December Current Affairs Online Model Test

Sue Grafton (77), an American author of detective novels, has passed away in Santa Barbara, California on December 28, 2017. According to author’s webpage, she started the alphabet novels in 1982. The mystery writer penned best-selling novels with alphabet-based titles, starting with “A Is for Alibi” and ending with “Y Is for Yesterday”. Her last alphabet mystery was published last August. “Z Is for Zero” was tentatively scheduled to come out in 2019.

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, the BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, has been appointed new President of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). He will succeed Prof. Lokesh Chandra. Sahasrabuddhe is the vice-president of Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini which is South Asia’s only training and research academy for elected representatives and voluntary social workers. ICCR was founded in 1950 by India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who also served as its first President. The ICCR’s main objectives are to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to India’s external cultural relations and to foster and strengthen cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries.

The Union Environment Ministry has launched a regional project on ‘Climate Resilience Building among Farmers through Crop Residue Management’ under National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) on December 28, 2017. The project was approved at the meeting of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC) under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, C.K Mishra. The first phase of the project has been approved at a cost of approximately Rs. 100 Crore for the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project not only aims to mitigate climate change impacts and enhance adaptive capacity, but will also counter the adverse environmental impacts that arise from burning.

The Bank of Baroda (BoB) has signed a MoU with POORTI Agri Services Pvt. Ltd to enable the farmers to purchase agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, seeds etc. provided by POORTI. This is a Platform for Online Ordering & Rural Transformation of India known as “POORTI”. Poorti is a well-established company providing multi-party mobile commerce platform for easy ordering of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds by farmers with loans given by banks. It provides a source of earning to educated rural youth who can act as delivery agents.

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, a 1993 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, will be the new director of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). The SFIO is a fraud investigating agency in India, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Bhatia is at present joint secretary in the ministry. The SFIO is involved in major fraud probes and is the co-ordinating agency with the Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma has been named PETA’s Person of the Year 2017 for her efforts to help protect dogs from fireworks. She was also against the use of horses to pull carriages in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was given by animal rights organisation People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Dr Jitendra Singh , the Union Minister of State (I/C) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), has launched the electronic-Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS) in New Delhi for central government employees to apply for leave and access their service-related information. Through e-HRMS, employees will be able to not only see all their details with respect to service book, leave, GPF, salary, etc. but also apply for different kind of claims / reimbursements, loan / advances, leave, leave encashment, LTC advances, tour etc. on a single platform.

Smartphone manufacturer Samsung has recently launched its ‘Bill Payments’ on its flagship payments service “Samsung Pay” in partnership with Axis Bank. The new feature launched by the company will enable users to pay their utility bills seamlessly via Samsung Pay’s secure and convenient platform. With the introduction of ‘Bill Payments’, consumers will be able to pay their utility bills seamlessly via Samsung Pay. It will offer users a secure, hassle free, and instant payment option on-the-go. Consumers can view due amount, details of previous bills and location-based suggested billers while paying bills through Samsung Pay. One can also set ‘reminders’ for bill payments.

Partha Mukhopadhyay (70), the veteran Bengali film actor , has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. He had portrayed a number of roles in Bengali classics like Atithi, Balika Badhu, Amar Prithivi, Baghbandir Khela, Agniswar and had made his mark as a character actor in 1970s and 1980s. He had the distinction of having acted in films helmed by renowned directors such as Tapan Sinha, Tarun Majumdar and Goutam Ghosh.

India’s first runway on ‘Sea Bridge’ will come up in Lakshadweep because the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has recently got a green nod to extend Lakshadweep’s Agatti Airport. 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 entire project is likely to cost about Rs 1,500 crore. The move will allow ATR-72 aircraft to land comfortably.

