CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 Dear Friends, Join DayTodayGK’s Official Facebook We are happy to announce that our Page at Android APP has reached 10,000 www.facebook.com/DayTodayGK Downloads in Google Play store. Thanks for your support. Join our Telegram Channel via Make Your Preparation easier with our Free Android APP. Study Anytime & @DayTodayGK Anywhere. 1 | P a g e Day Today GK CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 AWARDS AND HONOURS NAME OF THE AWARD AWARD WINNER KEY POINTS TO NOTE Miss Supranational 2017 Jenny Kim She is from South Korea Children’s Peace Prize Mohamad Al Jounde He is Sixteen-year-old Best Asian Film award Dangal At Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards Trans-Saharan International Pihu Held in Zagora, Morocco Film Fest award Atibadi Jagannath Das Rabi Singh He is an Odia poet Samman ‘Companion of Honour’ by JK Rowling She is Harry Potter author UK royals Mother Teresa Memorial Priyanka Chopra She is an Actress Award Mr India 2017 Jitesh Singh Deo He is a footballer 31st Moortidevi Award Joy Goswami He is Bengali poet National Design Award Satheesh Reddy Scientific Adviser ‘National Gaurav Award Dr. Gaurav Nigam Educationist, paediatrician, 2017’ founder and CEO of iCare BBC Sports Personality of the Mo Farah He is a four-time Olympic Year award champion 2017 Innovative Young Pranita P Sarangi He is a professor of Biotechnologist Award Biotechnology at IIT, Roorkee PETA person of the year Anushka Sharma Bollywood superstar and vegetarian APPOINTMENTS NAME FIELD Hello Kitty UNWTO’s Special Ambassador Salil Parekh CEO and Managing Director of Infosys Anshu Prakash Delhi Chief Secretary D K Sarraf Chairman Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Rahul Singh National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) A. Surya Prakash Chief of Prasar Bharati 2 | P a g e Day Today GK CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 Vijay Shekhar Sharma UN Environment’s ‘Patron for Clean Air’. Ellie Goulding UN Environment Global Goodwill Ambassador Nitin Gupta CEO of Ola Money Sarvesh Tiwari President of Para Sports Foundation Ragul Gandhi President of Indian National Congress Nakul Chopra BARC India chairman Vikas Singh President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Rashesh Shah President of FICCI Narinder Batra Chief of International Hockey Federation Sebastián Piñera President of chile Michel Coulomb Head of Apple, India Justice Umesh Dattatraya Salvi Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Subbarayudu Ambassador of India to the Republic of Peru Professor Dhirendra Pal Singh Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Henrietta H Fore UNICEF head Dominique Mineur 1st Female Belgium ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Prof Ishan Kumar Patro Vice-Chancellor of Ravenshaw Universityz Saba Karim General Manager (Cricket Operations) of the BCCI Jairam Thakur Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister NC Goel Chief Secretary of Rajasthan G Rajesham Goud Head of Telangana State Finance Commission Prince Harry President of African Conservation Group Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga Prime Minister of Mali Vineet Chowdhary chief secretary to the Himachal Pradesh NATIONAL AFFAIRS India re-elected as Member of International Maritime Council for two years (2018-19) India has been re-elected to the Council of the International Maritime Organization [IMO] under Category “B” at the 30th session of the Assembly of the IMO held in London on 01 December, 2017. 3 | P a g e Day Today GK CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 The IMO Council consists of 40 member countries. In Categories “A” and “B” there are 10 members each and in Cateogary “C” 20 members, who are elected by the IMO Assembly. Centre Increases Agricultural Education Budget by 47.4 Percent Government of India has started celebrating many National and International Days related to agriculture for its integrated and rapid development. It was stated by Radha Mohan Singh. Government of India decided to celebrate National Agricultural Education Day on December 3 because it is the birthday of our first Union Agriculture Minister and Former President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad Ji. IRFC issues green bond on London Stock Exchange’s ISM The Indian Railway Finance Corporation’s (IRFC) has issued a USD 500 million green bond with a yield of 3.835 per cent which is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s new International Securities Market (ISM). The ten year dated bond was more than three times oversubscribed and has received strong international investor support. Center Enhances Monetary Allowances for Gallantry Award Winners The Government has enhanced the monetary allowances for the Gallantry Award winners vide notification dated 04 December 2017. This will come into effect from the 01 August 2017. The enhancement is for the recipients of post-independence Gallantry Award, pre- independence Gallantry Award and the monetary allowance