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CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
International Volunteer Day
- International Volunteer Day (IVD) is celebrated on 5 December every year. This day provides a chance for volunteers and organisations to celebrate their efforts, values and promote their work among their communities, etc.
- The theme of 2019 IVD is “Volunteer for an inclusive future”.
World Soil Day
- World Soil Day is observed on December 5 every year across the world. The day highlights the soil’s importance on Earth
- For the year 2019, the theme for World Soil Day is ‘Stop soil erosion, Save our future’
- The day was first celebrated on December 5, 2012, corresponding with the birthday of Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who officially sanctioned the event.
- However, back in 2002, the international Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) made a resolution to propose December 5 as World Soil Day.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Election Commission to implement ‘Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System’
- Technological advancement has helped a lot in strengthening the electoral process of India. Various technologies like apps, software and gadgets have been adopted by the Election Commission of India to conduct free and fair elections.
- The Election Commission of India has also reviewed the process of registration of the political parties. The new guidelines will be effective from 1st January 2020.
- Accordingly, the “Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System” (PPRTMS) will be implemented through an online portal, to track the status of the application by applicants.
- The salient feature in the Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System is that the applicant (who is applying for party registration from 1st January, 2020 onwards) will be able to track the progress of his / her application and will get status updates through SMS and email.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES
India’s first maritime museum coming up at Lothal in Gujarat
- Underwater or marine archaeology in India is all set to get a boost with the government deciding to establish a National Maritime Heritage Museum at Lothal, a Harappan site on the Saurashtra coast in Gujarat.
- The museum will also be an independent research centre of underwater archaeology for reconstruction of maritime history, archaeology of boat building and materials traded. It will have on display salvaged material from shipwreck sites in the Indian Ocean waters.
- The museum is being set up with technical help from the Portuguese Maritime Heritage Museum. The central government has appointed the first Director General for the museum which will be attached to the Maritime Board of the Gujarat government. Lothal is the site of one of the oldest ports in India dating to the Bronze Age.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Gujarat Capital | Gandhinagar |
| Gujarat CM | Vijay Rupani |
| Gujarat Governor | Acharya Dev Vrat |
WEF partners with Punjab government to design pilot on Electric Vehicles ecosystem
- To combat the growing problem of environmental pollution in the state, the Punjab Government has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to design a Public-Private pilot on shared, clean and electric mobility.
- The state, which is also formulating its own EV Policy to support the adoption of e-vehicles, has been chosen for the pilot by WEF as it is well-positioned for shared EV transition, and already houses an existing auto component manufacturing base, besides having skilled labour and being power surplus.
- The collaboration is just one of the initiatives being taken by the state government, to promote e-mobility as a way to transform Punjab’s transport system into a cleaner one. The state has already banned new registrations of diesel and petrol 3 wheelers in 5 districts (Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib). It is also encouraging the setting up of EV/Battery units in the new industrial park located over 380 acres in Dhanansu village of Ludhiana district.
- Punjab is also set to get India’s first Auto Shredding Plant, with capacity to handle two lakh cars per annum in an 8- hour shift. The plant has been set up in technical collaboration with German technology.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Punjab Capital | Chandigarh |
| Punjab CM | Amarinder Singh |
| Punjab Governor | V P Singh Badnore |
UP govt announces 25% subsidy & full stamp duty waiver for defence industry
- Uttar Pradesh government has decided to provide 25 per cent subsidy and 100 per cent stamp duty waiver for setting up defence industry in the state.
- State will also provided all facilities including power, road and fencing of land to the companies that will set up defence industries.
- State cabinet has given relief to the home buyers in Noida and Greater Noida region by giving exemption to the builders from penal interest and other dues for the period their project is stalled due to litigation.
- Builders will only get this exemption if they pass on this benefit to the home buyers.
- The benefit will apply to builders who are set to provide homes to buyers by June 2021. The state government expected one lakh new homes to be constructed by that time.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Uttar Pradesh Capital | Lucknow |
| Uttar Pradesh CM | Yogi Adithiyanath |
| Uttar Pradesh Governor | Anandiben Patel |
Odisha CM launches ‘Madhu’ app to help school students
- Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched ‘Madhu’ app, an e-learning mobile phone application for school students to understand their subjects in a better and efficient way.
- The app named after ‘Utkal Gourab’ Madhusudan Das is developed by Ganjam district administration for school students.
- It is aimed at helping school students in learning their lessons taught in school classrooms through videos and practicing them.
- Through the app, the students will have access to video explanation of the topics they are taught in their classroom.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Odisha Capital | Bhubaneswar |
| Odisha CM | Naveen Patnaik |
| Odisha Governor | Ganeshi Lal |
3-day-long North East Food Show begins in Meghalaya
- The three-day-long North East Food Show which can be dubbed as the biggest ever food show of the region began today at Polo Grounds, Shillong.
