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AWARDS AND HONORS

NAME OF THE AWARD	AWARD WINNER	KEY POINTS TO NOTE
Atibadi Jagannath Das Samman	Rabi Singh	He is an Odia poet
‘Companion of Honour’ by UK royals	JK Rowling	She is Harry Potter author
Mother Teresa Memorial Award	Priyanka Chopra	She is an Actress
Mr India 2017	Jitesh Singh Deo	He is a footballer
31st Moortidevi Award	Joy Goswami	He is Bengali poet

APPOINTMENTS

NAME	DEPT/FIELD
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

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated Purvasha Folk and Tribal Art Museum set up at Barkul near Chilika through video conferencing
• Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar has launched country’s first-ever mobile food testing laboratory.
• Mahesh Sharma has inaugurated the three days ‘Bodhi Parva: BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist Heritage’ in New Delhi on December 08, 2017.
• India’s economy is projected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019, the UN.
• 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.
• Activists against the Aadhaar-linking drive have started a website called Speakforme.in to help frustrated citizens.

NEWS IN STATES

• Uttar Pradesh regime has become the first state government to endorse the Modi government’s draft bill that makes instant triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence.
• The Kerala Government is organising a Petrochemical Investor Meet 18 at Crowne Plaza to highlight the opportunities being opened up by the new Petrochemical Park.
• The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched SAUBHAGYA (Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna) with an aim to provide free electricity connections to poor people in the state.
• The Telangana government has developed a mobile application that will help citizens in urban areas across the state find trained and certified technicians and workers, who will provide household services at the press of a button.
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has embarked on a statewide “Vikas Samiksha Yatra” to take stock of the developmental schemes of his government on the ground.
• Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched test flight of sea plane (amphibian flight) on Krishna River in Vijayawada.
• To increase earthquake preparedness capacity of Haryana, the state government has decided to conduct a mega mock exercise in all the districts of the state on December 21.
• To promote organ donation in Haryana, the state government would establish a organ and tissue transplant organisation at the Pt. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak.

BANKING AND FINANCE

• BSE’s India International Exchange (India INX) has received approval from the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on the framework for listing of debt securities.
•  The World Bank will no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances.
• Private sector Yes Bank has partnered advisory services firm Pantomath Advisory to develop a MSME ecosystem focused for Maharashtra and Gujarat.
• The Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 3 crore on IndusInd Bank for deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
• A Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of USD 250 million (equivalent) for the “Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Project” was signed with the World Bank.
• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered India’s GDP forecast for the current fiscal by 0.3% to 6.7 %.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

• The India-assisted emergency ambulance service in Sri Lanka would be further expanded in seven more provinces, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed to the Cabinet.
• India and Morocco have signed a pact to enhance cooperation in several areas of health sector, including non-communicable diseases and maternal, child and neonatal health.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Sri Lanka was formally handed over the strategic southern port of Hambantota to China on a 99- year lease, in a deal dubbed by the opposition as a sell-out.
• Sri Lanka has become the 163rd nation to accede to the anti-personnel mine ban convention, fulfilling the pledge it made last year to join the international community in supporting the ongoing landmine clearance programme.
• Norway has completed its transition to digital radio, becoming the first country in the world to shut down national broadcasts of its FM network.
• The prestigious World Petroleum Congress (WPC) will be returning to the US after a gap of over three decades, with Houston winning the bid for hosting the mega event in 2020.
• Moscow and Cairo have signed an agreement to construct Egypt’s first nuclear plant. The project will cost $21 billion and is due to be finished by 2028-2029.
• A new mountain has claimed the title of highest peak on UK territory after satellite data revealed land surveys by polar explorers were nearly 400 metres (1,300 ft) out.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• To create their glowing plants, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) turned to an enzyme called luciferase.

DEFENCE NEWS

• The US, South Korea and Japan started joint exercises to track missiles from North Korea, following the nuclear-armed Pyongyang’s longest-range test launch to date.
• The two-week long eighth edition of the Indo-Maldives joint military exercise, ‘Ekuverin’, will be conducted from 15 December 2017 at Belagavi, Bengaluru.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dedicated submarine INS Kalvari to the nation. The submarine was built in India with co-operation from France.

SPORTS

WINNER	TITLE	SPORT/ VENUE
Kanchanmala Pande	Gold at World Para Swimming Championship	Mexico
Cristiano Ronaldo	Ballon d’Or─ UEFA Champions League
Mehuli Ghosh	8 Gold Medals in National Shooting C’ship	She hails from Bengal

India is all set to host the 2023 World Cup. India will also host the upcoming Champions Trophy in 2021.

The Holkar Stadium in Indore is all set to host the final of the Ranji Trophy of the 2017-18 season.

OBITUARY

NAME OF THE PERSON	FIELD
Dr Lalji Singh	Father of DNA fingerprinting in India
Sukharanjan Sengupta	Journalist
Neeraj Vora	Actor-writer

IMPORTANT DAYS

DATE OBSERVED	DAY OBSERVED	THEME / PURPOSE
December 9	International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime	To raise awareness of the Genocide Convention
December 9	International Anti-Corruption Day	United Against Corruption for development, peace and security
December 10	Human Rights day	Let’s stand up for equality, justice and human dignity
December  11	International Mountain Day	Mountains Under Pressure: Climate, Hunger, Migration
December 12	International Day of Neutrality	Neutrality — defined as the legal status arising from the abstention of a state from all participation in a war between other states
December 14	National Energy Conservation Day	To demonstrate India’s achievements in energy efficiency and conservation

 

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