growth. Today, India is a bright spot in the global economy. We are seen as the engine of global growth," he said.
Stating that highest emphasis has been placed on Ease of Doing Business, he said decisive steps to ease licensing processes and rationalise provisions and procedures relating to clearances, returns, and inspections have been taken.
"We are monitoring implementation of hundreds of action points across various sectors, aimed at improving the regulatory framework. This is part of our promise of Good Governance," he said.
As India moves closer to global best practices, the government's confidence has been boosted by the positive impact of our policies and practices. "This also gives us the motivation to further simplify our processes to become the easiest place to do business," he said.
"Every day, we are further rationalising our policies and procedures, to make it simple for businesses to establish and grow," he said. "We have liberalised our FDI regime in many sectors and in various ways. India is today among the most open economies."
The Prime Minister said the total FDI inflows since May 2014 have touched $130 billion, reflecting confidence of foreign investors in Indian economy.
Sensex Rises 173 Points, IndusInd Bank Beats Estimates In Q3
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Sensex rose over 150 points while the broader Nifty edged towards its important psychological level of 8,300 led by gains in auto, capital goods and metal shares.
The broader NSE index is up 0.61 per cent so far this year, but has moved in a narrow range as investors wait to see how earnings shape up in the latest quarter, given fears about the economic impact from government's move to ditch higher-value notes.
Sentiment was also subdued ahead of budget, scheduled on Feb. 1, and caution ahead of key global events such as Donald Trump's swearing-in as U.S. president later this month.
"Markets are consolidating like they have been in the past couple of weeks and are in a very narrow range as they wait for the quarterly results and for Donald Trump to take over as president of the U.S," said Dipen Shah, senior vice president, public client group research, Kotak Securities.
The Sensex ended 173 points higher at 26,900 and Nifty advanced 53 points to shut shop at 8,289.
Tata Motors was among the top Nifty gainers, the stock ended 3.55 per cent higher at Rs 518 after as JLR said on Monday sales rose 20 per cent to a record last year.
Hindalco, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were also among the gainers.
Among other gainers, Max Ventures and Industries jumped as much as 17.5 per cent to Rs 79.40, its highest since July 8. The company said it will sell 22.5 per cent stake to unit of New York Life Insurance Co for Rs 121 crore.
Private sector lender IndusInd Bank began third quarter earnings season. The bank's net profit rose 29 per cent to Rs 750.64 crore , beating analysts' estimates.
Sensex rose over 150 points while the broader Nifty edged towards its important psychological level of 8,300 led by gains in auto, capital goods and metal shares.
The broader NSE index is up 0.61 per cent so far this year, but has moved in a narrow range as investors wait to see how earnings shape up in the latest quarter, given fears about the economic impact from government's move to ditch higher-value notes.
Sentiment was also subdued ahead of budget, scheduled on Feb. 1, and caution ahead of key global events such as Donald Trump's swearing-in as U.S. president later this month.
The broader NSE index is up 0.61 per cent so far this year, but has moved in a narrow range as investors wait to see how earnings shape up in the latest quarter, given fears about the economic impact from government's move to ditch higher-value notes.
Sentiment was also subdued ahead of budget, scheduled on Feb. 1, and caution ahead of key global events such as Donald Trump's swearing-in as U.S. president later this month.
"Markets are consolidating like they have been in the past couple of weeks and are in a very narrow range as they wait for the quarterly results and for Donald Trump to take over as president of the U.S," said Dipen Shah, senior vice president, public client group research, Kotak Securities.
The Sensex ended 173 points higher at 26,900 and Nifty advanced 53 points to shut shop at 8,289.
Tata Motors was among the top Nifty gainers, the stock ended 3.55 per cent higher at Rs 518 after as JLR said on Monday sales rose 20 per cent to a record last year.
Hindalco, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were also among the gainers.
Among other gainers, Max Ventures and Industries jumped as much as 17.5 per cent to Rs 79.40, its highest since July 8. The company said it will sell 22.5 per cent stake to unit of New York Life Insurance Co for Rs 121 crore.
Private sector lender IndusInd Bank began third quarter earnings season. The bank's net profit rose 29 per cent to Rs 750.64 crore , beating analysts' estimates.
Will Complete Investment Of Rs 1.25 Lakh Crore In Gujarat By March: Mukesh Ambani
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Mukesh Ambani, India's richest person, on Tuesday said his Reliance Industries will complete investment of Rs 1.25 lakh crore in refinery and petrochemical expansion projects in Gujarat by March, exceeding commitments made by Rs 10,000 crore.
Speaking at the 8th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, he described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "a great transformative leader" who first transformed Gujarat and is now transforming India with a series of historic and visionary initiatives.
"No leader in the world has changed the mindset and behaviour of so many people in such a short period," he said as he went on to site examples of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Make in India, Skill India and Start Up India initiatives.
These initiatives, he said, have won the respect of the world and "no wonder this has resulted in India receiving its highest foreign direct investment (FDI)...in recent times."
Mr Ambani said Reliance will exceed the commitment it made on investing in projects in the state by Rs 10,000 crore.
"Our global scale of investment is an expression of our commitment and faith in the Gujarat story. Our cumulative investment in the state of Gujarat is over Rs 2,40,000 crore, that is over $45 billion. It is the biggest investment made by Indian corporate in a single state," he said.
Of this, Reliance has invested more than Rs 1,25,000 crore in Gujarat in the past four years. "I am happy to report that we have invested Rs 10,000 crore more than what we had committed (in previous Vibrant Gujarat Summits)."
"All these investments will be completed by March 2017. These investments provide sustained employment, both direct and indirect, to over 2 lakh people and contribute to Gujarat's export competitiveness," he said.
Talking about his group's recently launched high-speed 4G broadband and mobile network under Jio brand, he said in 2014-15, only 35 per cent of Gujarat's population had access to 3G network.
"But today, more than 90 per cent of the state population is covered by Jio and by Diwali, 100 per cent of the state will be covered," he said. "I am proud to say that Gujarat is the first state in India to cross the 50-lakh subscriber mark in Jio in less than 90 days. It proves that innovation in India always takes off from this great state."
In the coming year, Jio will connect lakhs of merchants and shops to create a commerce and payment network to support Prime Minister's cash-less digital vision, he said.
"Jio will connect all colleges and schools in Gujarat, so that all future generation students have access to information in the coming years. And Jio will connect all hospitals and medical facilities to create next generation health and medical infrastructure," Ambani added.
Reliance Foundation has committed Rs 150 crore to the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Petroleum University in Gujarat to make it one of the top institutes in India.
Gujarat has also attracted the highest FDI among all states and is the number one state in India in ease of doing business in 2015, he added.
Reliance is investing $16 billion in expanding petrochemical production.
Of this, $4.6 billion is for a project to convert petcoke produced by its refineries to synthetic gas; $4.5 billion for a refinery off-gas cracker to extract ethane, ethylene, propylene, butanes and propanes; $5 billion to expand polyester production; and $1.5 billion to import ethane from the US to replace costly propane imports and naphtha.
Speaking at the 8th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, he described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "a great transformative leader" who first transformed Gujarat and is now transforming India with a series of historic and visionary initiatives.
"No leader in the world has changed the mindset and behaviour of so many people in such a short period," he said as he went on to site examples of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Make in India, Skill India and Start Up India initiatives.
These initiatives, he said, have won the respect of the world and "no wonder this has resulted in India receiving its highest foreign direct investment (FDI)...in recent times."
Mr Ambani said Reliance will exceed the commitment it made on investing in projects in the state by Rs 10,000 crore.
"Our global scale of investment is an expression of our commitment and faith in the Gujarat story. Our cumulative investment in the state of Gujarat is over Rs 2,40,000 crore, that is over $45 billion. It is the biggest investment made by Indian corporate in a single state," he said.
Of this, Reliance has invested more than Rs 1,25,000 crore in Gujarat in the past four years. "I am happy to report that we have invested Rs 10,000 crore more than what we had committed (in previous Vibrant Gujarat Summits)."
"All these investments will be completed by March 2017. These investments provide sustained employment, both direct and indirect, to over 2 lakh people and contribute to Gujarat's export competitiveness," he said.
Talking about his group's recently launched high-speed 4G broadband and mobile network under Jio brand, he said in 2014-15, only 35 per cent of Gujarat's population had access to 3G network.
"But today, more than 90 per cent of the state population is covered by Jio and by Diwali, 100 per cent of the state will be covered," he said. "I am proud to say that Gujarat is the first state in India to cross the 50-lakh subscriber mark in Jio in less than 90 days. It proves that innovation in India always takes off from this great state."
In the coming year, Jio will connect lakhs of merchants and shops to create a commerce and payment network to support Prime Minister's cash-less digital vision, he said.
"Jio will connect all colleges and schools in Gujarat, so that all future generation students have access to information in the coming years. And Jio will connect all hospitals and medical facilities to create next generation health and medical infrastructure," Ambani added.
Reliance Foundation has committed Rs 150 crore to the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Petroleum University in Gujarat to make it one of the top institutes in India.
Gujarat has also attracted the highest FDI among all states and is the number one state in India in ease of doing business in 2015, he added.
Reliance is investing $16 billion in expanding petrochemical production.
Of this, $4.6 billion is for a project to convert petcoke produced by its refineries to synthetic gas; $4.5 billion for a refinery off-gas cracker to extract ethane, ethylene, propylene, butanes and propanes; $5 billion to expand polyester production; and $1.5 billion to import ethane from the US to replace costly propane imports and naphtha.
CPSE ETF To Raise Rs. 6,000 Crore In Second Tranche
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After nearly three years of launching CPSE ETF, the government will on January 17 initiate the second tranche of fund raising to garner up to Rs. 6,000 crore.
The issue size of follow on fund offer, which will open on January 17 and close on January 20, is Rs. 4,500 crore with a greenshoe option of Rs. 1,500 crore.
As much as 5 per cent discount will be given to anchor investors, for whom the issue will open on January 17, a top official said.
Besides, priority will be given to retail and pension funds at the time of allotment, the official added.
The government had first launched a CPSE ETF in March 2014 under which retail investors have to invest a minimum of Rs. 5,000 to buy units. It had raised Rs. 3,000 crore through the Exchange Traded Fund (EFT) then.
CPSE ETF, which functions like a mutual fund scheme, comprises scrips of 10 PSUs -- ONGC, Coal India, IOC, Gail India, Oil India, PFC, Bharat Electronics, REC, Engineers India and Container Corporation of India.
The fund-raising will help the government inch towards Rs. 56,500 crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal. It has already raised about Rs. 24,000 crore through share sale and buy backs so far this fiscal.
The issue size of follow on fund offer, which will open on January 17 and close on January 20, is Rs. 4,500 crore with a greenshoe option of Rs. 1,500 crore.
As much as 5 per cent discount will be given to anchor investors, for whom the issue will open on January 17, a top official said.
Besides, priority will be given to retail and pension funds at the time of allotment, the official added.
The government had first launched a CPSE ETF in March 2014 under which retail investors have to invest a minimum of Rs. 5,000 to buy units. It had raised Rs. 3,000 crore through the Exchange Traded Fund (EFT) then.
CPSE ETF, which functions like a mutual fund scheme, comprises scrips of 10 PSUs -- ONGC, Coal India, IOC, Gail India, Oil India, PFC, Bharat Electronics, REC, Engineers India and Container Corporation of India.
The fund-raising will help the government inch towards Rs. 56,500 crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal. It has already raised about Rs. 24,000 crore through share sale and buy backs so far this fiscal.
RBI Says Recommended Notes Ban After Government's Advice
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Contrary to popular belief, it was the Government which had "advised" the Reserve Bank to junk Rs 500/1,000 notes on November 7 and the board of the central bank the very next day recommended the demonetisation.
In a 7-page note to the Parliament's Department-Related Committee of Finance headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, the RBI stated that the Government had on November 7, 2016 "advised the Reserve Bank that to mitigate the triple problems of counterfeiting, terrorist financing and black money, the Central Board of the Reserve Bank may consider withdrawal of the legal tender status of the notes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000."
The RBI's Central Board met the very next day to "consider the Government's advice," and after "deliberations," decided to "recommend to Central Government that the legal tender status of the banknotes in the high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 be withdrawn."
Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met within hours of that recommendation on November 8 and banned circulation of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.
Some ministers have thus far maintained that the government had only acted on RBI recommendation of demonetisation.
In the note to the panel, RBI said it had been in the last few years working on introduction of new series of banknotes with improved security features to secure them against counterfeiting.
In parallel, the government had been taking steps to curb black money and combat terrorism.
"There were reports by intelligence and enforcement agencies that availability of high denomination banknotes made it easier for black money hoarders and counterfeited notes in high denominations were being used for terrorist financing," RBI said.
"It occurred to Government of India and the Reserve Bank that the introduction of new series of notes could provide a very rare and profound opportunity to tackle all the three problems of counterfeiting, terrorist financing and black money by demonetising the banknotes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 or by withdrawing legal tender status of such banknotes...
"Though no firm decision was taken initially, whether to demonetise or not, preparations still went on for introduction of new series notes, as that was needed in any case," the note said.
The central bank said it had as early as October 7, 2014 suggested to the government the need for introduction of 5,000 and 10,000 rupee notes, keeping in mind the inflation and the need for "facilitating payments and managing the currency logistics".
The government, it said, concurred with the introduction of Rs 2,000 notes on May 18, 2016.
RBI further said that it recommended to the government on May 27, 2016 that new series of bank notes with new designs, sizes, colors and themes including notes in the new Rs 2, 000 denomination be introduced.
"Government gave their final approval on June 7, 2016 and accordingly, the presses were advised in June 2016 to initiate production of new series notes.
"Since any new design notes or new denomination will catch the fancy of the public, it was decided that enough large quantities of Rs notes of 2,000 will be printed so that across the country such new notes can be issued simultaneously," it said.
Stating that when the stock of new notes printed was reaching a critical minimum, the decision to withdraw the legal tender could be made, RBI said the government, in its November 7 advice, mentioned that "cash has been a facilitator of black money since transactions made in cash do not leave any audit trail."
"Elimination of black money will eliminate the long shadow of the ghost economy and will be positive for India's growth outlook. They also observed that in the last 5 years, there has been an increase in the circulation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes with an increasing incidence of counterfeiting of these notes," the Parliamentary panel was told.
"There have been widespread reports of the usage of FICN (Fake Indian Currency Note) for financing of terrorism and drug financing. The Fake Indian Currency Notes have their origin in neighboring country and pose a grievous threat to the security and integrity of the country. Hence the government has recommended that the withdrawal of the legal tender character" of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, it said.
In recommending demonetisation, the RBI board "observed that such a proposal could not have come at a more opportune time than coinciding with the introduction of the MG (New) series of notes. With these, the existing banknotes can be summarily withdrawn, and the new design notes with more counterfeit resistance features be introduced."
RBI said it might not have been immediately possible to replace these notes fully in terms of both value and volume on one to one basis, within a specific time.
"However, the stock of Rs 2000 denomination were arriving in RBI offices and were being dispatched to currency chests across the country and that could enable meeting a significant critical portion of the physical demand there from in value terms.
"Besides, electronic means of transaction were expected to take another part of the transaction load hitherto met from physical currency. Further, the available stock of other denominations at RBI and currency chests would also help meet demand," it said.
In a 7-page note to the Parliament's Department-Related Committee of Finance headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, the RBI stated that the Government had on November 7, 2016 "advised the Reserve Bank that to mitigate the triple problems of counterfeiting, terrorist financing and black money, the Central Board of the Reserve Bank may consider withdrawal of the legal tender status of the notes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000."
The RBI's Central Board met the very next day to "consider the Government's advice," and after "deliberations," decided to "recommend to Central Government that the legal tender status of the banknotes in the high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 be withdrawn."
Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met within hours of that recommendation on November 8 and banned circulation of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.
Some ministers have thus far maintained that the government had only acted on RBI recommendation of demonetisation.
In the note to the panel, RBI said it had been in the last few years working on introduction of new series of banknotes with improved security features to secure them against counterfeiting.
In parallel, the government had been taking steps to curb black money and combat terrorism.
"There were reports by intelligence and enforcement agencies that availability of high denomination banknotes made it easier for black money hoarders and counterfeited notes in high denominations were being used for terrorist financing," RBI said.
"It occurred to Government of India and the Reserve Bank that the introduction of new series of notes could provide a very rare and profound opportunity to tackle all the three problems of counterfeiting, terrorist financing and black money by demonetising the banknotes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 or by withdrawing legal tender status of such banknotes...
"Though no firm decision was taken initially, whether to demonetise or not, preparations still went on for introduction of new series notes, as that was needed in any case," the note said.
The central bank said it had as early as October 7, 2014 suggested to the government the need for introduction of 5,000 and 10,000 rupee notes, keeping in mind the inflation and the need for "facilitating payments and managing the currency logistics".
The government, it said, concurred with the introduction of Rs 2,000 notes on May 18, 2016.
RBI further said that it recommended to the government on May 27, 2016 that new series of bank notes with new designs, sizes, colors and themes including notes in the new Rs 2, 000 denomination be introduced.
"Government gave their final approval on June 7, 2016 and accordingly, the presses were advised in June 2016 to initiate production of new series notes.
"Since any new design notes or new denomination will catch the fancy of the public, it was decided that enough large quantities of Rs notes of 2,000 will be printed so that across the country such new notes can be issued simultaneously," it said.
Stating that when the stock of new notes printed was reaching a critical minimum, the decision to withdraw the legal tender could be made, RBI said the government, in its November 7 advice, mentioned that "cash has been a facilitator of black money since transactions made in cash do not leave any audit trail."
"Elimination of black money will eliminate the long shadow of the ghost economy and will be positive for India's growth outlook. They also observed that in the last 5 years, there has been an increase in the circulation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes with an increasing incidence of counterfeiting of these notes," the Parliamentary panel was told.
"There have been widespread reports of the usage of FICN (Fake Indian Currency Note) for financing of terrorism and drug financing. The Fake Indian Currency Notes have their origin in neighboring country and pose a grievous threat to the security and integrity of the country. Hence the government has recommended that the withdrawal of the legal tender character" of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, it said.
In recommending demonetisation, the RBI board "observed that such a proposal could not have come at a more opportune time than coinciding with the introduction of the MG (New) series of notes. With these, the existing banknotes can be summarily withdrawn, and the new design notes with more counterfeit resistance features be introduced."
RBI said it might not have been immediately possible to replace these notes fully in terms of both value and volume on one to one basis, within a specific time.
"However, the stock of Rs 2000 denomination were arriving in RBI offices and were being dispatched to currency chests across the country and that could enable meeting a significant critical portion of the physical demand there from in value terms.