- The first-ever North East Food Show was inaugurated by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma
- The North-East Food Show is a platform for entrepreneurs of the North-East to meet and interact with National and global majors of the Food & Beverage Industry to better understand, build connections, anticipate consumer needs and familiarize themselves with the latest trends in the industry for export promotion and up-scaling their businesses to global standards.
- The North East Food Show is being jointly organized by the Meghalaya Government in association with SIAL India and Inter Ads Exhibitions Private Limited.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Meghalaya Capital | Shillong |
| Meghalaya CM | Conrad Sangma |
| Meghalaya Governor | Tathagata Roy |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING
Reserve Bank keeps repo rate unchanged at 5.15 %
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its fifth bi-monthly Monetary Policy has kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 5.15 per cent.
- The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das unanimously voted for a status quo policy.
- The reverse credit policy has also maintained the reverse repo rate at 4.90 per cent and the marginal standing facility rate and Bank Rate at 5.40 per cent.
- GDP growth for 2019-20 has been revised downwards from 6.1 per cent in the October policy to 5.0 per cent.
| USEFUL INFO |
| RBI Headquarters | Mumbai |
| RBI Governor | Shaktikant Das |
| RBI Deputy Governor | BP Kanungo, N S Vishwanathan, and Mahesh Kumar Jain |
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank signs bancassurance pact with Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance
- Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) and Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Ltd. signed an MoU for bancassurance (for selling life insurance products through the branches of KVGB)
- Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank will market products of Canara HSBC through its 636 branches.
- Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company is jointly owned by two of the leading public sector banks — Canara Bank (51%) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (23%) — and HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings Ltd. (26%), the Asian insurance arm of one of the world’s largest banking and financial services groups.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION
Shri Upender Singh Rawat has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Costa Rica
- Shri Upender Singh Rawat presently Ambassador of India to the Republic of Panama has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Costa Rica.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Costa Rica Capital | San José |
| Costa Rica Currency | Costa Rican colón |
| Costa Rica president | Carlos Alvarado |
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Trai revamps mobile number portability, advises 3 working days for requests
- Telecom regulator Trai revamped mobile number portability (MNP) rules, making the entire process faster and simpler, and prescribed three working days timeline for port out requests within a service area.
- Similarly, timeline of five working days has been prescribed for requests for port out from one circle to another.
- The new rules will come into effect from December 16.
- Besides this, other major changes have been incorporated such as the validity of the Unique Porting Code or UPC has been brought down to four days instead of a fortnight prescribed earlier, for all circles except Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East, where the validity of the said code remains unchanged to 30 days
CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS
Joaquin Phoenix Named PETA Person of the Year
- Joker star Joaquin Phoenix has been named by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as its 2019 Person of the Year.
- He has recently appeared in an advertisement of PETA titled “We are all animals”, which was displayed in the Times Square and Sunset billboards to promote the prohibition of travelling wild-animal circuses.
- Previous year winners of PETA ‘Person of the Year’ are Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, Anjelica Huston, Olivia Mun, Eva Mendes and Alicia Silverstone.
ET Lifetime of Public Service Award for Former FM (Late) Arun Jaitley
- Arun Jaitley former Finance Minister of India was bestowed with the Economic Times (ET) Lifetime Achievement award for Public Service 2019.
- The award was received by Arun Jaitley’s spouse Sangeeta Jaitley.
VP Naidu presents Uttar Pradesh with National Award for Excellence for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities
- Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment conferred Uttar Pradesh with the National Award of Excellence, which was given by Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu, for doing a commendable job in the field of rehabilitation of persons with disabilities (Divyangjan).
- The award was received by Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) Mahesh Kumar Gupta on behalf of the state government.
- Besides, Shabina Saifi (Lucknow), Vidisha (Ghaziabad), Seema Tiwari (Jhansi) and Priyanka Devi (Lucknow) received national awards in different categories.
- Uttar Pradesh also received the award for the best state in the implementation of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan. The department’s website also received the award as the best portal for being disabled-friendly while Varanasi has been awarded for offering the best rehabilitation services among the districts.
Mumbai Central gets first ‘Eat Right Station’ certification from FSSAI
- The Mumbai Central station of Railways was conferred with the ‘Eat Right Station’ certification with four stars rating by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), as a part of ‘Eat Right India’ movement launched last year.
- The Mumbai Central Railway Station is the country’s first Eat Right Station.
- Mumbai Central station has been judged on the basis of compliance of food safety and hygiene, availability of healthy diet, food handling at preparation, transhipment and retail/serving point, food waste management, promotion of local and seasonal food and creating awareness on food safety and healthy diet
- FSSAI, along with Western Railways (WR) and Indian Railways Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), has trained food handlers, both in canteens and base kitchens. They inspected catering establishments at the station and certified and rated the standard of food.
- The focus of the movement is on improving the health and well-being of people by ensuring they eat healthy. ‘Eat Right India’ movement is built on two broad pillars of ‘Eat Healthy’ and ‘Eat Safe’. It aims to engage, excite and enable citizens to improve their health and well-being.