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Dexter Academy

1st December Review

World

Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar

today left for a two-day visit to Bangladesh.

During his visit, Parrikar is scheduled to meet

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, who also holds the

defence portfolio, ahead of her visit to India next

month.

He would also meet President Abdul Hamid and

other top leadership.

Important Point to Note : This is the first ever

visit of an Indian Defense Minister to Bangladesh.

Nepal's government has proposed amending its

Constitution to create a new state to meet the

demands of the Indian-origin Madhesi

community.

This comes after protests across the country for a

bigger federal state last year left over 50 dead.

Nearly 20 countries, including France and the UK,

will attend a New York event celebrating the Diwali

postage stamp recently issued by the United States.

The event, co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of

Belarus and India to the United Nations, will be

held on December 5.

Note : It will also honour Ranju Batra, the chairman

of the Diwali Stamp Project.

Thailand's Parliament has invited Crown Prince

Maha Vajiralongkorn, who will be formally

known as King Rama X or the 10th king of

Chakri dynasty, after the recent death of King

Bhumibol Adulyadej.

India is going to host the 6th Heart of Asia

Conference.

This conference will take place in Amritsar, Punjab

during 3rd and 4th December 2016.

INS Darshak has completed Hydrographic

Survey for Tanzania.

The survey was undertaken under the MoU signed

for Foreign Cooperation in the field of Hydrography

between Tanzania and India on exchange of

hydrographic data to promote development and

cooperation through conducting surveys, exchange

of data, capacity building and infrastructure

strengthening.

India

The National Anthem should be compulsorily

played at all cinema halls across the nation

before movie screenings, the Supreme Court

ordered today.

It should also be accompanied by the National flag

onscreen and any abridged version of the Anthem

would not be permitted.

Everyone present in the halls must rise and pay

respect to the National Anthem, the court added.

According new data from Civil Registration

System ( CRS) released by the Office of the

Registrar General of India, Sex Ratio at Birth

(SRB) continues to worsen in India.

The SRB has declined to 887 in 2014 from 898 in

2013.

The ratio has been declining since 2011 when the

figure was 909.

Awards & Appointments

BJP chief Amit Shah today appointed actor-

turned-politician Manoj Tiwari as theBJP's

Delhi unit President.

He has replaced Satish Upadhyay.


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BJP leader Nityanand Rai was appointed as the

BJP's Bihar unit chief.

Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography 'Playing It

My Way' has won the Crossword Book of the

Year Award in the autobiography category.

The book was co-written by cricket historian Boria

Majumdar and released in November 2014.

Note : Earlier, the book had entered the Limca Book

of Records for the 'Bestselling Adult Hardback on

Release', logging most orders on the first day of

publication.

Ranveer Singh was named the 'International

Man of the Year' at the 2016 Esquire 'Man At

His Best Awards' held in Dubai.

Note : Deepika Padukone was awarded the title of

'International Woman of the Year'.

Sports

Hashim Mansoor, a seven-year-old boy from

Kashmir's Bandipora district, has won a Gold

medal at the Asian Youth Karate

Championships in New Delhi.

Mansoor won the gold in the sub-junior category

(below 25 kg) after defeating a Sri Lankan opponent

in the final.

He has now qualified for the World Championship,

to be held next year in September.

Business & Economy

In order to protect farmers and rural account

holders from money launderers, the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI) today limited the cash

withdrawal from KYC-linked Jan Dhan

accounts to ₹10,000 a month.

Withdrawals beyond ₹10,000 will be allowed by

bankers only after ascertaining the genuineness of

such withdrawals.

Note : Jan Dhan deposits rose by 60% in two weeks

after note ban.

Starting today, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

operated Currency Presses have started printing

the new ₹500 notes as two government-owned

presses are running behind schedule.

The RBI presses hope to print around 1 billion of

the new ₹500 notes by December end.

Note : Until now, the RBI operated presses were

printing only ₹2,000 and a few lower denomination

notes.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has crossed the 5

crore subscribers mark in record 83 days since its

launch in September.

Jio has reportedly added 1,000 customers per

minute since launch.

Important Points to Note :

Airtel reached the 5 crore subscribers milestone in

12 years.

Vodafone and Idea took 13 years each.

2nd

December Review

World

Today (1st December) is World AIDS Day.

This day is dedicated to raising awareness of the

AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV

infection, and mourning those who have died of the

disease.


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Theme of World Aids Day 2016 : Hands up for

HIV Prevention

Important Note :

World AIDS Day is one of the eight official global

public health campaigns marked by the World

Health Organization (WHO).

Remaining are,

World Health Day,

World Blood Donor Day,

World Immunization Week,

World Tuberculosis Day,

World No Tobacco Day,

World Malaria Day and

World Hepatitis Day.

Pakistan PM's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj

Azizis going to visit India on Sunday to attend

the Heart of Asia conference.

The two-day conference will be held in Amritsar

from December 3rd.

It focuses on regional cooperation between

Afghanistan and its neighbours for improving

connectivity and tackling security threats.

Online English source for word meanings,

Dictionary has named 'Xenophobia' as Word of

the Year for 2016.

Xenophobia refers to the fear or hatred of

foreigners, people from different cultures or

strangers.

According to Dictionary, the word was most looked

up by users after Brexit, or when UK voted to leave

the European Union, and during US presidential

elections.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau today approved a

controversial pipeline from Alberta oil sands to

the country's Pacific Coast.

Environmentalists criticised the pipeline over fears

of oil spills as it'll bring oil tankers to Canadian

waters.

The Dutch Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in

favour of a ban on wearing burqas in designated

public places including schools, hospitals and on

public transport.

The rule, which still needs approval from the

Senate, also outlaws all face-coverings including ski

masks and helmets.

Note : Similar laws have already been implemented

in France, Belgium, and Bulgaria.

The ceasefire agreement signed between India and

Pakistan in 2003 recently completed 13 years.

The accord is the first ceasefire arrangement

between the two countries that covered the

International border, Line of Control, and the

Siachen Glacier.

Note : There have been 2,058 instances of ceasefire

violations since the pact was signed.

India

Nagaland is celebrating 53rd statehood day.

Note : It was on this day in 1963 that Nagaland

became the 16th state of India.

Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav today flagged

off the Lucknow metro train, whose trial run will

take place on 8.5 km stretch.

They completed the metro work in 26 months,

which is a record for any metro rail project in India.

Further, the metro train service will be made

available for the people after March 2017.

The government today announced that NGOs

and Voluntary Organisations (VOs)need to


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register themselves with NITI Aayog to receive

grant-in-aid from the Centre.

It also mandated that the NGOs and VOs sign up on

'NGO-DARPAN' portal and obtain a system-

generated unique ID for any grant.

It added that 81,353 NGOs/VOs have signed up on

the portal as of November 24.

In an attempt to promote cashless transactions post

note ban, Maharashtra Cabinet today mandated the

linking of Aadhaar with its schemes for the poor.

The amount related to the scheme will directly be

transferred to the beneficiaries' accounts.

A cyclone dubbed NADA is going to hit the

Tamil Nadu coast on December 2 with heavy

rainfall predicted in north coastal Tamil Nadu

and Puducherry.

The cyclone is at present about 770 km south-east

of Chennai and expected to move west and

intensify.

NITI Aayog held 1st meeting of Committee of

Chief Ministers to examine & measures to

promote Digital payments systems.

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for

inclusion of 15 new castes and modification in 13

other castes in the Central list of Other Backward

Classes (OBCs) in respect of 8 states.

Note : These 8 states are Assam, Bihar, Himachal

Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,

Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand.


Bollywood Actor Salman Khan has been

appointed the Ambassador of Brihanmumbai

Municipal Corporation's Drive against open

defecation and litter.

Salman's non-profit organisation 'Being Human

Foundation' will reportedly donate five mobile

toilets to the BMC, to be placed at Bandstand,

Mumbai.

Gareth Southgate was named as England’s

Permanent Manager on a four-year contract .

He is going to replace Sam Allardyce who departed

67 days into the job.

Southgate, a former England Under-21 manager,

has led England to two wins and a draw in the

team's three 2018 World Cup qualifiers so far.

Sports

Pakistan is going to host its first Davis Cup tie in

13 years on home soil against Iran in February

next year.

Note : International cricket teams have refused to

play in Pakistan after an attack on the Sri Lankan

team in 2009.

The All India Football Federation has been

nominated for the Asian Football Confederation's

Member Association (Developing) Award for 2016

alongside Vietnam and Malaysia.

The award is given to a member association in

recognition of its professional administration and

governance as well as its contribution to the

development and promotion of the sport at all levels

within the country.

Business & Economy

The government has today announced that the

Jewellery/gold purchased through disclosed

income or reasonable household savings will not

become tax able under the amended I-T Act.

The Act will also not apply to ancestral jewellery.


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Further, there will be no seizure of gold jewellery

up to 500 grams per married lady, 250 grams per

unmarried lady and 100 grams per male in I-T

searches.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC) today reached an agreement

to cut their production of oil at a meeting in

Vienna in an effort to raise crude oil prices.

The cartel will now cut production by 1.2 million

barrels per day, which accounts for nearly 1.3% of

the entire world's daily oil production.

The Union Cabinet today approved a ₹2,000-

crore development package for refugees from

Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

Relief for the refugees' families was first announced

as a part of the ₹80,000-crore package for J&K by

PM Narendra Modi in November last year.

Over 36,000 families have been found to be eligible

to get relief under the package.

MOUs & Agreements

India today signed a ₹5,000-crore deal with the

US to buy 145 M777 lightweight Howitzer guns

for the Army.

The deal was approved by Defence Ministry in

October to strengthen the Army, which has

reportedly been facing a crunch in this weaponry

segment.

While 25 guns will come in ready-to-use condition,

the remaining 120 will be assembled in India.

3rd

December Review

World

Today is International Day for the Abolition of

Slavery.

This day has been adopted by the General Assembly

of the United Nations convention for the prevention

of the human trafficking and of the exploitation of

the human being and of others.

This Day was first celebrated in 1986.

The focus of this day is on eradicating

contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking

in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of

child labour, forced marriage, and the forced

recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

Theme of the year 2016 : "Remember Slavery:

Celebrating the Heritage and Culture of the African

Diaspora and its Roots"

Thailand's Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn

was formally proclaimed as King Rama X, the

10th king of the Chakri dynasty.

Vajiralongkorn was proclaimed king after he

accepted the invitation from the country's

parliament.

The coronation ceremony for King Rama X will

take place next year after his recently-deceased

father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej's cremation.

The UNESCO today included Yoga in its 'List of

Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'.

UNESCO also included Beer culture in Belgium,

Bhojpuri folk songs in Mauritius, and Carnival of

Granville in France among others in the list this

year.

List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

from India :

Buddhist chanting of Ladakh : recitation of sacred

Buddhist texts in Ladakh region of Jammu and

Kashmir.

Chhau dance : classical Indian dance originated in

the eastern Indian states.


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Kalbelia : folk songs and dances of Rajasthan

Koodiyattam : Sanskrit Theatre of Kerala

Mudiyett : theatre ritual of Kerala

Ramlila : Traditional Performance of the

Ramayana.

Ramman : religious festival and ritual theatre of

Garhwal Himalayas.

Sankirtana : singing, drumming and dancing ritual

of Manipur.

Tradition of Vedic Chanting.

Traditional brass and copper craft of utensil of

Thatheras of Punjab.

Russia's Interior Ministry has announced that

fingerprinting will become a compulsory procedure

for all foreigners arriving in the country, starting

next year.

This reportedly will improve law enforcement,

including blocking suspected terrorists and

preventing illegal migration.

India

Today is National Pollution Control Day

This day is celebrated every year in India in order to

give the honor and memorialize the thousands of

human beings who had lost their existence because

of the Bhopal gas calamity.

Bhopal gas tragedy was happened in the night of

2nd and 3rd December in the year 1984 because

of the unintentional discharge of the poisonous

chemical known as Methyl Isocyanate (also

called MIC) as well as some other chemicals

released from the Union Carbide Chemical Plant

positioned in the city.

Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan (VISAKA) was

launched by the Union Ministry for Human

Resource Development (HRD) to make people

aware about cashless economic system.

It was launched by Union HRD minister Prakash

Javadekar in New Delhi.

The Hornbill Festival began in the Naga

Heritage village of Kisama, coinciding with

Nagaland Statehood Day.

The annual festival aims to promote tourism in the

state, and pays tribute to the Hornbill, revered by

the Nagas.

NITI Aayog today scrapped the old five-year

plan scheme and unveiled a new vision, strategy

document along with an action plan for the

country, Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya

said.


The government today appointed Gujarat-cadre

1984 batch IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as the

Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation

(CBI).

Cheng Wei, Co-founder and CEO of Chinese

ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has been named

Forbes Asia's 2016 Businessman of the Year.

Singer Katy Perry was honoured with the 'Audrey

Hepburn Humanitarian Award' for her work as

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador at a UNICEF event

in New York today.

She was presented the award by 2016 Democratic

US Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The second Indian Council for Cultural

Relations (ICCR) Ideologist Award for the year

2016 was awarded to Prof. Yu Long Yu of

China.

http://www.gr8ambitionz.com/2016/12/meet-new-director-of-cbi-rakesh-asthana.html


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He was presented with this award by President

Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati

Bhavan, New Delhi.

Business & Economy

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani

has announced the 'Jio Money Merchant

Solutions' app for small merchants and shop

owners to receive payments from users of Jio

Money e-wallet.

It will enable person-to-person transfers and

transactions at places like mandis and bus ticket

counters.

The app, which will launch on December 5, is

expected to be used by 10 million merchants.

Andhra Pradesh's Tirumala Tirupati

Devasthanams, which manages the Sri

Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirupati, has

roped in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to

manage the upsurge in donations after

demonetization.

TCS will provide electronic modes of donations to

the visiting pilgrims.

The temple has also made arrangements for e-

donations, e-hundi, e-challan, e-darshan, e-

accommodation and e-seva.

Sports

Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen

beat Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin to

clinch his third consecutive World Chess

Championship.

Note : Carlsen last defeated Vishwanathan Anand in

both the 2013 and 2014 World Chess

Championships.