India’s first-ever broad gauge air-conditioned AC EMU suburban train has flagged off from Borivali station on western railway in Mumbai, Maharashtra on December 25, 2017. The AC train was depart from Andheri Station at 14.10 hrs and reached Churchgate at 14.44 hrs. It is decided that on Weekends that is on Saturday and Sunday, the rake of AC train will not be operated for maintenance purpose. The services of AC local train will replace existing 12 Non AC services. RPF constables will be present in each coach to ensure proper security. Out of 12 services of AC Local train 8 will run fast and will only halt at major station like Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali, Bhayander and Vasai Road in both direction. Weekly, Fortnightly and monthly season ticket will be charged equivalent to 5, 7.5 and 10 single journey of AC EMU respectively. MUTP surcharges or any other charges if applicable will be levied separately as per applicable rate for the first class coach. Good and Services tax (GST) @5% shall be levied on the total fare as per the existing principle.

The Karnataka government has launched the Bengaluru city logo on December 24, 2017 for branding the city as a tourism destination. With this, Bengaluru has become the first Indian city to get its own logo. The logo was designed by Nammur, a design start-up, which won a contest and received a prize money of Rs 5 lakh from the government. The logo of the city, which is derived out of its own name, highlights the letters b, e, and u of Bengaluru in red and the other letters in white. The logo ‘Be U’ highlights the cosmopolitan culture of the city and is expected to build the city’s image on the global stage.

The Parvati Arga Bird Sanctuary (PABS) is located in in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh and covers an area of 10.84 square kilometers. It is home to 212 species of angiosperms, belonging to 152 genera and 57 families, and three 3 species of pteridophytes, belonging to 3 genera and 3 families. The sanctuary harbours a number of birds including Sarus crane, Northern pintail, Bar-headed goose, Little grebe, Eurasian wigeon, Mallard, Red-crested pochard, etc.

The 7th edition of the India International Coffee Festival (IICF) will be held in Bengaluru, Karnataka from January 16-19, 2018. It is being organised by the India Coffee Trust and State-run Coffee Board. The purpose of IICF 2018 is to promote the Indian coffees globally and is expected to attract over 100 companies, 600 delegates and some 10,000 visitors.

Mamang Dai, Itanagar-based author and journalist, has won the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award in English language for her 2014 novel “The Black Hill”. The novel gives innate descriptions of the life of the tribal people of north east India from the yester years, interweaving their lives with fiction and history. It is the story of Gimur, a girl from the Abor tribe who runs away with Kajinsha of the Mishmee tribe. Their tale of love is painted with the mid-19th century Northeast India as the background. It had also brought in missionaries, one of them being Father Nicolas Krick, a Jesuit priest who wanted to carry his mission to Tibet. ‘The Black Hill’ is a richly imagined story descriptively created around two recorded historical events – this French priest’s mysterious disappearance and the execution of Kajinsha for his murder. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the author at a special function on February 2018.

The 2017 bilateral naval exercise “Naseem-Al-Bahr” (or known as Sea Breeze) has started between Indian Navy and Oman Navy at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam on December 17, 2017. The Indian Navy deployed a submarine, P8I long-range maritime aircraft, two naval ships – INS Trikand and INS Teg – for the bilateral exercise. This exercise was the 11th edition and has been a biennial feature since 1993. India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dates back to over 4000 years B.C. The bilateral relation between India and Oman were formally established with signing of a 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country. Since then, Naval exercises have contributed to strengthening of bilateral ties between India and Sultanate of Oman. The first exercise Indian Navy with Royal Navy of Oman was conducted in 1993 and this year marks 24 years of Indian Navy -Royal Navy of Oman bilateral exercises.

The Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has recently accorded environmental clearance for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) in Telangana. Excerpts of KLIS project are as follows: The project envisages construction of a barrage across River Godavari near Madigadda village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. Apart from Medigadda barrage, two more barrages between Medigadda and Sripada Yellampally are proposed to be constructed. However, the Centre has put some conditions before granting the clearance. The conditions are: As the submergence area is very large (about 13,706 hectares), micro-climatic change conditions in the project area during construction/post-construction period to be reported at regular intervals. Preference shall also be given to plant local indigenous species. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 80,499.7 crore and proposed to be completed in 3 years.