"Besides, electronic means of transaction were expected to take another part of the transaction load hitherto met from physical currency. Further, the available stock of other denominations at RBI and currency chests would also help meet demand," it said.
General Awareness
Latest Current Affairs - December 2016
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Appointments
A. K. Dhasmana is appointed as new Chief of Research& Analysis Wing (RAW). Rajiv Jain is appointed as chief of Intelligence Bureau.- Actor Salman Khan named as ambassador of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation' drive against open defecation and litter under Swatch Bharat Mission.
- Actress Priyanka Chopra named as brand ambassador for Assam tourism.
- Adwaita Gadanayak has been appointed as Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA).
- Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa will be new Chief of Indian Air Force, on retirement of Current IAF Chief Arup Raha.
- Airline AirAsia India appointed Amar Abrol as Managing Director.
- Akbar Ebrahim elected as president of Chennai based Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).
- Akshaykumar M Kale elected as President of 90th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan.
- Alexander Van der Bellen elected as new president of Austria.
- All India Football Federation President Praful Patel has been appointed as a Senior Vice-President of Asian Football Confederation.
- Anil Baijal has been appointed as 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, by Prez Pranab Mukherjee.
- Anil Kumar Jain appointed as National President of The Bharat Scouts and Guides.
- Antonio Guterres (Portugal) appointed as 9th UN Secretary General, replacing Ban Ki-moon.
- B.S. Bhullar has been appointed as chief of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
- Barbara Jatta chosen by Pope Francis as first woman to head Vatican Museums. She is now highest-ranking female administrator in Vatican City.
- Bernard Cazeneuve has been named as new Prime Minister of France.
- Bipin Rawat is appointed as as new Chief of Indian Army, to take office from Jan 1, 2017 after succeeding Dalbir Singh Suhaag.
- German luxury car manufacturer Audi appointed Rahil Ansari as head of Audi India.
- Girija Vaidyanathan is appointed as new Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu.
- Hwang Kyo-ahn became acting President of South Korea.
- IDFC Bank appointed Veena Mankar as Non-Executive Chairperson.
- Indian Actress Priyanka Chopra was appointed as UNICEF’s Global Goodwill Ambassador.
- Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has appointed Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Singh Chautala as its life presidents.
- Indian-American PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi appointed as a member of US President elect Donald Trump’s 19-member Strategic and Policy Forum.
- Indian-origin Saudi-based entrepreneur Shaikh Rafik Mohammed Major General of Kyrgyzstan.
- J Ravichandran has been appointed as interim MD & CEO of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).
- Jagdish Singh Khehar will be next (44th) Chief Justice of India. He will succeed TS Thakur.
- MSME-focused financing firm Vistaar Financial Services appointed former Sebi chief C B Bhave as non-executive Chairman and Independent Director.
- Maha Vajiralongkorn became King of Thailand, after his Father Bhumibol Adulyadej died (Follwoing a record 70 years reign).
- Mian Saqib Nisar appointed as 25th Chief Justice of Pakistan.
- Nana Akufo-Addo won presidential election of Ghana (West Africa).
- National Party’s Bill English has been appointed as new (39th) Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Naveed Mukhtar is appointed as new chief of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
- Navy Chief Sunil Lanba is appointed as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff committee (COSC).
- Nigeria’s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of United Nations.
- P R Sreejesh appointed as Goalkeeping coach of Under - 21 Hockey Team.
- P.V. Ramesh Babu appointed as Chairman & Managing Director as Rural Electrification Corporation of India.
- Paolo Gentiloni has been named as Italy’s new Prime Minister.
- Praful Patel re-elected as president of All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the term 2017-2020.
- Praveen Mahajan became first woman President of All India Tennis Association (AITA).
- Pulkit Trivedi appointed as industry director of Facebook’s India Business.
- Rajendra Kumar is appointed as a Member of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
- Rakesh Asthana appointed as Director in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
- Ravindra Gupta appointed as New Member (Rolling Stock), Railway Board.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue new Rs 500 denomination banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi (new) series with inset letter 'R'. Earlier, Notes were issued with inset letter 'E' after demonetisation.
- SP Vaid is appointed as Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police.
- Savita Vaidhyanathan became first Indian-American woman to get elected as new Mayor of key Californian city of Cupertino.
- Cupertino is known globally known for Apple headquarters situated in it.
- Shavkat Mirziyoyev elected as new President of Uzbekistan (Central Asia).
- Soli J Sorabjee re-elected as President of cultural institution India International Centre (IIC).
- Sorin Grindeanu is appointed as new Prime Ministerof Romania.
- Sultan Muhammad V appointed as King of Malaysia.
- Sunil Arora is appointed as Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA).
- Sunil Taldar has been appointed as Chief of Airtel's DTH business.
- Takam Pario elected as the new Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
- US Electoral College formally elected Donald Trump as President. He secured the 270 votes needed to formalise his victory. Under US law, electors must formally vote for the president and vice-president before they can lead the country.
- US President elect Donald Trump named Thomas Bossert as His Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
- US President elect Donald Trump picked ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as USA's Secretary of State.
- US based soft drink maker Coca-Cola named James Quincey as new CEO. Muhtar Kent stepped down as CEO but will continue to be chairman of board.
- Uttar Pradesh government appointed Deepak Agarwal as CEO of Noida Authority.
- V G Kannan appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
- V.K. Sasikala appointed general secretary of Tamilnadu's Polictical Party AIDMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam).
- VK Sharma is appointed as Chairman of Life Insurance Corporaion of India (LIC) for 5 years.
- Vijay Sazawal, Indian-American expert on India-US civil nuclear deal has been re-appointed to Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee (CINTAC) of US Department of Commerce.
- Vinod Vashisht appointd as Director General of National Cadet Corps (NCC).
- Viral V Acharya is appointed as new Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- He will fill post that fell vacant after Urjit Patel being mde made RBI Governor.
- Other 3 Deputy Governors of RBI are - S S Mundra, R Gandhi and N S Vishwanathan.
Awards
- Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank won two awards for inclusive insurance from Skoch Group for 2016 - life insurance and micro insurance sectors. Corporation Bank also won SKOCH silver award for being top channel partner of LIC of India for past three years.
- To ensure greater participation in financial inclusion in rural areas, Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) Launched Bank Sakhi Scheme as to promote cashless transaction.
- Priyanka Chopra Ranked 55th in IMDb's most popular celebrities’ list. She is only Indian in List, which is Topped by Algerian Artist Sofia Boutella. Priyanka also became first Indian to be appointed as global ambassador of the hair care brand Pantene.
- 23rd Star Screen Awards, hosted by Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan -
- Shoojit Sircar Directed Pink won four awards - Best Film, Best Actor (Amitabh Bachchan), Best Editing - Aditya Bannerji, Best Dialogue - Ritesh Shah.
- Actor Shahrukh Khan conferred honorary doctorate (honorary PhD) at 6th convocation of Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad.
- Amrican Singer Katy Perry honoured with Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award for her work as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
- Autobiography of Indian Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar Playing it my way won Crossword Book of the Year Award in Autobiography category.
- Badminton Player PV Sindhu won Badminton World Federation (BWF) 2016's Most Improved Player of Year award in Dubai
- Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh chosen for prestigious Jnanpith Award for 2016. He is 52nd Overall and 6th Bengali recipient of this honour.
- Bharat Earth Movers Limited Ltd (BEML) won ‘CII National Quality 2016 Award', jointly instituted by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Export Import Bank (EXIM).
- British Multimedia artist Helen Marten won Turner Prize (Britain’s top award for contemporary art). Marten also earlier won inaugural Hepworth Prize.
- Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (Tamil Nadu) selected for Digital India Silver Award by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in Most Innovative Citizen Engagement category.
- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos honoured with Lampara peace prize or Catholic Nobel for his efforts to reach FARC deal and establish Peace in his Nation.
- Corporation Bank won ‘Best MSME Bank Award 2016’ and Vijaya Bank won ‘Best Bank for SME Lending award’ by Assocham.
- Cricketer Sunil Gavaskar honored with Golden Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award by Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM).
- Dec 1 - Raising day of Border Security Force. It was raised on Dec 1, 1965.
- Defence PSU BEML conferred with CEPM Fellowship Award 2016 for its commitment in transforming and driving organisational capabilities through human-centric approach.
- Hindi writers Shraddha and Ghyansham Kumar Devansh chosen for Bharatiya Jnanpith Navlekhan Award for 2016. Shraddha was chosen for her short story Hawa Mein Phadphadati Chitthi and Devansh for his poem Akash Mein Deh. Bharatiya Jananpith Navlekhan award is given by Bharatiya Jnanpith trust to young authors in Hindi for their first creations.
- IAAF World Athlete of the Year Awards 2016 -
- Male - Usain Bolt (Jamaica). Awarded for sixth time.
- Female - Almaz Ayana (Ethiopia).
- Other Awards -
- Rising Star- Canada's Andre De Grasse (Male), Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam (Female).
- President’s Award - Tegla Loroupe.
- Women in Athletics - Polyxeni Argeitaki (Greece)
- India's Srinidhi Shetty won Miss Supranational 2016 title held in Poland.
- Indian filmmaker Onir's documentary Raising The Bar won Award of Recognition at Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards.
- Indian music Director A.R. Rahman nominated for Academy Awards (89th Oscars Awards) for his composition of title track of 'Pele: Birth of a Legend'. He has been nominated in Best Original Score and Best Original Song Categories.
- Rahman has won an Oscar for his music 'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2009 (Song Jai Ho).
- Indian origin British chemistry professor and DNA expert at Cambridge University Shankar Balasubramanian received Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for their contributions.
- Indian physicst Kavita Sanghvi named among top 50 shortlisted for Global Teacher Prize 2017 by Varkey Foundation.
- Jeje Lalpekhlua named as 2016 All India Football Federation (AIFF) Player of the Year.
- Kaisa Matomaki (Finland) and Maksym Radziwill (Canada) jointly won 2016 SASTRA-Ramanujan award, for their collaborative work on short intervals in number theory in Mathematics. It was announced during International Conference on Number Theory at SASTRA University at Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu). Kaisa Matomaki is first woman to receive this prize since it began in 2005.
- Kolkata City (West Bengal) won C40 Award for best solid waste management improvement project of 2016 during C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City.
- La La Land (Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling) chosen as Best film in 2016 New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
- Lord's Cricket Ground's top 20 players 2016 List -
- Indian Player Virat Kohli is ranked at top, Followed by Jonny Bairstow (England), Ravichandran Ashwin (India) and Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka).
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare won gold in the Web Ratna category at 2016 Digital India awards.
- Noted Hindi poet Leeladhar Jagoori will be honoured with Gangadhar National Award for 2015 by Sambalpur University (Odisha).
- Portugese Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo won 2016 FIFA Ballon d’Or Award (world’s best football player). He won it for fourth time (Earlier in 2008, 2013 and 2014).
- Rajasthan Patrika's Varun Bhatt and The Week have been jointly awarded International Press Institute’s (IPI) India Award for Excellence in Journalism 2016.
- Rajasthani litterateur Satya Narayan chosen for 26th Bihari Puraskar 2016 by K K Birla Foundation, for his Hindi book Yeh Ek Dunia.
- SIES-Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati National Eminence Awarda 2016 -
- Science & Technology - A S Kiran Kumar (ISRO chairman).
- Public Leadership - Devendra Fadnavis (Mahrashtra Chief Minister)
- Social Thinkers, Philosophers and Pravachana Karthas - Kamala Murthy (Hari Katha exponent)
- International - John Marr (UK Based scholar in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu)
- Sahitya Academy Awards 2016 -
- 24 poets and authors will be conferred 2016 Sahitya Akademi Awards - 8 poetry, 7 short stories, 5 novels, 2 criticism books and 1 book each of essays and play. Winners are -
- Play - Swarajbir (Punjabi).
- Essay - Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri (Bengali).
- Criticism - Aziz Hajini (Kashmiri) and Nizam Siddiqui (Urdu).
- Short stories - Chahatrapal (Dogri), Shyan Darihare (Maithili), Moirangthem Rajen (Manipuri), Asaram Lomate (Marathi), Paramita Satpathy (Odia), Bulaki Sharma (Rajasthani) Vannadhasan (Tamil).
- Poetry - Jnan Pujari (Assamese), Anju (Bodo), Kamal Vora (Gujarati), Prabha Varma (Malayalam), Sitanath Acharya (Sanskrit), Gobinda Chandra Majhi (Santhali), Nand Javeri (Sindhi) and Papineni Sivasankar (Telugu).
- Scottish tennis player Andy Murray won BBC sports personality of Year 2016 Award. He became =first person to win it 3 times.
- Stephanie del Valle of Puerto Rico named as winner of Miss World 2016 beauty Pageant held in USA. First runner-up was Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramirez of Dominican Republic, followed by Natasha Mannuela of Indonesia.
- Tata Sons interim Chairman Ratan Tata presented with ‘Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2016’ of Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA).
- Three Indian-origin teenagers - Shriya and Adhya (Twins) and Vineet Edupuganti won scholarship of USD 1 lakh for their innovative research in 17th annual Siemens Math, Science and Technology Competition.
- UAE based Indian environmental activist Kehkashan Basu won 2016 prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize.
- US President Elect Donald Trump has been named as TIME's Person of The Year 2016. Although indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won online reader’s poll for TIME magazine’s Person of Year 2016 with 18% votes.
- US Secretary of State John Kerry has been has been awarded Officer of the Legion of Honour, highest French civilian honour.
- USA Magazine Esquire named Indian Actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh as International women and man of the year 2016, respectively.
- Vijaya Bank named as Best Bank for SME Lending at 4th SMEs Excellence Awards by Associate Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
- e-Com Firm Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have been named as Asian of the Year 2016 by Singapore-based newspaper The Straits Times as part of a group called the The Disruptors.
Books
- Book Betiyan by Kiran Chopra (Founder of Varishth Nagrik Kesari Club), has been released.
- Book Courts of India- Past to Present has been released. It is compiled by Supreme Court Editorial Committee headed by SA Bobde.
- Book Dipa Karmakar: The Small Wonder has been authored by Vimal Mohan, Digvijay Singh Deo and Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi.
- Book Emperor Chandragupta, authored by Adity Kay has been released.
- Book I am a troll, authored by Swati Chaturvedi has been released.
- Book India-US Relations in the Age of Uncertainty: An uneasy courtship, authored by BM Jain has been launched.
- Book Many Everest : An Inspiring Journey of Transforming Dream into Reality, by Ravindra Kumar. He is a 2011 batch IAS officer and Mount Everest climber.
- Book The Other One Percent: Indians in America, authored by Sanjoy Chakravorty and Devesh Kapur has been released.
- Book Watership Sown has been authored by Richard Adams.
- Online book retailer Amazon named Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as best-selling book of 2016, written by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.
Committees
- According to report by Committee on Science and Technology headed by Renuka Choudhary, there is alarming rise in forest fires across India.
- It says that number of forest fires have touched 24,817 in 2016 from 15,937 fires in 2015. It shows rise of 55% in past year.
- Recommendations Include Forming National policy on managing forest fires, large-scale incentives and programmes (including under MNREGA) to collect pines for use as fuel, and other incineration.
- Committee on Digital Payments under Chairmanship of Ratan P. Watal (Principal Advisor IN NITI Aayog) submitted its Report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
- Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) constituted a committee to fight against online piracy. Committee will be chaired by Ajit Mohan (Hotstar).
- Ministry of Law and Justice constituted Committee to review institutionalisation of arbitration mechanism in India, under B N Srikrishna.
- Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice asked for transparency in appointment process on SC Judges. Committee was headed by Deputy Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha), Anand Sharma.
- Water Resources Ministry reconstituted a committee meant to assist Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). New committee will be headed by A.K. Bajaj, former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC).
- government formed committee to look into all the strategic aspects of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan. It will be headed by Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra.
Days
- 11 December: International Mountain Day. 2016 theme is Mountain Cultures: Celebrating diversity and strengthening identity.
- Dec 1 - Statehood day of Northeastern state of Nagaland. Hornbill Festival began in Naga Heritage village of Kisama on this occasion.
- Dec 1 - World AIDS Day. 2016 theme is Hands up for #HIVprevention.
- Dec 10 - UN Human Rights Day. 2016 Theme is Stand up for someone’s rights today.
- Dec 12 - WHO's Universal Health Coverage Day.
- Dec 14 - National Energy Conservation Day.
- NTPC approved replacing around 11,000 MW of its old, inefficient thermal power plants with new plants in about five years, with investment of 50,000 crores.
- Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines - Piyush Goyal gave away National Energy Conservation Awards for 2015-16. Out of total 156 Awardees, Railways won highest (27) awards.
- Dec 16 - Vijay Diwas. It marks India's Huge military victory over Pakistan in 1971 during Bangladesh Liberation War.
- Dec 18 - International Migrants Day.
- Dec 19, 2016- 55th liberation Day of State of Goa.
- Dec 2 - National Pollution Control Day (NPCD).
- Dec 2 - UN International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
- Dec 20 - United Nations International Human Solidarity Day.
- Dec 22 - National Mathematics Day. In 2016, It marks 129th Birth Anniversary of great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
- Dec 23 - Kisan Diwas (Farmer's Day).It marks birth anniversary of fifth prime minister of India - Chaudhary Charan Singh.
- Dec 24 - National Consumer Day. It marks Dec 24, 1986 when Consumer Protection Act received assent of the President. 2016 theme is Alternate Consumer Disputes Redressal.
- On This occasion, Government launched ‘Smart Consumer’ mobile App and an ‘Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)’ to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances. Helpline 14404 was also launched for consumer related grievances.
- Dec 25 - Good Governance Day. It Marks Birth Anniversary of Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal launched 'Atal-Amrit Abhiyan' Scheme across State, as a health assurance scheme which will give comprehensive coverage for six diseases and cover all individuals in eligible families with annual income below Rs 5 lakh.
- JUTE-SMART portal Launched to facilitate purchase of Jute bags from Jute Industry by State Procurement Agencies.
- Dec 3 - Birth Anniversary of Dr. Rajendra Prasad (First President of India).
- Dec 3 - United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 2016 theme is Achieving 17 goals for the future we want.
- Dec 4 - 45th Indian Navy Day.
- Dec 5 - United Nations (UN) International Volunteer Day. 2016 theme is Global Applause - give volunteers a hand.
- Dec 5 - World Soil Day. 2016 theme is Soils and pulses, a symbiosis for life.
- Dec 6 - Death Anniversary of B R Ambedkar, framer of Indian Constitution. Government will observe B R Ambedkar's birth anniversary (April 14) as Water Day.