The All-India Football Federation won the Asian

Football Council's Developing Member

Association of the Year Award in Abu Dhabi

today.

The award is given on the basis of organisation of

courses, seminars and competitions, grassroots,

youth development and women's programmes and

special projects.

In 2014, AIFF had earlier won the AFC President's

Recognition Award for grassroots football.

Former Pakistani pacer Wasim Akram has been

appointed as the Sri Lankan cricket team's

bowling mentor, ahead of the team's tour to

South Africa.

Science & Technology

The Internet Archive, which keeps a store of

everything on the internet, announced plans to

shift its data to Canada from the US, to keep it

"safe" after Donald Trump was elected US

President.

Trump had earlier suggested "closing up" the

internet to prevent children and ISIS recruiters from

using it.

Bengaluru-based aerospace startup Team Indus

has become the first private entity to secure a

dedicated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from

ISRO.

Team Indus is the only Indian team in Google's $20

million Lunar XPRIZE competition to become the

first privately funded team to land a robot on the

Moon that successfully travels 500 meters.

4th

& 5th

December Review

World

India is going to train the Qatari police for

handling the security during the FIFA World

Cup in the nation, scheduled to be held in 2022.


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The agreement for the training was reached upon by

the visiting Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah

bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and India's Union

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today.

The US Senate has unanimously passed a

legislation to extend sanctions against Iran by 10

years.

It was forwarded to President Barack Obama, who

is expected to sign it into law delaying any

potentially tougher actions until next year.

While Iran warned that this would violate the Iran-

US nuclear deal, US lawmakers denied the

allegation and said it was "necessary".

India

India celebrates 45th Navy Day today

The day is celebrated to commemorate the start of

Operation Trident during the 1971 India-Pakistan

War.

Chief of Naval Staff : Admiral Sunil Lanba

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has

initiated online issuance of birth and death

certificatesfollowing the civic body's decision to

digitise payment of taxes and factory licensing.

Post this move, all birth and death certificates

registered after 2003-04 can be obtained

electronically.

The UNICEF has teamed up with the Indian

government to conduct the first-ever national

survey to measure nutrition levels of children

across the country.

According to the survey, the data aims to quantify

the micronutrients, vitamin and mineral

deficiencies, as well as worm infestation among

children.

A total of 1,20,000 children in the age group 0-19

years will be surveyed.

The Centre has approved the inclusion of 15 new

castes and the modification in 13 other castes in

the Central list of Other Backward Classes

(OBCs).

This will make the castes eligible for benefit under

the existing welfare schemes and scholarships for

the OBCs that are being administered by the Central

Government.


US President-elect Donald Trump has named

General Motors CEO Mary Barra to his

economic and job-creation panel.

The panel, set to meet for the first time in February,

consists of CEOs from JPMorgan Chase, Walt

Disney, Boeing, and other companies.

Note : Barra is one of the only two women on the

panel, the other being IBM CEO Ginni Rometty.

Donald Trump has also announced that he will be

appointing James 'Mad Dog' Mattis as US Secretary

of Defence.

India's representative Srinidhi Shetty has been

crowned Miss Supranational 2016, an

international beauty pageant.

This marks the second time that India has won the

pageant following the win by Asha Bhat in 2014.

Sanjeev Sonawane, a visually impaired

educationist who has developed educational

programmes for hundreds of young blind people,

was awarded the Helen Keller Award 2016 in

the "role model supporter of increased

employment opportunities for disabled persons"

category.


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He is the head of education and extension

department at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Deaths

Two-time Olympic gold medallist diver Sammy

Lee (96) passed away.

Lee, a Korean-American, became the first ever

Asian-American to win an Olympic gold medal for

the US after winning gold in the 1948 London

Olympics.


US defence agency DARPA has announced plans

to launch an online gaming portal titled

'Gamifying the Search for Strategic Surprise

(GS3)' to find ways to combat national security

threats.

Business & Economy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today

announced it will shortly issue ₹20 and ₹50

banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005.

The new ₹50 notes won't have inset letters in the

number panels and new ₹20 notes will have inset

letter 'L', while both notes will have 2016 printed on

them.

The old ₹20 and ₹50 banknotes will, however,

continue to be legal tender.

The US House of Representatives has passed a

Defence Bill pledging $900 million (around

₹6,100 crore) in assistance to Pakistan.

A major part of the money is dependent on the

Pentagon certifying that Pakistan is taking action

against the militant group Haqqani Network.

Note : Earlier this year, US denied $300 million in

aid to Pakistan for failing to get the certification.

Sports

India clinched the Women's T20 Asia Cup 2016

after defeating Pakistan by 17 runs in the final in

Bangkok today.

Note : This is India's sixth successive Asia Cup

title.

Question of the Day

Why is December 4 celebrated as Navy Day in

India?

On 4th December 1971, the Indian Navy

successfully executed Operation Trident, which was

a devastating attack on Pakistan Naval Headquarters

in Karachi.

The operation, which marked the first use of anti-

ship missiles in the region, did irreparable damage

to the Karachi port during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

To commemorate this, December 4 is celebrated as

the Indian Navy Day.

6th

December Review

World

Today (5th December) is World Soil Day.

Theme of 2016 : 'Soils and pulses, a symbiosis for

life'

Today (5th December) is International Volunteer

Day.

This day is an international observance designated

by the United Nations since 1985.

It offers an opportunity for volunteer organizations

and individual volunteers to make visible their

contributions - at local, national and international

levels - to the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs).


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2016 Theme : Global Applause – give volunteers a

hand

Cuban President Raúl Castro today announced

that the government would prohibit naming

public monuments or streets after his brother

and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

The decision is in line with Fidel Castro's personal

desire to avoid developing a personality cult.

The 6th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia

summit was held in Amritsar today.

This conference was attended by over 40 delegates,

including 14 from southeast and central Asian

member countries.

Under the 'Amritsar Declaration' adopted at the

summit, terrorism was declared the biggest

threat to the peace, stability, and prosperity of

the Asian nations.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key today

announced his resignation as the country's

leader in a surprise move, effective from 12

December.

India

The Rajasthan government is going to launch a

mobile application on December 13 that intends

to reduce the road accidents’ casualties by half

by 2020.

The app will be integrated with the details of

hospitals, police station, ambulance service,

emergency services and the user can assess contact

details, can seek help or ambulance or report an

accident.

A 3-day Bird festival is being organised by the

Uttar Pradesh government in Chambal.

The festival was inaugurated on Friday by Cabinet

Minister Abhishek Mishra.

Tim Appleton, who reportedly started the world's

first bird fair in England, was also present during

the inauguration.

The festival will feature talks by prominent

ornithologists and workshops by professional

photographers.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the

reader's poll for the TIME's Person of the Year

with 18% votes in his favour, beating Barack

Obama, Donald Trump and Julian Assange,

each with 7% votes.

Modi also fared above personalities like Hillary

Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg.

The magazine's editors will declare the final Person

of the Year on December 7.

The 23rd Star Screen Awards, an annual awards

ceremony held in India honouring professional

excellence in the Bollywood Film Industry was

recently held in Mumbai.

Amitabh Bachchan and Alia Bhatt bagged top

honours for the their films Pink and Udta Punjab

respectively, with the hard-hitting Pink winning the

coveted Best Film Award as well and two other

trophies.

Rekha was honoured with the Lifetime

Achievement Award, while Deepika Padukone was

adjudged the Best Style Icon for 2016.

Check complete winners list of Star Screen Awards

2016 from here

Singer Taylor Swift (26), with earnings of $170

million, has been named the world's highest paid

musician of 2016 by Forbes.

https://goo.gl/o0DXpl

https://goo.gl/o0DXpl


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With earnings of $110 million, English-Irish pop

boy band 'One Direction' ranked second, while

Adele, with earnings of $80.5 million stood third.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today announced

the appointment of Sunil Taldar as the Chief

Executive Officer and Director for its DTH

business.

Taldar will take over Shashi Arora, who after

serving for approximately five years as CEO, has

moved as MD and CEO of Airtel Payments Bank.

Note : Airtel digital TV had 1.24 crore customers in

quarter ended September.


Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has

announced that it is all set to launch PSLV-C36

carrying 1,235 kg remote sensing satellite

RESOURCE SAT-2A from the spaceport of

Sriharikota on December 7.

The satellite would carry a high-resolution Linear

Imaging Self Scanner camera, medium-resolution

LISS-3 camera and an advanced wide field sensor

camera that operates in various bands.

Business & Economy

The Finance Ministry today made it mandatory

for the government departments to make

payments above ₹5,000 to suppliers, contractors,

grantee/loanee institutions, among others,

through e-payment.

Further, the Ministry has directed all the

departments to implement the new order with

immediate effect.

This comes amid PM Modi's advocation for a

cashless economy to end corruption and black

money.

The government has declared an incentive of ₹10

for individuals who have transited to digital

payment modes and have undertaken at least

two successful transactions through it.

These transactions could be from payment modes

like Unified Payment Interface, Aadhaar card-

enabled payment mode, e-wallets, and RuPay cards.

E-commerce major Amazon today launched its

global startup program 'Launchpad' in India, an

online portal featuring over 400 products from

different startups including 25 Indian startups.

The program will also help Indian startups to sell

their products overseas.

First started in 2015, Amazon Launchpad is now

available in seven regions.

Switzerland plans to increase international

cooperation by implementing Automatic

Exchange Of Information (AEOI) in its banking

practices and will reportedly share private client

information with other countries.

The AEOI on bank accounts will be spread to 22

other countries including India.

The move aims to stop wealthy foreigners from

hiding their illicit income in Swiss banks.

Sports Current Affairs

51 year old Indian Golfer Mukesh Kumar

became the oldest golfer to win an Asian Tour

title after lifting the Panasonic Open today.

Mukesh, who has 123 PGTI titles under his belt,

won his first ever title on the Asian Tour in the form

of the Panasonic Open.

7th

December Review

World


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The annual bilateral maritime exercise Konkan

16 between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy

(British Navy) was started in Mumbai,

Maharashtra.

This exercise will be held from 5th December to

16th December 2016.

Yangon city in Myanmar recently

hosted Mingalabar, a three-day festival that

celebrated 55 years of cultural relations

between France and Myanmar.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe today announced that

he will visit Pearl Harbor this month with US

President Barack Obama.

With this move, he will become Japan's first leader

to travel to the site of the Japanese attack 75 years

ago.

Note : Japan's attack on the navy base at Hawaii

had killed over 2,400 US soldiers and triggered

America's entry into the World War II.

India

The 6th edition of ‘Heart of Asia- Istanbul

Process of Aghanistan‘ conference, an annual

regional gathering of Asian and other countries

was recently held in Amritsar, Punjab (India).

It was inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

It concluded with adaptation of Amritsar

Declaration with its prime focus on terrorism.

Theme of this year's Conference : “Addressing

Challenges, Achieving Prosperity”.

The 7th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) was

recently held at Science City in Kolkata, West

Bengal.

It was organised by the World Ayurveda

Foundation with the support of the Union Ministry

of AYUSH to facilitate development and growth of

AYUSH system of medicine comprising Ayurveda,

Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and

Homoeopathy.

Theme of this congress : “Strengthening the

Ayurveda Ecosystem“.


Gigi Hadid was felicitated with the 'International

Model of the Year' award at the British Fashion

Awards 2016 in London today.

Alexander McQueen was named the 'Best British

Brand'.

American fashion designer Ralph Lauren was given

the 'Outstanding Achievement' award.

The award of 'New Fashion Icon' went to

siblings Jaden and Willow Smith.

American comedian and talk show host Jimmy

Kimmel will host the 89th Oscar Awards

ceremony in February 2017.

Kimmel, who previously hosted 2016 Emmy

Awards, will be hosting the Academy Awards for

the first time.

Actor Samuel L Jackson will receive the Lifetime

Achievement Award at the Dubai International

Film Festival (DIFF) at the opening of the

festival on December 7.

He is known for his role as 'Ultimate Nick Fury' in

Marvel films and for films like 'Pulp Fiction'.

Independent candidate and pro-

European Alexander Van der Bellen has

won Austria's re-run presidential election with

around 53.5% votes.


Dexter Academy

Bellen won against anti-immigration and

eurosceptic Norbert Hofer.

Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Shavkat

Mirziyoyev became the country's

second President after winning 88.61% vote in

the first presidential election since the death of

the authoritarian leader and President Islam

Karimov.

Following the death of Tamil Nadu CM

Jayalalithaa, her aide and senior AIADMK leader O

Panneerselvam took oath as the new Chief Minister

of Tamil Nadu.


Amazon has unveiled a technology to run a

grocery store where customers can enter by

scanning their phones and leave without paying

for the items.

Called 'Amazon Go', the store will be able to detect

the items picked and charge the customers

accordingly through a dedicated app. The first such

store will be launched in Washington in early 2017.

Banking & Economy

Venezuela's central bank said it will issue new

higher-value notes of its currency, the Bolivar,

from mid-December to aid consumers who are

dealing with unprecedented inflation.

This comes after bolivar suffered its largest monthly

fall, down 60% in November against the dollar on

the black market.

Important Note : Currently, the largest bolivar

note is worth $0.02 (around ₹1.36) on the black

market.

India has received over US $300 billion US

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)milestone

between April 2000 and September 2016.

The cumulative FDI inflows during the period

amounted to US $310.26 billion.

With this, India firmly established its credentials as

a safe investment destination in the world.

Hailakandi district of Assam has become

the first district to pay wages to tea garden

workers through individual bank accounts.

It completed this task before the December 15, 2016

deadline set by the state government for cashless

transactions of salary payments to the plantation

workers.

Sports

The hashtag used for the Rio Summer

Olympics, #Rio2016 was the most popular

hashtag in India and globally this year, as per

Twitter's #YearOnTwitter 2016 report.

The second-most popular hashtag in India

was #INDvPAK, following the teams' ICC World

T20 encounter in March, with more than 1.1 million

tweets recorded. #WT20 and #PVSindhu were also

among the most-used hashtags.