India has recently signed a financing agreement of $125 million with the World Bank (WB) in New Delhi for the Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project. The purpose of the project is to improve access to quality and market-driven vocational training provided in it is and apprenticeships. The result areas for the project include Improved Performance of Industrial Training Institutes; Increased Capacities of State Governments to Support Industrial Training Institutes and Apprenticeship Training; Improved Teaching and Learning; and Improved and Broadened Apprenticeship Training. The closing date for the project is 30th November, 2022.

Recently, Indian junior boxers had clinched total 11 Medals (six gold, four silver and a bronze medal) at the fifth International Sven Lange Memorial Tournament, to finish as overall champions in the German city of Schwerin. Bhavesh Kattamani (52kg) picked up the best boxer trophy along with his gold medal. In the three-day tournament, the other gold-medallists for India were Vijeydeep (63kg), Akshay (60kg), Ish Pannu (70kg), Lakshay Chahar (80kg) and Vinit (75kg). The performance of these boxers also earned them the ‘Best Team’ of the tournament award.

Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies. This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean. The main purpose of the project is to inscribe places and sites identified under Project Mausam as trans-national nomination for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Till date, 39 countries have been identified under Project Mausam viz. Bahrain, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey, Vietnam, Yemen, UAE, Thailand, South Africa, etc.

Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama “Mo” Farah, who is Britain’s most successful-ever distance runner, has won the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Farah, a four-time Olympic champion, has won his third successive world 10,000m gold medal in London in August 2017. He is the first athlete to win ten global outdoor long-distance titles on the track and the first Briton to win outdoor titles in four World Championships (both consecutively and outright). With this award, he became the first long-distance runner to win the Sports Personality award since Paula Radcliffe in 2002.

The Samsung India has signed pact with UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) to launch 360 video and virtual reality (VR) content of two magnificent Indian heritage sites – the Sun Temple in Konark, Odisha and Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. The project will provide experiential educational content to students across the country. The immersive content will also be available to students at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), where Samsung Smart Classes have been set up in over 500 schools since 2013. The content on Indian heritage sites will be available freely across all social media channels in both 360 and VR formats. VR content will also be provided to the Union Ministry of Tourism and State Tourism Boards to be used for tourism promotion in India and across the world. There are 36 UNESCO heritage sites in India at present.

India and Morocco has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for enhanced cooperation in the health sector in New Delhi on December 14, 2017. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare J P Nadda and Dr. Abdelkader Amara, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Morocco signed the MoU in the presence of senior officers from the Union Health Ministry and a high level delegation from Morocco. The main areas of cooperation include the following: Non-communicable diseases, including child cardiovascular diseases and cancer; Drug Regulation and Pharmaceutical quality control; Communicable Diseases; Maternal, child and neonatal health; Hospital twinning for exchange of good practices and Training in administration and management of health services and Hospitals.

According to recently released UN World Migration Report (2018), published by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), India has largest diaspora in the world with more than 15.6 million people from India living overseas. Of the international migrants (people living outside the country of their birth) which was estimated at 243 million in 2015, the Indian diaspora constitutes nearly 6%.The report stated that the global migrant population rose by 10% in 2015 compared with the figure recorded in 2010, which means of the 7.3 billion global population in the given year, one of every 30 people was a migrant. The report also said that nearly half of all migrants worldwide in 2015 were born in Asia, mainly from India, China and other South Asian countries. Mexico ranked second in terms of diaspora population followed by Russia, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared Gabon a “polio-free country” because of lack of new reported or suspected cases in the central African country. Polio is a highly-infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children and can result in permanent paralysis. There is no cure and it can only be prevented through immunization. The cases of polio have decreased by 99% since 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded worldwide. Now the disease is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the WHO recorded four cases this year—two in each country. Last year, there were 37 cases globally.

R Hemalatha has been appointed as the new Director of National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad. She has served as secretary of the Nutrition Society of India, is a fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and a fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. The NIN is an Indian Public health, Biotechnology and Translational research, which houses the best testing facilities for food and toxicology and has international collaborations.