- Dec 7 - Armed Forces Flag Day.
- Dec 7 - UN International Civil Aviation Day. 2016 Theme is Working together to ensure no country is left behind.
- Dec 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD). 2016 Theme is United against corruption for development, peace and security.
- On this occasion, Kerala government launched two mobile applications ArisingKerala and Whistle Now.
Defence
- 2016 Indra NAVY joint naval exercise between India and Russia will be held in December 2016 in Visakhapatnam.
- 7th India - Maldives Joint Army Exercise EKUVERIN 2016 held in Maldives.
- Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) delivered 20th Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) - ICGS AYUSH to Indian Coast Guard.
- Defence and Research Development Organization (DRDO) successfully flight tested Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW). SAAW is a 120 kilogram class smart weapon, capable of engaging ground targets with high precision up to a range of 100 kms.
- For the first time, Elite counter-terror force of India - National Security Guards (NSG) will participate in Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2017.
- India - UK Joint Naval Exercise KONKAN 16 started in Mumbai. It will be held in 2 phaes.
- India successfully test-fired long range intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear capable ballistic 3 stage missile Agni-5.
- Agni 5 can hit targets within range of 5000 kilometres with nuclear warhead carrying capacity of more than 1 tonne.
- Indian Navy’s eight landing craft utility (LCU) L-58 launched by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) in Kolkata. It is last vessel in series of eight ships of LCU MK-IV project.
- Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) become first force in world to induct yaks for strategically pivotal logistic support duties. Yaks are commonly referred as the ‘ships of the cold deserts’.
- Long range nuclear capable subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay testfired, ending up in a failure. 3 of its 4 tests so far have not been successful. Nirbhay is a long range missile (700 - 1000 KM).
- It is a terrain hugging missile which keeps on encircling the area of its target for several minutes and then hits accurately. It is difficult to detect by enemy’s radars. It is considered as India’s answer to US’s Tomahawk and Pakistan’s Babur missile.
- Supreme Court directed that Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel cannot sport a beard on religious grounds. And that this ruling does not violate Fundamental rights of Air Force Personnel as Indian Citizen.
Economy
- Government allowed NABARD to disburse loan of Rs. 21,000.00 crore in form of concessional refinance to State Cooperative Banks on behalf of District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) in order to enable them to meet crop loan requirements of farmers, particularly after Demonetization.
- It is part of a fund namely Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit (Refinance) (STCRC) Fund in National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) for providing concessional short term refinance to Cooperative Banks, with size 45000 Crores for 2016-17.
- 3.6 Crore Farmers (26.5 % of farmer population in India) have been provided Crop Insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched in 2016. Sum insured is of Rs. 141339 crores.
- AU Financiers (India) became 7th Entity (and only non-banking finance company (NBFC)) to receive final licence from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start a small finance bank.
- According to a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) report, India’s economic growth will be 7.6 % in 2017.
- Allahabad Bank merged its wholly owned subsidiary AllBank Finance (ABFL) with itself.
- Andhra Pradesh Government launched AP Purse mobile application to promote digital transactions. It features 13 mobile banking and 10 mobile wallet options, helping people can pay their bills and carry out their cashless transactions.
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered its growth forecast for Indian economy to 7.0%, from 7.4% earlier. Growth forecast for 2016 is 7.8%.
- Bank of Baroda and Heritage Foods Ltd signed MOU to provide dairy loans to Farmers through BOB branches across country.
- Bank of Baroda launched agricultural investment credit scheme for farmers of Rajasthan.
- Bank of Maharashtra adopted Malangaon Village in Sangli district of Maharashtra, to make it completely cashless.
- Cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved Exiting 7 Loss Making Central PSUs (sale of 100 % of Government Equity), including Scooters India, Pawan Hans and Hindustan Newsprint Limited. Government will also sell 26% stake in Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, reducing its stake in BEML from 54% to 28 %.
- Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extended last date for availing the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme to January 31, 2017.
- Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme provides for waiving interest and penalties if the principal amount involved in retrospective tax cases is paid. It aims at releasing about Rs. 5.16 lakh crore, which is locked in about 2.6 lakh pending direct tax cases.
- Under it, a disputed tax amount of up to Rs 10 lakh and the penalty will be forgone. However, in cases where the disputed tax amount is above Rs 10 lakh, a penalty of 25% will be levied.
- Central Government provided Special Assistance of Rs. 450 crores to Telengana state for 2016-17.
- Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd (CMPDI), consultancy arm of Coal India signed MOU with investment banker SBI Capital Markets.
- Cyber security agency CERT-In cautioned against skimming and malware attacks on micro ATMs and Point of Sale (POS) terminals. Digital payments have seen huge surge after demonetisation. Potential threats are -
- Skimming - Theft of card data using a small electronic device fitted in POS machine.
- Social engineering attack - Fraudster poses as a member of staff and can steal user's data.
- Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) revised North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIP) 2007, for mandatory disbursal of subsidies payable to all industrial units in northeast through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism by Chief Controller of Accounts (Industry).
- E-Commerce Firm PayTm announced Each one, teach one campaign to encorage users to teach others to use Paytm, with several prizes including 1 Crore Rs.
- Edible oil firm Ruchi Soya Industries in association with State Bank of India (SBI) launched an initiative to provide banking assistance to farmers.
- Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) lowered interest rate on provident fund deposits to 8.65% for the current fiscal, from 8.8% in 2015-16.
- Federal Bank tied up with Spice Digital for cash management services through bank’s e-collection facility. 20,000 retail outlets of Spice Digital can now remit its cash collection at Federal Bank branches.
- Government announced package of incentives for promotion of digital and cashless economy -
- Petroleum companies will offer a discount of 0.75% on diesel and petrol on digital payments.
- .5% discount for buying monthly seasonal tickets in Suburban railway networks through digital payment.
- Passengers will get 10 lakh rupees free accident insurance cover on booking of Railway ticket through online mode.
- Payments through digital mode for railways catering, accommodation, retiring room will also attract 5% discount.
- People will be get 10% discount on General Insurance and 8% discount on new life Insurance policies of PSUs purchased online.
- Discount of 10% will be available to users for payment of toll at Toll Plazas on National Highways.
- NABARD will extend financial support of 228 Crores to eligible banks for deployment of two Point of Sale (PoS) devices each in 1 Lakh villages with population of less than 10,000.
- NABARD will also support Rural Regional Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks to issue Rupay Kisan Cards to over 4 crore 32 lakh Kisan Credit Card (KCC) holders to enable them to make digital transactions.
- Merchants will not over 100 rupees monthly rental for PoS terminals, Micro ATMs.
- No service service charge on digital transactions upto INR 2000.
- All state Government Departments will make Electronic Payments to suppliers, contractors or institutions, on orders exceeds Rs 5000
- Government approved Ordinance to penalise persons holding banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Possession of demonetised notes will attract a monetary fine of 10,000 rupees or five times the cash held, whichever is higher.
- Government approved ordinance to allow states and industries to pay workers’ wages digitally (through direct bank transfer or cheque).
- It proposes changes to Section 6 of Payment of Wages Act 1936, that states that all payment of wages should be in cash.
- It will allow industries to pay wages to workers earning up to Rs. 18,000 month, without taking their explicit consent as required under Payment of Wages Act 1936.
- Government issued funds over30 crores for 21 states and union territories under Solar Cities Development Programme.
- Government launched Aadhaar Payment App to simplify digital transactions by doing away with need of carrying plastic cards and point of sale machines. Two sides to this Aadhaar Payment app are consumer app and merchant app.
- Consumer front - Here, App is just like any mobile wallet which will be used to transfer money. Customer needs to enter Aadhar number into app, select bank through which the transaction will take place and then the biometric scan will work as a password for authentication.
- Merchant Front - Merchants require two things to use this app - Android smartphone and fingerprint scanner.
- This app can also be used by a person to make payments without any phone. It has been developed by IDFC Bank along with UIDAI and National Payments Corporation of India.
- Government launched Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) system in a bid to tackle the call drop menace, with short code 1955 being allotted for same.
- Government launched Lucky Grahak Yojana to encourage consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana to encourage merchants for transition to digital payments, launched by NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog.
- National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) will be implementing agency.
- Transactions using USSD, UPI, RuPay and AEPS will only be covered under these schemes.
- Digital payments made through credit cards and e-wallets won’t be covered.
- Incentives will be restricted to transactions within the range of Rs 50 and Rs 3000.
- Winners shall be identified through a random draw of eligible Transaction IDs.
- Lucky Grahak Yojana -
- Consumers making payment through digital mode will get chance to win minimum Rs 1000 each every day or Rs 1 lakh per week.
- 15,000 winners will get cashback prizes of Rs 1000 each every day starting on 25 December 2016 (Christmas) and ending on 14 April 2017 (Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi).
- There will be weekly awards worth Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for 7000 people. On last day of scheme mega prize winner award of Rs 1 Crore will be announced.
- Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana
- This scheme is for prmoting merchants to have POS (Point of Sale) machines for undertaking cashless transactions.
- Merchants doing business using POS are eligible to win Rs.50000 per week from 25 December 2016 to 14 April 2017.
- 3 Mega Prizes for merchants will be of Rs 50 lakhs, 25 lakh, 12 lakh for digital transactions between 8 November 2016 to 13 April 2017, to be announced on 14 April 2017.
- Government proposed setting up Financial Data Management Centre (FDMC) based on recommendation of a committee set up under Ajay Tyagi. FDMC will Standardise data from all financial sector regulators in a single database and provide analytical insights based on the data to ensure stability in economy.
- Government provided additional grace period of 60 days to farmers, whose crop loan dues fall due between 1st November, 2016 and 31st December, 2016 Following demonetization of Bank Notes.
- Government provides crop loans at subvented rates of interest @ 7 % per annum. On prompt repayment in first year, farmers are eligible for further subsidized rate of Interest of 4 % per annum.
- Government removed minimum export price (MEP) USD 360 per tonne on potato.
- Minimum Export Rate(MEP) is rate below which no trader is allowed to export, meant to restrict exports and improve domestic supply.
- Government will amend Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 to extinguish (stop) validity of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000.
- Government will roll out Public Financial Management System (PFMS) from April 2017, along with Goods and Services Tax (GST). It will allow government to monitor over than Rs.1 lakh crore of idle funds lying with it under various heads. Once government access these funds through PFMS, it need does not need to borrow that amount.
- Government will soon launch toll-free helpline number ‘14444’ to promote digital payments.
- Gujarat Government issued state's Aerospace and Defence Policy 2016 to attract investment in aerospace and defence. It entitles several facilities including 100% reimbursement on stamp duty and registration charges paid for purchase, lease or mortgage of land meant for setting up facility in Aerospace and Defence.
- HDFC received permission from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise Rs. 3,000 crore by issuing ‘masala bonds’, after it exhausted a Rs. 5,000 crore limit to issue these bonds.
- Through ‘masala bond’ route, an Indian company raises money overseas denominated in Indian rupees.
- Home Ministry cancelled licences of 20 thousand NGOs for violating various provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) banning these NGOs from receiving foreign funds.
- ICICI Bank launched EazyPay mobile application for merchants that allows all-in-one acceptance payments platform. It has all digital wallets, QR code, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and credit & debit cards modes of payments.
- In 2015-16, India received maximum Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows from Singapore ($13.69 Billion) followed by Mauritius, USA, he Netherlands and Japan. It is stated in a report by PHDCCI and KPMG.
- In order to absorb extra liquidity, Reserve Bank sharply raised Market Stabilisation Scheme (MSS) ceiling to Rs 6 lakh crore from Rs 30,000 crores.
- In order to promote cashless transactions, Government directed banks to install one million (10 Lakh) new PoS (Point of Sale) terminals by 31st March 2017.
- India Signed Grant Agreement with IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) for USD 5.19 million for Additional Financing for Financing Energy Efficiency at MSMEs Project- Programmatic Framework for Energy Efficiency.
- India received over US $310.26 billion US Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between April 2000 and September 2016, crossing USD 300 Billion Milestone.
- 33% of FDI came through Mauritius route. Other big investors are from Singapore, US, UK and Netherlands.
- Sector wise - Services sector received max 18% of FDI inflows.
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) announced discount of 0.75 % on petrol and diesel fuel purchases, if paid through digital means.
- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum signed pact to build India's biggest oil refinery at a cost of $30 billion In Maharashtra, with capacity 60-million tonne a year. IOC will hold 50 % stake with BPCL and HPCL holding 25 % each.
- Indian Railways tied-up with State Bank of India (SBI) to install 10000 Point of Sale (POS) machines at Public Reservation System (PRS) counters of Railways.
- Indian e-commerce Firm Paytm launched toll-free number 1800-1800-1234 to enable transaction through mobile phones without internet connection.
- MMTC(Metals and Minerals Trading gold Corporation) tied up with State Bank of India (SBI) to sell government-minted Indian Gold Coin(24 Karat), which will be available in denominations of 5gm, 10gm and 20 gm bar.
- MoU signed between NTPC and National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) for setting up a Joint Venture (JV) Company to establish a 2400 MW coal based power project in Dhenkanal (Odisha).
- Mobile wallet firm MobiKwik received approval from RBI to set up a Bharat Bill Payments Operating Unit (BBPOU). MobiKwik will be integrated in Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), to offer interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents.
- PM Modi announced key welfare measures -
- Housing - Under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY), poor and middle class in cities will get 4% exemption on interest for home loans up to Rs 9 lakh and 3% exemption for home loans up to Rs 12 lakh. 33% more houses will be built in villages.
- Farmers - 3 crore Kisan credit cards will be converted into RuPay cards in 3 months. 20,000 crores will be added to fund under NABARD, meant for giving loans to cooperative banks and societies at low interest rate.
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) - Credit guarantee for small businesses is doubled to Rs 2 crore. Banks will raise cash credit limit for small business to 25% from 20%. Banks will also increase working capital loans from 20% of turnover to 30% for digitally transactions.
- Women and elderly - Pregnant women in above 650 rural districts will get Rs 6,000 in bank accounts to meet medical expenses and reduce child, woman mortality. Senior citizens will get guarantee of 8% interest rate on deposits up to Rs 7.5 lakh for 10 years.
- PM Narendra Modi launched UPI based mobile payment application called BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) at Digi Dhan Mela in New Delhi, BHIM is rebranded version of UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for simpler digital payments without cash.
- Private insurer HDFC Life forayed into micro-insurance segment by launching two products, Jeevan Suraksha and Credit Suraksha.
- Private sector's Lakshmi Vilas Bank launched QIP (Qualified institutional placement) to raise over Rs 600 crore by issuing 4.25 crore shares in domestic or international markets.
- RBL Bank launched 'Aadhaar Payment Bridge System' (APBS) for small ticket micro-finance loan disbursements.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that Foreign exchange reserves of India has declined by 887.2 million dollars to 362.987 billion dollars due to fall in foreign currency assets.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) for debit card transactions up to Rs. 1,000 at 0.25% and for transactions above Rs. 1,000 and up to Rs. 2,000 at 0.5% in order to incentivise greater adoption of digital payment methods. RBI also asked banks and prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers not to levy any charges for transactions upto Rs. 1000 settled using Immediate Payment Service (USSD) based *99# and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) systems.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) opened a banking ombudsman office in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It is third ombudsman office in North India after Kanpur and Chandigarh. With this, the total numbers of RBI ombudsman offices are increased to 17.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) opposed a move to establish a separate entity to regulate payments and settlements, as recommended by Ratan Watal Committee for Digital Payments.
- One of committee’s recommendations was to make regulation of retail payments independent from function of RBI, by establishing separate Payments Regulatory Board (PRB) and RBI’s regulation must be kept only for SIPS (systemically important payment system).
- RBI says that globally, both SIPS and retail payment systems are under central bank for a variety of reasons including issues of inter-connectivity between systems and the role of central bank as lender of last resort (LOLR).
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) provided borrowers 90 days for repayment of housing, car, farm and other loans worth up to 1 crore rupees, for dues payable between 1st November and 31st December 2016.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue 500 rupee banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi New series with inset letter E having star mark in number panel. This will be for the first time star banknotes in 500 rupees denomination will be issued.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue new currency notes of rupees 20 and 50 denominations in Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005. All old notes of these denominations will continue to be legal tender.
- Reserve Bank of India authorised Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL) (promoted by Sidbi and NSE) to launch India's first trade receivables exchange platform for MSMEs, buyers and financiers.
- Reserve Bank of India announced it has issued currency notes worth over Rs 4.27 lakh crores through banks and ATMs after demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.
- Reserve bank of India (RBI) kept monetary policy rates unchanged in its fifth bi-monthly review for 2016-17.
- Repo Rate - 6.25 %
- Reverse Repo - 5.75 %
- Bank Rate - 6.75 %
- CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) - 4 %
- SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) - 20.75 %
- South Indian Bank introduced NRI-focused mobile banking application SIB Mirror+.
- Special Assistance Amount released to states (from Demand No.32 of Union Budget) -
- Bihar - 200 Crores
- Odisha - 368 Crores
- J & K - 314 Crores
- Tamilnadu - 200 Crores (Tirupur Dyeing Industry)
- State Bank of India (SBI) adopted Shirki village in Maharashtra for driving the Aadhaar-based merchant payment initiative.
- State Bank of India (SBI) launched State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet, in association with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). MobiCash will allow smartphone users to deposit cash through BSNL retail outlets and withdraw funds from their account.
- State Bank of India and real estate portal magicbricks.com tied-upto to provide SBI's online home loan-approval solutions easily to potential propety buyers.
- Tata Steel acquired 100% equity in Odisha-based Brahmani River Pellets (BRPL) for Rs 900 crores.
- United Bank of India adopted Patunagar and Sachindranagar Villages in Tripura state, to turn them completely cashless.
- YES Bank Partnered with Cab aggregator Ola and e-commerce Firm Grofers, to provide cash-on-demand to customers.
- Yes Bank launched SIMsePAY service that allows any account holder to do money transfers, pay utility bills and other mobile banking services, without need for smart phones or internet, based on sim-sleeve technology. In Arunachal Pradesh, State Co-operative Apex Bank launched Mobile Banking Service named SIMsePaY, aimed at helping bank customers in cash crunch problem.
- e-commerce Firm Paytm launched 100-member 'merchant helpdesk', aimed at educating merchants on digital payments across country.
International
- 2016 Empathy Global Index 2016. It ranks 170 Top Companies in world in terms of Empathy (समानुà¤ूति).
- Top 3 Emphatic Companies - Facebook (1), Alphabet (2), LinkedIn (3)
- 9 Indian companies are ranked among bottom 10 among 170 companies.