9th

December Review

World

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-

661 crashed

i. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), PK-661

flight which was carrying 48 passengers including 5

crew member and one ground engineer, crashed on

the way to Islamabad from Chitral on December 7,

2016.

ii. According to the report of the Civil Aviation

Authority confirmed there are no survivors from

crash. 46 bodies out of 48 have been recovered.


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iii. Pakistani pop star, actor and TV presenter Junaid

Jamshed was among those who perished when the

plane crashed.

iv. The PK-661 Flight which was an ATR-42

aircraft departed from Chitral around 3:30pm and

was

expected to land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto

International Airport at around 4:40pm but crashed

in Havelian near Abbottabad within few minutes

after a danger call was sent to the control tower.

India

Various MoUs and Schemes Approved by Union

Cabinet on December 7, 2016

i. The Cabinet Committee headed by Prime Minister

Shri Narendra Modi on December 7, 2016, gave the

approval for the development of the Phase-I of the

Rs 11,420 crore Pune metro rail project.The project

will cover a length of 31.254 km and consist of two

corridors.

ii. The Union Cabinet on December 7, 2016,

approved MoU between India and Vietnam on

Cooperation in the field of IT.

iii. The Union Cabinet approved the MoU between

India and Afghanistan on cooperation in the

peaceful uses of outer space.

iv. The Union Cabinet gave the approval to the

reforms to boost employment generation and

exports in the Made-ups Sector.

v. Cabinet approved the MoU signed between India

and United Kingdom (UK) in area of Ease of Doing

Business in India.

vi. Government on December 8, 2016, announced

the Zero Effect Zero Defect (ZED)certification

scheme which will guide and assist MSMEs across

the country in Make in India sectors through quality

control cells and rate them after carrying out

assessment of their products.

Training on Election Management for SAARC

Nations Organized at IIIDEM

i. A training program has been organized by

Election Commission of India on Election

Management of SAARC Countries, at the India

International Institute of Democracy and Election

Management (IIIDEM) under the sponsorship of

Union Ministry of External Affairs, Government of

India.

ii. Aim: to conduct free, fair, peaceful and inclusive

elections in the country.

iii. The training program started on December 5,

2016 and will continue till December 15, 2016.

iv. The training program is being attended by 28

delegates of Election Management Bodies (EMBs)

from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives,

Bhutan and Afghanistan.

v. The program aims to train officials on various

aspects of election management like capacity

building of stakeholders, code of conduct, voter

inclusion and registration etc.

South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC) :

♦ SAARC was founded in Dhaka in 1985 and has

it’s headquarter in Kathmandu.

♦ SAARC is the regional intergovernmental

organization and geopolitical union of nations in

South Asia.

♦ Its member states include Afghanistan,

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives,

Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Triple Talaq is unconstitutional and no personal

law board is above the Constitution: Allahabad

High Court

i. The Allahabad high court on December 7, 2016,

passed an order, over the Islamic practice of

divorcing a woman by saying the word ‘talaq’ three


Dexter Academy

successive times, that it is completely

“unconstitutional” and violates the rights of Muslim

Women.

ii. The High Court Judge, Justice Suneet Kumar

gave the judgment while hearing a petition filed by

a woman who claimed that her husband divorced

her without mutual consent.

iii. Justice Kumar added, no personal law board is

above the Constitution.However, the All India

Muslim Personal Law Board has questioned against

the order, saying that constitution has no right to

question the practices of any religion.

iv. Even in Supreme Court, several women have

filed a petition to abolish the tripletalaq practice.

Haritha Keralam Mission launched by Kerala

CM Pinarayi Vijayan

i. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on

launched Haritha Keralam Mission in

Thiruvananthapuram on December 8, 2016.

Haritha Keralam Missionii. Aim: To clear and

remove waste from all the water bodies in the state,

ensure disposal of solid waste and removal of waste

water and measures to increase the area of land

under cultivation

iii. It is a comprehensive program for creating new

development perspectives by maximum utilization

of opportunities through waste management, water

resources and agricultural development using

organic farming.

iv. Renowned singer KJ Yesudas and actor Manju

Warrier are brand ambassadors of this proeject

Himachal become 18th State To Join

UDAY(Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana)

i. Virbhadra Singh lead Himachal Pradesh

government signed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU) with Government of India for

operational and financial turnaround of the

DISCOM under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance

Yojana (UDAY)

ii. HP has become the 18th state to join UDAY, a

central scheme for revival of debt stressed power

distribution companies, availing a net benefit of

about Rs 823 crore.

Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) :

♦ Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) is

the financial turnaround and revival package for

electricity distribution companies of India

(DISCOMs) initiated by Shri Piyush Goyal in

November 2015.

♦ Jharkhand was the first state to join UDAY

The scheme comprises four initiatives :

1.Improving operational efficiencies of discoms

2.Reduction of cost of power

3.Reduction in interest cost of discoms and

4.Enforcing financial discipline on discoms through

alignment with state finances.

Lifeline Express gets two new Coaches cancer,

family health services

i. The Lifeline Express, world’s first hospital train

was equipped with two new coaches in addition to

the existing five on December 8, 2016.

ii. The new coaches were inaugurated by the Union

health minister JP Nadda and railways minister

Suresh Prabhu.

iii. One coach will be used for detecting and

controlling oral, breast and cervical cancer while

other will be used for preventing stroked and

providing family health services.

iv. With the installment of the new coaches, Lifeline

Express will start its operation at Satna in Madhya


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Pradesh from December 15, 2016 to January 5,

2017.

v. Other projects is scheduled in 2017 for

Telangana, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat.

Lifeline Express

♦ Lifeline Express started 25 years ago in 1991,

with three wooden coaches to give medical care to

the remotest parts of the country. Now it has seven

steel coaches.Lifeline Express

♦ Impact India Foundation initiated the Lifeline

Express project that has treated around one million

poor people in rural parts of the country free of cost.

Nearly 2,00,000 medical professionals from around

the world provide their services.

♦ The seven coaches of the Lifeline Express have

operation theatres, a pathology lab, a

mammography unit, a gynecology examination

room, a dental unit, a pharmacy, consultation

cubicles, X-Ray services, among others.

♦ The train is Wi-Fi enabled which, for example,

helps a doctor sitting in a city examine a patient’s

X-ray report and other images.

Minister of Railways Launched Website of

National Rail Plan, 2030

i. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu

launched a website of National Rail Plan, 2030

(NRP-2030) on December 8, 2016 Rail Bhawan,

New Delhi.

ii. Aim: to develop the Indian Railways in terms of

service in travelling and freight across the country.

iii. The website is available for access at

http://www.nationalrailplan.in.

iv. Ministry of Railways have decided to develop

National Rail Plan (NRP 2030) to have a concrete

strategic planning for Railway, in consultation with

all the stakeholders including State Governments,

public representatives and other relevant Central

Ministries.

v. NRP-2030 will make an attempt to integrate the

rail network with other modes of transport and

create synergy for achieving seamless multi modal

transportation network across the country.

Business & Economy

Two Banks of Abu Dhabi to Merge as the

Biggest Bank in Gulf Nation

i. Stockholders of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi

and First Gulf Bank on December 7, 2016,

approved to merge into the biggest bank of all Gulf

Countries with an asset of $ 178 billion.

ii. After the merger the combined company will be

named as NBAD.

iii. The FGB shareholders will receive 1.254 NBAD

shares for each FGB share they hold and FGB

stockholders will own 52% of the new bank.

iv. According to Moody, this merger would make

the new NBAD the largest bank across Gulf Arab

nations, with some $170 billion in assets.

Coverfox inks pact with Uber for car insurance

i. An online insurance broking portal Coverfox.com

has inked an partnership with Uber in India to

facilitate car insurance solutions for the latter’s

driver partners on December 8, 2016

ii. Under this partnership, Coverfox car insurance

services will be available to Uber cars across 11

cities in India includes Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru,

Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai,

Kochi, Guwahati and Coimbatore.

Coverfoxiii. The insurance cover is offered as part

of UberCLUB’s rewards programme.

iv. Recently Uber launches app UberFLEET to help

drivers achieve maximum performance and run

fleets more efficiently


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Coverfox :

♦ Founded: 2013

♦ Headquarters: Mumbai

Pakistan Lifts Undeclared Ban on Import of

Ginned Cotton from India

i. Pakistan has removed an “undeclared” ban on

import of ginned cotton from India.

ii. Earlier from November 23, The Department of

Plant Protection (DPP) of the Ministry of National

Food Security and Research had banned the cotton

imports from India through Wagah and Karachi port

as the shipments did not fulfil phyto- sanitary

conditions.

iii. Due to the rising border tensions between the

two neighbours, Islamabad imposed a ban on

10,000 bales of cotton worth USD 3.3 million from

India.

iv. However the DPP has agreed to issue permits for

importing cotton from India via Wagah but the DPP

has also made it clear to importers that only seed

free cotton will be accepted and allowed into the

country.

India to set up center of excellence at Al-Azhar

University, Egypt

i. In order to enhance cooperation in education

sector between India and Egypt, Center has decided

to set up a center of Excellence in Information

Technology at the Al-Azhar University which is the

oldest and most prestigious University of Egypt.

ii. Regarding the establishment of the excellence

Center, a meeting was held between Indian

ambassador to Cairo, Sanjay Bhattacharyya and

Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, on

December 5, 2016 to discuss various ways to

enhance cooperation.Al-Azhar University

iii. The Government of India will pay completely

for the project which will be set up in the

engineering department of the Al-Azhar University

and start operating early next year.

Egypt :

♦ Capital: Cairo

♦ Currency: Egyptian pound

♦ President: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi


Donald Trump Named as TIME’s Person of the

Year 2016

i. US President elect Donald Trump was chosen as

the TIME’s Person of the Year 2016 on December

7, 2016, for his outstanding victory in the US

election.

ii. According to the Time magazine’s editors, the

Republican president-elect had more global impact,

“for better or worse,” than any other individual

across the past 12 months.

iii. Trump defeated five other contenders, including

his election rival Hillary Clinton, musician

Beyonce, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, to be named “the person who had the

greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events

of the year

Alphabet Named Company of the year by

Fortune

Google parent Company, Alphabet has been named

as the Company Of The Year by Fortune magazine

in its annual Blue Ribbon ranking.

Blue Ribbon List

i. The list recognizes the best among the best

companies that have been appeared on four or more

out of the seven Fortune lists including Fortune 500,

Global 500, Best Companies to Work For, Change

the World list, World’s Most Admired Companies,


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100 Fastest-Growing Companies, and

Businessperson of the Year in a particular year.

ii. For the year 2016, Alphabet has topped the Blue

Ribbon List by appearing on 5 of Google

♦ Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational

conglomerate founded on October 2, 2015, by the

two founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey

Brin.

♦ It is the parent company of Google and several

other companies previously owned by them.

♦ CEO: Larry Page

♦ President: Sergey Brin

♦ Headquarters: Mountain View, California, United

States

BEML Honored with CII National Quality

Award

i. Bharat Earth Movers Limited Ltd (BEML) Ltd

has been awarded the ‘CII National Quality 2016

Award’ for practicing various EFQM Models

(European Foundation for Quality Management).

ii. The award was received by Deepak Kumar Hota,

Chairman & Managing Director, BEML, at a

function held at Bengaluru.

iii. The award is jointly instituted by the

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Export

Import Bank (EXIM).

Bharat Earth Movers Limited

♦ BEML Limited (Bharat Earth Movers Limited), a

Miniratna-Category-1’ firm, was established in May

1964 as a Public Sector Undertaking and operates

under three major Business: Mining &

Construction, Defence and Rail & Metro.

The Confederation of Indian Industry

♦ The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works

to create and sustain an environment which suitable

for the development of India and civil society

through advisory and consultative processes.

EXIM Bank :

♦ Export–Import Bank of India is the premier

export finance institution in India, established under

Export-Import Bank of India Act 1981.

♦ Founded: 1982

♦ Headquarters: Mumbai

♦ Chairman & Managing Director: Yaduvendra

Mathur

Michael Jordan Ranked Top among Highest Paid

Athletes by Forbes

i. Michael Jordan, former basketball player, has

been named as the highest-paid athlete of all times

by Forbes, with $1.7 billion total wealth.Michael

Jordan Ranked Top among Highest Paid Athletes

by Forbes

ii. His overall salary over the 15 seasons was

counted to be $93 million, while the earning from

endorsing various brands also paid him huge sum.

iii. Jordan was paid about $100 million from Nike

for endorsing the Jordan brand in 2016. Apart from

this Jordan also endorsed Coca-Cola, Gatorade,

McDonald’s, Hanes among others.

iv Forbes publishes a large range of lists each

year.The list of the highest-paid athletes in the

world is calculated based on earnings derived from

salaries, bonuses, prize money, endorsements and

licensing income each year and does not deduct

taxes or agents’ fees.

Vistaar appoints ex-Sebi chief C B Bhave as non-

exec Chairman


Dexter Academy

i. Former Sebi chairman C B Bhave was appointed

as non-executive Chairman and Independent

Director of Vistaar Financial Services on December

8, 2016

ii. Prior to SEBI, he has worked as the Chairman

and Managing Director of National Securities

Depositories Ltd (NSDL).


Researchers at TIFR made discovery that

challenges theory of superconductivity

i. A team of researchers at the Tata Institute of

Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have

discovered that bismuth semi-metal in bulk form

becomes a superconductor when the temperature is

lowered to 530 microKelvin (about -273 degree C).

ii. With this discovery, the researcher’s team, lead

by Dr. S. Ramakrishnan of the Department of

Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences at

TIFR have challenged the conventional

understanding of superconductivity.

iii. A superconductor is a material that can conduct

electricity with no resistance. This means no heat,

sound or any other form of energy would be

released from the material when it has reached

“critical temperature” (Tc), or the temperature at

which the material becomes superconductive.

iv. Till now the theory of superconductivity was

based on Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory

that explains superconductivity in most low Tc

(critical temperature) superconductors.

v. However, BCS theory even at 10 milliKelvin, did

not find superconductivity in bismuth, and thus fails

to explain the superconductivity seen in bismuth.

vi. The discovery has led to the formulation of a

new theory and mechanism to understand

superconductivity in bismuth.

vii. The discovery also provides an alternative path

for the discovery of new superconducting materials

totally different from the conventional

superconductors.

