Dear Friends,
Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.
Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.
Always Keep Yourself Updated!!!
1. 47 cities join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, has announced the designation of 47 cities from 33 countries as new members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The results of this year’s Call bears witness to the Network’s enhanced diversity and geographical representation with 22 cities from countries not previously represented. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network is pleased to welcome the following cities within its seven creative fields (Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music).
Quick Link – UNESCO Creative Cities Network (Check out to see the list of cities)
2. Salman Rushdie awarded 2015 Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement
India-born author Salman Rushdie has been awarded the prestigious Mailer Prize that honours writers who fully exercise their freedom of creativity and thrive on dialogue and debate. The 68-year-old received the Mailer Center’s Annual Lifetime Achievement Prize at a ceremony in New York. The prize is named after renowned American writer Norman Mailer, considered among the most influential writers of the second half of the 20th century.
The Norman Mailer Centre recognises writers from all over the world, in all genres, whether established or emerging and the Mailer Prize, the center’s highest award, is given to writers whose work over the years have challenged readers’ perspectives on the world around them.
Quick Link – Salman Rushdie
3. Union Government slaps anti-dumping duty on stainless steel
The Centre has imposed an anti-dumping duty ranging from five to 57 per cent on import of cold-rolled flat products of stainless steel for five years. In a notification, the Central Board of Excise and Customs said the duty has been imposed on China, South Korea, the US, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan, besides the European Union. A review with regard to the imports of cold rolled flat products of stainless steel was initiated in April 2014, the notification noted.
The highest duty has been levied on steel imports from China at 57.39 per cent, followed by the European Union at 52.56 per cent. Imports from Thailand will have the least duty imposition of 4.58 per cent.
Quick Link – Anti Dumping Duty
4. December 11 – International Mountain Day
Covering around 22 percent of the earth’s land surface, mountains play a critical role in moving the world towards sustainable economic growth. This year, the celebration of this Day aims to highlight Mountain Products. Mountain peoples, who are largely family farmers, base their livelihoods on highly diversified activities. Over generations they have developed unique, resilient and sustainable production systems adapted to their local environments which favour the production of niche and mountain-specific products and services.
As of 2003, it has been observed every year to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build alliances that will bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world.
2015 Theme: “Promoting mountain products for better livelihoods”
5. Indo-Japan summit: pacts on bullet train, defence, nuke energy
India and Japan have inked a number of pacts in key areas of transportation, defence and nuclear energy. India’s first bullet train network will come up between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of Rs 98,000 crore. The strategic pacts were inked after the summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during which they also discussed international and regional issues of mutual importance including UN security reforms.
Quick Link – Indo – Japan Summit
6. Indo-Japan: Domestic cos pitch for FTA reviews
Review of the existing free trade pact and quick implementation of the social security agreement were among the key suggestions made by Indian businesses to boost economic ties between India and Japan. These recommendations were made by Indian side during the India Japan Business Leaders Forum meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Indian side, co-chaired by Bharat Forge Chairman and Managing Director Baba Kalyani, also pitched for fostering linkages between large Japanese companies and SMEs in India and enhanced collaborations in the human resource space to promote the development of soft infrastructure. The Forum later was addressed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
Quick Link – FTA Reviews
7. Government of India Signs MoU to establish 3 IIITs
GOI has signed an MoU and documentation for establishing three Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITs) at Ranchi, Nagpur and Pune. These IIITs are operated on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode with participation of State Government and Industry, apart from the Central Government. The IIITs are expected to bring out high quality IT manpower required for building up IT industry in the country.
Quick Link – Three more IIITs
8. Gujarat Becomes Tenth State to Join UDAY Scheme
With Gujarat Government communicating its in-principle to Ministry of Power (MoP) of joining UDAY , Goyal congratulated Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat Smt Anandiben Patel on Gujarat becoming 10th State to join UDAY . Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir , Jharkhand , Punjab and Rajasthan have already joined UDAY Scheme.
Expressing confident of more States joining the UDAY, Goyal has tweeted “All States have expressed strong interest for joining UDAY and are at various stages of getting internal approvals. We remain confident of all States joining UDAY and together creating an Ujwal Bharat .”
9. Farmer’s leader Sharad Joshi passes away
Veteran farmer’s leader and founder of Shetkari Sanghatana Sharad Joshi has passed away at the age of 81. Joshi who was ailing for some days was discharged from a city hospital earlier this month. Born in Satara, Joshi completed his education in Mumbai and had worked as a lecturer in Economics in Pune University. He had also worked with the Indian Postal Services and United Nations before starting the pan Maharashtra farmer’s organisation called Shetkari Sanghatana. Between 2004 and 2010 he was a Rajya Sabha member also.
Quick Link – Sharad Joshi
10. Putin vows to ‘immediately destroy’ any threat to Russian forces in Syria
Vladimir Putin has vowed Russia’s military will “immediately destroy” any target threatening them in Syria, representing a strong warning to Turkey following its shooting down of a Russian warplane at the Syrian border. Putin said the military should respond with full force to any “further provocations”, adding that additional aircraft and air defence weapons have been sent to the Russian base near Latakia.
“I order you to act in the toughest way,” the Russian president said. “Any targets threatening the Russian groups of forces or our land infrastructure should be immediately destroyed.” The downing of the Russian bomber by a Turkish fighter jet, the first time a Nato member shot down a Russian plane in more than half a century, has badly strained relations between Moscow and Ankara.