- 2016 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) by Sydney-based think-tank Institute for Economics & Peace -
- India is ranked 8th among 163 countries in list of most impacted nations by terrorism. 6 out of top 10 nations are Asian.
- Iraq is worst hit by terror in 2015, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria. Pakistan was ranked fourth.
- Economic loss from terrorism is $635 billion over 16 years from 2000 to 2015.
- 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI) by World Economic Forum (WEF) -
- English is ranked as most powerful languages in world. Over 6,000 languages spoken in world.
- Top 10 - English (1st), Mandarin (2nd), French (3rd), Spanish (4th), Arabic (5th), Russian (6th), German (7th), Japanese (8th), Portuguese (9th) and Hindi (10th).
- Black List named A biopic of American Artist Madonna, named Blond Ambition (written by Elyse Hollander) as most admired unproduced film script currently in Hollywood.
- A Powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off coast of Sumatra (Indonesia).
- A deep water port built in Myanmar’s Sittwe by India is will be started soon. It will open Kolkata-Mizoram trade route via Myanmar.
- Sittwe port is starting point for Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project in Myanmar. Once shipments arrive at Sittwe port from Kolkata, they will be transferred to smaller freight carriers which would sail upstream into Mizoram.
- It will Provide alternative route to India to ship goods to north-eastern States, which currently depend on thick Siliguri corridor sandwiched between Bhutan and Bangladesh (also called Chicken's Neck of India).
- According to Forbes magazine's Report -
- India has surpassed United Kingdom to become world’s sixth-largest economy in GDP terms, for the first time. It is mainly due to Consistent (Around 7 % Growth) in India's GDP and Britain Facinf Slow growth (1 - 2%) after BREXIT Issues.
- India’s economy now stands behind United States, China, Japan, Germany and France.
- According to IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets report 2016 -
- India surpassed Russia, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia to become world’s fourth largest defence spender. India spent 50.67 Billion USD on defence in 2016 (up from 46.6 Billion USD in 2015).
- Top 3 - United States (662 Billion USD), China (192 Billion USD), UK (53.81 Billion USD).
- According to report Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations 2008-2015 by Congressional Research Service (CRS) - India is second largest purchaser of arms among developing nations after Saudi Arabia. Between 2008 and 2015, India purchased defence equipments worth 34 billion USD, second after Saudi Arabia’s 93.5 billion USD.
- According to study by Pew Research Centre
- Hindus are best-educated of all religious groups in North America and Europe. 96% of Hindus in US have college degrees compared to 36% for Christians.
- On Other scale, Jews are Most educated among all religious group in world, with average of 13.4 years of schooling. Hindus and Muslims have the fewest years of formal schooling, with an average of 5.6 years.
- American e-commerce Firm Amazon got US patent for a flying warehouse that will enable Amazon's drones to deliver products to customers’ doorsteps, known as Airborne fulfillment center (AFC).
- An pr report Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Singapore students are world’s best in Mathematics and Science.
- Approved MOUs -
- Amending agreement with Tajikistan for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
- MOU with Kyrgyzstan on cooperation in agriculture and food related industry, Tourism.
- MOU between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) for Cooperation in exchange and use of US Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data.
- Renewal of MoU between Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and College of Banking and Financial Studies, Oman.
- MoU between Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to improve effectiveness of rural development programmes.
- Revised Air Services Agreement with Nigeria
- Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) signed MoU with UK based Motivation Charitable trust to produce affordable wheel chairs in India.
- Assam Government inaugurated a Solar Battery Station at Bindhakata Tengapukhuri village in Dibrugarh (Assam), which will help in fulfilling power requirements of 4 villages of area.
- Bank of England issued new 5 Euro Note that contains controversial substance tallow, derived from animal fat.
- Canada government agreed on a national carbon pricing plan with its provinces.
- Capgemini Consulting’s Digital Transformation Institute'Research -
- India is at Top in Asia and 3rd Globally, In terms of Innovation. Bengaluru (called Silicon Valley of the east), is 5th largest hub at global level. 9 new innovation centres were opened in India in 2016, leading the total number of innovation centres to 25.
- US is at top with 146 centres, followed by Britain (29) and India is third (24 centres).
- Cheng Wei, Co-founder and CEO of China’s largest ride-sharing service provider Didi Chuxing (Didi) is named as Forbes Asia’s Businessman of the Year for 2016.
- China Launched latest version of its fifth-generation stealth fighter jet J-31 (renamed as FC-31 Gyrfalcon).
- China and Pakistan launched direct rail and sea freight service with first cargo train departing from China's Yunnan province.
- China announced ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by end of 2017. The move follows a resolution at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in South Africa in October 2016 that was backed by China.
- China commissioned its Heaviest (seven-tonne) helicopter - AC352. Meant for civil search and rescue operations specially.
- China has provided 15.80 billion Rupees to Nepal for post-quake reconstruction activities.
- China launched a new cargo service linking Tibet and Nepal as part of its One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, to boost trade with South Asian neighbours.
- China launched global carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring satellite TanSat, to understand effects of climate change. China became 3rd country after Japan and United States to have its own satellite to monitor greenhouse gases (GHGs).
- China launched its first fully-owned overseas satellite ground station located about 200 kms north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. It will enable it to collect satellite data anywhere on Earth at fastest speed in world. It is known as China Remote Sensing Satellite North Pole Ground Station.
- Using best and most sensitive signal receiving devices ever built by China, It has can download speed of 6 Gigabits (billions of bits) per second.
- This facility in Sweden can download data from satellites orbiting Earth in less than 3.5 hours, compared to domestic ground stations located in other part of world which require 7 hours. Shorter time is because satellites orbiting North Pole are able to pass about 12 times each day around Earth while those satellites flying over China can orbit Earth only about 5 times each day.
- China launched two high-resolution remote sensing satellites SuperView-1 01 and 02 to get commercial images at 0.5-meter resolution. . iT It is part of China's plans to form a BeiDou network consisting of constellation of 35 satellites for global navigation services by 2020.
- China opened Beipanjiang towering bridge hanging 565 metres (1,854 feet) above a gorge in southwestern China to traffic. It is claimed to be the world’s highest bridge.
- China operationalized world’s longest bullet train line - 2252 km Shanghai-Kunming line. It links country’s prosperous eastern coast to the less-developed southwestern part of the country.
- China passed a new law to levy environment tax on polluters, especially on heavy industries. Tax rate will be 1.2 yuan ($0.17) per unit of atmospheric pollution, 1.4 yuan per unit of water pollution, 5 yuan per tonne of coal waste and 1,000 yuan per tonne of hazardous waste.
- China successfully launched Fengyun-4 satellite, first of its new generation weather satellites into geostationary orbit. It is also China’s first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in highest orbit.
- China will build a $1.5-billion power line across Pakistan to enable transmission of 4,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from north to south Pakistan.
- China-administered special territory of Hong Kong will withdraw visa-free facility for Indians from January 23, 2017, in view of preventing rising illegal immigration of Indian asylum seekers.
- Chinese e-retail Firm Alibaba opened its first office in India in Mumbai.
- Colombia’s Congress passed law granting amnesty (excusing) to Marxist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels as part of historic peace deal reached between rebels and Government.
- Cuban government signed deal with Google to provide faster access to Google’s data. It will allow Google to install servers in Cuba, to store most popular data for giving quick access.
- Earthquake of magnitude 7.4 hit coast of Fukushima (Japan), triggering light tsunami waves.
- Economic Times Asian Business Leaders ’ Conclave 2016 held in Kualalampur (Malaysia.
- European Union (EU) and Cuba signed deal to normalise ties. Cuba was previously the only Latin American country not to have a cooperation deal with EU.
- European Union (EU) approved Microsoft’s USD 26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn Corporation.
- European Union extended sanctions on Russia for another six months, that were put of Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
- European Union signed agreement with Mali to return back its migrants who reached Europe and whose asylum requests were refused.
- Expedia ‘Vacation Deprivation report 2016 ranked India as 4th most vacation deprived country.
- In India, 63% take fewer days of the vacations that they get.
- Top 3 - Spain (68%), UAE (68%), Malaysia (67%) and South Korea (64%).
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Home Manager AI System - Jarvis, that he hs deployed in his house. It is voiced by Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman. Zuckerberg developed Jarvis as part of his personal challenge for 2016.
- Facebook’s virtual reality-focused division Oculus acquired eye-tracking technology startup Denmark basedThe Eye Tribe.
- Forbes' Most Powerful People List 2016 -
- Indian PM Narendra Modi ranked 9th among 74 people in List. Other Indians in list are Mukesh Ambani (38) and Satya Nadella (51).
- Top 10 -
- Vladimir Putin - President of Russia
- Donald Trump - President of US
- Angela Merkel - Chancellor of Germany
- Xi Jinping - President of China
- Pope Francis - Pope of Roman Catholic Church, Vatican City
- Janet Yellen - Chairperson of US Federal Reserve
- Bill Gates - Chairman of Bill & Melinda Foundation
- Larry Page - Founder of Google
- Narendra Modi -Prime Minister of India
- Mark Zuckerberg - Cofounder of Facebook
- France became first country to use drones for national mail service.
- French Government will levy terror tax on property insurance policies of French citizens to help finance a fund for victims of the extremist attacks that have recently hit France.
- Germany Based Delivery Hero acquired competitor Foodpanda (HQ - Germany) for an undisclosed amount.
- Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by International Labour Organisation (ILO) -
- India has huge gender pay gap (30 %). In India, women formed 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners.
- Singapore is among lowest gender wage gap at 3%. Among major economies, South Korea only fared worse than India, with a gap of 37%.
- Global Wind Power Installed Capacity index by Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) -
- India ranked 4th with installed wind power generation capacity of 25,088 MW in 2015. India has achieved the largest-ever wind power capacity addition of 3,423 MW in 2015-16, exceeding the target by 44%.
- Top 5 - China (145362 MW), US (74471 MW), Germany (44947 MW), India (25088 MW), Spain (23025 MW).
- Global e - commerce firm Amazon launched its global startup program ‘Launchpad’ in India, enabling Indian startups to sell products overseas. Amazon Launchpad was started in 2015 and helsps startups to sell, market, and deliver their products to gain more visibility.
- Google parent Company Alphabet is named as Company Of The Year by Fortune magazine in its annual Blue Ribbon ranking.
- Gotthard Base Tunnel (Switzerland) began commercial rail services as world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel with length of 57 kilometers, overtaking Japan’s Seikan tunnel (53.9 KMs). GBT is first flat low-level route through Alps Mountains and is situated 2.3 km deep.
- Government has extended e-Tourist Visa facility to citizens of 161 countries.
- Government ratified International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework Agreement, that was opened for signature during 22nd Conference of Parties (CoP) meeting United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Marrakesh (Morocco).
- ISA was jointly by Indian PM Narendra Modi and French President François Hollande in November 2015 in Paris, during 21st CoP meet. of UNFCCC. Till now, 25 nations have signed Framework Agreement.
- Haryana Government banned carrying arms at wedding ceremonies, in view of security concerns.
- India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) Delhi conducted training on Election Management of SAARC Countries.
- India and ASEAN Group have set a target of trading at 100 billion dollar to be achieved by 2020 (Up from currently $57 Billion).
- India eased Visa Procurement Process for Bangladeshi visitors to India.
- India has been designated as a major defence partner of the United States, putting India on par with closest allies of USA. Agreement was reached during US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter's visit to India.
- India offered tsunami early warning-system to South China Sea (SCS) countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines.
- India signed MoU with Bhutan for providing technical cooperation in infrastructure engineering in green and sustainable construction in Bhutan.
- India will contribute $5 lakh to United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for 2016-17. CERF allocates approx 45 crore US Dollars annually for humanitarian operations in about 50 countries. So far India has contributed 60 Lakh Dollars to the fund.
- India will establish a Center of Excellence in Information Technology at Egypt’s oldest and prestigious Al-Azhar University.
- India will export additional 240 MW of electricity to Nepal, to lessen power shortage of Nepal. It will be done through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN).
- India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival (INCF-2016) held in Kathmandu (Nepal).
- India’s largest LNG importer Petronet signed MoU with Bangladesh's Petrobangla to set up $950 million liquefied natural gas import project of 7.5 million tonnes a year in Bangladesh.
- International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry approvd names for elements 113(Nihonium), 115(Moscovium), 117( Tennessine) and 118(Oganesson).
- Nihonium (Nh - 113) becme first ever element to be discovered by an Asian country (Japan).
- Iran passed a landmark bill of rights, guaranteeing freedom of speech, protest, fair trials and privacy. Note that Iran is considered one of biggest human rights violator with an unprecedented number of executions in past three decades.
- Iran signed agreement to buy 80 planes from US firm aerospace Boeing.
- Iran signed agreement to buy Airbus to acquire 100 jetliners.
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2, carrying a satellite (elliptical) for studying radiation belts around the earth.
- Japan Complained against India at World Trade Organisation (WTO) against certain measures taken by India on imports of 173 iron and steel products. India imposed minimum import price (MIP) on imports of certain iron and steel products in February 2016 for six months and later extended twice for 2 months to overcome issue of cheap imports of commodities hurting domestic industry.
- Japan approved 5.13 trillion yen ($43.6 billion) defence spending for fiscal year starting April 2017. It is Japan’s highest annual defence budget announced so far.
- Japan space agency (JAXA) launched a Kounotori 6 (HTV-6) spacecraft, carrying a large space junk collector. Space junk collector (electromagnetic tether) will perform Kounotori Integrated Tether Experiments (KITE) to study possibility of getting rid of space junk (debris) left into orbit by earlier space exploration missions.
- Japan surpassed China to emerge as largest foreign US debt owner, with holding of US debt $1.13 trillion (compared to China's $1.12 trillion).
- Mahindra Agri Solutions acquired Netherlands-based OFD Holding BV for 5 million euros.
- Merriam-Webster's dictionary named surreal as its Word of Year 2016.
- NASA launched constellation of eight mini-satellites as part Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) into space to improve hurricane forecasting.
- National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank will be merged to creare biggest bank of all Gulf Nations, with an asset of $ 178 billion. It will be called NBAD.
- National library of United Kingdom will digitise 4000 early printed Bengali books, as part of UK-India Year of Culture plans for 2017 and wider project titled ‘Two Centuries of Indian Print’.
- Nepal rejected India’s ‘open sky’ proposal, meant to allow unlimited flights between two countries. Nepal stated that it was not ready for agreement as of now. Currently, airlines of both nations are allowed to operate only 30000 seats from each side.
- Nepal will hold its first ever joint military exercise named Pratikar-1 with China in February 2017.
- Netherland based KPMG and Microsoft signed a Internet of Things (IoT) Advisory partnership to accelerate digital transformation of large and mid-market enterprises in India.
- New Approved MOUs -
- Vietnam - Information Technology (IT)
- Afghanistan - Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
- Thailand - Controlling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
- United Kingdom - Intellectual Property and Ease of Doing Business in India
- New Development Bank (NDB) approved $75 million (525 Million Yuan) loan for Shanghai Lingang Distributed Solar Power Project in China, with maturity length of 17 years. The project is a solar photo-voltaic power plant with total capacity of 100 MW.
- OAG's 2016 Megahubs Index Report -
- Chicago Airport (USA) is most connected. The Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is 22nd most connected airport in world, while Mumbai Airport is ranked 28th.
- Oil-producing nations struck a deal to cut output along with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is meant to reduce global oversupply of crude oil by approx 2%.
- OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has 13 member nations and it was founded in 1960. It is headquartered since 1965 in Vienna. 13 OPEC members account for 42 % of global oil production and have 73 % of world's oil reserves.
- Members - Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela
- Pakistan Army test fired enhanced version of an indigenously-designed Babur cruise missile. (700 KM).
- Pakistan inaugurated China-backed 340 MW Chashma-III Nuclear power plant in Punjab Province.
- Pakistan lifted an undeclared ban on import of ginned cotton from India.
- Pakistan removed an undeclared ban on import of ginned cotton from India.
- Pakistan’s Senate approved withdraw high denomination Rs 5,000 currency notes to curb flow of black money in country.
- Qatar announced end of controversial kafala labour system, that required all foreign workers to have a local sponsor. Workers needed sponsor's permission to switch jobs or leave country. It was compared to modern-day slavery.
- Russia expelled 35 American diplomats from country, in asnwer to USA earlier expelling 35 Russian Diplomats.
- Russian Tu-154 Plane plane on its way to Syria with 92 people onboard crashed into Black Sea.
- Russian Unmanned cargo spacecraft Progress MS-04 crashed shortly after takeoff from Kazakhstan.
- Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov killed by a gunman in a Ankara Museum, during an exhibition.
- Scientists from University of Waterloo in Canada discovered world’s first polluted river, contaminated about 7,000 years ago by Neolithic humans who may have been producing copper metals from ores. It is now a dry riverbed in Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan.
- Scientists named newly discovered pink-and-yellow coral-reef fish in Hawaii as Tosanoides obama, in honour of outgoing US President Barack Obama.
- South American economic bloc Mercosur suspended Venezuela's membership, after venezuela failed to adopt certain standards and rules required for membership of the bloc.
- Spanish city Palma de Mallorc changed its name for third time in a decade, now to Palma.
- Sri Lanka unveiled world's tallest artificial Christmas tree with Height of 73-meters (238-foot) in capital Colombo.
- Super Typhoon Nock-ten made landfall on eastern province of Philippines, Known in the Philippine as Nina.
- Tasmania-based Women's Legal Service in collaboration with TRS Law Offices (India) launched a website (www.Girlsgottaknow.In) for women in India to educate them about their legal rights.
- Team messenger App Flock launched world’s first chat operating system “FlockOS”. It allows developers to build customised apps, bots and integrations on Flock.
- Times Higher Education’s (THE) BRICS and Emerging Economies University Rankings 2017 (Top 300 BRICS Universities) -
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore became first Indian institute to be placed in the top 15 universities.
- India has 27 universities Universities in List, Second only to china (52 universities).
- Indian institutes in the top 100 rank include -
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) 14 IIT Bombay 26 IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur both ranked 32 IIT Madras 35 IIT Roorkee 62 IIT Kharagpur 71 Jadavpur University 99
- To help kids get familler with technical skills at an early age, Disney launched ‘Hour of Code’ campaign in India. Under this, disney will teach computer programming to school children through its free online tutorials.
- To tackle the world’s worst inflation, Venezuelan Government announced demonetisation of Bolivar Fuerte 100 banknotes. Venezuelan Government announced the same and gave 10 days time for exchanging old notes at central bank of country.