Sports

PR Sreejesh Appointed as Goalkeeping Mentor

of Indian Junior Hockey Team

i. Captain of the senior National Men’s Hockey

Team and one of the finest hockey goal-PR

Sreejeshkeeper in the world, PR Sreejesh has been

roped in as the Goalkeeping Mentor of the India

Under-21 Hockey Team from December 8, 2016.

ii. India is seen as one of the powerful contenders to

win the Junior World Cup to be held from

December 8 to 18 at the Major Dhyan Chand

Stadium in Lucknow. India will play its first match

against Canada on December 8, 2016.

iii. Sreejesh will replace South African Dave

Staniforth, who was appointed by Hockey India to

train the junior goalkeepers for a short term period

of three-week for the World Cup.

iv. According to Harendra Singh, India junior team

head coach, Sree is currently one of the finest

goalkeepers in the world. He is also a great

motivator and fun loving guy.

v. Sreejesh is known for his sound technical

knowledge and is also considered a great motivator

in and out of the field. He has also been nominated

for FIH Goalkeeper of the Year 2016.

Important Days

Plastic-free day observed on December 8 in

Kochi

Plastic Free Dayi. Plastic Free Day is observed on

December 8, 2016 by the Kochi Corporation as a

part of the Haritha Keralam Mission.

ii. Objective: Cleanliness and water conservation


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iii. People were instructed not to use plastic carry

bags on December 8(Plastic free day) and shop-

keepers are supported to this initiative programme.

10th

December Review

World

Today (9th December) is International Anti-

Corruption Day.

This Day was launched on 9th October 2003 by the

General Assembly of the United Nations as a way

of raising awareness of corruption and highlighting

the role of the United Nations Convention against

Corruption in combating and preventing it.

Theme of the year 2016 : United against

corruption for development, peace and security

The United States today finalised India's

designation as a 'Major Defense Partner' of the

United States.

The designation is "unique to India" and "ensures

enduring cooperation into the future", a joint

statement by the two countries said.

Note : This would allow the US to share technology

with India at the same level as its closest allies and

partners.

India was ranked 8th in the list of countries most

impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the

Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 2016, released by

an Australia-based think-tank.

Top 10 Countries in the List

Iraq

Afghanistan

Nigeria

Pakistan

Syria

Yemen

Somalia

India

Egypt

South Korea's Parliament today voted 234-56 in

favour of impeaching President Park Geun-hye,

following weeks of protests over her involvement

in an influence-peddling scandal.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will be acting

president until the court delivers a ruling.

Important Note : Geun-hye will be the first

democratically elected President of South Korea to

be impeached.

The UK advertising regulator today announced

a ban on advertising unhealthy food and drinks

in children's non-broadcast media, including

print media, cinemas and social media sites.

The regulator also banned such advertisements from

using celebrities popular with children.

Note : The ban comes into effect in July 2017 and

already extends to television.

The European Union has reached an agreement

to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainians and

Georgians, after their governments brought in

EU-sponsored reforms.

English has been ranked first in the top 10 most

powerful languages in the world according to the

2016 World Power Language Index (PLI).

The index was published by World Economic

Forum (WEF).

Indian language Hindi was ranked 10th in the 2016

PLI.

Top 10 Languages in the List

English

Mandarin

French


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Spanish

Arabic

Russian

German

Japanese

Portuguese

Hindi

India

Kerala Government has launched Haritha

Keralam Mission, a comprehensive programme

for creating new sustainable development

perspectives in the state.

It was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Important Note : Singer K.J. Yesudas and actor

Manju Warrier are the ambassadors to this mission.

The Supreme Court today exempted people with

physical disabilities from its recent ruling of

making it mandatory for everyone to stand

during the National Anthem to be played

compulsorily before film screenings in theatres.

The apex court further clarified that the doors of the

cinema halls will be closed, but not bolted when the

National Anthem is played.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of

India (FSSAI) has banned use of newspapers for

wrapping and packing of food items.

In this regard, FSSAI has issued an advisory all

states and Union territories and asked

commissioners of food safety to restrict the use of

newspapers for packing, serving and storing of food

items.

The 2016 India International Science festival (IISF)

has started at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory

(NPL) Campus in New Delhi.

This year's theme : “Science for the masses”.

Business & Economy

The Indian government today informed the

Parliament that a decision has been taken to

print plastic currency notes.

Further, the process of procurement of material for

the same has been initiated, Minister of State for

Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal stated.

Note : Such notes have an average life span of

nearly five years and are difficult to counterfeit.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today

announced that it will shortly issue new ₹500

denomination banknotes in the new Mahatma

Gandhi Series without any inset letter.

The notes will bear current RBI Governor Urjit

Patel's signature and the year of printing '2016'

printed on the back.

All ₹500 notes issued post demonetisation will

continue to be legal tender.

The World Bank has cancelled a $100 million

(around ₹674 crore) loanpromised to Pakistan

for a natural gas efficiency project, citing a lack

of interest by the Pakistani gas distribution

company.

The project was aimed at reducing losses of gas in

the pipeline system.

Rating the project "unsatisfactory", the World

Banks warned that levels of unaccounted-for gas

remained high.

India has scrapped its 10% import duty on

wheat after droughts in the past two years

depleted stocks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

informed the Parliament today.

The cut is effective immediately with no end date,

Jaitley added.


Dexter Academy

Note : The removal of import duty comes after local

wheat prices hit a record high last month.


NASA has commissioned a new type of satellite

dubbed as 'Restore-L Spacecraft Bus', that will

be able to refuel and repair other satellites while

they are still in orbit around Earth.

The spacecraft will help prolong the life of existing

satellites and reduce operation costs.

It could also be used for cleaning space debris or

testing asteroid capture platforms.

Dutch not-for-profit organisation Mars One,

which aims to establish a permanent human

settlement on Mars, has pushed back the launch

of its first manned mission from 2026 to 2031.

The company, which was recently acquired by

Switzerland-based company InFin Innovative

Finance, has cited a new financial strategy as the

reason behind the delay.

Books & Authors

A memoir on gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who

finished fourth in Rio Olympics, is being written

by Vimal Mohan, Digvijay Singh Deo, and her

coach Bishweshwar Nandi.

The book, tentatively titled 'Dipa Karmakar: The

Small Wonder' is slated to release in August next

year and will have untold stories of 23-year-old

Dipa's struggle and triumph.

Amazon, which started as an online book

retailer, has announced Harry Potter and the

Cursed Child as the best-selling book of 2016.

The playscript by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and

John Tiffany, was also named this year's 'Most

Wished For' and 'Most Gifted' book.

Three Harry Potter-related books have been

included in 2016's 'Kids and Teens' bestsellers list.

Sports

The world's largest cricket stadium by seating

capacity is set to come up in Ahmedabad, the

Gujarat Cricket Association announced today.

Ahmedabad's existing Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium,

which will be rebuilt by construction company

Larsen & Toubro, will overtake the 1,00,024-

capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground to house

1,10,000 people.

The new stadium will be ready in two years.

Deaths

Former US aviator, astronaut John Glenn (95)

passed away today.

He is the last surviving member of the Mercury

Seven Mission.

He was first American to orbit Earth and had circled

three times earth in 1962 aboard Friendship 7 space

capsule.

11th

& 12th

December Review

World

Today (11th December) is International

Mountain Day.

This day was designated by the United Nations

General Assembly in 2003.

This year, the celebration of this Day aims to

highlight Mountain Products. Mountain peoples,

who are largely family farmers, base their

livelihoods on highly diversified activities.

2016 Theme — "Mountain Cultures: Celebrating

diversity and strengthening identity"


Dexter Academy

'Greenery' has been announced as the 'Color of

The Year' for 2017 by Pantone Color Institute, a

world renowned authority on colours.

India has abstained from voting on a UN General

Assembly resolution demanding an immediate

ceasefire in Syria.

India has abstained from voting on the resolution in

line with its traditional approach that it doesn’t mix

humanitarian issues with political issues.

The resolution was adopted by a vote of 122 in

favour, 13 against and 36 abstentions on Friday.

India

Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Arup Raha today

announced that India will get the first set of

Rafale fighter jets from France in the next three

years.

He further said that the Rafale jets will

tremendously increase the IAF's capability.

J & K CM Mehbooba Mufti flagged off the first

children special train in the Valley today.

About 612 children of various schools will board

the train.

The railways department is planning to run it on

every second Sunday.

It is seen as an initiative to bring back normalcy in

the volatile state.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly today allotted ₹15

crore to build a memorial for late CM J

Jayalalithaa near her mentor MG

Ramachandran's memorial at Chennai's Marina

beach.

It passed a resolution to rename MGR memorial to

'Bharat Ratna Dr MGR and Jayalalithaa' memorial.

It also decided to request the Centre to install

Jayalalithaa's bronze statue inside the Parliament

campus.

A nationwide toll-free helpline number '14444'

will be launched soon to educate people and

provide support related to cashless mode of

transactions.

Andhra Pradesh CM Nara Chandrababu

Naidu todyay launched a website of Andhra

Pradesh Economic Development Board in

Vijayawda.

The website 'apedb.gov.in' aims at providing

repository of knowledge on investing in state,

policies of various sectors & also gives investor the

various investment opportunities the state has to

offer.

Banking & Economy

Airtel Payments Bank is going to extend services

in Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh,

Telangana, and Karnataka within a week, CEO

Shashi Arora has announced today.

The bank had launched its pilot in Rajasthan, and

has opened over a lakh savings accounts within a

fortnight of its rollout.

Important Point to Note : Airtel had become the

first to launch a payments bank in India last month.

To promote cashless transactions, government

think-tank NITI Aayog has suggested a scheme to

reward winners of digital payments based on

weekly and quarterly lucky draw of e-transaction

numbers.

NITI Aayog has asked the National Payments

Corporation to conceptualise the scheme.

The scheme would also provide recognition to

urban and rural local bodies, who innovate to

promote electronic payments.

http://apedb.gov.i/


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As a part of the demonetisation process, the

government is going to amend the RBI Act to

invalidate ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes printed before

November 9.

A reference to this effect would also be reportedly

made in the next year's budget.

The government, for now, has resorted to a

provision under RBI Act to scrap the high-value

notes.

MOUs & Agreements

The consortium of oil producing

countries OPEC and non-OPEC

producers today reached their first deal since

2001 to cut oil output and ease global

oversupply.

The non-OPEC countries decided to cut production

by 5.58 lakh barrels per day, their highest-ever

contribution.

This comes after OPEC earlier agreed to slash

output by 12 lakh barrels a day from January 1.


The Japanese city of Iruma has employed

a system to keep track of elderly people with

dementia by attaching barcode

stickers containing personal information to their

fingers and toes.

The 1 cm square water-resistant stickers include an

address, telephone number and unique identity

number.

Note : Japan has an ageing population, with more

than 25% citizens aged at least 65.

Sports

Mumbai's Iqbal Sayed, who works as a civil

engineer with Reliance Infrastructure and

Mumbai Metro, became the first Indian to win a

medal at the Mr Olympia event, after securing a

silver medal in the event.

Sayed beat participants from 20 countries to finish

second in the Olympia Amateur Asia 2016's Classic

Bodybuilding category.

14th

& 15th

December Review

World

Israel today got the first two of its 50 F-35 stealth

fighter jets from US-based company Lockheed

Martin.

With this Israel became the first country after the

US to get the warplanes.

The 9th edition of exercise INDRA NAVY, an

annual bilateral maritime exercise between Indian

Navy and Russian Navy began in the Bay of Bengal

today.

Aim of INDRA NAVY-16 : to increase inter-

operability amongst the two navies and develop

common understanding and procedures for

maritime security operations.

The exercise will be held in two phases. They are,

Harbour Phase : will be held from 14 to 18

December 2016

Sea Phase : will be held from 19 to 21 December

2016

India

Today (14th December) is National Energy

Conservation Day.

This day is observed in India to make people aware

about the importance of energy as well as saving or

conserving the more energy by using less energy.


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The Energy Conservation Act in India was executed

by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the

year 2001.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is a

constitutional body which comes under

Government of India and helps in the

development of policies and strategies in order to

reduce the energy use.

Gujarat tops the list of states in distribution of

LED bulbs as part of country-wide campaign for

reducing power consumption.

Gujarat has distributed 2.70 crore LED bulbs till

December 12 from the date of its launch earlier this

year.

Maharashtra, ranked second, has distributed

over 2 crore LED bulbs so far.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, which

will replace the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995,

was passed in the Rajya Sabha today.

The legislation, which has brought in a total of 119

amendments, had been pending in the Parliament's

Upper House since February 2014.

This new bill has recognized 21 disabilities (the

previous Act identified only seven disabilities).

After making Aadhaar mandatory for JEE-

Mains, the engineering entrance exam, the

government is planning to link Aadhaar with

exams like CAT, NEET and NET from the year

2017.

The CBSE Class XII board examinations may also

see Aadhaar playing a role.

During these exams, a biometric attendance system

using fingerprint recognition will be used for

identity verification.

The 6th edition of Asia Pacific Ministerial

Conference on Housing and Urban Development

(APMCHUD) began in New Delhi.

It was inaugurated by Union Urban Development

Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

The three days conference seeks to address issues

ranging from crowded city centres to peripheral

expansion, metropolitan based urban population

growth, megacities and urban corridors etc.

The National Green Tribunal today banned the sale

and use of glass-coated thread, including Chinese

manjha, used to fly kites in India.

Business & Economy

Reliance Industries Chairman and India's

richest person Mukesh Ambani and Tata Sons

Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata with Bill Gates,

Jack Ma and other billionaires have created a $1

billion fund to invest in clean energy.

Called the Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the fund

will invest the sum to fight climate change through

innovation in clean energy over the next 20 years.


A study conducted by Mumbai-based

consultancy company Final Mile on the

trafficking of sex workers from West Bengal to

Mumbai has won the ESOMAR excellence

award for the best paper.