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog has launched the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL)’s Community Day in New Delhi on 15th December 2017. The day marked the Community Drive Initiative in which 25 young Mentors engaged with more than 200 students who are not enrolled in the formal education system. Amitabh Kant, the CEO of NITI Aayog, has launched the initiative in which these mentors will visit four locations in New Delhi to conduct brief sessions with children from various NGOs, on how innovations can help resolve the problems in the communities. The Atal Tinkering Lab Community Drive Initiative is aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs by extending innovation to children in the community who do not have access to formal educational institutions. The purpose of this initiative is to provide these children with the same educational tools as the students in Atal Tinkering Labs to enable them to become problem solvers. The NGOs participating in these interactions include organizations working with disabled children, street and working children, and girls from the weaker sections of society.

India will host the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at Mumbai in June 25-26, 2018. The theme of the meeting will be ‘Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration. For this, the MoU was signed by joint secretary (multilateral institutions division) in the Ministry of Finance Sameer Kumar Khare on behalf of the government of India and AIIB’s vice- president and corporate secretary Danny Alexander. The AIIB is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond. It’s headquarters is located in Beijing, China.

OBOPAY, the global mobile payment solutions company, has recently secured a license for Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate a semi-closed loop wallet in India. Using the PPI license, OBOPAY will solve various payment related problems for their partner clients – bringing efficiency and transparency to the payments process, improving reporting, and reducing turnaround times for funds transfers. The PPI license can be implemented in a variety of industry segments. The license will enable the customers to do everything a prepaid payment instrument does: P2P, cash-in, bill payments, mobile recharge, and shopping. The headquarters of OBOPAY is located at California, United States.

The 2nd UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture: Fostering Sustainable Development was held in Muscat, Oman from December 11 to 12, 2017. This conference was hosted by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman. It was conducted within the framework of International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (IY2017) to build and strengthen partnerships between the Tourism and Culture sectors. The conference discussed the synergies and strategies for the sustainable development of cultural tourism that generate resources for the conservation of cultural heritage while creating socio-economic benefits for the communities.

The Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh. It covers an area of 940 square kilometres. It is home to over 1000 species of flowering plants. The KTR has species of tigers, leopards, wild dogs, wild cats, foxes and jackals. Other commonly seen animals in the park include the spotted deer, sambar, barking deer and the four-horned antelope. It has around 300 species of birds and the most commonly seen birds are the black ibis, bee-eaters, cattle egret, blossom-headed parakeets, pond heron, drongos, common teal, crested serpent eagle, grey hornbill, Indian roller, etc.

Ram Naik, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, has officially launched the new multi-coloured logo for the Allahabad Kumbh Mela 2019 in Lucknow on December 12, 2017. The logo consists of temples, seers, a kalash (pitcher) and a ‘Swastika’. . All official documents, government advertisements and hoardings would carry the logo to remind people about the event. A website to facilitate tourists was also launched. Naik has also launched the Kumbh’s tagline “Chalo Kumbh Chalo-Chalo, Kumbh Chalo”, Uttar Pradesh Tourism’s slogan “UP Nahin Dekha to India Nahin Dekha” and a one-stop travel solution portal. Recently, Kumbh Mela was recognised by the UNESCO as an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” on December 7, 2017. The festival is held at Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik every four years by rotation and is attended by millions of people irrespective of caste, creed or gender.

Uma Shankar has been appointed as the new Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). She has been elevated after Meena Hemchandra the executive director in charge of the central bank’s supervision department retired at the end of November. Currently, RBI has 11 EDs and each of them supervises the 34 departments headed by CGMs at the central bank. Prior to this post, Shankar was the chief general manager in charge of RBI’s financial inclusion & development department.

