VINTAGE

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER 21^st &22^nd, 2018

              IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF DECEMBER 21^st  &22^nd, 2018

1.     India and China held the 1st meeting of the high-level people-to-people exchanges mechanism.

a.      This meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. 

b.     Both the countries agreed on '10 pillars' of cooperation to enhance cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

2.     Pakistan has rejected Punjab's request to make Kartarpur (home to Guru Nanak Dev's final resting place) a part of India in a land swap deal. 

a.      Punjab had planned to offer over 10,000 acres in the Dera Baba Nanak area in exchange for the land.

3.     Danish lawmakers have approved a government-backed proposal to make citizenship applicants shake hands with the official conducting the naturalisation ceremony. 

a.      The lawmakers argued the gesture, criticised for discriminating against Muslims, represents a mark of respect for the government.  

4.     22nd December is observed as National Mathematics Day.

a.      India observe this day to commemorate 132nd birthday of great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.

b.     He compiled more than 3900 mathematical results and equations. 

c.      On his 125th birth anniversary in the year 2011, India declared the birthday of Ramanujan, 22 December, as 'National Mathematics Day' and the year 2012 was observed as the National Mathematics Year. 

5.     For the overall development of farmers Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced a Rs. 10,000 crore scheme titled KALIA. 

a.      KALIA - Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation

b.     This scheme will provide farmers with Rs. 10,000 a year at the rate of Rs. 5,000 each for Kharif and Rabi season. 

c.      Additionally, crop loans of up to Rs. 50,000 will be interest-free under the scheme.

6.     To help 20 lakh small and marginal farmers of the state, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today announced a Rs. 2,250 crore scheme titled Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana. 

a.      This scheme will provide farmers with a yearly financial assistance of Rs. 5,000 per acre for Kharif crops. 

b.     The scheme will start from 2019-20 financial year.

7.     The Home Ministry has authorised 10 agencies to monitor, intercept, and decrypt "any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer". 

a.      The agencies include the Intelligence Bureau, CBI, Delhi Police Commissioner, RAW and Narcotics Control Bureau. 

b.     The government can direct any agency in the interest of the sovereignty, defence of India and security of the state among others.

8.     The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had launched Apollo 8, the 1st-ever human mission to orbit the Moon, 50 years ago on this day (21st December 1968). 

a.      The mission's Saturn V rocket carried astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr and William Anders.

b.      The astronauts orbited the Moon 10 times over the course of 20 hours and returned to the Earth on December 27, 1968.

9.     106th foundation day of India's first Swadeshi Bank 'Central Bank of India' was observed on 21st December.

a.      Central Bank of India was completely owned and founded by Indians without any Britishers share. 

b.     It was established on 21st December 1911 by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala with Sir Pherozeshah Mehta as Chairman. 

c.      Note : Sorabji Pochkhanwala is the only banker inwho's honour postage stamp was released by the President of India. 

10. Public sector lender Bank of Baroda has announced that the 'Alternative Mechanism' of the finance ministry has accorded in-principle approval for its merger with Dena Bankand Vijaya Bank. 

a.      Bank of Baroda is the transferee bank, while Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank are the transferor banks in the amalgamation process. 

b.     The 'Alternative Mechanism' (AM) headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had decided to merge three banks with a view to create global size lender, which will be stronger and sustainable. 

11. India's stock market has overtaken Germany's to become the 7th-largest Stick Market the world with a market capitalisation of $2.08 trillion. 

a.      This is the first time in seven years that India moved past the equity market of Europe's largest economy.

b.     Important Note : At $27.07 trillion, United States is world's biggest stock market, followed by China ($5.46 trillion) and Japan ($5.41 trillion).

12. The UAE is going to deposit $3 billion in Pakistan's central bank to support its financial and monetary policy.

a.      The UAE's support comes amid the current financial crisis in Pakistan.  

13. Facebook is developing 'stablecoin', a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar, for the payments feature on its messaging platform WhatsApp. 

a.      The social media giant's first focus will reportedly be India, the world's largest remittances market as per World Bank.  

14. Workers at state-owned banks have gone on a nationwide strike on 21st December 2018 protesting the proposed merger of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank, and demanded immediate wage rises. 

a.      The strike was called by the All India Bank Officers' Confederation, which has over 20 lakh members.   

15.                       Nilanjan Roy has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Infosys.

a.      Earlier, he has worked as the Global CFO of Airtel.

16. Technology giant Apple has promoted John Giannandrea to the position of Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Strategy.  

17. Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1984 batch, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, presently India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh, has been appointed as the new Indian Ambassador to the US. 

a.      He is going to replace Navtej Sarna who'll retire by the end of the year.  

18.                       Ex-Indian men's cricket team opener WV Raman has been appointed as the coach of the Indian women's cricket team.  

19. The Australian Open has joined Wimbledon in introducing a final set tiebreak from next year's competition. 

a.      According to the new rules, which will come into force at the January event, matches tied at 6-6 in the final set will move into a tiebreak and the first player to reach 10 points with a difference of two will win the contest.