- Two Indian - origin person named in Forbes’ 2nd list of wealthiest entrepreneurs under age of 40.
- Vivek Ramaswamy - 24th with net worth of $600 million and Apoorva Mehta - 31st with $360 million worth.
- List topped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckeberg.
- UK and Argentina signed deal to identify 123 Argentine soldiers who died in 1982 Falkland island conflict. In 1982 Falkland Islands conflict, British Personnel recaptured its overseas territory in South Atlantic after it was invaded by Argentina.
- UN Security Council adopted a French-drafted resolution to quickly deploy UN observers to Aleppo (Syria) to monitor evacuations of civilians who remain in city terrorised by ISIS.
- UNESCO accorded world heritage status to Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro (nicknamed Marvelous City). It has been registered as Carioca Landscapes between Mountain and Sea.
- US Federal Reserve raised benchmark interest rate by 0.25%, for second time in a decade and first in 2016.
- US Federal Reserve is chaired by Janet Yellen.
- US President Barack Obama approved USD 618 billion defence budget for 2017. He also signed National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017 that recognises India as America’s major defence partner.
- Ukraine nationalised country’s largest bank PrivatBank in an attempt to avert a financial meltdown.
- United Nations Security Council (UNSC) extended its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for a year till December 2017. So far, UN has 14,000 peacekeepers serving in South Sudan.
- United Nations Security Council (UNSC) given one year extension to the Peacekeeping mission of South Sudan.
- United Nations officially apologized for its role in 2010 cholera outbreak in Carribea Nation Haiti.
- It has been believed to be bought by Nepali soldiers on a UN Peacekeeping mission. Since then, cholera outbreak in Haiti has claimed over 10000 lives
- Viola Desmond became first woman to appear on face of a $10 Canadian banknote.
- West Bengal government announced to set up special panel to stop child trafficking.
- World Bank Group halted processes initiated by India and Pakistan to save Indus Water Treaty. India had earlier planned to construct Kishanganga and Ratle hydroelectric power plants on Indus River System in Jammu Kashmir.
- World Bank cancelled $100 million loan to Pakistan, meant for a natural gas efficiency project. It was cancelled as gas distribution company responsible for project failed to make any progress in achieving its developmental objectives.
- World's largest non-permanent indoor ice rink (2,700 square meters), opened in Paris (France).
- World’s first solar road opened in small French village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy. This 1 K long solar road is made with 30,000 square feet of solar panels.
Meetings
- 1st India-China think-tank forum held in New Delhi with Theme was Towards a Closer India-China Developmental Partnership.
- 2016 World Bhojpuri Conference held in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
- 27th meeting of Southern Zonal Council held at Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
- 28th State Information Ministers Conference (SIMCON) 2016 organised by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in New Delhi.
- 5th India Arab Partnership Conference held in Muscat (Oman), with Theme Partnership towards innovation and cooperation in IT.
- 6th Heart of Asia- Istanbul Process of Aghanistan conference held in Amritsar (Punjab (India)), inaugurated jointly by PM Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Theme was Addressing Challenges, Achieving Prosperity.
- 6th Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) held in New Delhi with theme Emerging Urban Forms-Policy Reforms and Governance Structures in the Context of New Urban Agenda.Next APMCHUD Conference will be hosted by Iran in 2018.
- 6th Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) held in New Delhi, inaugurated by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
- 6th BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting held in Delhi.
- 7th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) held in Kolkata (West Bengal). It was organised by the World Ayurveda Foundation with the support of the Ministry of AYUSH. Theme was Strengthening the Ayurveda Ecosystem.
- 9th World Confluence of Humanity, Power and Spirituality held in New Delhi.
- Laureates and Leaders Summit for Children held in New Delhi.
- India will host 5th Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCSS) in 2017. Previous Conferences - 2011 - UK, 2012 - Hungary, 2013 - South Korea, 2015 - Netherlands.
- India-UK Conference on Ease of Doing Business held in New Delhi.
- International Civil Aviation Negotiations (ICAN) 2016 held in Nassau (Bahamas). India signed MOUs with several nations including Open Skies agreement with six countries - Jamaica, Guyana, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain and Sri Lanka.
- An Open skies Agreement allows unlimited number of flights to six metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai from participating nation.
- Meeting of BRICS Heads of Revenue and Experts on Tax Matters held at Mumbai. During this meet, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries agreed to share tax information automatically, to ensure fairness of international tax system.
National
- World Bank study Utility Scale DSM Opportunities and Business Models in India has pegged India’s Energy Efficiency Market at Rs. 1.6 Lakh Crores. Ministry of Power has fixed energy savings targets for XII Plan period (2012-17) as 60.5 BU (billion units) through various energy efficiency interventions.
- Ministry of Women and Child Development launched ‘E-BOX’ portalto register complaints of child sexual abuse.
- 10-days Tripitak Sutrapath Mahotasava has started at Bodhgaya in Bihar.
- 21st International Film Festival of Kerala held in Thiruvananthapuram.
- 24th National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) held in Pune (Maharashtra).
- 6,117 Kuchipudi dancers have set a new Guinness World Record by performing together in a single event in Vijayawada district of Andhra Pradesh. Guinness World Record updated for 12-minute “Jayamu Jayamu” item as ‘Largest Kuchipudi dance’ performance.
- 8th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be held in Gandhinagar from January 10th - 13th 2017 with theme Sustainable Economic and Social Development.
- Swasthya Raksha Programme launched by AYUSH Ministry to promote health and health education in villages.
- Thal Favang Kut festival organised by state Government of Mizoram. It is a post-harvest festival which is celebrated after harvesting the paddy.
- Actor Hrithik Roshan has recently launched Braille-Tactile children’s book series Tactabet.
- Allahabad High Court ruled that practice of triple talaq (Talaq-e-bidat) among Muslims is unconstitutional and violates rights of women as stated in constitution. High Court also stated that No Personal Law Board is above Constitution, referring to All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).
- American e-commerce Firm Amazon introduced Its Prime Video Service in India, to provide users access to collection of ad-free new releases including Bollywood and Hollywood movies. It will pose competition to other online streaming services like Netflix and Hotstar.
- Amul, a Milk Products brand under Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union will invest 200 crore rupees for a ‘Centralised Milk Processing Plant’ at Sankrail Food Park in Howrah in West Bengal.
- Andhra Pradesh Government allotted 1473 Acres land for construction of nuclear power plant at Kovvada. This 6600 MW Nuclear Power Project will be executed at estimated cost of Rs 60000 crores.
- Andhra Pradesh Government launched website of state's Economic Development Board (AP-EDB), aiming to provide repository of knowledge on investing in Andhra Pradesh.
- Annual Reading Trends Report 2016 by Amazon has ranked Delhi as country’s most well - read city in fourth consecutive year. Bengaluru and Mumbai taking second and third spot.
- Apple’s Taiwanese partner Wistron will set up manufacturing unit in Bengaluru for manufacturing Apple iPhones, from April 2017.
- Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) found ancient camping site used by pre-historic man, at an altitude of 4,200 metres in Nubra Valley, Ladakh.
- As per Data by Delhi Government, New Delhi has highest increase in per capita income among all states and Union territories. Per capita income of New Delhi is Rs 2,80,142 during 2015-16, Followed by Chandigarh (2,42,386) and Sikkim (Rs 2,27,465). Note that National Average stands at Rs 93,293.
- As per report by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and Deloitte, India's internet population will increase from current 34.3 crore to 60 crore users by 2020.
- Assam Government laucned a health insurance scheme - ‘Atal-Amrit Abhiyan’, to provide coverage against several critical illnesses. Families with annual income under Rs 5 lakh are eligible to avail benefit.
- Assam government launched ‘Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development in Majuli’ (SACReD, Majuli) to make river island Majuli country’s first ever Carbon Neutral district by 2020.
- Assam's Hailakandi became 1st district to pay cashless transactions wages after it paid wages to tea garden workers through individual bank accounts.
- Augmented reality Game Pokemon Go entered Indian market, 2016 in partnership with telecom operator Reliance Jio.
- BHEL commissioned first unit of the 4x30 MW Pulichintala Hydroelectric project (HEP) in Telangana.
- Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) commissioned second 600 MW unit of Singareni Thermal Power Project in Adilabad District of Telangana.
- Bihar Government approved 50% reservation in all judicial services for aspirants belonging to Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
- Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) and Kerala Police organized 45th All India Police Science Congress in Thiruvananthapuram.
- Cabinet approved draft Major Port Authorities Bill 2016, aimed to replace Major Port Trusts Act 1963. The bill aims to empower 12 major ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision-making. Features Include -
- Compactness -Number of sections reduced 65, from 134.
- Board of Port Authority will be delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff. Size of Board of Port Authority is reduced to 11 members. Board will include representatives of respective state governments, Ministers along with a member representing employees of Major Ports Authority.
- Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) has been given powers to fix tariff which will act as a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects.
- Independent Review Board is proposed to carry out residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for major ports, including looking into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires.
- Campaign 100 Million for 100 Million Campaign organized by Nobel peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, on occasion 0f 81st birthday of President of India Pranab Mukherjee. Aim is to mobilise 100 million youth and children for 100 million underprivileged children across world.
- Central Board of Secondary Exams (CBSE) decided that Class X Board exams will be compulsory from academic session 2017-18, against current option system for CBSE students to choose either Board exam or a school-based examination.
- Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh Launched country’s first cashless bazaar in capital Raipur. It has over 900 shops that provide customers the facilities of cashless payments using Cashless systems. Chhattisgarh is leading in in training its people in digital transactions, with having trained over 5 lac people in cashless payments.
- Cyclone Vardah struck coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. It is 3rd cyclonic storm of season after Cyclone Kyant and Nada.
- Delhi High Court removed ban imposed on 344 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs by Central Government over fears that they are potential health and safety hazards.Ban was imposed based on recommendations of Kokate committee.
- Delhi government reduced fares of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses by 75%, to encourage more people to opt for public transport. Further, DTC bus travel is made completely free for students till age 21 years.
- Department of Posts brought out a Special Cover on freedom fighter Gaya Prasad Katiyar, eight Commemorative Postage Stamps on Personalities Series: Bihar & a stamp on Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library.
- Department of Telecom (DoT) will soon launch ‘Tarang Sanchar’ portal that will let users check radiation compliance status of mobile towers and transmitters across country.
- Dhasai village in Thane district became first cashless village in Maharashtra.
- Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recommended one-time licensing for manufacture and sales of drugs, to promote ease of doing business in Pharmaceutical sector by removing need to renewal of licences for each formulation which takes around 3 years.
- ESIC (Employee's State Insurance Corporation) enhanced Ceiling on Medical Expenditure from Rs. 2150 to Rs. 3000 per Insured Person with sub ceiling of Rs. 1250 for “Administration” and Rs. 1750 for “Other. To enhance number of Registered Employers / Employees, a new enrollment Scheme has been approved for three months - 1st January to 31st March, 2017.
- Enforcement Directorate summoned AirAsia India to investigate airline’s alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations.
- Environment Ministry approved Rs. 40 crore proposal of Puducherry government to treat water from Ousteri lake, a major water body in puducherry.
- First Digi Dhan mela in country held in Gurugram (Haryana), to promote digital and cashless transactions.
- First Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) held on banks of river Mandovi in Panaji (Goa).
- First ever International Gita Mahotsav-2016 held in Kurukshetra (Haryana).
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned use of newspapers for wrapping and packing of food items.
- This is first time in recent years FSSAI has issued new rule related to packaging of food items. So far, it had focused on setting standards for packaged food.
- Use of newspapers for wrapping and packing of food items is very common in India and it may cause serious health concerns due t contaminated food items by newspaper ink.
- Forbes India Celebrity 100 List 2016 -
- Top 5 in Income - Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Virat Kohli, Akshay Kumar , MS Dhoni
- Top 3 in Fame - Virat Kohli, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan.
- Foundation Stone for first Second Generation (2G) Ethanol Bio-refinery in India laid at village Tarkhanwala in Bathinda (Punjab). It will be done at investment of Rs 600 crores by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
- Germany will provide 1 Billion Euro Loan to India for strenthening India's Intra-State and Inter-State transmission utilities.
- Goa Government launched Yuva Sanchar Yojana, for providing Free Talktime and Internet Data to youth in state. Under this, free 100 minutes talk time and 3 GB Internet data with a SIM card (every month) will be given to youths aged between 16-30 years. Goa government tied up with Vodafone for this scheme.
- Google launched personal safety app Trusted Contacts, to give your nearest location to selected contacts. Concerned contacts can request location data to users and User may respond to request and signal that they are safe to their contacts by denying location data request.
- Google partnered with Ministry of Consumer Affairs to launch nationwide Digitally Safe Consumer campaign to raise awareness among consumers about online safety and better protect consumer interest online.
- Government approved Including Irular community (including Villi and Vettaikaran) in Scheduled Tribes list. It is Puducherry's first Scheduled Tribes.
- Government approved Pune Metro Rail Project Phase 1, covering length of 31.254 km in 2 corridors . Corridor - 1 (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to Swargate} an Corriodor-2 (Vanaz to Ramwadi). Cost of project is 11420 crores.
- Government approved formation of a new service - Indian Enterprise Development Service (IEDS), Under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME). It is meant to help in achieving vision of “Startup India”, “Stand-up India” and “Make in India”. Cadre Review of Indian Telecommunications Service was also approved.
- Government approved re-designation of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project Implementation Trust Fund (DMICPTF) as National Industrial Corridor Development & Implementation Trust (NICDIT). NICDIT will be apex body to oversee integrated development of all industrial corridors across India. It will implement all 5 proposed industrial corridors, covering 15 States.
- Government launched Swachh Swasth Sarvatra initiative to strengthen health centres in 708 open defecation-free (ODF) blocks across country.
- Government met 1.5-crore target for LPG connections that were to be added under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in FY 2016-17.
- Since launch of PMUY, LPG coverage across the country increased to 70% from 61% earlier.
- Top five States - Uttar Pradesh (46 lakh), West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14 lakh).
- Government reduced registration fees for Hindus and other minority community people of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh as Indian citizens from Rs 15000 to Rs 100.
- For minority community from countries other than Mentioned three, fees will be Rs 10000 for registration in India and Rs 15000 if they are registered elsewhere.
- Government released 1982 crores multipurpose Polavaram irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, being funded through NABARD under Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.
- Government sanctioned over Rs 30 crore for solar cities programme, aimed at
- Government will launch toll-free number ‘1955’ for taking feedback on call drops from telecom subscribers.
- Government will set up 50 Biotech Laboratories in Senior Secondary Schools of Arunachal Pradesh, under scheme Biotech Labs in Senior Secondary Schools (BLISS). It will be done at approx cost of 75 to 100 crores.
- Government will set up a single permanent Tribunal to adjudicate all inter-State river water disputes, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
- Government will soon set up toll free number 10588 to provide relevant information and guidance directly to pregnant women, under Mother and Child Tracking Facilitation Centre (MCTFC) in New Delhi.
- Government will soon start water route between Delhi to Agra on Yamuna River, as a less costly means of transportation.
- Govt. of India tied up with Intel to conduct research work on Water and Air Quality Monitoring (WAQM) initiative. It will consider proposals from academic institutions in area of such online monitoring systems and provide grant-in-aid support to selected projects.
- Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani launched India’s first laser technology-based advanced AVMS RTO check-post at Shamlaji of Aravalli district in Gujarat.
- Gujarat Government announced Biotechnology Policy 2016 to establish Gujarat as a preferred destination for manufacturing of biotechnology products. It aims to take annual turnover of biotechnology products to Rs 15,000 crore from current f Rs 4,500 crore turn over within 3 years.
- Gujarat government banned hookah bars made Liquor Laws Tougher with penalty of 5 Lakh Rupees and jail term of upto 10 years for those involved in purchase, sale and transportation of liquor.
- Gurugram (Haryana) Government will get India's First Caterpillar Train (C-Train).
- C-Train is a new concept for urban mass-transit solution. It has been designed by an Indian Railway officer Ashwani Upadhyaya which had won a global award at the MIT in USA.
- Haryana Government connected 100 villages in state with Wi-Fi services. It also renamed all common service centres (CSC) and E-disha centres as ‘Atal Seva Kendras’.
- Haryana Government inaugurated State's First Digital Investigation, Training and Analysis Centre (DIATC) at Gurugram. It is set up in collaboration with National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).
- Haryana Govt signed MoU with Andhra Pradesh to assist it in creating a centralized data base of population to ensure effective implementation of welfare programmes.
- Haryana became first state to launch Mahila Police Volunteer (MPV) initiative for safety of women, aimed at bridging gap between Police and Civil society for safety of women.
- Haryana government issued petro cards to drivers in state for cashless payments for fuel, administered by Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum.
- Haryana government launched Immunization Incentives and Information Programme to increase immunization rates of children under 1 years age.
- Haryana government launched scheme to promote solar water pumping systems among farmers for irrigation purposes.
Under this, 90 % cost of installation would be borne by State and Centre government as subsidy. Government will install 3050 solar water pumps of 2 and 5 horse power in state.
- Health Ministry and All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) will set up a National Death Registry encompassing data about deaths and their causes in all hospitals across country. It will help in having better understanding of disease outbreaks and optimizing healthcare facilities.
- Himachal Pradesh Raj Bhawan In Shimla adopted cashless / cheque payments to ensure all transactions are made online.
- Himachal Pradesh became 6th state to achieve 100% Aadhar saturation. Other states are - Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. Himachal Pradesh also opened its first Cyber Crime Police Station in Shimla.
- In it’s Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, UNESCO claimed that India will achieve universal primary education by 2050, universal lower secondary education (Grades VI - VIII in case of India) by 2060 and universal upper secondary education (Grades IX-XII in case of India) by 2085.
- Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 provides for free and universal elementary education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is key vehicle to implement RTE Act.
- Gross Enrolment Ratio in India -
- Primary - 100.08%
- Upper primary - 91.24%
- Elementary - 97%
- Secondary - 78.51 %
- Higher secondary - 54.21%
- Secondary and Higher secondary enrolments are taken care under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
- In wake of rising prices and concerns about wheat crop in 2016-17, Government waived import duty on wheat to 0 % (from 10 %) for indefinite period.
- India International Science festival (IISF) held at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in New Delhi with theme Science for the masses.
- India's National High Speed Rail Corporation and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on 21 signed a Memorandum for General Consultancy for smooth implementation of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Project.
- Indian Air Force (IAF’s) Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh become functional. It will facilitate air connectivity with rest of the country and give a fillip to tourism in state.
- Indian Army launched aVeterans Outreach App, to reach out to its ex-servicemen.