The study found that most of the girls are sent to the

city by their fathers, who are misled into believing

that their daughters will get employment or get

married.

Actors Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor have

been named the hottest vegetarians of 2016 by

animal rights organisation PETA India.


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Actor Chris Evans has been named 'Hollywood's

Best Actor For The Buck In 2016' by Forbes for the

second time.

His movies returned an average $135.80 at the box

office for every $1 he was paid owing to his

nominal fees.

Note : Chris Pratt was the second Hollywood actor

with the best returns while Scarlett Johansson

ranked third on this list.

Malaysia today installed its 15th king, Sultan

Muhammad V, in a ceremony marked by

honour guards and Islamic prayers in the

national palace in Kuala Lumpur.

Note : The ruler of Malaysia is changed every five

years between rulers of its nine states.

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has been named an

'Integrity Ambassador' by the Badminton World

Federation to promote "clean, fair and

honourable sport."


Google has announced that it will replace Adobe

Flash Player content with HTML5 as the default

option on its Chrome browser, over the next two

months.

This means that unless a website has an HTML5

content player, the Flash content will not display,

and users will have to enable Flash manually on a

site-by-site basis.

Augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go

officially launched in India today, nearly five

months after it was rolled out in the US.

The game was launched in India by its developer

Niantic in partnership withReliance Jio.

Sports

Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu was

honoured with the Most Improved Player of the

Year award by Badminton World Federation

today.

In 2016, Sindhu won her maiden Superseries title

and also qualified for the World Superseries Finals

for the first time.

Sindhu started 2016 as 12th ranked and achieved

her career-best rank of 7 in December.

Opener Smriti Mandhana is the lone Indian in ICC's

first-ever women's team of the year.

Mandhana, who is the second Indian to play in

Australia's Women's Big Bash League, made 320

runs in eight ODIs and 286 in 17 T20Is this year.

Two-time Olympian and World Championships'

bronze medalist Shiva Thapa won a Gold medal at

the National Boxing Championships, his first in the

lightweight (60 kg) category, in Guwahati today.

16th

December Review

World

Today (15th December) is International Tea

Day.

This day aims to draw global attention of

governments and citizens to the impact of the global

tea trade on workers, small growers and consumers.

Note : The first International Tea Day was

celebrated in New Delhi on 15 December 2005.

Qatar has announced to end its 'kafala' labour

sponsorship system which ties foreign workers to

a single employer.

With over 21 lakh foreign workers, it adopted a new

contract-based law to give workers job flexibility

and protection.


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The country has been facing criticism over its

labour laws ever since it won the bid to host the

2022 football World Cup.

India has topped Asia in innovation and has

emerged as the third biggest country worldwide

in terms of New Innovation Centres, according

to research by consulting firm Capgemini.

Bengaluru, where 3 new innovation centres opened

between March and October, was ranked fifth

among top innovation hubs globally.

The Indian Government today announced that it

has extended the e-Tourist Visa facility to

citizens of 161 countries.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals on e-Tourist

Visa from January to November this year has grown

168.5% over the same period last year.

French Parliament today voted to extend the

country's state of emergency until July 2017

until after the presidential elections.

This is the fifth extension since the emergency was

imposed after the Paris attacks in November last

year.

Hindus have the lowest level of educational

attainment among all the major religions of the

world, a Pew Research Center study has

claimed.

Hindus and Muslims have the least formal

schooling (5.6 years), while 41% Hindus and 36%

Muslims have no formal schooling at all, it found.

Important Note : Jews are the most educated

religious group in the world, the study claimed.

The 7th edition of India, Maldives bilateral exercise

EKUVERIN 2016 began at Kadhdhoo, Laamu

Atoll, Maldives.

Aim of this exercise : to conduct military training

between armies of both countries with emphasis on

amphibious & counter insurgency, counter terrorism

operations.

MOUs & Agreements

The Union Cabinet today approved

memorandum of understanding (MoU) between

India and Kyrgyzstan on cooperation in field of

agriculture and food related industry.

The proposed agreement covers various activities in

the field of agriculture and allied sector.

The Union Cabinet has also approved the protocol

amending agreement between India and Tajikistan

for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of

fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.

The protocol will enable sharing of information

exchanged under Double Taxation Avoidance

Agreement (DTAA) with other law enforcement

agencies for non-tax purposes after it enters into

force.

India

The Supreme Court today ordered the closure of

all liquor shops near national and state highways

across the country from April 1.

While no new liquor vending license would be

issued, the existing shops can continue to operate

till the expiry of their licenses.

The court further said the liquor shops should be at

least 500 metres from the highways.

The Supreme Court also ordered that Indian Air

Force personnel could not keep a beard.

The court said the regulations did not interfere with

an individual's religious freedom as they are meant

to ensure discipline and uniformity.


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Google's parent company Alphabet's CEO Larry

Page has been named the world's most powerful

CEO by Forbes, with his company having a

market capitalisation of over $550 billion.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff

Bezos have been ranked second and third

respectively. Tesla's Elon Musk and Walmart's

Doug McMillon have also featured on the list.

Jayaben Desai, a Gujarat-born activist who led

a campaign against low pay to women workers at

a UK factory in the 1970s has been included in

BBC's most influential women of the past 70

years list.

Known as the sari-clad leader, she was one of the

seven women on the list topped by Margaret

Thatcher (Britain's first female Prime Minister).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been

named as the World's Most Powerful Person by

Forbes, for the fourth consecutive year.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi featured 9th

in this list.

Top 10 in the list :

Vladimir Putin (Russian President)

Donald Trump (US Presiden)

Angela Merkel (Germany Chancellor)

Xi Jinping (Chinese President)

Pope Francis

Janet Yellen (US Federal Reserve

Chairperson

Bill Gates (Bill & Melinda Foundation

Chairman)

Larry Page (Google Founder)

Narendra Modi (Indian Prime Minister)

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO)

Important Note : Reliance Industries Chairman

Mukesh Ambani has been ranked 38, while India-

born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been ranked

51.

Music composer AR Rahman's soundtrack for

footballer Pele's biopic 'Pele: Birth of a Legend'

has been selected in the first shortlist for 'Best

Original Score' by the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences for the Oscars 2017.

Rahman's song 'Ginga' is also in the running for

Best Original Song.

Note : Earlier, Rahman won two Oscars in these

categories in 2009 for the movie "Slum Dog

Millionaire".


Pakistan Army has successfully test fired an

enhanced version of an indigenously-designed

Babur cruise missile.

The missile incorporates advanced aerodynamics

and avionics that can strike targets both at land and

sea with high accuracy.

E-commerce major Amazon today successfully

made its first-ever fully autonomous drone

delivery without any human pilot.

It took the drone only 13 minutes to make the

delivery.

Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

International airport today became India's first

airport to introduce self bag-drop facility.

This will allow passengers that have already

checked in online to quickly tag and drop their

baggage before heading directly to the gate.

Business & Economy

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today

announced to give daily, weekly, and mega


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awards worth ₹340 crore for consumers and

merchants making payments digitally.

The awards under the 'Lucky Grahak Yojana' and

'Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojana' that are aimed at

boosting digital payments will run from December

25, 2016, to April 14, 2017.

The exemptions for the use of old ₹500 notes will

end today, making the currency note invalid for the

payment of utility bills, gas cylinders or hospital

charges after midnight.

The old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes can now only be

deposited in the banks till December 30 and at

specific Reserve Bank of India offices till March

31, 2017.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by

25 basis points to 0.5%-0.75% today, making it

the second hike in a decade.

The Fed also hinted at three more rate hikes over

the next year, reportedly indicating a stable

economic situation.

This comes amid US President-elect Donald

Trump's promises to boost growth through tax cuts,

spending and deregulation.

India today announced it will contribute ₹3.3

crore to the UN Central Emergency Response

Fund (CERF) for the year 2016-17 "despite (its)

own resource constraints".

India's cumulative contribution since the fund was

launched in 2006 now stands at ₹40 crore.

Note : 29 countries promised ₹1,851 crore to the

CERF after outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-

moon made a plea for funds.

Australia is considering a proposal to demonetise

its $100 currency note in an attempt to target tax

evaders.

The Australian government is also setting up a task

force to curb black money and will appoint

representatives during its mid-year budget meeting.

Important Note : After India, Venezuela had

scrapped its 100-bolivar note, giving its holders ten

days to swap their old currency.

17th

December Review

World

Britain has become the first country in the world

to legally offer "three-parent baby" fertility

treatments after regulators gave approval.

The technique, which uses DNA from two women

and a man, would allow mothers who carry disease-

causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to

give birth to children free of the illness.

The 5th edition of the India-Arab Partnership

Conference was held in Muscat, Oman from

December 14 to 15, 2016.

This conference was organised by the Oman

Foreign Ministry, Arab League Secretariat in

association with the Union Ministry of External

Affairs of India.

Aim of the conferences : to enhance flow of

investments from both sides, accelerate the

investment projects of prioritized sectors, provide

conducive environment for export promotion.

Theme of this year's Conference : ‘Partnership

towards innovation and cooperation in IT’.

Rio de Janeiro, nicknamed the Marvellous City,

officially entered the UN’s list of world heritage

sites today in recognition of its soaring granite

cliffs, urban rainforest and beaches.

India

Today (16th December 2016) is Vijay Diwas

(Victory Day).


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We observe this day to remember the martyrs who

laid down their lives for the nation during 1971

India-Pakistan war.

Today is the 47th anniversary of the 1971 India–

Pakistan war.

This is the first war after World War-II that the

Indian Army won conclusively.

This is the only war that the independent Indian

Army planned, executed and carried out with

precision and captured 93,000 prisoners.

Today mar s the th anni ersary of brutal

Nirbhaya gang rape case.

4 years have passed since a young student in New

Delhi died after she was gang raped on a moving

bus by 6 men, including a minor.

Note : The juvenile convict of this case walked free

on 20th December 2015 and currently working in a

Dhaba in South India.

The Lok Sabha today passed the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities Bill 2016 two days after

the Rajya Sabha passed it with amendments.

The new Bill aims at securing and enhancing the

rights and entitlements of differently abled citizens.

The Bill recognises more disabilities compared with

the 1995 Act and also stipulates upto two-year jail

term and a maximum fine of Rs 5 lakh for any kind

of discrimination against differently abled people.

The list of disabilities now includes mental illness,

autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular

dystrophy and chronic neurological conditions

among others.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today

announced that the ministry has cleared the

names of new Indian Army and Air Force chiefs

and an announcement on it will be made soon.

Kochi's Sahaj International School will be

inaugurated on December 30 to become India's first

transgender school.

Haryana became the first state in the country to

launch Mahila Police Volunteer (MPV) initiative

for safety of women.

It was launched by Chief Minister Manohar Lal

Khattar.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today

inaugurated the Air Ambulance Service at the

HAL airport in Bengaluru.

During first phase it covers the five southern states

namely, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala,

Andhrapradesh, Telangana.

Note : Helicopter H130 is medically configured for

air ambulance.

The Gujarat Cabinet today cleared an ordinance

which seeks to impose a total ban on hookah

bars across the state, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani

said today.

The Supreme Court today ordered the setting up of

a three-member panel to redress issues like racial

discrimination and violence faced by the citizens

from the North Eastern region of the country.

The panel will be comprised of the Joint Secretary

(North East) in the Home Ministry and two others,

who will be nominated by the Centre.

New Appointments

Former Information and Broadcasting Secretary

Sunil Arora has been appointed as the Director

General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of

the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA),

a think tank that comes under the Corporate

Affairs Ministry.

VK Sharma has been appointed as the new

Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India

(LIC).


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He will have tenure of five years.

Nigeria’s En ironment Minister Amina

Mohammed was named as the Deputy Secretary-

General of United Nations.

It was announced by incoming UN Secretary-

General Antonio Guterres.

Deaths

Renowned economist Thomas Schelling (95) who

won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2005 for using

Game Theory to explain nuclear strategy passed

away.

His best-known book was The Strategy of Conflict

(1960), in which he had used game theory (a

mathematical analysis of strategies used in

competitive situations) to analyse negotiations

between nuclear powers.

Sports Current Affairs

New Zealand women's team captain Suzie Bates

became the first female cricketer to win both

ICC's ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards.

Bates, who had previously won the ODI Player of

the Year award in 2013, won her maiden T20I

Player of the Year award this year.

Note : Bates was 2016's highest run-scorer in T20Is

and second-highest in ODIs.

18th

& 19th

December Review

World

Today (18th December) is International

Migrants Day.

On 18 December 1990, the UN General Assembly

adopted the international convention on the

protection of the rights of migrant workers and

members of their families.

Theme of 2015 : A Day without Migrants

The UN Security Council today unanimously

passed a draft resolution extending the

peacekeeping mission in South Sudan by a year.

It asked the peacekeepers to increase efforts to

prevent and respond to sexual attacks there.

The council also proposed a 4,000-troop Regional

Protection Force, in addition to the nearly 13,000

peacekeepers already there, to ensure the safety of

civilians.

India

Today (18th December) is Minorities Rights Day.

This day is celebrated to protect rights of the

minority communities as well as bringing the better

understanding among religious minorities in India.

On this day in 1992 that the United nations adopted

the declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging

to National or Ethnic National or and Linguistic

Minorities declaring that: “States shall protect the

existence of the national or ethnic, cultural,

religious and linguistic identity of minorities within

their respective territories and encourage conditions

for the promotions of that identity”.

Himachal Pradesh has achieved 100% Aadhaar

saturation on the basis of the 2015 population,

making it the sixth state to achieve the

milestone.

Important Note : Delhi, Telangana, Haryana,

Punjab and Union Territory Chandigarh have

already achieved full coverage.

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways

Nitin Gadkari has declared 1.65 lakh kilometre

length of roads as National Highway and said the

National Highways would be increased to 2 lakh

kilometre.

Adding that government's port-led industrialisation

strategy will have a major impact in the future,


Dexter Academy

Gadkari claimed that the infrastructure sector can

boost the country's GDP growth by 3%.

Business & Economy

Amazon India has launched an online wallet

called 'Amazon Pay Balance' which can only be

used to make Amazon-based transactions.