Quick Link – Destroy threats to Russian Forces
11. Dilip Kumar to be honoured with Padma Vibhushan
Dilip Kumar, Indian cinema’s one of the greatest actors, will be conferred with the Padma Vibhushan on December 13 at a special function to be held in Mumbai. The award will be given by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The announcement to honour Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and a few others with Padma Vibhushan was made by the government on the eve of Republic Day on January 25, 2015. However, the acting legend could not attend the special function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan in April when other Padma awardees were honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Quick Link – Dilip Kumar
12. Director Ron Howard gets a second Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Hollywood director Ron Howard has received his second star on the Walk of Fame, honoring his award-winning career as a film maker. Howard, who won an Oscar for best director for “A Beautiful Mind”, got a star on the Walk of Fame in 1981 for a television career that included roles in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Happy Days.” Howard, also known for “Apollo 13” and “The Da Vinci Code”, was accompanied by his family and actor Michael Keaton, whom he directed in several movies, for the ceremony on the famed boulevard. Howard’s latest film is a shipwreck story, “In the Heart of the Sea”.
Quick Link – Ron Howard
13. Prakash Kumar Singh is new SAIL chairman
Steel Authority of India has announced that Prakash Kumar Singh has taken charge as Chairman of the company. Prior to this assignment, 57 year old Singh was the chief executive officer of SAIL’s Durgapur unit, a position he took over in 2012. A technocrat par excellence, Singh is regarded as an expert in blast furnace technology and operations. SAIL has incurred a net loss of R1,378 crore in H1, FY16 which includes a net loss of R1,056 crore during the second quarter. The post of permanent chairman in the company has been lying vacant since incumbent CS Verma was refused an extension by the government in June.
Quick Link – SAIL Chairman
14. Wipro won 2015 Aegis Graham Bell Award for innovation in IoT
Global software major Wipro has announced that it had won the Aegis Graham Bell award for developing a solution for the Internet of Things (IoT). The Aegis Graham Bell Award is the country’s innovation award in the field of Telecom, Internet, Media and Entertainment (TIME) and Social, Mobility Analytics and Cloud (SMAC). Minister of State Jitendra Singh presented the award to the outsourcing firm at a function in New Delhi recently.
Quick Link – Aegis Graham Bell Award
15. Myanmar launched its first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Inle Lake
Myanmar has launched the country’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve – Inle Lake in Shan state, opening a new chapter in its commitment to bio-diversity and eco-system conservation. Inle Lake was designated as Myanmar’s first biosphere reserve under Unesco’s Man and the Bioshpere (MAB) programme in Paris in June this year. UNESCO official highlighted the need for innovative technical and eco-technological solution which are key for preserving the lake along with education and research activities through an inclusive management framework for the lake.
Quick Link – Inle Lake
16. Elizabeth Susan Koshy clinched gold in 59th National Shooting Championships
Kerala’s Elizabeth Susan Koshy has won the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Gold at the 59th National Shooting Championships held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range in New Delhi. Haryana’s Anjum Moudgil won the silver medal and Gaayathri N of Tamil Nadu fetched the bronze in the championship.
Elizabeth won gold in the 2015 National Games women’s 50m Rifle Prone event, the first for Kerala. In 2011, she won five gold medals in Thiruvananthapuram at the State championship.
17. India-origin writer wins South East Asia literary award
Jamaludeen Mohamed Sali, a 76-year-old Indian-origin writer, whose 57 books are read in universities has been declared as the winner of this year’s prestigious South East Asia Write Award. Jamaludeen Mohamed Sali has been writing for over 50 years and has several literary awards to his credit, including Singapore’s prestigious Cultural Medallion and a number of them from Tamil Nadu. Better known as J M Sali, the author has written 57 books, 80 plays and more than 400 short stories including Vellai Kodugal (White Lines) Alaigal Pesuginrana (the Sound Of The Waves) that are now studied by Tamil Literature students in Singapore and Indian universities.
Quick Link – South East Asia Literary Award
18. Former Kazakh PM sentenced to 10 years in prison
Kazakhstan has sentenced former prime minister Serik Akhmetov to 10 years in prison. A court in the industrial city of Karaganda found Akhmetov guilty on four corruption-related charges including embezzlement and abuse of power, in a huge case involving more than 20 defendants in the energy-rich state. State television showed Akhmetov, 57, who filled the prime minister’s role in 2012-14, begging for mercy from President Nursultan Nazarbayev while maintaining his innocence. A total of 17 defendants including a former mayor of Karaganda were handed lesser criminal and administrative punishments.
Nazarbayev, who has ruled the country with little opposition since before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, regularly cites the need to battle corruption, but critics say the government has made few attempts to improve transparency.
Quick Link – Kazakh’s former PM Sentenced to 10 years in prison
19. Indian cyclist Deborah Herold became World No. 4 Cyclist
Indian cyclist Deborah Herold became the first Indian female cyclist to be ranked fourth in the World Elite Women Ranking for the 500m time trial event. The ranking was issued by cycling world body International Cycling Union (UCI). Besides, the Indian team also improved its world ranking to 13th. India is the highest ranking Asian country in 500m time trial. China fetched the 15th spot in the ranking.
Deborah is a tribal girl from Andaman and Nicobar Islands who survived the 2004 Tsunami that devastated the islands. In October 2015, Deborah became the first ever Indian to win five medals at the Taiwan Cup Track International Classic, including a gold, three silver and a bronze.
20. DuPont and Dow Chemical Company announced to merge to form DowDuPont
The Board of Directors of DuPont and Dow Chemical Company have unanimously approved a definitive agreement to merge the two companies in an all-stock deal. The merged company will be named DowDuPont and it will have a combined market capitalization of approximately 130 billion dollars at announcement. he transaction is expected to deliver approximately 3 billion dollar in cost synergies, with 100 percent of the run-rate cost synergies achieved within the first 24 months following the closing of the transaction.
DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthere Irenee du Pont. Its present Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Edward D. Breen.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1897 by Herbert Henry Dow. Its present CEO is Andrew N. Liveris.
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