VINTAGE

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER 13^th, 2018

              IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER 13^th, 2018

1.     Ousted Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe won a confidence vote in the Parliament today.

a.      Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a political crisis since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe in October and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

b.      Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan President, has refused to resign despite two no-confidence votes being passed against him.

2.     Japan has picked the kanji character for "Disaster" as its "defining symbol" for the year 2018, following a series of natural disasters that struck the country this year. 

a.      The symbol, which is chosen by popular vote, best embodies the events that take place in a particular year.

3.     Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 4th edition of Partners’ Forum in New Delhi. 

a.      The two day international conference is being hosted by the government of India in association with Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and child Health (PMNCH). 

b.      A total of 1500 participants from across 85 countries are participating to talk about the improvement in the health and well being of women, children and adolescents.

4.     The Minister of State for Parliamentary affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced Dam Safety Bill 2018 in Lok Sabha. 

a.      The bill provides a uniform procedure for the safety of dams in country. 

b.      The bill ensures surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of dams and prevention of dam failure from disaster.

c.      According to this bill dam owner is responsible for dam safety and contain penal provisions for not adhering the certain acts of bill.

5.     Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank is going to open 40 branches by end of December 2018 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the move. T

a.      he regulator had in September barred the bank from opening new branches without its permission over its failure to bring down promoters' stake within regulatory limits. 

b.      After expansion, the lender would have 978 branches in total.

c.      Bandhan Bank CEO : Chandra Shekhar Ghosh 

6.     The European Parliament today approved a free trade deal between Japan and the European Union, which is believed to be the world's largest free trade agreement. 

a.      The deal will create an open trading zone covering 635 million people and almost one-third of the world's total GDP. Japan's Parliament has already approved the agreement.

7.     In its recently released Outlook Supplement, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has retained India’s growth forecast at 7.3% for current fiscal (2018-19) and 7.6% in following financial year (2019-20).

a.      It held that India is maintaining growth momentum on rebounding exports and higher industrial and agricultural output.

8.     23 year old Indian table tennis player Manika Batra became the 1st Indian to win the ITTF's 'Breakthrough Table Tennis Star' award. 

9.     Uttar Pradesh based startup HelpUsGreen has been honored by the United Nations with prestegious Climate Action Award for its works to clean River Ganga by recycling tonnes of floral waste. 

a.      UN presented the award to the 14 other countries along with India at the Nations Climate Action award ceremony during the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice.

10.Indian Navy inducted its 1st Submarine Rescue System with Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV) along with associated equipment at western naval dockyard in Mumbai, Maharashtra (west coast of India). 

a.      It is first of the two non-tethered DSRVs ordered by Indian Navy. 

b.      With this, India joined select list of international navies (US, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore UK, Sweden and Australia). 

11.Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao took oath as the Chief Minister of Telangana today. 

12.Zoramthanga, who was unanimously appointed as the leader of MNF legislature party in Mizoram, will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister on December 15. 

13.Audi today announced that interim CEO Bram Schot will become Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, which includes Ducati, Lamborghini, Italdesign Giugiaro and the Audi brand, effective January 1, 2019.

14.TVS Motor Chairman Venu Srinivasan and former Defence Secretary Vijay Singh were appointed Vice Chairmen of seven Tata trusts. 

a.      Ratan Tata is the chairman of all the Tata trusts while R Venkataramanan is the Managing Trustee. 

15.The French unit of Air France-KLM Group today named Anne Rigail as its new CEO, making her the 1st woman to lead the airline.