Amazon Pay Balance can be credited with money

using internet banking or credit or debit cards and

used to make payments for purchases from the e-

commerce portal.

Paytm has launched ‘Each one, teach one’

campaign to increase the digital inclusion in the

country.

The campaign aims transforming user behavior and

further accelerating the country’s ongoing shift

from cash.

It calls upon consumers and merchants across India

to teach others on how to use Paytm to pay and

accept money.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro today

suspended the elimination of the country's

largest denomination bill, after it led to cash

shortages and nationwide unrest.

The measure would be postponed until early

January.

The move came after Venezuela's decision to

demonetise the 100-bolivar note led to vast lines at

banks, looting at shops, and anti-government

protests.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave

permission to HDFC to raise Rs. 3,000 crore by

issuing ‘masala bonds’ after it exhausted a Rs.

5,000 crore limit to issue these bonds.

Note : Through the ‘masala bond’ route, an Indian

company raises money overseas denominated in

Indian rupees.

In collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam

Limited (BSNL), the State Bank of India (SBI) has

launched State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet.

Initially, this wallet services will be available in

Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar and

expanded pan-India by the end of December 2016.


MobiCash will allow smartphone users to deposit

cash through BSNL retail outlets and withdraw

funds from their account.

SBI already has an application named SBI Buddy

for smartphone users.

MOUs & Agreements

State-owned power producer National Thermal

Power Corporation (NTPC) and aluminium

producer National Aluminium Co. Ltd

(NALCO) have signed MoU to establish a 2.4

giga watt (GW) Coal based power project at

Gajmara, Odisha.

The MoU will facilitate setting up of a Joint

Venture (JV) Company between NTPC and

NALCO.

It also seeks to set up one million tonne aluminium

production facility in Odisha.


The world's first communications satellite was

launched on this day (December 18) in the year

1958.

Named Project SCORE (Signal Communications by

Orbiting Relay Equipment), the satellite

broadcasted a Christmas message from then-US


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President Dwight Eisenhower via an on-board tape

recorder.


SIES-Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati

National Eminence Award Winners List :

Science & Technology Category : A S Kiran Kumar

(ISRO chairman)

Public Leadership Category : Devendra Fadnavis

(Mahrashtra Chief Minister)

Social Thinkers, Philosophers and Pravachana

Karthas category : Kamala Murthy (Hari Katha

exponent)

International Category : John Marr (English

musician, songwriter and singer)

Jodhpur has been listed among the top ten

preferred destinations for travellers in 2017,

according to 'TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice

Awards for Destinations on the Rise'.

The list is based on feedback from travellers and the

booking interest for the destination. The list was

topped by San Jose del Cabo in Mexico, followed

by Kihei in Hawaii and Baku in Azerbaijan.

Sports

Indian boxer Vijender Singh retained his WBO

Super Middleweight Asia-Pacific title after

knocking out Tanzania's Francis Cheka in the

title fight in Delhi today.

Vijender has now extended his unbeaten run in

professional boxing to eight bouts.

Note : The 31-year-old boxer knocked out Cheka in

the third round to post his seventh knockout victory.

Hosts Chhattisgarh emerged as the overall

champions at the National School Games

Championship 2016 that was held in Jagdalpur.

Maharashtra was ranked second in the

championships, while West Bengal was placed

third.

Important Note : Jagdalpur was the host of the 62nd

edition of the National School Games

Championship, which saw participation of teams

from several states.

India were crowned junior Hockey World

champions after defeating Belgium 2-1 in the

final in Lucknow today.

Important Note : This is India's second junior World

Cup title after first winning it in 2001.

20th

December Review

India

Today (19th December) is Goa's Liberation Day.

It was on December 19, 1961, that Goa was

liberated from the Portuguese rule after a prolonged

freedom struggle and military operation.

Nation paid tributes to Ram Prasad Bismil &

Ashfaqulla Khan, remembering the sacrifices of

these revolutionaries.

These both were hanged on this day (19th

December) in the year 1927 by British rulers during

Kakori Revolution (Kakori Conspiracy)

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today

announced that non-smartphone users of the

Indian Railways will soon be able to book tickets

through their mobile phones.

He also announced that the Indian Railways is

going to introduce e-wallets and encouraging

payment through mobile applications.


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Prabhu added that his ministry's focus remained on

promoting 'Digital India' campaign.

The Union Power Ministry is going to launch

new mobile application GARV-II to provide real

time data of all six lakh villages of the country.

Aim of this mobile application : to ensure

transparency in implementation of rural

electrification programme.

An NIA court today awarded Death Sentence to

five Indian Mujahideen terrorists, including

Yasin Bhatkal, for their involvement in the 2013

twin blasts in Hyderabad, wherein 21 people

were killed.

The terrorists Yasin Bhatkal, Zia-ur-Rehman,

Asadullah Akhtar, Tahseen Akhtar and Ajaz Sheikh

were convicted on December 13.

Note : The prime accused in the case, Riyaz

Bhatkal, is still absconding.

To promote health and health education in villages,

the Union AYUSH Ministry has launched

‘Swasthya Raksha Programme’.

This programme was initiated through Central

Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences

(CCRAS), Central Council for Research in

Homoeopathy (CCRH), Central Council for

Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and Central

Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS).

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is going to

launch a portal named ‘Tarang Sanchar’ to let

users check radiation compliance status of

mobile towers and transmitters across country.

Using this portal user can also request to get a

particular BTS tested by DoT to assess its electro-

magnetic frequency (EMF) compliance level.


Actress Priyanka Chopra will be the Brand

Ambassador for Assam Tourism.

State Tourism Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said

that she would work to promote Assam tourism

globally.

The Assam government have made an agreement

with her for two years.

Puerto Rico's 19-year-old Stephanie Del Valle

has been crowned as the Miss World 2016 at an

event held in Maryland, US.

Miss Dominican Republic Yaritza Miguelina Reyes

Ramirez was the first runner-up.

Important Note : Valle is the second Puerto Rican to

hold the title after Wilnelia Merced won it in 1975.

India's Priyadarshini Chatterjee also reached

the top 20.

The island of Bali has been picked by travelling

reviewer website TripAdvisor as the most popular

year-end destination for South East Asian travellers.

Banking & Economy

Retirement fund body Employees' Provident

Fund Organisation (EPFO) today fixed 8.65% as

the interest on provident fund deposits for 2016-

17.

This is against the 8.8% rate provided in 2015-16.

The lower interest rate is due to the poor rate of

return on investments made by the EPFO in all

spheres.

Nepal's central bank has developed a software to

facilitate exchanging banned Indian notes in the

country.


Dexter Academy

This comes while Nepali banks have been facing an

extensive shortage of 100-rupee notes for people

who want to visit India.

Note : The RBI reportedly indicated that they would

only allow exchange facilities for up to ₹25,000 to

each Nepali citizen.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed

stiff restrictions on depositing more than 5,000

rupees in the scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupees

notes.

The bank said, it can be deposited only once per

account till December 30th, that too after explaining

to bank officials the reasons for not having done

that so far.

Deaths

Henry Heimlich (96), the doctor who came up

with the Heimlich manoeuvre which saved

thousands of choking victims, died of a heart

attack today.

Heimlich came up with the technique in 1974 after

reading about high death counts in restaurants

caused by diners choking on food.

Heimlich won the prestigious Lasker Award for

public service in 1984.

Sports

After claiming his second Wimbledon title and

maiden ATP World Tour Finals crown, Britain's

world number one Andy Murray won a record

third BBC Sports Personality of the Year award

today.

Murray previously won the award in 2013 and 2015

after his London 2012 Olympic gold and maiden

Wimbledon title in 2015.

Indian batsman Karun Nair, who is playing his

career's third Test match, today became the

fastest Indian to score maiden double ton in

Tests.

Nair surpassed Vinod Kambli, who took four

innings to score a double ton.

This is also Nair's maiden Test ton, with his

previous best innings score being 13.

21st December Review

World

Indians will not be eligible for visa-free entry to

Hong Kong beginning January 23, with the

Hong Kong Immigration Department

implementing a 'Pre-arrival Registration for

Indian Nationals'.

The Immigration Department said India is a "testing

point" as many asylum-seekers come from the

country.

Note : This is the first time Hong Kong has

implemented such a restriction for any country.

Dubai is going to build Al Maktoum

International airport, a second airport in the

south of the city, which will become the world's

largest airport on completion.

It will spread across 35,000 acres and be able to

accommodate about 220 million passengers

annually.

This will be completed in an estimated period of 12

years.

India ranked 4th in the Global Wind Power

Installed Capacity index with cumulative

installed wind power generation capacity of

25,088 MW in 2015.


Dexter Academy

The index was released as part Global Wind Report:

Annual Market, flagship publication of the Global

Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

This list was topped by China followed by USA and

Germany.

Top 10 in the List are

China

USA

Germany

India

Spain

United Kingdom

Canada

France

Italy

Brazil

Banking & Economy

Today is 104th foundation day of India's first

SWADESHI BANK 'Central Bank of India".

Central Bank of India was completely owned and

founded by Indians with out any Britishers share.

It was established on 21 December 1911 by Sir

Sorabji Pochkhanawala with Sir Pherozeshah Mehta

as Chairman.

Sorabji Pochkhanawala is the only banker in

who's honour postage stamp was released by the

President of India.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today withdrew

the restrictions imposed on deposits of ₹5,000 and

above for KYC (Know Your Customer) compliant

accounts.

This comes two days after RBI announced deposits

above ₹5,000 in old banknotes can be made only

once till December 30.

Note : KYC is a process by which banks obtain

information about the customers' identity and

address.

Deutsche Bank from January next year will offer

all its Male employees in India six months of

childcare leave if they happen to be primary

caregivers.

The policy also covers surrogacy and adoption and

aligns it with parental leave entitlements.

The printing of each new ₹2,000 note costs the

Reserve Bank of India ₹3.54, while the ₹500 note

costs ₹3.09, an RTI response has said.

Note : Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private

Limited, a subsidiary of RBI, prints the new ₹500

and ₹2,000 currency notes at the same price as that

of old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes respectively.

India

The Black Cat commandos of the elite counter-

terrorism force National Security Guard will

participate in the Republic Day celebrations for

the first time in 2017.

Till now, NSG's association with the celebrations

was limited to sanitising the venue and ensuring

security along the parade route.

Note : Special forces only from the Army

participated in the parade till now.

The Delhi Literature Festival (DLF) is set to take

place between February 10 and 12 in Dilli Haat.

The three-day literary festival will host panel

discussions, book launches, book readings,

workshops, and theatre and poetry performances,

among others.

The festival has been held every year since it began

in 2013.


Dexter Academy

Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi

today announced the implementation of 3%

reservation for differently-abled persons in

government jobs in the Union Territory.

Union minister for Textiles Smriti Irani launched

India's second centre of excellence for sericulture in

Bengaluru to boost the silk industry.

Note : India's first such centre was set up in Ranchi

by the Central Silk Board.

India is currently importing nearly 4,000 metric

tonnes of high quality raw silk from China.

Armed forces will be able to cast their votes in the

upcoming Punjab elections by using electronic

postal ballots for the first time in the country,

Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh today.

National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG)

will be conducted in 8 languages from next

academic year.

Those languages are,

Hindi

English

Gujarati

Marathi

Bengali

Assamese

Telugu

Tamil

The Haryana government today issued Petro Cards

to drivers working with the state government for

cashless payments of fuel.

Two oil companies, namely Indian Oil and Bharat

Petroleum have been shortlisted for this purpose.


The Church of England today appointed Woyin

Karowei Dorgu, its first black bishop in 20

years.

Dorgu, who was born and brought up in Nigeria,

will be the 13th bishop of Woolwich, and will be

consecrated on 17 March.

England's Queen Elizabeth II is stepping down as

the patron of Wimbledon and will be replaced by

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.

The 90-year-old queen has been the patron of

Wimbledon since 1952.


India successfully test-fires nuclear capable

cruise missile Nirbhay from Integrated Missile

Test Range in Chandipur, Odisha.

This test was conducted by the Defence Research

and Development Organisation (DRDO).

This is third launch of Nirbhay.

The maiden launch was conducted in March 2013

and second test was conducted in October 2014.

The Northern Hemisphere of the planet is today

observing the Winter Solstice, which is the

shortest day and longest night of the year.

A Solstice is an astronomical event when the tilt of

Earth's axis with respect to the Sun is maximum.

This day also marks the longest day of the year in

the Southern Hemisphere, called the Summer

Solstice.

Sports

The International Boxing Association (AIBA)

today unanimously voted to induct the Boxing

Federation of India (BFI) as one of its permanent

members.


Dexter Academy

Note : India was provisionally suspended in

December 2012 for “possible manipulation” in the

erstwhile Indian Amateur Boxing Federation’s

elections.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja

currently occupy the top two spots in the latest

ICC bowlers rankings, making it the first time in

42 years of two Indians at the top two positions.

The only other instance of two Indians leading the

rankings was in 1974 when Bishan Singh Bedi and

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar occupied the first two

positions.

The Indian team registered 9 wins out of the 12

Tests it played in 2016, making it the most

successful year in India's 84-year Test history.


India's previous best year was 2010 when it won

eight of the 14 Tests it played.

India is also the only Test team to remain unbeaten

this year, drawing the remaining three Tests.

23rd

December Review

World

The French postal service has announced a

Drone Delivery program to deliver parcels on a

14-kilometre route once a week, becoming the

world's first national postal service to use drones

regularly.

The drones have a range of 19 km and a top speed

of 30.5 kmph.

They also have parachutes for safe emergency

landing and will help reach mountainous regions.

China has banned internet users from posting

user-generated audio or video, reportedly one of

few sources of information outside state-

controlled media.

China already has one of the strictest censorship

worldwide, ranking only behind countries like

North Korea and Syria.

The ban comes after a draft law was passed, giving

police censorship powers in case of natural

disasters.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has

become the first force to induct yaks for

strategically pivotal logistic support duties and

the animal is being used along the Indo-China

border in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Yaks, referred as the 'ships of the cold ITBP

deserts', are employed by the ITBP Veterinary

Wing which works in the two states.