- Indian Army partnered with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar to set up a research and development (R&D) cell at IIT Gandhinagar campus.
- Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed MoU with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for cooperation in zoonoses, anti-microbial resistance, nutrition and pesticide residues.
- Indian Railways announced 10% rebate for vacant berths after finalisation of reservation charts. Discount will be based on basic fare of last ticket sold.
- Indian Railways announced that reservation of rail tickets for senior citizens will be directly linked to Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) cards from 1 April 2017 onwards, making Aadhaar mandatory for availing concessions.
- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed agreement with 6 companies to deliver India's first industry-built satellite by late 2017. Currently, ISAC assembles India's satellites for communication, remote sensing and navigation. It is for the first time that ISRO outsourced the construction of entire satellite. Consortium is led by Alpha Design Technologies P Ltd, a defence manufacturing contractor.
- Indian actor Anupam Kher’s 500th film ‘The Big Sick’ has been selected for world premier at Sundance Film Festival to be held in USA in January 2017.
- India’s 2nd centre of excellence for sericulture will be launched in Bengaluru (Karnataka ). India’s first such centre was set up in Ranchi (Jharkhand). India currently imports approx 4,000 metric tonnes of high quality raw silk from China.
- India’s first transgender school inaugurated in Kochi (Kerala), aiming to provide transgenders security, salvation and sustainability.
- J& K CM Mehbooba Mufti launched School Management Information System (SMIS), to provide a complete database of all government schools across state.
- Judima Festival held at Haflong in Assam, aiming to establish only hill station of Assam, Haflong into the tourism map of Northeast.
- Karnataka Government Siddaramaiah formally launched state’s first air ambulance H130 helicopters in Bengaluru, with emergency number 155350.
- Karnataka Government removed restrictions related to Females working in Night Shifts, allowing women to work in night shifts in all sectors in a bid to provide equal opportunities for women.
- Karnataka state Road Transport corporation (KSRTC) launched 25 bio-diesel buses, To reduce pollution caused by diesel buses. These eco-friendly buses eject 60-70% less emissions than diesel buses.
- Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), Titled Forming in the pupil of an eye. 90 Days long festival will have artists from 31 nations participating.
- Kerala Government approached Central Government for allowing use of antlers (extensions of deer’s skull) of spotted deer and sambar of Ayurveda medicines.
- Kerala Government launched Haritha Keralam Mission for creating new sustainable development perspectives in the state.
- Kurukshetra University (Haryan) signed MoU with 3 foreign Universities in field of higher education - Renmin University of China, S. Toraighrov Pavlodar State University Kazakhstan and Pavlodar State Pedagogical Institute Kazakhstan.
- Lanura in Budgam district became first village to become cashless in state of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Madhya Pradesh Government launched 5 months long Narmada Seva Yatra to turn Narmada river pollution free. It will cover more than 1900 kilometres in 16 districts and create awareness about conservation of river.
- Madhya Pradesh Government launched Nagar Uday Abhiyan in 378 urban bodies across state, aiming to imrpove services provided to citizens.
- Madhya Pradesh Govt. organised India’s first and biggest crop insurance claim distribution programme under Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme in Ujjain district. Insurance claims worth Rs 4,416 crore were distributed to 20.4 lakh farmers of state.
- Madhya Pradesh will develop 1100 ‘climate-smart’ villages with an aim to prepare farmers to manage the climate change risks timely and ensure good productivity.
- Madras High Court banned all unauthorised Sharia courts in mosques across Tamil Nadu, saying centres of worship were only to be used for religious purposes.
- Maharashtra Government will create separate Ministry for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Including Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Special Backward Classes (SBCs). Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis also launched Transform Maharashtra initiative in IIT Bombay’s Mood Indigo festival.
- Maharashtra forest department will launch a state-wide 24×7 helpline for registering complaints or getting information about issues related to forests and wildlife from January 2017.
- Maharashtra government sanctioned 2 crore rupees for district-level sports complexes, to be disbursed by Sports training department of every district.
- Manipur CM Okram Ibobi Singh inaugurated 2 new districts - Pherzawl and Noney, Taking total number of districts in State to 11.
- Microsoft launched its first full-scale Cybersecurity Engagement Centre (CSEC) in India (New Delhi). It is Microsoft’s seventh Cybersecurity Centre in the world and will function as a satellite to its Redmond Digital Crimes Unit (DCU).
- Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Venkaiah Naidu announced 90% subsidy for North Eastern States and 75% subsidy for other States in setting up of Community Radio Stations. A New dedicated Doordarshan channel ArunPrabha will also be launched in January 2017.
- Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari laid foundation stones for 17 road projects in Jiribam and Imphal (Manipur). Overall cost is approx 1152 Crores.
- Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravishankar Prasad launched TV channel DigiShala to promote cashless transactions, under Digidhan campaign. NITI Aayog will also provide Rs. 5 lakh for every district in India to encourage digital payment system.
- Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) eased up rules for Getting Passport, by eending Passport Rules 1980 -
- Birth certificate is no longer mandatory . Applicants can submit PAN Card, birth certificate, voter id, Aadhaar, driving licence.
- Applicant of online passport application will only need to provide name of only one parent and not both or of legal guardian. This will enable single parents to apply for passports for their children.
- Married applicants will not be required to provide any marriage certificate.
- Holy men can now apply for a passport with the name of their spiritual guru, instead of biological parents. They need to have an ID Proof with name of guru against column for parent’s name.
- Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched a Twitter Seva as live customer service resolution platform.
- Ministry of Human Resource Development will open a new Regional Institute of Education at Nellore (Andhra Pradesh).
- Ministry of Minority Affairs launched website www.haj.gov.in, related to Haj Matters. It will provide all necessary information relating to Haj management and will also facilitate making online application for Haj pilgrimage.
- Ministry of Textiles will establish a Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre to answer professional queries of weavers, initially in 7 languages - English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada Bengali and Assamese.
- Ministry of Textiles will organize first ever Investors Summit for North Eastern States at Shillong (Meghalaya) in Jan 2017.
- Ministry of Tribal Affairs will launch National Resource Centre (NRC) for Tribal Livelihood issues in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), in name of Vanjeevan. It will be launched in collaboration with UNDP and National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC).
- Ministry of Water Resources announced roadmap for early completion of 99 identified projects under Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP).
- Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was approved in July 2015 with outlay of 50000 crores, with aim of improving water usage efficiency. It is now aimed to be completed by Dec 2019 (Compared to April 2020 earlier).
- Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme was launched in 1996-97 to provide Central Loan Assistance (CLA) to states for executing irrigation projects.
- Mori village under in East Godavari district named First Digital Village of Andhra Pradesh.
- NIT Agartala signed 3 MoUs with ONGC and NEEPCO busines, for collaborative research in oil sectors and imparting training and conducting short term courses.
- NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog along with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare rolled out Performance on Health Outcomes index, to rank States on the basis of their performance on measurable health indicators. Rankings Data shall be made available by NITI Aayog in Sep 2017, after due consideration.
- National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved Ken-Betwa inter-linking of rivers (ILR) project.
- It received clearance of Cabinet in July 2014 but work could not begin as mandatory clearance from NBWL was stuck due to objections from environmentalists.
- National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed Rajasthan government to cancel allotments of salt pans in Sambhar Salt Lake.
- National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed ban on burning of waste in open places - Imposong fine of Rs 5000 on simple burning and Rs 25000 for Bulk Waste Burning. Besides, NGT also imposed fine of Rs 50000 on Airlines whose aircrafts leave Human waste in air.
- Nedumkayam colony in Karulazhi panchayat in Malapuram District of Kerala became first fully-digital tribal colony in country.
- New Wagah Like Border viewing point will be opened near Suigam in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.
- Noted television journalist Arnab Goswami announced launch of his new venture Republic, to be launched from 26-01-2017.
- Odisha Government launched Biju Sishu Surakshya Yojana to nurture orphan and HIV-infected children residing in different child care institutions and orphanages.
- Odisha Government launched Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (malaria control in inaccessible areas) DAMAN, a new malaria control programme for five years.
- Odisha Government named Rs 7600 crore Mega Lift Irrigation Scheme after freedom fighter Parbati Giri.
- Odisha Government will build 2000 kilometers additional concrete roads in rural areas by March 2017, under Gopabandhu Grameen Yojana (GGY).
- Odisha Government added 25 lakh new beneficiaries under Mamata Yojana and transferred Rs 1,100 crore to their bank accounts, on occasion of 5th Anniversary of Mamata Yojana.
- Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will set up a new basin in Agartala by end of 2017 , to explore oil and gas in North-East region.
- P M Narendra Modi inaugurated India's Largest cheese plant of Banaskantha Cooperative Milk Producers Union (Banas Dairy) in Gujarat.
- PM Narendra Modi laid foundation stone for grand memorial of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, being built by state government in Arabian Sea, off Mumbai coast. It will cost approx 3600 crores, will be a 192-metre-tall statue of Shivaji.
- PM Narendra Modi laid foundation stone of Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna, which includes developing 900 km of national highways in Uttarakhand at total cost of Rs. 12000 crores.
- PM Narendra Modi laid foundation stone of first ever “Indian Institute of Skills” in India at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh). It was conceptualized by PM during his visit to Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education.
- PM Narendra Modi launched National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh). It aims to provide apprenticeship training to over 50 lakh youngsters to create more jobs. It has budgetary outlay of Rs 10000 crores. He also laid foundation stone of Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
- Piyush Goyal (Minister of State(IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines) launched Coal Mitra Web Portal, designed to bring flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.
- Power Ministry will soon launch mobile application GARV-II to provide real time data of all six lakh villages of the country, aimed at ensuring transparency in implementation of rural electrification programme.
- President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated 77th session of Indian History Congress (IHC) at University of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.
- Puducherry Government implemented f 3% reservation for differently-abled persons in government jobs in Union Territory.
- Punjab Government launched India’s first amphibious bus project named Harike Cruis, that travels on land and as well as in water. It has been imported from Swedish automobile company Scania. Route of bus includes 13 km ride from Amritsar to Harike wetlands.
- Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched website of National Rail Plan 2030 (NRP-2030) ON url www.nationalrailplan.in.
- Rajasthan Government launched Annapurna Rasoi Scheme to provide quality meal at cheap price to poor and needy on lines with Tamil Nadu Government’s Amma canteens. Tagline for scheme is: “Sabke liye bhojan, sabke liye sammaan (Food for all, respect for all)”. Food under this scheme will be provided at subsidized rates, breakfast at Rs 5 per plate and lunch/dinner at Rs 8 per plate.
- Rajasthan High Court scrapped Rajasthan Special Backward Classes (SBC) Reservation Act 2015 that provided 5% quota to five communities, including Gujjars in jobs and education.
- Rajasthan government launched mobile App LeZgo, to provide latest information about tourist attractions in Rajasthan (Ajmer and Pushkar Initially).
- Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) Hyderabad achieved carbon neutral status. It is first in Asia-Pacific region in 5-15 million passengers per annum category to attain this status. Earlier, Delhi Airport had become first airport in Asia-Pacific to achieve carbon neutral status among all categories.
- Rajya Sabha passed Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014 (repealing Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 -
- The bill covers huge spectrum of issues faced by Persons with Disabilities and complies with UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which India became a signatory in 2007. -
- Features of bill Include -
- Definition of disability - It defines to include 19 conditions as disable and Min 40 % disability is required to be classified as one.
- Rights of Equality for persons with disabilities.
- Education, skill development and Employment - At least 5% seats in higher education and 5% vacancies must be reserved in government jobs for PWDs.
- Legal Capacity - Disabled persons have the equal right to own and inherit movable and immovable property, as well as control their financial affairs in par with others.
- Guardianship - District court may order guardianship to disable person if person is unable of taking care of himself.
- National and State Commissions for persons with disabilities will be established by central and state governments respectively, along with advisory boards.
- Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated Sagarmala Development Company’s (SDC) office in New Delhi. SDC will identify port-led development projects under Sagarmala programme.
- Shripad Yesso Naik (Minister of State for AYUSH (IC)) inaugurated North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Homoeopathy (NEIAH) at Shillong in Meghalaya.
- Sikkim Named India’s first fully organic state by converting around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land into sustainable cultivation.
- Social Networking Service Twitter and ICICI Bank partnered to enable customers with direct online response to their queries and feedback in real-time @ICICIBank_Care.
- Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) launched tender of 1000 MW capacity for development of grid-connected rooftop solar capacity for Government Departments.
- It is a step towards fulfilment of the Government of India’s target for installation of 40 GW rooftop solar power plants by the year 2022.
- Sports Ministry derecognised yoga as ‘priority sport’, stating that it will not be possible to conduct competitions in Yoga. Yoga will now come under prerogative of Ministry of AYUSH.
- Supreme Court approved Government’s Graded Response Action Plan to tackle pollution in Delhi-NCR. Enforcement of action plan will be under orders of Environment Pollution (Control and Prevention) Authority (EPCA).
- Supreme Court ordered Union and State Governments to remove all liquor shops located 500 metres or less from national and state highways.
- Supreme Court ordered that income earned by erstwhile rulers of a princely state by renting out their residential palace is not taxable. Their income being exempted under Section 10(19A) of IT Act, 1961.
- Supreme Court ruled that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and did not enjoy sovereign status, either under its constitution or that of India. It affirmed that J&K’s constitution was subordinate to the Indian Constitution and its permanent residents were Indian citizens.
- SC made this observation while hearing on appeal filed by State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks over the issue of recovery of loans under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002.
- SBI and other banks had appealed against Jammu and Kashmir High Court verdict given in July 2015. J&K HC held that SARFAESI Act 2002 was not valid in respect of residents of J & K as it collides with Transfer of Property Act of Jammu & Kashmir, 1920.
- Supreme Court ruled that horse racing is not animal cruelty and It is different from Jallikattu (Tamilnadu), which has several measures to torture bulls.
- It was announced by SC on a petition challenging a Rajasthan High Court’s order banning horce races in Rajasthan.
- Telangana’s Ibrahimpur becomes first cashless village in south India.
- Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment released first issue of National Newspaper dedicated to Senior Citizen, 'Saanjhi Saanjh', edited by J.V Manisha Bajaj.
- To boost Swachh Bharat mission, government will deploy around 600 young professionals in each district of country as Zila Swachh Bharat Preraks (ZSBPs).
- Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram launched Stanpan Suraksha mobile app to promote breastfeeding and keep a tab on inappropriate promotion of baby food items.
- Tripura government adopted for cashless payment in all public transactions, starting from 1 January 2017.
- UP Eco-tourism organized international festival on birds at National Chambal Sanctuary in Agra, as World’s largest bird festival.
- Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated power projects worth over 52,000 crore across, Including 3 thermal power plants with capacity of 33,000 MW were also inaugurated.
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav laid foundation stone of Film, Television and Liberal Arts Institute in state capital Lucknow.
- Uttar Pradesh government approved including 17 Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Scheduled Class (SC) list.
- Uttar Pradesh government tied up with Tata Trusts to leverage digital platforms to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in state.
- Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat unveiled statue of renowned Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar in Haridwar. Thiruvalluvar is believed to have lived between 3rd Century BC and 1st Century BC.
- Uttarakhand High Court directed state government to impose ban on sale and consumption of liquor in three districts - Rudraprayag, Chamoli, and Uttarkashi.
- VIT University (Vellore - Tamilnadu) became India’s first academic institution to be certified with QS 4-star rating.
- Vijayawada became first Parliamentary constituency in India to have health insurance for all citizens. It consists of 265 villages in Andhra Pradesh. Swastha Kutambham health insurance scheme by Andhra Pradesh Government in association with Tata Trusts covers health for all in rural areas.
- Women and Child Development Ministry tied up with India Post and SBI for offering more payment options to buyers and simplify shipping of products bought fromMahila E-haat online marketing platform for women entrepreneurs.
- World Bank approved nearly Rs 1,560 crores (235 Million USD) for Bihar Rural Roads Project. Project consists constructing 2,500 km of rural roads in Bihar under Mukhiya Mantri Gram Sampark Yojana (MMGSY).
- ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ index launched by NITI Aayog to capture annual incremental improvements by States, rather than focus on historical achievements.
Persons
- Actor Salman Khan launched his mobile app - Being in Touch.
- Almazbek Atambaev, President of Kyrgyzstan Visited India. Signed Agreements are -
- Cooperation in Tourism, youth exchange, Youth development, Iinformation on training programmes of diplomats, Agriculture and Food Industry, Broadcasting and exchange of audiovisual programmes.
- American Surgeon Henry Heimlich passed away, famous for creating technique to save choking victims.
- Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa passed away, at the age of 68 years.
- Jayalalithaa was among renowned political personalities and was a top film actress of Tamil Cinema in 1960s and 1970s. She was famously known as Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (revolutionary leader) or Amma.
- O. Panneerselvam has been appointed as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu (3rd time), following Jayalalithaa's Demise.
- Chief of Indian Navy, Sunil Lanba visited Japan.
- Co-artist of national emblem ‘Lion Capital of Ashoka’ - Dinanath Bhargava passed away.
- Coca-Cola India signed Actor Ranveer Singh as brand ambassador for Beverage Brabd - Thums Up.
- Cyrus Mistry has been removed as Director of Tata Indstries. He was earlier removed as Chairman of Tata Group.
- Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar arrived visited Mauritius.
- Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung submitted his resignation to Central Government.
- Director General of Bangladesh Coast Guard Aurangzeb Chowdhury visited India.
- Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan (Central Asia) visited India. Notable Points -
- MOU for Broadcasting in Exchange of Audio Visual Programs.
- Cooperation in exchange of financial intelligence related to money laundering, related crimes and financing of terrorism.
- Protocol amending Agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
- Announcement of initiation of Bilateral investment treaty.
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj named among 15 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. List also includes philanthropist couple Anupama and Vineet Nayar.
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj named among top 100 global thinker by US based Foreign Policy magazine, under Decision-makers category.
- Former Actor and Now Rajya Sabha MP, Mithun Chakraborty resigned due to health issues.
- Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa passed away.
- Former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake passed away.
- Former US astronaut John Glenn passed away. He was first American to orbit Earth. He circled earth thrice in 1962 aboard Friendship 7 space capsule.
- Hollywood actress Carrie Fisher passed away, known for her role in Star Wars and her autobiography The Princess Diarist.
- Hrithik Roshan became highest advance taxpaying actor after paying advance tax of Rs 80 crore till December, followed by Aamir Khan (74 crore), Ranbir Kapoor (37 crore).
- Indian former international table tennis player Prafulla Haldankar passed away.
- Israel's Minister for Science, Technology and Space Ofir Akunis visited India.