The Rajasthan government has decided to recognize political prisoners held in jails during emergency 1975-77 as ‘Loktantra Sainani’. The state Cabinet has decided to change the name of Rajasthan Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India Rules (DIR) 2008 to the Rajasthan Loktantra Sainani samman Nidhi 2008. So far, only those persons who were detained under MISA and DIR and kept in any of Rajasthan jails were given the per month pension of Rs. 12,000 and a monthly allowance of Rs. 1200. After the cabinet decision, citizen of Rajasthan who were held in any jail in the country during emergency period will also be eligible for this pension. At the same time, such people will not need to produce the certificate of the respective Jail Superintendent or Superintendent of Police for getting pension. Now only self certification has to be given. The government will direct all the district collectors to invite such Loktantra Sainanis to the programs on Republic Day and Independence Day to be organized at district level.

Pistol aces Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu bagged a bronze each to continue India’s medal charge at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako City, Japan on December 10, 2017. Jitu won an individual bronze in the men’s 10m Air Pistol, which also helped the Indian team comprising Shahzar Rizvi and Omkar Singh besides Jitu, to bag the Team gold in the event.Heena claimed an individual bronze in the women’s 10m Air Pistol. Her effort, along with teammates Shri Nivetha Paramantham and Harveen Srao, helped the Team clinch a silver. India added another individual bronze through Anmol Jain in the junior men’s 10m Air Pistol as well as the Team silver in the event, with combined efforts of Anmol, Gaurav Rana and Abhishek Arya.

President Ramnath Kovind would be the chief guest at the valedictory function of the World Telugu Conference (WTC), which will be organized at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad by the Telangana government from December 15 to 19, 2017. According to official release, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will be the chief guest for the inaugural session of the Conference and the Telangana Sahitya Akademi will be the nodal agency for the conference. The conference will focus on how the Telugu language is preserved, protected, enriched in the Telangana region. It will provide the data related to Telugu Conferences (Telugu Maha Sabhalu) and eminent Telugu Personalities across the Globe.

Mehuli Ghosh and Tushar Mane became the first Indian shooters to secure the women’s and men’s quota places for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) by winning a gold and bronze each at the 10th Asian Championship 10M Rifle/Pistol at Wako City, Japan on December 9, 2017. Ghosh struck gold to bag one out of three quota places up for grabs in women’s 10m Air Rifle Youth, while Mane settled for a bronze medal to secure one out of four quota places available in the men’s 10m Air Rifle Youth. Apart from booking two quota places at YOG, India bagged a total of three gold and three bronze to add to their five medals won on the first day of the competitions.

Alappuzha, the coastal town of Kerala, has been recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the five models across the world for fighting the pollution menace. It has been reconized for its decentralised waste management system. Alappuzha, often called “the Venice of East”, has been listed in the UNEP environment report entitled, ‘Solid approach to waste: how five cities are beating pollution’ alongside cities like Osaka in Japan, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Penang in Malaysia and Cajica in Colombia.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry (MoHUA ) has signed an agreement with German firm GIZ for technical cooperation in the implementation of transport projects in Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar and Kochi. The agreement has been signed by the ministry’s officer on special duty Mukund Kumar Sinha, and GIZ Country Director Wolfgang Hanning in the presence of Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. As per agreement, an amount of around Rs 29 crore through GIZ is envisaged for this purpose over a period of three years. The main objective of the agreement is to improve planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport.

India has become the 42nd participating State of Wassenaar Arrangement after completing the internal procedures in Vienna on December 8, 2017. The membership will facilitate high-technology tie-ups for country’s defence and space programmes. This membership is the second diplomatic success for India for the membership of export control regimes after it joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016. India’s entry into the export control regime would enhance its credentials in the field of non-proliferation despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Wassenaar Arrangement is an elite club of countries which subscribe to arms export controls, similar to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the MTCR.

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) is a medical institution located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It is the apex centre for mental health and neuroscience education in the country, and operates autonomously under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Recently, it is in news because President Ram Nath Kovind participated in the 22nd Annual Convocation of the NIMHANS and gave away degrees & awards to 150 post graduate students on December 30, 2017. The President also dedicates three projects at a cost of Rs 200 crore at NIMHANS.