India

Today (22nd December) is National Mathematics

Day.

Nation observed this day to commemorate 130th

birthday of great Indian Mathematician Srinivasa

Ramanujan who made extraordinary contributions

to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite

series, and continued fractions.

He compiled more than 3900 mathematical results

and equations.

On his 125th birth anniversary in 2011, India

declared the birthday of Ramanujan, 22 December,

as 'National Mathematics Day' and the year 2012

was celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.

Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, the

Uttar Pradesh government today approved a

proposal to include 17 Other Backward Classes

(OBCs) in the Scheduled Class list.



Dexter Academy

The Centre had last week included 15 new castes in

the central list of OBCs.

The new inclusions in the central list include

Gadheri/Itafarosh from Bihar and Jhora from

Jharkhand, among others.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today launched

'Google Toilet Locator' mobile application as

part of the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' (Clean

India Mission) to help people locate the nearest

toilet.

As per reports, the toilet locator will have details on

location of all toilets in Delhi-NCR and Madhya

Pradesh for now, to be followed by other states

soon.

Kerala government has decided not to conduct

separate entrance examinations for medical and

other professional courses except for engineering

courses.

The decision will be implemented from the next

academic year and admissions to the courses will be

done using the rank list given by National

Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), conducted

by CBSE.

State-run telecom firm BSNL has partnered with

Jaipur-based DataMail for providing free email

addresses to its broadband users in eight Indian

languages including Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu.

BSNL Managing Director : Anupam Shrivastava

Creating history, Aizawl (Mizoram) became the

first free Wi-Fi city in the North-East region today.

Free wi-fi is a pilot project of the Aizawl Municipal

Corporation.

The government is going to to celebrate December

25 as Good Governance Day to mark the birthday

of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Banking & Economy

E-commerce platform Snapdeal has started a

new ser ice called 'Cash@Home’ where it is

delivering cash up to ₹2,000 to customers' home

at a convenience fee of ₹1.

Snapdeal personnel will arrive at customers'

doorstep with PoS machines where ATM cards can

be swiped for hard cash up to ₹2,000.

As of now, the service is live in Gurgaon and

Bengaluru.

List of Indians who became billionaires in 2016

Patanjali co-founder Acharya Balkrishna made

his debut on Forbes list of India's 100 Richest

People in 2016 with a net worth of around

₹17,000 crore ($2.5 billion).

Hero MotoCorp CEO Pawan Munjal also entered

the list, taking his father Brijmohan Lall Munjal’s

place, who died in November 2015.

Directi Group's Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia

were also among the new entrants.

In a bid to encourage cashless transactions in the

country, the Union Cabinet today approved a draft

ordinance to allow digital payment of salaries.

The cabinet said this would allow businesses and

industrial establishments to pay salaries through

direct bank transfers or by cheques.

Major events that took place at RBI in 2016

The RBI witnessed major events in 2016 from

Governor Raghuram Rajan's exit and appointment

of Urjit Patel to demonetisation of old ₹500 and

₹1,000 notes.

A six-member Monetary Policy Committee

(MPC) was formed in October for price stability

and inflation targeting.


Dexter Academy

Demonetisation of old notes is still considered as

the one of the most important decisions taken in

2016.


Japan's space agency today announced that it

successfully launched a 26-metre-long rocket

named Epsilon-2, which put a satellite that helps

study radiation belts in orbit.

Epsilon-2 is part of a new generation of solid

propellant rockets which can reduce launch costs up

to one-third.

Reduction in cost can allow countries to put more

communication and weather satellites in space.


Five-time world champion and Olympic bronze

medalist MC Mary Kom was given the AIBA

Legends award by the International Boxing

Federation (AIBA) at the body's 70th

anniversary in Montreux, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Asian Games' bronze medalist Vikas

Krishan Yadav was awarded the AIBA Pro Boxing

Best Boxer trophy.

Senior IAS officer Girija Vaidyanathan

appointed new Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary.

She is going to replace P Rama Mohana Rao whose

properties were raided by Income Tax officials.

Actress Priyanka Chopra has become the first

Indian to be appointed as the global ambassador of

the hair care brand 'Pantene'.

Recent Books in News

Actor Hrithik Roshan has launched a children's

book series 'Tactabet', written in Braille format,

which is being published for visually impaired

people.

Available in both Hindi and English, the book series

is on the alphabets.

Sports

Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has

been named the ICC Cricketer of the Year and

Test Cricketer of the Year during the year-end

ICC awards.

Important Note : He is also the only Indian in the

ICC Test team of the year.

South Africa's Marais Erasmus has been named

the ICC Umpire of the Year and the recipient of

the David Shepherd Trophy.

South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de

Kock has been named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the

Year.

Pakistan captain Misbah-Ul-Haq today became

the first Pakistani player to win the ICC Spirit of

Cricket Award.

The previous winners of the award include MS

Dhoni (2011), Daniel Vettori (2012), Mahela

Jayawardena (2013), Katherine Brunt (2014) and

Brendon McCullum (2015).

Former South African batsman Alviro Petersen

has been banned from cricket for two years after

he admitted sitting in on meetings where plans

were hatched to fix matches in the domestic

Twenty20 competition.

Petersen cannot be involved in any international or

domestic match sanctioned by Cricket South Africa

(CSA) or the International Cricket Council until

November 12, 2018.

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has

beaten Barcelona's Lionel Messi to 2016's FIFA

Best Player of the Year award.


Dexter Academy

Note : Ronaldo claimed his fourth Ballon d'Or

award earlier this month.

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian, has

confirmed his retirement from the Games.

25th

& 26th

December Review

World

Christmas being celebrated across the world

with traditional fervour and gaiety.

US President Barack Obama has signed a $618-

billion (around ₹42 lakh crore) defence policy bill,

which "enhances security cooperation between the

US and India".

The bill also provides aid for Pakistan, on the

condition that it can prove it is taking

"demonstrable steps" against the militant Haqqani

network.

Hindus and other minority communities from

Pakistan, living in India on long-term visa, can

now register for the Indian citizenship for ₹100.

Earlier, this fee used to be as high as ₹15,000.

The relaxation also applies for Hindus, Sikhs,

Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from

Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

For other countries, the fee will be ₹10,000.

In a bid to lessen the power shortage of Nepal, India

today agreed to export an additional 240 MW of

electricity.

In this regard, an agreement was signed between

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and state-owned

NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN).

India

"3rd Good Governance Day" is being observed

today.

India observes this day to celebrate the 92nd

birthday of former Prime Minister Bharat Ratna

Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Note : He was the only non-Congress politician to

be elected as the country's Prime Minister thrice,

and the only non-Congress PM to complete a full

term.

A 100-day campaign will be launched across the

country with the theme "good governance" on

the occasion.

Under the campaign, MPs will travel across India to

highlight the Centre's key initiatives.

Today is 155th birth anniversary of social

reformer (Bharat Ratna) Pandit Madan Mohan

Malaviya.

Great Independence Activist, politician and

Statesman Bharat Ratna C Rajagopalachary's Death

Anniversary today.

The government has sanctioned over 9,000

assault rifles, 34 armoured vehicles and more

than 760 patrolling bikes to Sashastra Seema Bal

(SSB) which is tas ed to secure the country’s

frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has today

announced that the government is coming out

with a new policy under which the existing

penalty for illegal parking on roads would be

increased from ₹200 to ₹1,000.

Further, those who complain about illegal parking

will be rewarded with ₹200 each.

Google India has partnered with the Ministry of

Consumer Affairs for a campaign called

'Digitally Safe Consumer' to help protect

consumer interest online.


Dexter Academy

The company has said it will provide training

material to over 1,200 consumer organisations and

consumer affairs departments of all Indian states.

Google is also working with schools to spread

awareness about internet safety among the

youth.

Narendra Modi today announced the start of Lucky

Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana to

promote cashless transactions.


Actor Shah Rukh Khan will be conferred an

honorary doctorate by Hyderabad-based

Maulana Azad National Urdu University.

Note : The actor also received an honorary

doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015.

Deaths

Dinanath Bhargava (89), a co-artist in the team

that sketched the National Emblem 'Lion

Capital of Ashoka', passed away.

Bhargava was in his early twenties when he was

chosen in the team, which also designed the pages

of the Constitution's manuscript.

Banking & Economy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today opened a

Banking Ombudsman Office in Dehradun,

Uttarakhand.

This office receives and considers complaints

relating to deficiencies in banking or other services

filed by consumers.

It is the 3rd ombudsman office in North India after

Kanpur and Chandigarh.

With this, the total numbers of RBI ombudsman

offices have increased to 17.

The Dharamshala vegetable market has become

the first cashless market in Kangra district of

Himachal Pradesh.

The swipe machine facility for this purpose was

installed by ICICI Bank and was launched by Chief

Minister Virbhadra Singh.


The Defence Research and Development

Organisation (DRDO) has successfully flight

tested the Smart Anti-field Weapon (SAAW) at

the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off

Odisha coast.

Capable of engaging ground targets with high

precision covering a range of around 100 km,

SAAW precision-guided bomb is an indigenously

designed and developed class smart weapon

weighing 120 kg.

Sports

Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli has featured on

top of the Lord's Cricket Ground's Top 20

Players of 2016.

Kohli is this year's top scorer across the three

formats of the game with 2595 runs in 41 innings.

Ravichandran Ashwin (3), Ajinkya Rahane (13) and

Cheteshwar Pujara (18) were the other Indians who

made it to the list.

27th

December Review

India

PM Narendra Modi today announced that the

'Benami' property law, which directs up to 7

years of imprisonment for holding tax-evasive

properties, will be operationalised soon.

What are Benami Properties ?


Dexter Academy

'Benami' properties are those in which the real

owner does not buy the property in his/her own

name, but takes direct or indirect gains from it.

Properties bought in the name of a child or spouse,

or joint properties with relatives can be 'benami' if it

is paid for out of unknown income sources.

Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia

inaugurated eight public libraries constructed

under the Swaraj Fund.

These libraries have been built from the citizen

local area development fund also known as Swaraj

fund, and were taken up after people chose them as

priority projects in mohalla sabhas conducted in

various assembly constituencies.

Haryana government has connected 100 villages

with Wi-FI services and decided to rename all

common service centres and E-disha centres as

"Atal Seva Kendras", which will provide e-

services to people.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar also launched

'Knowledge Warehouse', which will promote start-

ups through video-conferencing.

MOUs & Agreements

The Centre has signed a deal with the

Infrastructure Architecture Lab of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for

developing ferry services at 18 locations across

six cities.

All these cities, including Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna

and Kolkata, are located on National Waterway 1, the

longest waterway in India.

Note : India has approximately 14,500 km of

navigable waterways.


India test launched its indigenously developed

intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear

capable ballistic missile Agni-5 from the Wheeler

Island off Odisha coast.

The missile is capable of striking a target more than

5,000 kilometre with nuclear warhead carrying

capacity of more than one tonne.

Banking & Economy

Italy's cabinet has approved a bailout for the

world's oldest and the country's third-largest

bank, Monte dei Paschi.

The bank had requested a capital injection from the

government after it failed to raise €5 billion (around

₹35.4 thousand crore) from private investors.

The bailout is expected to hit retail investors, who

collectively hold around €2 billion of the bank's

bonds.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has disabled the

option to transfer money to Paytm wallets from

its internet banking services.

We recommend using State Bank Buddy mobile

(bank's own wallet) app for Android and iOS

devices.

The government is going to amend the law to

introduce stringent punishment for bounced cheques

from 2017.

This would be a deterrent for defaulters in India,

which is saddled with over 18 lakh lawsuits on

dishonoured cheques.

Under the proposed changes, the defaulter could be

put in jail without bail at the court’s discretion.

Deaths

Singer George Michael (53) passed away.


Dexter Academy

Michael, who sold over 100 million records, was

known for the songs 'Careless Whisper', 'Last

Christmas' and 'Freedom! 90'.

Awards & Honors

Shah Rukh Khan today conferred Honorary

doctorate by Moulana Azad National Urdu

University in Hyderabad.

Sports

Some of the great sports personalities retired in

2016 :

Michael Phelps (Celebrated Olympian American

swimmer)

Abhinav Bindra (India's only individual Olympic

gold medallist)

Miroslav Klose (Top goalscorer in FIFA World Cup

history)

Brendon McCullum (Cricketer)

Tillakaratne Dilshan (Cricketer)

The Sports Ministry has derecognised Yoga, 15

months after declaring it a 'priority sport'.

The decision was communicated to National Sports

Federations and the Sports Authority of India after

the government concluded it will not be possible to

conduct competitions.

Yoga will now come under the prerogative of the

Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and

Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy).

Question of the day

Which country has the most nuclear weapons ?

Russia with 7,300 warheads has the most number of

nuclear weapons in the world while only 9 countries

are believed to possess such weapons. The US

comes at second position with around 6,970 nuclear

weapons. Reportedly, US President-elect Donald

Trump recently said that let there be a nuclear arms

race, and the US will "outmatch" and "outlast" other

countries.

28th

December Review

World

Saudi Arabia is going to introduce an "expat

levy" on foreign workers with dependents from

2017, which was revealed during the country's

budget announcement.

The fee will start at $26 (₹1,760) per month in July

2017 and will rise each year to reach $106 (₹7,178)

a month in July 2020.

China's legislature has passed a law to levy

environment tax on polluters, including heavy

industries.

This comes while the country's 24 major cities were

on red alert due to heavy smog cover.

The new law will reportedly improve tax payers'

environmental awareness, reduce government

interference and force companies to upgrade

technology and shift to cleaner production.

China today re-established diplomatic relations

with African island nation Sao Tome and

Principe.

This comes after Sao Tome cut diplomatic ties with

Taiwan over the refusal of monetary help.

General Knowledge

Indian national anthem 'Jana Gana Mana' was

first sung on this day (27th December) in the

year 1911, at the Calcutta session of the Indian

National Congress.


Dexter Academy

India had no official national anthem at the time of

independence as 'Jana Gana Mana' was adopted as

the national anthem by the Constituent Assembly on

24th January 24 1950.

