22 December 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

22 December 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

22 December 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

Vijay Rupani Remains Gujarat Chief Minister, Nitin Patel His Deputy

  • Vijay Rupani will continue as chief minister of Gujarat and Nitin Patel as his deputy chief minister, the Bhartiya Janata Party has made the announcement after a meeting of the party's newly-elected legislators in the state's capital Gandhinagar.
  • The BJP had won 99 seats, only seven more than it needed for a majority to form government and 16 less than it had won last time.

India-Switzerland Deal Inked for Information Exchange

  • In a move aimed at combating black money stashed abroad, India signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from January 1, 2018.
  • The agreement was signed by CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra and Swiss Ambassador to India Andreas Baum at the North Block.

Mamang Dai, Ramesh Kuntal win Sahitya Akademi Award 2017

  • The ‘Sahitya Akademi’ has announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards-2017 in 24 languages.
  • Mamang Dai has been awarded the ‘Sahitya Akademi Award 2017 for her novel ‘The Black Hill’ in English.
  • Ramesh Kuntal has been awarded for his literary criticism ‘Vishw Mithak Sarit Sagar’ in Hindi.
  • Seven novels, five poetries, five short stories, five literary criticism, and one play and one essay won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2017.
  • The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the authors at a special function on 12th February,2018.
Note:
  • Sahitya Akademi was established in 1954 by the Govt. of India.
Author Name
 Language
Work
Mamang Dai
 English
The Black Hill
Ramesh Kuntal Megh  Hindi Vishw Mithak Sarit Sagar
Niranjan Mishra   Sanskrit Gangaputravadanam
Ramanunni  Malayalam Daivathinte Pusthakam
Nachhattar  Punjabi Slow Down
  • Poets:- Shrikant Deshmukh (Marathi), Bhujanga Tudu (Santali), Inqulab (Tamil) and Devipriya (Telugu), Udaya Narayana Singh (Maithili).
  • Short Stories:- Autar Krishen Rahbar (Kashmiri), Gajanan Jog (Konkani), Gayatri Saraf (Odia),Baig Ehsas (Urdu) and Shiv Mehta (Dogri),
  • Literary Criticism:- Ramesh Kuntal Megh (Hindi), TP Ashoka (Kannada), Urmi Ghanshyam Desai (Gujarati), Bina Hangkhim (Nepali) and Neeraj Daiya (Rajasthani).
  • Play:- Rajen Toijamba (Manipuri).
  • Essay:- Jagdish Lachhani (Sindhi).

22nd December: National Mathematics Day

  • The National Mathematics Day is being observed on 22nd December every year to celebrate the birth anniversary of great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
  • Ramanujan Prime and Ramanujan theta discoveries have inspired further research on this mathematical subject.
  • He passed away on 6th April, 1920.
  • In 2011, the National Mathematics Day was instituted by the Union Government to celebrate Ramanujan’s 125th birth anniversary.

Govt launches Project Darpan to improve level of postal services for rural customers

  • The Minister of communications Manoj Sinha has launched ‘DARPAN’ (The Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India) in New Delhi.
  • DARPAN offers core banking services to the account holders.
  • The IT modernization project aims at realizing financial inclusion of un-banked rural population.
  • The project has an-outlay of 1400 crore rupees and intends to provide a low power technology solution to each branch postmaster.
  • This will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakhs branch post offices to improve service delivery.

Aircel to shut operations in six circles from 30th January

  • Telecom operator Aircel will shut operations in six circles, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra from 30th January next year.
  • Earlier, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) directed Aircel to issue mobile number porting code to its subscribers for moving out of its network and reject none of the requests till 10th March,2018.
  • The regulator asked Aircel to furnish subscriber wise information of all the pre-paid customers who could not port- out and unspent balance in their account by March 20, 2018.
Note: Aircel informed the surrender of Licence in six licensed service areas of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West) with effect from sixty days from the date of a notice of surrender (1st December 2017).

NPPA fixes prices of 27 essential drugs used for treatment of Diabetes

  • The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed the prices of essential medicines under Drugs (Prices Control) Order,2013.
  • In respect of medicines that are not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10% annually.
  • The calculation of essential drugs is based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1%.

Rly. accidents decreased from 85 in 2016 to 49 this year: Govt

  • According to the Railway Ministry, the number of train accidents in which there were casualties has decreased from 85 (in 2016-2017) to 49 (in the first eight months) of the current the financial year.
  • Out of the 49 such accidents, 30 accidents were caused due to the failure of the railway staff and 12 due to failure on the part of others.
  • Other accidents occurred due to incidental factors or as a result of a combination of factors while inquiry report was awaited in one case.
  • The national transporter was developing a suitable and viable vandal proof advance warning system, which is radio frequency identification based, to pre- warn road users against approaching trains at unmanned level crossings.

India signs agreement with Switzerland to allow automatic sharing of tax-related information

  • According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), India has signed an agreement with Switzerland to allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from next month.
  • The agreement has been signed by Sushil Chandra (CBDT chairman) and Andreas Baum (Swiss ambassador to India) at the North Block in New Delhi.

India to set up IT center in Egypt's Al Azhar University

  • India will be establishing a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) at Al Azhar University (Egypt's highest religious authority).
  • CIET will provide high-tech education and skills to the country's youth.
  • It was set up to monitor growing radicalism and extremism often leading to violence and terrorism.

Cuban President Raul Castro to step down in April 2018

  • Cuba’s President Raul Castro (86-years) will step down after elections to choose his successor.
  • Earlier, the National Assembly voted on to extend the current legislative term until 19th April next year.
  • Raul Castro, who replaced his brother Fidel as Cuba’s president in 2008
  • The elections will now take place on 19th April 2019.

Facebook changing how it identifies 'fake news' stories

  • According to the social-media network ‘Facebook’, it is changing how it identifies "fake news" stories on its platform to a more effective system.
  • It will help speed up the fact-checking system, which sometimes worked too slowly.
  • In its tests, fewer hoax articles were shared when they had fact-checkers' articles spooled up next to them than when they were labeled with "disputed" flags.
  • Now it will bring up "related articles" next to the false stories that give context to fact-checkers on the stories' problems.

ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year: Mithali Raj, Ekta Bisht selected

  • Mithali Raj (India captain) has been named in the ICC Women's ODI Cricket Team of the Year.
  • Left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht was the lone cricketer to find a place in the both the ODI and T20 Teams of the year.
  • Harmanpreet Kaur has found out a place in the ICC Women's T20I Team of the Year.
  • Heather Knight (England) named as captain of the 50-over side and Stafanie Taylor (West Indies) appointed skipper of the 20-over side.

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