The 74th anniversary of First Flag Hoisting Day has celebrated in Andaman and Nicobar Islands on December 30, 2017. Lieutenant Governor Admiral DK Joshi hoisted the National Flag at the main function held at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair. On the occasion, the Lieutenant Governor felicitated veteran Islanders who were members of Indian National Army and Indian Independence League. CK Bose, grandson of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and Indresh Kumar, advisor to Forum for Awareness for National Security (FANS) and family members of veteran freedom fighter Veer Savarkar and others were present. A large number of FANS members attended the function. It was on this day, in 1943; Netaji Subash Chandra Bose had hoisted the National Tri-colour for the first time with the help of Japanese forces at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair and declared A & N Islands free from British Rule, four years before India’s Independence.

The Union Environment Ministry has launched a regional project on ‘Climate Resilience Building among Farmers through Crop Residue Management’ under National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) on December 28, 2017. The project was approved at the meeting of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC) under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, C.K Mishra. The first phase of the project has been approved at a cost of approximately Rs. 100 Crore for the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project not only aims to mitigate climate change impacts and enhance adaptive capacity, but will also counter the adverse environmental impacts that arise from burning.

India has been ranked 5th on a list of countries with highest Non-performing Assets (NPA) levels and is on top spot among the BRICS nations, according to latest report by CARE Ratings. The NPA list is topped by Greece (36.4%) followed by Italy (16.4%), Portugal (15.5%) and Ireland (11.9%). All these countries, along with Spain, are commonly referred to as PIIGS, and have been victims of sovereign debt crises in recent years. Spain is ranked at 7th spot below India and Russia. At 9.85%, India’s NPA ratio is 400 points higher than that of Spain’s. The CARE ratings report was compiled in four categories, including low, very low, medium, and high level of NPAs. With NPA ratio of just 1%, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom were listed in the first category, while China, Germany, Japan, and the USA – with less than 2% of NPA – was listed in the second category. Growing economies like Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey were listed in the third category.

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, a 1993 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, will be the new director of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). The SFIO is a fraud investigating agency in India, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Bhatia is at present joint secretary in the ministry. The SFIO is involved in major fraud probes and is the co-ordinating agency with the Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The Singhbhum Elephant Reserve (SER) is located in East and West Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsawan Districts of Jharkhand and covers an area of 13,440 square kilometres.

As per recently released report ” 2018 World Economic League Table”, India will overtake the United Kingdom and France in 2018 to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in terms of the United States dollar. The report was published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), an economics consultancy based in Britain. The report also stated that Asian economies will dominate the list of the top ten largest economies over the next 15 years.

Ramendra Kumar, the renowned Indian author, an inspirational speaker and storyteller, has been felicitated by the Writers and Publishers of Sri Lanka in Colombo for his contribution to children’s literature. His stories feature in Sri Lankan text books. Kumar is an award-winning writer with 32 books to his credit. His writings have been translated into 14 Indian and 13 foreign languages and have found a place in school text books and anthology also in India and abroad. His book “Dilemma and other stories” , translated into Sinhala, was also released at the felicitation ceremony. This is his fourth book in Sinhala. Since 2011, Ramendra’s stories have been included in school text books brought out by the Sri Lanka government every year. The books are distributed to over 10,000 schools across the country.

The 2018 ASEAN-India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held in Singapore on 6-7 January, 2018 to celebrate the 25 years of strategic partnership between India and ASEAN. The theme of the 2018 PBD Convention is “Ancient Route, New Journey: Diaspora in the Dynamic India-ASEAN Partnership”. The 2-day event will feature discussions on a broad range of issues with outcomes that deepen diaspora’s relations with India and their role in promoting closer ties between India and ASEAN; events to engage the diaspora youth; business, finance, technology events; and, a gala dinner with cultural show. In it, apart from India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Assam, N Chandrababu Naidu and Sarbananda Sonowal, will also attend the function. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated every year to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community in the development of India.

The book “The Way I See It: A Gauri Lankesh Reader” has been edited by writer and sociologist Chandan Gowda. The book containing selected writings by late journalist Gauri Lankesh was launched at the Mumbai Press Club on 22nd December 2017, three months after she was gunned down outside her home in Bengaluru by unidentified men. 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”.