Note : The anthem was composed by Bengali poet

Rabindranath Tagore.

India

At least 9 Nobel Prize winners have confirmed

their participation in the 8th Vibrant Gujarat

Global Summit.

A 5-week long Nobel Prize Series Exhibition will

also be held.

Note : Vibrant Gujarat 2017 is scheduled to be held

from 10-13 January 2017.

Assam Government rolled out a health insurance

scheme titled ‘Atal-Amrit Abhiyan’, to pro ide

coverage against several critical illnesses.

This scheme is claimed to be the biggest health care

initiative undertaken by any State Government in

the country and is aimed to make quality health care

affordable to every individual member of a family

in the state.

To detect cases of latent infection, the Union Health

Ministry has launched a door-to-door screening

campaign for Tuberculosis.

The campaign aims to find patients before they

develop full-blown TB and put them on preventive

medicine.

Launched in five states – Kerala, Bihar,

Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim – the

campaign will be scaled up to other states from July

2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the

foundation stone of the Char Dham Highway

Development Project in Uttarakhand's

Dehradun.

The project aims to improve connectivity to the

Char Dham pilgrimage centres of Gangotri,

Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.

Note : Around 900 km of national highways will be

developed in Uttarakhand under the project at an

approximate cost of ₹12,000 crore.

The Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

has launched Twitter Seva to directly engage

with citizens in country and abroad, tourists and

business travellers for speedy resolution of their

visa and passport queries.

The NDA government is planning a Ganga Act to

penalise those found guilty of polluting the Ganga

river.

Once it is finalised, the bill will be taken up for the

Cabinet's nod.

Water Resources Minister : Uma Bharti has said.

In view of the rise in crimes against women, the

Centre has decided to set up 200 special

investigating units in the most crime-prone

districts.

The Investigative Units on Crime Against

Women will be set up on a 50:50 cost sharing

basis with the states.

In an effort to reduce pollution caused by diesel

buses, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation

(KSRTC) has launched 25 bio-diesel buses in the

state.

These eco-friendly buses will ply on four routes,

including Tirupati and Chennai.

Costing around ₹90 lakh each, bio-diesel buses

eject 60-70% less emissions than diesel buses and


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would reportedly save the Corporation ₹80 lakh

each year.

Deaths

American astronomer who helped find evidence

of dark matter, Vera Rubin (88) passed away

today.

The astronomy pioneer examined more than 200

galaxies in her lifetime.

Rubin was the second female astronomer to be

elected to the National Academy of Sciences and

also received the National Medal of Science in

1993.


China has successfully tested the latest version of

its fifth-generation stealth fighter jet J-31 (now

renamed the FC-31 Gyrfalcon).

The newest version of twin-engine FC-31 took to

the air for the first time recently.

It is considered as China’s answer to the US F-35,

the world’s most technically advanced fighter.

Banking & Economy

The government is going to bring in an

ordinance to penalise people caught in possession

of scrapped notes worth over ₹10,000 after

December 30.

This could draw a fine of minimum ₹50,000 or five

times the amount in question, whichever is higher.

Sports

Nicobari Deborah Herold won gold in the

Women Elite's 500m individual time trial event

in the 69th Senior National Track Cycling

Championship in Kerala.

Herold, who finished the race in 36.377 seconds,

had borrowed her cycle from the SAI centre in Car

Nicobar.

Note : Herold survived the 2004 Tsunami by

spending over a week on a tree.

Cricket Australia has named Indian Test skipper

Virat Kohli as the Captain of the board's ODI

Team of the Year.

Note : Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah was the only

other Indian who made it to the list.

The team features five Australian players, two

South African players and one each from England

and Pakistan.

29th

December Review

World

India has emerged as the Second largest

purchaser of arms among developing nations.

The list was topped by Saudi Arabia.

Between 2008 and 2015, India purchased defence

equipment worth $34 billion as compared to Saudi

Arabia's $93.5 billion.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey have

agreed to push for a ceasefire in Syria and to

prepare for possible peace talks planned in

Kazakhstan's capital Astana.

This comes after Russia's ambassador to Turkey

was shot dead by a policeman during a televised

speech in Turkey's capital Ankara.

India

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has inaugurated

an Online Geospatial Platform for tracking the

property tax collection across Bengaluru.


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This will enable residents to know the property tax

they have paid over the years.

The colour green on any property indicates tax

being paid since 2009.

Pink would mean a default for a year, and deep

pink would indicate a long-term defaulter.

The Telangana government is going to launch Bike

ambulances to help patients in remote areas.

They would be used in remote tribal areas and also

congested localities in cities like Hyderabad.

Airport employees across the country will have to

carry their Aadhaar cards to work along with their

entry passes from January 1.

The directive has been issued by the CISF, which is

responsible for the security at the airport.

The Bihar government today approved the

implementation of 50% reservation in both

Subordinate and Superior Judicial Services in

the state.

After this decision, 21% posts would be reserved

for Extremely Backward Class (EBC), 12% for

Backward Class, 16% for SC and 1% for ST.

Note : The government also approved 35% quota

for women in all these categories.

Banking & Economy

The Cabinet today cleared an ordinance to

penalise people for depositing over 10 old ₹500

and ₹1,000 notes after March 31, 2017.

The ordinance is to extinguish liability of

government and the Reserve Bank of India on the

demonetised high-denomination notes.

Note : The last day to deposit the old notes in banks

is December 30.

Ahead of the New Year, the Madhya Pradesh

Cabinet today approved an increase in the

dearness allowance by 7% for over 6 lakh

government employees, pensioners and others

working with local bodies like panchayats.

The hike would be effective from July 1, 2016.

Note : Dearness allowance and dearness relief are

provided to neutralise the impact of price rise on

earnings.


The government today appointed Viral Acharya

as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of

India (RBI).

He will be joining the ranks of NS Vishwanathan,

SS Mundra, R Gandhi as one of four Deputy

Governors under RBI Governor Urjit Patel.

Retired bureaucrat Anil Baijal is going to

replace Najeeb Jung as the 21st Lieutenant

Governor of the National Capital Territory of

Delhi.

Baijal, a 1969-batch IAS officer, also served as the

Home Secretary in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee

government.

Suresh Kalmadi, accused of corruption in the multi-

crore 2010 Commonwealth Games scam, was

appointed as a Life President of the Indian Olympic

Association today.

Deaths

Actress Carrie Fisher (60), known for playing

Princess Leia in the 'Star Wars' film series,

passed away today.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Sunder Lal

Patwa (92) died of a heart attack today.


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He was made Chief Minister of the state twice, once

with the Janata Party and then with the BJP.

Richard Adams (96), the author of bestselling

children's book Watership Down, passed away.

The English author had won several awards for

Watership Down which was later made into an

animated movie.

Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri

Wickremanayake (83) passed away.

The politician, who was elected twice as Prime

Minister, was serving as a senior advisor to

President Maithripala Sirisena.

People in News

Actress Scarlett Johansson has been named the

highest grossing actor of 2016 by Forbes.

Her films earned a total of over ₹8,000 crore ($1.2

billion) worldwide.

Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr shared the

second position, with over ₹7,000 crore ($1.15

billion) each.

Note : All three of them starred in 'Captain

America: Civil War', which became the top-

grossing film of 2016.

Sports

The Uttar Pradesh franchise in the upcoming

Pro Wrestling League 2 has been named 'UP

Dangal', after the recent Aamir Khan-starring

film.

Note : The UP franchise features wrestlers Geeta

and Babita Phogat, on whose lives 'Dangal' is based.

30th

December Review

World

India has eased the process of procurement of

Indian tourist visas for Bangladeshis by allowing

those with confirmed travel tickets to submit

their visa applications directly without prior

appointment starting January 1, 2017.

To promote religious accommodation, the New

York Police Department has decided to allow Sikh

officers to wear turbans and maintain beards.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has launched a

fundraising campaign for Syrians displaced by

the five-year civil war, including those evacuated

from eastern Aleppo.

Saudi is one of the main supporters of rebels

fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Note : Around 1.1 crore Syrians or around half of

the population of the country have been displaced

due to civil war.

National Current Affairs

President Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated

the 77th Indian History Congress at

Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala today.

Governor Justice P. Sathasivam, Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan and other dignitaries have

attended the inaugural session.

Over 3,000 historians and research scholars have

attended the Congress.

In a bid to enhance cyber policing and monitor

social media content, the Haryana police have set

up the country’s 1st Centre for Digital Investigation

and Training in Gurugram.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

inaugurated the facility today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the

nation on December 31 through public

broadcaster Doordarshan.


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Note : Modi had announced demonetisation through

a similar address and had sought a 50-day deadline

for the situation to normalise.

The Gujarat government today announced a

campaign, Karuna, to prevent birds from getting

injured by the manja used while flying kites

during Uttarayan festivities and tend to their

injuries.

Note : NGT had recently banned the use of glass-

coated manja for flying kites.

The 4-day World Bhojpuri Conference began in

Varanasi today.

Bhojpuri Ratna and World Bhojpuri Karmayogi

awards will be conferred on Mauritius PM Anerood

Jugnauth, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari and Bollywood

actor Amitabh Bachchan, among others.

New Appointments

Former Union Home Secretary Anil Baijal will

take oath as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on

December 31st.

Earlier, Baijal had been the Vice Chairman of the

Delhi Development Authority and had headed

public sector companies like Prasar Bharti and

Indian Airlines.

He was also a part of the executive council of the

think-tank, Vivekananda International Foundation.

Banking & Economy

Mobile wallet MobiKwik has received in-

principle approval from the RBI to facilitate

payment of utility and convenience bills on its

platform.

MobiKwik will be integrated into Bharat Bill

Payment System to accept payments for utility

services like electricity, water, gas, telephone, and

Direct-to-Home (DTH).

Note : In October, MobiKwik launched Unified

Payments Interface on its platform with ICICI

Bank.

President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared an

ordinance to allow companies to pay their

employees' salaries up to ₹18,000 by cheque or

by direct credit into bank accounts without their

permission.

The ordinance, which comes into force with

immediate effect, was proposed by the Union

cabinet last week and amends the Payment of

Wages Act of 1936.

The National Stock Exchange today filed draft

papers with market regulator SEBI for its Initial

Public Offering (IPO), estimated to be around

₹10,000 crore, one of the biggest in recent times.

The existing shareholders will offer about 20-25%

shares to the public in the IPO.

The offer may give NSE a valuation of ₹50,000-

₹55,000 crore.

Deaths

Actress Debbie Reynolds (84)passed away, a day

after her daughter, Star Wars' actress Carrie

Fisher, died.

She became famous after the movie 'Singin' in the

Rain'.


The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

has today announced that it will launch record

83 satellites in one go in January next year.

Of the 83 satellites, 80 belong to Israel, Kazakhstan,

Netherlands, Switzerland and the US, while the

remaining three belong to India.


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Note : ISRO had set a record in June by

successfully launching 20 satellites in a single

mission.

China's space organisation today announced that

the government has decided to send its first

robotic probe to Mars by 2020 to carry out

orbiting and roving exploration, followed by a

second mission to collect surface samples.

The organisation further said they will send probe

missions to Jupiter and its moons, making China a

major space power by 2030.

Awards & Honors

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo has been

voted the European Sportsperson of the Year by

the Polish news agency PAP.

Sports

Former world number one and 2008 French

Open winner Ana Ivanovic announced her

retirement from professional tennis.

The 29-year-old was out of action since August

following injury and dropped to 63 in world

rankings.

Ivanovic was world number one for 12 weeks in

2008 and won 15 singles titles in her 13-year-long

career.

Wrestler Sushil Kumar will make his WWE debut

in November 2017.

31st December Review

World

The Beipanjiang Bridge in southwest China is

now open to traffic.

It is the highest bridge in the world at 1,854 feet.

The 1,341-metre-long bridge, soars over a river and

connects the Guizhou and Yunnan mountainous

provinces.

Colombian lawmakers have approved an

amnesty law to protect Marxist FARC rebels

from prosecution for minor crimes committed

during the country's 52-year civil war.

The law is one of the contentious parts of a peace

deal signed between the government and rebel

forces, and will not pardon people who have been

accused of human rights violations or war crimes.

Banking & Economy

50-day deadline to deposit old 500 and 1000

rupee notes in banks ends today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a

mobile payments application called BHIM (Bharat

Interface for Money), in the honour of Dr Bhimrao

Ambedkar.

Compatible with all Android phones, the app has a

maximum limit of ₹10,000 per transaction and

₹20,000 within 24 hours.

E-commerce major Amazon has launched a new

platform named 'Sell as Individual' that lets

users sell used goods in their city on paying a

fixed amount of fee.

Currently being operated in Bengaluru, users need

to share pictures and details of the products on

Amazon's website and the company will provide

doorstep pick-up, packing, and delivery of their

goods.

Technology major Apple will reportedly start

manufacturing or assembling iPhones in

Bengaluru from April 2017.

Manufacturing locally will make Apple products

cheaper in India and help the company open retail


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stores in the country, where products are currently

sold through resellers.

National capital Delhi has registered the highest per

capita income among all states and union territories

of the country, during 2015-16 at about ₹2,80,000.

Delhi's per capita income is over three times the

national average.

It is followed by Chandigarh and Sikkim with per

capita incomes of ₹2,42,386 and ₹2,27,465,

respectively.


The Defence Ministry today appointed Navy

Chief Sunil Lanba as the Chairman of the Chiefs

of Staff committee (COSC).

The COSC post is given to the senior-most of the

service chiefs.

Lanba received the baton from the outgoing

Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha

in a ceremony at Defence Ministry in New Delhi.

A newly discovered Hawaiian coral reef fish has

become the 9th creature to be named after US

President Barack Obama.

Identified as Tosanoides obama, the fish was

discovered during an expedition inside

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in

Hawaii.

Apart from the fish, the US President also has a

spider, a lizard and a bird named after him.

Books & Authors

Filmmaker Karan Johar will launch his

biography, 'An Unsuitable Boy', in January

2017.

Co-authored by Karan and Poonam Saxena, it will

be published by Penguin Random House.

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