attached to ‘Jangi Inam’, a pre- independence Gallantry Award. Kumbh Mela in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list India’s Kumbh Mela joined UNESCO’s list of “intangible heritage”, securing the coveted status alongside a host of cultural treasures including Naples’ pizza twirling. Kumbh Mela was given the nod by the UN cultural body’s World Heritage Committee, which met on the South Korean island of Jeju. India to Achieve ‘Electricity for all’ by Early 2020s: IEA Half a billion people have gained access to electricity in India since 2000, almost doubling the country’s electrification rate, according to the World Energy Access report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA). This “remarkable” growth puts India on course to achieving access to electricity for all in the early 2020s. 4 | P a g e Day Today GK CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 India now free of infective trachoma Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda has declared India free of Infective Trachoma, which has been a leading cause of infectious blindness among children. The survey findings indicate that the active trachoma infection has been eliminated among children in all the survey districts with overall prevalence of only 0.7 per cent. Taj Mahal Named Second-Best UNESCO World Heritage Site The Taj Mahal, India’s iconic ivory-white marble mausoleum in Agra, is the second best UNESCO world heritage site in the world, according to a new survey. With over 8 million visitors per year, the monument of love built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, is rated after Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. International Conference on Groundwater Organized An International conference is being organized on the Ground water issues in the country with a theme of “Ground water Vision 2030- Water Security, Challenges and Climate Change Adaptation” from December 11 to 13, 2017. The conference has been organized by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the aegis of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India. Ravi Shankar Prasad launches first NIC CERT Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology inaugurated the “NIC-CERT”, a setup of National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 11th December 2017. NIC-CERT has been setup with the objective of creating a comprehensive framework that integrates world class security components and inbuilt threat intelligence for detection, prevention and incident response. J P Nadda launches new initiatives on Universal Health Coverage Day, 2017 The Union Health Minister and MoS (Finance) launched “LaQshya| लक्ष्य’’ – Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative, a Safe Delivery Mobile Application for health workers who manage normal and complicated deliveries in the peripheral areas, and also released the Operational Guidelines for Obstetric High Dependency Units (HDUs) and Intensive Care Units (ICUs). 5 | P a g e Day Today GK CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 India to host 2-day Connectivity Summit with ASEAN countries Keeping with Indias initiative of connectivity with southeast Asia under its Act East Policy, New Delhi will host an Asean-India Connectivity Summit (AICS) on December 11-12 on the theme “Powering Digital and Physical Linkages for Asia in the 21st Century. India’s economy to grow at 7.2 percent in 2018; 7.4 in 2019: UN India’s economy is projected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019, despite a slowdown observed this year and the lingering effects from the demonetisation, the UN. “GDP growth for India is projected to accelerate from 6.7 per cent in 2017 to 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019,” the UN said in its report ‘World Economic Situation Prospects’ (WESP 2018), released at the UN headquarters in New York. India to Host 3rd Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of AIIB India will host the 3rd annual meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at Mumbai on June 25-26 next year. The theme of the meeting will be ‘Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration. Petition website for Aadhaar-linking complaints launched Activists against the Aadhaar-linking drive have started a website called Speakforme.in to help frustrated citizens. People can file complaints against being continuously pestered via calls and texts about linking their Aadhaar numbers with various services. IT-ITeS SSC NASSCOM inks MoU to launch employability enhancement programs In a bid to enhance skills and employment in the IT sector in India, IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council NASSCOM (SSC NASSCOM) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam University (AKTU) to launch Employability Enhancement Programs (EEP). Bill to amend Payment of Gratuity Act provisions The government has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha that will allow it to notify the period of maternity leave and gratuity that can be availed by employees under a central law.