- Jayaben Desai, Gujarati activist who led a campaign against low pay for women workers at a UK factory in the 1970s has been named in BBC’s most influential women of the past 70 years list.
- Legendary British horse jockey Walter Swinburn passed away.
- Lubomir Zaoralek, Foreign Minister of Czech Republic Visited India.
- Mahinder Pal Singh became first Sikh cricketer in Pakistan to join national academy.
- New Zealand prime minister John Key resigned.
- Nobel Prize Winner American Economics Thomas Schelling passed away.
- Noted British singer George Michael passed away.
- Noted Former international hockey umpire Phulel Singh Sujlana passed away.
- Noted Kannada actor Chetan Ramarao passed away.
- Noted Malayalam actor Jagannatha Varma passed away.
- Noted Tamil poet and activist Makkal Pavalar Inkulab passed away.
- Noted Tamilndau Film and Political Personality Srinivasa Iyer (Cho Ramaswamy) passed Away.
- Noted Water Conservation Activist Anupam Mishra passed away, known for his books such as Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Taalab and Rajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein.
- Noted economist and former member of erstwhile Planning Commission, Saumitra Chaudhuri passed away.
- Noted journalist Cho S Ramaswamy passed away.
- Obituiaries -
- Shriram Gojamgunde - Marathi Cinema.
- Makkal Pavalar Inkulab - Tamil Poet.
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) declared actor Sunny Leone as PETA’s Person of the Year, for her commitment for promoting rescue of homeless dogs and cats.
- President of Indonesia Joko Widodo Visited India. 3 MOUs were signed in areas including fishing, standardization, youth affairs and sports.
- Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani visited India. MOU Signed -
- Exemption from visa requirement for holders of diplomatic, special and official passports.
- Technical Cooperation in cyber space and combating cyber crime.
- India will train Qatar police for handling the security during the FIFA World Cup 2022 scheduled to be held in Qatar.
- Tata Motors appointed Actor Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador for commercial vehicle Business Unit.
- Tesla and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk named most admired leader in technology, in a survey conducted by VC firm First Round Capital involving over 700 startup founders. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is 2nd, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg 3rd.
- UP's noted Urdu poet Bekal Utsahi passed away.
- US Astronomer Vera Rubin passed away. She was known for her pioneering work on galaxy rotation, that led to theory of dark matter.
- Vietnam Defence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich visited India. India agreed to train Vietnam’s Sukhoi-30 fighter pilots, boosting growing defence ties between both countries. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement was also signed between India and Vietnam.
Science
- A team of international astronomers discovered Vela super cluster, biggest super galaxy cluster disdovered so far.
- American scientists of US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering successfully tracked human thought by imaging rapidly fluctuating brain activity, using fast functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI).
- Canadian Scientists developed first functional pacemaker cells using human pluripotent stem cells that can regulate heart beats with electrical impulses paving way for alternate biological pacemaker therapy. Pluripotent stem cells have potential to differentiate into more than 200 different cell types that make up every tissue and organ in the body.
- Harvard University (USA) researchers have built world’s smallest radio receiver, made out of atomic scale defects in pink diamonds.
- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C36.
- Resourcesat-2A is a follow on mission to its predecessor remote sensing satellites Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively.
- It weighs 1,235 kg and mission life of Resourcesat-2A is five years.
- Indian private aerospace starup Team Indus partnered with Japanese Hakuto to carry its four-wheeled lunar rover to the Moon’s surface. TeamIndus’s 600 kg spacecraft will be launched on ISRO’s PSLV rocket on December 28, 2017. Now, Team Indus’s spacecraft will also carry Hakuto’s 4 kg robotic rover.
- Researchers discovered a new fish species which has became 8000 times more resilient to toxic waste compared with normal fish, named Atlantic killifish. It lives in heavily polluted East Coast estuaries of USA such as Elizabeth River in Virginia and Newark Bay in New Jersey.
- Researchers discovered hot atomic hydrogen atoms in thermosphere (upper layer of earth’s atmosphere). It changes current understanding of the distribution of hot atomic hydrogen and its interaction with other atmospheric constituents.
- Researchers from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) discovered that bismuth semi-metal in bulk form becomes a superconductor when temparature is lowered to -273 degree C. It acts as superconductor at temperature three times higher than theoretical prediction. This discovery challenges conventional understanding of superconductivity based on Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory.
- Researchers from USA developed first vaccine for Chikungunya fever made from an insect-specific Eilat virus.
- Russian Scientists developed a new low-cost method for producing high-quality nuclear fuel using electricity. It is alternative novel method that forms the basis of powder metallurgy and involves electric pulse sintering under pressure.
- Scientist from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for the first time detected traces of ammonia in upper troposphere, lowest atmospheric layer of Earth. Ammonia (NH3) was released into atmosphere as agricultural emission from livestock farming and fertilisation in order of 33 pptv (33 ammonia molecules per trillion air molecules), above Southeast China and North India.
- Scientists at Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Spain) identified a specific protein called CD36 which is responsible for spreading cancer. CD36 is found in cell membranes of tumour cells and are dependent on fatty acids.
- Scientists discovered 163 new species in ecologically diverse Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand), including 3 mammals, 9 amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles and 143 plants. It Has been revealed by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report.
- Scientists for first time discovered molten jet stream within Earth’s molten iron core using latest data obtained from three European satellites called Swarm (launched in 2013 for studying Earth’s magnetic field). This data will help create an sharpest ‘x-ray’ view of Earth.
- Molten jet stream is an accelerating band of molten iron circling the North Pole. It just like the jet stream in atmosphere and moves about 40 km per year, currently in westward direction.
- This data clarifies that changes in magnetic field are actually being caused by the molten jet stream.
- Scientists from India found a huge ‘dead zone’ of an estimated 60,000 square kilometres in Bay of Bengal, that supports microbial processes that remove vast amount of nitrogen from the ocean.
- Dead Zone is an area in water body that contains little or no oxygen (or they are hypoxic) in bottom and near-bottom water. They occur naturally or can also be induced by human activities.
- UK researchers found that stem cells harvested from pregnant woman’s amniotic fluid can be used to strengthen weak bones. Amniotic fluid is the protective fluid that surrounds baby in the uterus and helps it to develop inside the mother’s womb.
- UK researchers identified Hafnium carbide (HfC) and Tantalum carbide (TaC) as world’s most heat resistant material. Researchers found that TaC melted at 3,768 degrees Celsius, and HfC melted at 3,958 degrees Celsius.
- US scientists developed a bacteria-powered battery (bio-battery) on a single sheet of paper, capable of powering disposable electronics (Papertronics).
- Researchers laid ribbon of silver nitrate on a piece of chromatography paper.
- On top, they placed thin layer of wax to create a cathode (positive electrode). On other side , reservoir out of a conductive polymer was made which acts an anode (negative electrode). When paper is folded so that the cathode and anode come into contact, it is powered by the bacterial metabolism.
- USA Scientists (University of Wisconsin-Madison) created a nanoceramic material that can used for safer and cheaper nuclear reactors, made of aluminium oxide nanoceramic coating. It can withstand high temperatures, the harsh effects of radiation and also becomes tougher under radiation. Panel Incuded Indian Scientist Kumar Sridharan.
- USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch Restore-L Spacecraft in 2020. It will be able to repair satellites currently in orbit. In this regard, NASA has given $127 million contract to California-based satellite company Space Systems/Loral.
- University of Toronto (Canada) scientists discovered oldest water sample dating back to about 2 billion years in a Canadian Mine. It is 500 million years more ancient than previous oldest samples.
- Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX) 2016-17 inaugurated by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) New Delhi. Aim is better understanding of fog life cycle and improve capability in fog prediction.
- World Health Organization (WHO) reported that new vaccine for Ebola (Developed in Canada) will be 100% effective. It is now over taken by pharmaceutical giant Merck.
- World’s first cloned goat bearing superfine Cashmere wool born in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Sports
- 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia announced retirement from tennis.
- 16-year-old shooter From Gujarat, claimed gold medal in junior men’s 50M Rifle Prone event at National Shooting Championship in Pune. Notable point is that he equalled score (209.5) of H Junghaenel of Germany who won gold medal in men’s 50m Rifle Prone event at Rio Olympics 2016.
- AB De Villiers stepped down from South Africa's Test Cricket captaincy. Faf du Plessis has been named to take over the role.
- All-India Football Federation won Asian Football Council's Developing Member Association of Year Award in Abu Dhabi.
- Andy Murray (UK) and Angelique Kerber (Germany) were named ITF (International Tennis Federation) World Champions of 2016 in Male and Female Categories Respectively. It is 9th title for Andy Murray.
- Argentina women’s hockey team defeated Netherlands to win women’s Hockey Junior World Cup 2016 in Santiago (Chile).
- Argentina won FIFA ‘Team of the Year’ title after finishing top of the FIFA rankings of 2016 with 1,634 points. Brazil is second with 1,544 points
- Atletico De Kolkata FC won 3rd Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament. It is second title for Atletico De Kolkata FC. In final they defeated Kerala Blasters.
- Azhar Ali became first Pakistan batsman to score a double century in a Test in Australia.
- Bank of Baroda (BoB) became first Indian company to sign up as a national supporter of 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be hosted by India in October 2017.
- Basketball player LeBron James (USA) chosen as Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year.
- Cricket Australia (CA) named Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli as captain of board’s One-Day International (ODI) Team of Year. Jasprit Bumrah is another Indian named in team.
- Cricketer Virat Kohli named India's Sportsperson of the Year 2016 in a poll conducted by India Today.He was followed by Badminton Player PV Sindhu.
- First elite men’s senior national boxing tournament started at Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati (Assam).
- Former American basketball player Michael Jordan is named as highest-paid athlete of all times by Forbes, with $1.7 billion total wealth. He if followed by Golfer Tiger Woods ($1.67 billion).
- Formula One racer Nico Rosberg (Germany) announced retirement. He has recently won F1 World championship 2016.
- Gujarat's Samit Gohel broke 117-year-old record of Highest score in first-class cricket by scoring 359 not out during Ranji Trophy match against Odisha.
- ICC granted Shaheed Vijay Singh Parthik(SVSP) Sports Stadium in Greater Noida approval for conducting International cricket matches.
- India Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan won gold medal at Asian Luge Championships held at Nagano in Japan.
- India bronze medal at women’s U-18 Asia Cup hockey held in Bangkok (Thailand) by defeating South Korea.
- India won 2016 Asian Cricket Council Under-19 Asia Cup title by defeating Sri Lanka in Colombo (Sri Lanka).
- India won 2016 Men's Hockey Junior World Cup, defeating Belgium. It was hosted by India in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).
- India's Smriti Mandhana named in International Cricket Council (ICC’s) Women’s Team of Year 2016. This is for the first time ICC has named a women’s team of the year.
- Indian Billairds layer Pankaj Advani won his 11th World Billiards (150-Up format) Championships title after defeating Peter Gilchrist of Singapore In Bengaluru. Note that Peter Gilchrist defeated Sourav Kothari to win Long Up title.
- Indian Cricketer Karun Nair scored triple century in 5th Test Match Against England played in Chennai (Tamilnadu).
- Indian Golfer Mukesh Kumar became oldest golfer to win an Asian Tour title after winning Panasonic Open India at Delhi Golf Club (DGC).
- Indian Golfer Mukesh Kumar became oldest golfer to win an Asian Tour title at age of 51 years, after he won 2016 Panasonic Open India golf title in Delhi.
- Indian Iqbal Sayed became first Indian to win medal (Silver) at Mr Olympia amateur event in Hong Kong in Classic Bodybuilding category.
- Indian Olympic Association Approved Meghalaya as host of 2022 National Games. Upcoming National Games -
- 2017 - Goa (36th)
- 2018 - Uttarakhand
- 2019 - Andhra Pradesh
- 2022 - Meghalaya
- Indian Professional Boxer Vijender Singh defeated Francis Cheka (Tanzania) to retain WBO-Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title.
- Indian Women’s cricket team won 2016 Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup cricket tournament, defeating Pakistan. It was hosted by Thailand.
- Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin named ICC Cricketer of Year 2016 and ICC Test cricketer of Year 2016. He became second Indian player after Rahul Dravid to bag two prestigious prizes in same year. Ashwin was named recepient of Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the year 2016.
- Virat Kohli named captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
- Misbah-Ul-Haq became First Pakistani to win ICC Spirit of Cricket Award.
- Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin occupy top two spots in ICC Test bowling Rankings.
- New Zealand cricketer Suzannah Wilson Bates became first woman cricketer to win both ICC Women’s ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards.
- Indian tennis player Somdev Kishore Devvarman announced his retirement.
- Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri won $10000 ITF Hong Kong F4 Futures Title, defeating Shintaro Imai of Japan.
- India’s Arjun Bhati secured first position in Kids Golf World Championship 2016 held in Malaysia defeating South Africa’s Methu Denish.
- India’s largest indoor sports arena will come up in New Town area of Kolkata (West Bengal), on 10 acres land and accommodation of 15400 people.
- International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) removed Sochi (Russia) as host host of 2017 Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships, accusing Russia of state-sponsored doping.
- International Boxing Association (AIBA) granted full membership to the recently formed Boxing Federation of India (BFI). With this, India’s return to international boxing fold is complete after it was suspended for four years over issues of less management.
- International Olympic Committee granted provisional recognition to cheerleading and martial art of muaythai as Olympic sports. Governing body for each sport will now receive $25,000 annually from IOC.
- Kush Bhagat won 3 gold medals in 1st Western Asia Youth Chess Championships in UAE.
- Lionel Messi (Aergentina) voted as World’s Best Playmaker for second consecutive year, as announced by International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).
- Next Women’s Hockey World Cup will be held in July 2018 in London (England).
- Noted British road and track racing cyclist Bradley Wiggins announced retirement. He has won several international tours including 8 Olympic medals.
- Pakistan got approval to host its first Davis Cup tennis Match after 12 years. It was deprieved of hosting matches in view of security fears.Match will be against Iran in Islamabad in February 2017.
- Pankaj Advani won National title in 6-red Snooker (shorter format), defeating Ishpreet Chadha.
- Portugese Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo won Best Player of the Year and Goodwill Award at 7th Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai. Besides, Real Madrid Club’s president Florentino Pérez, coach Fernando Santos and the Club Itself, won awards in their respective categories.
- Rio Olympian Sathish Sivalingam won gold for 6th consecutive year in men's 77 kg category in 69th men's and 32nd women's Senior National Weightlifting Championship in Tamilnadu.
- Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad (Motera Stadium) wlll become world’s largest seating capacity cricket stadium after renovation work by Larsen and Turbo (L&T). Its capacity will be enhanced to 1.1 lakh people from 54000 currently, leaving behind Melbourne Cricket Ground's capacity of 1 lakh people.
- Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal won 2016 Mubadala World Tennis Championship title in Abu Dhabi (UAE), Defeating David Goffin.
- Sports Ministry derecognised Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on issue of nominating scam tainted Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Chautala as its life presidents. As a matter of protest, Narinder Batra also earlier resigned as associate vice-president of Indian Olympic Association. Suresh Kalmadi had chosen to refuse appointment but Abhay Singh Chautala accepted the Offer.
- Young Indian racer Jehan Daruvala signed Agreement with top team Carlin for 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
- Cupertino is known globally known for Apple headquarters situated in it.
- He will fill post that fell vacant after Urjit Patel being mde made RBI Governor.
- Other 3 Deputy Governors of RBI are - S S Mundra, R Gandhi and N S Vishwanathan.
- To ensure greater participation in financial inclusion in rural areas, Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) Launched Bank Sakhi Scheme as to promote cashless transaction.
- Shoojit Sircar Directed Pink won four awards - Best Film, Best Actor (Amitabh Bachchan), Best Editing - Aditya Bannerji, Best Dialogue - Ritesh Shah.
- Male - Usain Bolt (Jamaica). Awarded for sixth time.
- Female - Almaz Ayana (Ethiopia).
- Other Awards -
- Rising Star- Canada's Andre De Grasse (Male), Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam (Female).
- President’s Award - Tegla Loroupe.
- Women in Athletics - Polyxeni Argeitaki (Greece)
- Rahman has won an Oscar for his music 'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2009 (Song Jai Ho).
- Indian Player Virat Kohli is ranked at top, Followed by Jonny Bairstow (England), Ravichandran Ashwin (India) and Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka).
- Science & Technology - A S Kiran Kumar (ISRO chairman).
- Public Leadership - Devendra Fadnavis (Mahrashtra Chief Minister)
- Social Thinkers, Philosophers and Pravachana Karthas - Kamala Murthy (Hari Katha exponent)
- International - John Marr (UK Based scholar in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu)
- 24 poets and authors will be conferred 2016 Sahitya Akademi Awards - 8 poetry, 7 short stories, 5 novels, 2 criticism books and 1 book each of essays and play. Winners are -
- Play - Swarajbir (Punjabi).
- Essay - Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri (Bengali).
- Criticism - Aziz Hajini (Kashmiri) and Nizam Siddiqui (Urdu).
- Short stories - Chahatrapal (Dogri), Shyan Darihare (Maithili), Moirangthem Rajen (Manipuri), Asaram Lomate (Marathi), Paramita Satpathy (Odia), Bulaki Sharma (Rajasthani) Vannadhasan (Tamil).
- Poetry - Jnan Pujari (Assamese), Anju (Bodo), Kamal Vora (Gujarati), Prabha Varma (Malayalam), Sitanath Acharya (Sanskrit), Gobinda Chandra Majhi (Santhali), Nand Javeri (Sindhi) and Papineni Sivasankar (Telugu).
- 24 poets and authors will be conferred 2016 Sahitya Akademi Awards - 8 poetry, 7 short stories, 5 novels, 2 criticism books and 1 book each of essays and play. Winners are -
- It says that number of forest fires have touched 24,817 in 2016 from 15,937 fires in 2015. It shows rise of 55% in past year.
- Recommendations Include Forming National policy on managing forest fires, large-scale incentives and programmes (including under MNREGA) to collect pines for use as fuel, and other incineration.
- NTPC approved replacing around 11,000 MW of its old, inefficient thermal power plants with new plants in about five years, with investment of 50,000 crores.
- Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines - Piyush Goyal gave away National Energy Conservation Awards for 2015-16. Out of total 156 Awardees, Railways won highest (27) awards.
- On This occasion, Government launched ‘Smart Consumer’ mobile App and an ‘Online Consumer Mediation Centre (OCMC)’ to provide speedy redressal of consumer grievances. Helpline 14404 was also launched for consumer related grievances.
- Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal launched 'Atal-Amrit Abhiyan' Scheme across State, as a health assurance scheme which will give comprehensive coverage for six diseases and cover all individuals in eligible families with annual income below Rs 5 lakh.
- JUTE-SMART portal Launched to facilitate purchase of Jute bags from Jute Industry by State Procurement Agencies.
- On this occasion, Kerala government launched two mobile applications ArisingKerala and Whistle Now.
- Agni 5 can hit targets within range of 5000 kilometres with nuclear warhead carrying capacity of more than 1 tonne.
- It is a terrain hugging missile which keeps on encircling the area of its target for several minutes and then hits accurately. It is difficult to detect by enemy’s radars. It is considered as India’s answer to US’s Tomahawk and Pakistan’s Babur missile.
- It is part of a fund namely Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit (Refinance) (STCRC) Fund in National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) for providing concessional short term refinance to Cooperative Banks, with size 45000 Crores for 2016-17.
- Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme provides for waiving interest and penalties if the principal amount involved in retrospective tax cases is paid. It aims at releasing about Rs. 5.16 lakh crore, which is locked in about 2.6 lakh pending direct tax cases.
- Under it, a disputed tax amount of up to Rs 10 lakh and the penalty will be forgone. However, in cases where the disputed tax amount is above Rs 10 lakh, a penalty of 25% will be levied.
- Skimming - Theft of card data using a small electronic device fitted in POS machine.
- Social engineering attack - Fraudster poses as a member of staff and can steal user's data.
- Petroleum companies will offer a discount of 0.75% on diesel and petrol on digital payments.
- .5% discount for buying monthly seasonal tickets in Suburban railway networks through digital payment.
- Passengers will get 10 lakh rupees free accident insurance cover on booking of Railway ticket through online mode.
- Payments through digital mode for railways catering, accommodation, retiring room will also attract 5% discount.
- People will be get 10% discount on General Insurance and 8% discount on new life Insurance policies of PSUs purchased online.
- Discount of 10% will be available to users for payment of toll at Toll Plazas on National Highways.
- NABARD will extend financial support of 228 Crores to eligible banks for deployment of two Point of Sale (PoS) devices each in 1 Lakh villages with population of less than 10,000.
- NABARD will also support Rural Regional Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks to issue Rupay Kisan Cards to over 4 crore 32 lakh Kisan Credit Card (KCC) holders to enable them to make digital transactions.
- Merchants will not over 100 rupees monthly rental for PoS terminals, Micro ATMs.
- No service service charge on digital transactions upto INR 2000.
- All state Government Departments will make Electronic Payments to suppliers, contractors or institutions, on orders exceeds Rs 5000
- It proposes changes to Section 6 of Payment of Wages Act 1936, that states that all payment of wages should be in cash.
- It will allow industries to pay wages to workers earning up to Rs. 18,000 month, without taking their explicit consent as required under Payment of Wages Act 1936.
- Consumer front - Here, App is just like any mobile wallet which will be used to transfer money. Customer needs to enter Aadhar number into app, select bank through which the transaction will take place and then the biometric scan will work as a password for authentication.
- Merchant Front - Merchants require two things to use this app - Android smartphone and fingerprint scanner.
- This app can also be used by a person to make payments without any phone. It has been developed by IDFC Bank along with UIDAI and National Payments Corporation of India.
- National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) will be implementing agency.
- Transactions using USSD, UPI, RuPay and AEPS will only be covered under these schemes.
- Digital payments made through credit cards and e-wallets won’t be covered.
- Incentives will be restricted to transactions within the range of Rs 50 and Rs 3000.
- Winners shall be identified through a random draw of eligible Transaction IDs.
- Lucky Grahak Yojana -
- Consumers making payment through digital mode will get chance to win minimum Rs 1000 each every day or Rs 1 lakh per week.
- 15,000 winners will get cashback prizes of Rs 1000 each every day starting on 25 December 2016 (Christmas) and ending on 14 April 2017 (Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi).
- There will be weekly awards worth Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for 7000 people. On last day of scheme mega prize winner award of Rs 1 Crore will be announced.
- Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana
- This scheme is for prmoting merchants to have POS (Point of Sale) machines for undertaking cashless transactions.
- Merchants doing business using POS are eligible to win Rs.50000 per week from 25 December 2016 to 14 April 2017.
- 3 Mega Prizes for merchants will be of Rs 50 lakhs, 25 lakh, 12 lakh for digital transactions between 8 November 2016 to 13 April 2017, to be announced on 14 April 2017.
- Government provides crop loans at subvented rates of interest @ 7 % per annum. On prompt repayment in first year, farmers are eligible for further subsidized rate of Interest of 4 % per annum.
- Minimum Export Rate(MEP) is rate below which no trader is allowed to export, meant to restrict exports and improve domestic supply.
- Through ‘masala bond’ route, an Indian company raises money overseas denominated in Indian rupees.
- 33% of FDI came through Mauritius route. Other big investors are from Singapore, US, UK and Netherlands.
- Sector wise - Services sector received max 18% of FDI inflows.
- Housing - Under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY), poor and middle class in cities will get 4% exemption on interest for home loans up to Rs 9 lakh and 3% exemption for home loans up to Rs 12 lakh. 33% more houses will be built in villages.
- Farmers - 3 crore Kisan credit cards will be converted into RuPay cards in 3 months. 20,000 crores will be added to fund under NABARD, meant for giving loans to cooperative banks and societies at low interest rate.
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) - Credit guarantee for small businesses is doubled to Rs 2 crore. Banks will raise cash credit limit for small business to 25% from 20%. Banks will also increase working capital loans from 20% of turnover to 30% for digitally transactions.
- Women and elderly - Pregnant women in above 650 rural districts will get Rs 6,000 in bank accounts to meet medical expenses and reduce child, woman mortality. Senior citizens will get guarantee of 8% interest rate on deposits up to Rs 7.5 lakh for 10 years.
- One of committee’s recommendations was to make regulation of retail payments independent from function of RBI, by establishing separate Payments Regulatory Board (PRB) and RBI’s regulation must be kept only for SIPS (systemically important payment system).
- RBI says that globally, both SIPS and retail payment systems are under central bank for a variety of reasons including issues of inter-connectivity between systems and the role of central bank as lender of last resort (LOLR).
- Repo Rate - 6.25 %
- Reverse Repo - 5.75 %
- Bank Rate - 6.75 %
- CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) - 4 %
- SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) - 20.75 %
- Bihar - 200 Crores
- Odisha - 368 Crores
- J & K - 314 Crores
- Tamilnadu - 200 Crores (Tirupur Dyeing Industry)
- Top 3 Emphatic Companies - Facebook (1), Alphabet (2), LinkedIn (3)
- 9 Indian companies are ranked among bottom 10 among 170 companies.
- India is ranked 8th among 163 countries in list of most impacted nations by terrorism. 6 out of top 10 nations are Asian.
- Iraq is worst hit by terror in 2015, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria. Pakistan was ranked fourth.
- Economic loss from terrorism is $635 billion over 16 years from 2000 to 2015.
- English is ranked as most powerful languages in world. Over 6,000 languages spoken in world.
- Top 10 - English (1st), Mandarin (2nd), French (3rd), Spanish (4th), Arabic (5th), Russian (6th), German (7th), Japanese (8th), Portuguese (9th) and Hindi (10th).
- Sittwe port is starting point for Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project in Myanmar. Once shipments arrive at Sittwe port from Kolkata, they will be transferred to smaller freight carriers which would sail upstream into Mizoram.
- It will Provide alternative route to India to ship goods to north-eastern States, which currently depend on thick Siliguri corridor sandwiched between Bhutan and Bangladesh (also called Chicken's Neck of India).
- India has surpassed United Kingdom to become world’s sixth-largest economy in GDP terms, for the first time. It is mainly due to Consistent (Around 7 % Growth) in India's GDP and Britain Facinf Slow growth (1 - 2%) after BREXIT Issues.
- India’s economy now stands behind United States, China, Japan, Germany and France.
- India surpassed Russia, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia to become world’s fourth largest defence spender. India spent 50.67 Billion USD on defence in 2016 (up from 46.6 Billion USD in 2015).
- Top 3 - United States (662 Billion USD), China (192 Billion USD), UK (53.81 Billion USD).
- Hindus are best-educated of all religious groups in North America and Europe. 96% of Hindus in US have college degrees compared to 36% for Christians.
- On Other scale, Jews are Most educated among all religious group in world, with average of 13.4 years of schooling. Hindus and Muslims have the fewest years of formal schooling, with an average of 5.6 years.
- Amending agreement with Tajikistan for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
- MOU with Kyrgyzstan on cooperation in agriculture and food related industry, Tourism.
- MOU between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) for Cooperation in exchange and use of US Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data.
- Renewal of MoU between Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and College of Banking and Financial Studies, Oman.
- MoU between Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to improve effectiveness of rural development programmes.
- Revised Air Services Agreement with Nigeria
- India is at Top in Asia and 3rd Globally, In terms of Innovation. Bengaluru (called Silicon Valley of the east), is 5th largest hub at global level. 9 new innovation centres were opened in India in 2016, leading the total number of innovation centres to 25.
- US is at top with 146 centres, followed by Britain (29) and India is third (24 centres).
- Using best and most sensitive signal receiving devices ever built by China, It has can download speed of 6 Gigabits (billions of bits) per second.
- This facility in Sweden can download data from satellites orbiting Earth in less than 3.5 hours, compared to domestic ground stations located in other part of world which require 7 hours. Shorter time is because satellites orbiting North Pole are able to pass about 12 times each day around Earth while those satellites flying over China can orbit Earth only about 5 times each day.
- In India, 63% take fewer days of the vacations that they get.
- Top 3 - Spain (68%), UAE (68%), Malaysia (67%) and South Korea (64%).
- Indian PM Narendra Modi ranked 9th among 74 people in List. Other Indians in list are Mukesh Ambani (38) and Satya Nadella (51).
- Top 10 -
- Vladimir Putin - President of Russia
- Donald Trump - President of US
- Angela Merkel - Chancellor of Germany
- Xi Jinping - President of China
- Pope Francis - Pope of Roman Catholic Church, Vatican City
- Janet Yellen - Chairperson of US Federal Reserve
- Bill Gates - Chairman of Bill & Melinda Foundation
- Larry Page - Founder of Google
- Narendra Modi -Prime Minister of India
- Mark Zuckerberg - Cofounder of Facebook
- India has huge gender pay gap (30 %). In India, women formed 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners.
- Singapore is among lowest gender wage gap at 3%. Among major economies, South Korea only fared worse than India, with a gap of 37%.
- India ranked 4th with installed wind power generation capacity of 25,088 MW in 2015. India has achieved the largest-ever wind power capacity addition of 3,423 MW in 2015-16, exceeding the target by 44%.
- Top 5 - China (145362 MW), US (74471 MW), Germany (44947 MW), India (25088 MW), Spain (23025 MW).
- ISA was jointly by Indian PM Narendra Modi and French President François Hollande in November 2015 in Paris, during 21st CoP meet. of UNFCCC. Till now, 25 nations have signed Framework Agreement.
- Nihonium (Nh - 113) becme first ever element to be discovered by an Asian country (Japan).
- Vietnam - Information Technology (IT)
- Afghanistan - Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
- Thailand - Controlling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
- United Kingdom - Intellectual Property and Ease of Doing Business in India
- Chicago Airport (USA) is most connected. The Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is 22nd most connected airport in world, while Mumbai Airport is ranked 28th.
- OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has 13 member nations and it was founded in 1960. It is headquartered since 1965 in Vienna. 13 OPEC members account for 42 % of global oil production and have 73 % of world's oil reserves.
- Members - Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore became first Indian institute to be placed in the top 15 universities.
- India has 27 universities Universities in List, Second only to china (52 universities).
- Indian institutes in the top 100 rank include -
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) 14 IIT Bombay 26 IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur both ranked 32 IIT Madras 35 IIT Roorkee 62 IIT Kharagpur 71 Jadavpur University 99
- Vivek Ramaswamy - 24th with net worth of $600 million and Apoorva Mehta - 31st with $360 million worth.
- List topped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckeberg.
- US Federal Reserve is chaired by Janet Yellen.
- It has been believed to be bought by Nepali soldiers on a UN Peacekeeping mission. Since then, cholera outbreak in Haiti has claimed over 10000 lives
- An Open skies Agreement allows unlimited number of flights to six metro airports namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai from participating nation.
- Compactness -Number of sections reduced 65, from 134.
- Board of Port Authority will be delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff. Size of Board of Port Authority is reduced to 11 members. Board will include representatives of respective state governments, Ministers along with a member representing employees of Major Ports Authority.
- Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) has been given powers to fix tariff which will act as a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects.
- Independent Review Board is proposed to carry out residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for major ports, including looking into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires.
- This is first time in recent years FSSAI has issued new rule related to packaging of food items. So far, it had focused on setting standards for packaged food.
- Use of newspapers for wrapping and packing of food items is very common in India and it may cause serious health concerns due t contaminated food items by newspaper ink.
- Top 5 in Income - Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Virat Kohli, Akshay Kumar , MS Dhoni
- Top 3 in Fame - Virat Kohli, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan.
- Since launch of PMUY, LPG coverage across the country increased to 70% from 61% earlier.
- Top five States - Uttar Pradesh (46 lakh), West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14 lakh).
- For minority community from countries other than Mentioned three, fees will be Rs 10000 for registration in India and Rs 15000 if they are registered elsewhere.
- C-Train is a new concept for urban mass-transit solution. It has been designed by an Indian Railway officer Ashwani Upadhyaya which had won a global award at the MIT in USA.
Under this, 90 % cost of installation would be borne by State and Centre government as subsidy. Government will install 3050 solar water pumps of 2 and 5 horse power in state.- Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 provides for free and universal elementary education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is key vehicle to implement RTE Act.
- Gross Enrolment Ratio in India -
- Primary - 100.08%
- Upper primary - 91.24%
- Elementary - 97%
- Secondary - 78.51 %
- Higher secondary - 54.21%
- Secondary and Higher secondary enrolments are taken care under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
- Birth certificate is no longer mandatory . Applicants can submit PAN Card, birth certificate, voter id, Aadhaar, driving licence.
- Applicant of online passport application will only need to provide name of only one parent and not both or of legal guardian. This will enable single parents to apply for passports for their children.
- Married applicants will not be required to provide any marriage certificate.
- Holy men can now apply for a passport with the name of their spiritual guru, instead of biological parents. They need to have an ID Proof with name of guru against column for parent’s name.
- Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was approved in July 2015 with outlay of 50000 crores, with aim of improving water usage efficiency. It is now aimed to be completed by Dec 2019 (Compared to April 2020 earlier).
- Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme was launched in 1996-97 to provide Central Loan Assistance (CLA) to states for executing irrigation projects.
- It received clearance of Cabinet in July 2014 but work could not begin as mandatory clearance from NBWL was stuck due to objections from environmentalists.
- Odisha Government added 25 lakh new beneficiaries under Mamata Yojana and transferred Rs 1,100 crore to their bank accounts, on occasion of 5th Anniversary of Mamata Yojana.
- The bill covers huge spectrum of issues faced by Persons with Disabilities and complies with UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which India became a signatory in 2007. -
- Features of bill Include -
- Definition of disability - It defines to include 19 conditions as disable and Min 40 % disability is required to be classified as one.
- Rights of Equality for persons with disabilities.
- Education, skill development and Employment - At least 5% seats in higher education and 5% vacancies must be reserved in government jobs for PWDs.
- Legal Capacity - Disabled persons have the equal right to own and inherit movable and immovable property, as well as control their financial affairs in par with others.
- Guardianship - District court may order guardianship to disable person if person is unable of taking care of himself.
- National and State Commissions for persons with disabilities will be established by central and state governments respectively, along with advisory boards.
- It is a step towards fulfilment of the Government of India’s target for installation of 40 GW rooftop solar power plants by the year 2022.
- SC made this observation while hearing on appeal filed by State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks over the issue of recovery of loans under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002.
- SBI and other banks had appealed against Jammu and Kashmir High Court verdict given in July 2015. J&K HC held that SARFAESI Act 2002 was not valid in respect of residents of J & K as it collides with Transfer of Property Act of Jammu & Kashmir, 1920.
- It was announced by SC on a petition challenging a Rajasthan High Court’s order banning horce races in Rajasthan.
- Cooperation in Tourism, youth exchange, Youth development, Iinformation on training programmes of diplomats, Agriculture and Food Industry, Broadcasting and exchange of audiovisual programmes.
- Jayalalithaa was among renowned political personalities and was a top film actress of Tamil Cinema in 1960s and 1970s. She was famously known as Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (revolutionary leader) or Amma.
- O. Panneerselvam has been appointed as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu (3rd time), following Jayalalithaa's Demise.
- MOU for Broadcasting in Exchange of Audio Visual Programs.
- Cooperation in exchange of financial intelligence related to money laundering, related crimes and financing of terrorism.
- Protocol amending Agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
- Announcement of initiation of Bilateral investment treaty.
- Shriram Gojamgunde - Marathi Cinema.
- Makkal Pavalar Inkulab - Tamil Poet.
- Exemption from visa requirement for holders of diplomatic, special and official passports.
- Technical Cooperation in cyber space and combating cyber crime.
- India will train Qatar police for handling the security during the FIFA World Cup 2022 scheduled to be held in Qatar.
- Resourcesat-2A is a follow on mission to its predecessor remote sensing satellites Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively.
- It weighs 1,235 kg and mission life of Resourcesat-2A is five years.
- Molten jet stream is an accelerating band of molten iron circling the North Pole. It just like the jet stream in atmosphere and moves about 40 km per year, currently in westward direction.
- This data clarifies that changes in magnetic field are actually being caused by the molten jet stream.
- Dead Zone is an area in water body that contains little or no oxygen (or they are hypoxic) in bottom and near-bottom water. They occur naturally or can also be induced by human activities.
- Researchers laid ribbon of silver nitrate on a piece of chromatography paper.
- On top, they placed thin layer of wax to create a cathode (positive electrode). On other side , reservoir out of a conductive polymer was made which acts an anode (negative electrode). When paper is folded so that the cathode and anode come into contact, it is powered by the bacterial metabolism.
- 2017 - Goa (36th)
- 2018 - Uttarakhand
- 2019 - Andhra Pradesh
- 2022 - Meghalaya
- Virat Kohli named captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
- Misbah-Ul-Haq became First Pakistani to win ICC Spirit of Cricket Award.
- Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin occupy top two spots in ICC Test bowling Rankings.
- New Zealand cricketer Suzannah Wilson Bates became first woman cricketer to win both ICC Women’s ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards.
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