27 December 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

27 December 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

Jai Ram Thakur sworn-in as chief minister of Himachal Pradesh

• Jai Ram Thakur (52-year) along with his 11 ministers, took the oath of secrecy from Himachal Pradesh’s Governor ‘Acharya Devvrat’ at the historic Ridge Maidan in Shimla.
• The Ministers who took oath include Mahendra Singh, Suresh Bhardwaj, Anil Sharma and Vipin Singh Parmar.
• Thakur is elected to ‘Himachal Pradesh Assembly election 2017’ from Seraj in Mandi.
• It is for the first time that a prime minister has attended the oath-taking ceremony of a chief minister in Himachal Pradesh.
• The BJP has won 44 seats in the 68-member house.

Note:

• Thakur done his schooling from Government Senior Secondary school Bagsiad and later completed his B.A. from Vallabh Govt. College in Mandi.
• He did M.A. from Panjab University in Chandigarh.
• Himachal Pradesh name was coined from the Sanskrit (Him means 'snow') and achal means ('land' or 'abode') by state’s eminent Sanskrit scholars Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma.

Maharashtra govt sets up 17-member development authority for Raigad Fort

• Maharashtra government has set up a 17-member development authority headed by Rajya Sabha member Sambhaji Shahu Chhatrapati for the Raigad fort (capital of warrior king Shivaji).
• In June 2016, the state govt. had sanctioned 500-crore rupees development plan for the 17th-century fort which is situated in Raigad district.
• The authority will finalize a development plan for the Raigad fort and surrounding areas, including the memorial of Shivaji's mother, Jijabai.
• Mr. Chhatrapati is a member of the former royal family of Kolhapur and King Shivaji's descendant.

Note:

• Raigad is a hill fort situated in the Mahad, Raigad district of Maharashtra, India.
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built this fort and made it his capital in 1674.

India first: Bengaluru gets a logo “Be U”

• The Karnataka government has unveiled a brand logo ‘Be U’ for Bengaluru, the only city in the country to boast of a logo of its own.
• The logo, ‘Be U’ is a mix of typography in English and Kannada.
• The crowd-source-designed logo comes with an option of colors (green, red and yellow) depending on the occasion.
• The objective of the logo to make every person coming to the city to spend on memorabilia.

Note:

• Now, Bengaluru joins New York City, Melbourne, Singapore, and other global cities to have its own tourism logo.

Atal Innovation Mission selects 1500 schools for setting up of Atal Tinkering Labs across India

• NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has been selected additional 1500 Schools for the establishment of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) to give a major boost to the vision of the mission to ‘Cultivate One Million children in India as the Innovators of tomorrow.
• Atal Tinkering Labs are innovation play workspaces for students between Grade VI to Grade XII, to stimulate them for innovations combining science & technology.
• These open-ended innovation workspaces equipped with technologies like 3D printers, Robotics and Sensor Technology Kits enable the students to learn and solve local community problems using emerging Technologies.

India to get its first runway on sea-bridge at Lakshadweep

• India is all set to get its first runway on a ‘sea bridge’, as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been given a nod to extend Lakshadweep’s Agatti Airport.
• Earlier, the plan was extending the runway by linking two adjacent islands.
• The task will be carried out by building an RCC platform on the beach and shallow area which will allow bigger ATRs to operate on the island.
• The project is estimated to cost Rs. 1,500cr.

President Kovind inaugurates conference at Acharya Nagarjuna University in Andhra Pradesh

• President Ram Nath Kovind formally inaugurated the Annual Conference of Indian Economic Association at Acharya Nagarjuna University campus near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
• Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu felicitated the President at the event.
• The university is named after Acharya Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamaka path of Mahayana Buddhism.

Rajasthan govt sets up Automatic service ATMs at nearly 9900 Atal Seva Kendras 

• Rajasthan state govt. is setting up Automatic service ATMs ‘E-Mitra Plus’ at nearly 9 thousand 9 hundred Atal Seva Kendras and 2500 urban locations situated across the state.
• Rajasthan has a network of over 48 thousand e-mitra centers running successfully across the state for a quarter of India’s total common service centers.
• E-plus is a more advance system with completely human-less interface, which has linked with AADHAR and has provision for payment by cash and card.
• The e-Mitra network enables over 60 lakh transactions every month with turnover of about 700 crore rupees.

Book on Gauri Lankesh’s writings launched

• A book ‘The Way I See It: Gauri Lankesh’ containing selected writings by late activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh has been launched at the Mumbai Press Club.
• The book has been edited by writer and sociologist Chandan Gowda.
•  The six sections of the book comprise Lankesh’s early reportage in various publications and selected articles she wrote for the Kannada language Gauri Lankesh Patrike.

Note:

• Gauri Lankesh was an Indian journalist-turned-activist from Bangalore, Karnataka shot to death by unknown assailants outside her home.
• She worked as an editor in Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada weekly started by her father P. Lankesh.

Amazon acquires connected security camera maker ‘Blink’

• ‘Amazon’, an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company has bought an Andover, Massachusetts-based company 'Blink' that makes Internet-connected doorbells and security cameras.
• It will help Amazon compete in the fast-growing home security camera market.
• The move could help Amazon compete in the fast-growing home security camera market and against similar devices made by Nest, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet.

Guatemala to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

• Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales has announced that it would be moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
• Guatemala was one of the 9 nations that had voted against the United Nations resolution that rejected US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

UN approves 286 million Dollar cut in annual budget for next year

• The United Nations (UN) has approved a 286 million US dollar cut in its annual budget for 2018-2019.
• The General Assembly has approved the regular budget of 5.3 billion dollars for the next year.
• The additional reductions come mainly from across-the-board cuts in non-post resources for most Departments and Offices, including the Special Political Missions.