National
• President Pranab Mukherjee has promulgated the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2016 to make amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
• Governor’s rule has been imposed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for sixth time as the process of formation new government following the death of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is taking some time.
• The 24th edition of New Delhi World Book Fair began at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani.
• Telangana has become the first State in the country to introduce compulsory gender education at the graduate level. In this regard, state government has introduced bilingual textbook titled Towards a World of Equals on a pilot basis in engineering colleges.
• Scientists at the Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) in Hisar, Haryana have successfully produced a cloned buffalo offspring named Cirb Gaurav.
• The Gujarat government has decided to celebrate the upcoming Republic Day in a unique way. This Republic Day, the most educated girl in each village will hoist the national flag at a government school.
• The Supreme Court issued an interim stay on the Centre's January 2016 notification allowing Jallikattu and bullock cart races.
• In a move to introduce transparency in availability and disbursement of blood units, all blood banks in India have been asked to update realtime stock status in public domain.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has changed the languages and also re-defined terms that are not scientifically precise in weather forecasting.
• Union Government has constituted a committee to fast track the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, meant for connecting two cities with bullet trains.
• State-owned BSNL started 4G services on non-commercial basis in Chandigarh promising broadband speed of up to 100 megabit per second (Mbps).
• The much awaited scheme â Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana â was cleared at the Cabinet meeting, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The Central government will be setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for its ambitious programme Namami Gange or Clean Ganga initiative.
• Anticipating a revenue shortfall because of the ban on liquor from April 1, the Bihar government has decided to impose a 13.5 per cent value added tax on such items as samosa, salted peanuts, sweets, mosquito repellents and a few branded snacks to make up the loss.
• President Pranab Mukherjee has given assent to the Sugar Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2015 to raise the ceiling of a cess as an excise duty on the production of sugar.
• India has decided to become member country of the International Energy Agency - Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES) to boost for country’s quest for tapping ocean energy sources.
• Sikkim has become India’s first fully organic state by implementing organic practices on around 75,000 hectares of agricultural land.
• Kerala has become the first Indian state to achieve 100 per cent primary education. Declaration to this effect was made by the Vice President Hamid Ansari during his speech at special ceremony organised at Thiruvananthapuram.
• Union Government has inaugurated Second Liquid Chemical Berth of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) at Pir Pau, Mumbai.
• The indigenously-built third generation anti-tank missile Nag was successfully test fired at Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan.
• Union Government has inaugurated the first phase of permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) at Vithura in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
• Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has announced that India’s grid-connected solar power generation capacity has crossed the 5,000 Mega Watt (MW) mark.
International
• This agreement will enable people of both nations to avail retirement benefits in each other’s country and will boost bilateral business linkages.
• The Union Cabinet has given its approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Maldives on cooperation in the field of Health.
• The 15th edition of bilateral exercise by the Indian Coast Guard and its Japanese counterpart titled ‘Sahayog-Kaijin 2016’ has begun off the coast of Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the Bay of Bengal.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa after all known chains of transmission have been stopped.
Business and Economy
• Reliance Group, led by billionaire Anil Ambani, will set up a naval ship-building facility near Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crore. It is the single biggest investment in Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation.
Flipkart appointed Binny Bansal as the Chief Executive Officer and Sachin Bansal as the Executive Chairman.• Wanda Group said it is buying Hollywood’s Legendary Entertainment, the maker of films such as Batman, for $3.5 billion in the first Chinese acquisition of a major U.S. film company.
• Japanese two-wheeler major Yamaha has inaugurated a 4,000 KW solar power project at its facility in Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh.
• Nearly 8.7 crore employees are in for some good news with the government likely to declare an 8.9 per cent returns on their provident fund savings for 2015-16, the highest rate in five years.
• According to World Bank’s World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends, India is on track to register its entire 1.25 billion population using its Aadhaar digital ID which would help the government to promote the inclusion of disadvantaged groups in its welfare schemes.
• With 60 per cent of the world’s population still offline, institutional and regulatory barriers to efficiency are exacerbating the problem of low and unevenly distributed “digital dividends” from growing Internet penetration across countries, a new World Bank study has found.
• The wealth management offering â ‘SBI Exclusif’ and the start-up branch â ‘SBI InCube’ were rolled out in Bengaluru.
Sports
• World No. 14 Milos Raonic from Canada has won the 2016 WTA Brisbane International Tennis trophy in the men’s single category.
• Ace Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis have won the 2016 WTA Brisbane International Tennis trophy in the women’s doubles category.
• World No. 4 Stanislas Wawrinka from Switzerland has won the 2016 Chennai Open title of tennis.
• India’s Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis broke a 22-year-old world record by winning their 29th women’s doubles match in a row en route to their entry into the women’s doubles final of the WTA Sydney International, in Sydney.
• Sania &ndashMartina won the Sydney International. This is the Indo-Swiss pair’s 30th win in a row, second title of 2016 and 11th overall. They have now won seven titles on the trot with the Brisbane International crown coming last week and five of them in 2015. The partnership is also an impeccable 11-1 in finals.
• Retired star Marat Safin will become the first Russian to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
New Appointments
• Senior IAS officer Sailesh has been appointed as Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RGCC) of India.
• Homegrown smartphone maker Micromax has appointed Vikas Thapar as its Vice-President for Finance.
• Former Gujarat cadre IAS officer Devender Kumar Sikri has taken oath as the Chairman of Competition Commission of India.
Awards
• Veteran poet Balkrishna Garg was honoured with the second edition of Harikrishna Devsare Baalsahitya Award 2015 for his collection of poems for children titled ‘Baal Geet’.
• The 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony was organized at Beverly Hills, California, United States (US). In this edition of awards, The Revenant won the maximum 3 awards followed by The Martian and Steve Jobs winning 2 awards each.
• The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has won the National Award on e-Governance 2015-16 for launching the Universal Account Number (UAN).
Death
• Noted Hindi writer and journalist Ravindra Kalia passed away in New Delhi after suffering from liver cirrhosis. He was 78.
• Music Legend David Bowie passed away on 10 January 2015 in New York, United States following a battle with liver cancer. He was 69.
• The first female F1 (Formula One) driver Maria Teresa de Filippis passed away on 8 January 2016 in Italy. She was 89.
• Jacob-Farj-Rafael “JFR” Jacob (Retired Lieutenant General), a key architect in India’s victory in 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War passed away in New Delhi. He was 92.
• Bollywood actor Rajesh Vivek, mainly known for his roles in superhits like ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Swades’, died due to a heart attack in Hyderabad. He was 66.
• British actor Alan Rickman passed away in London, England. He was 69 and was suffering from cancer.
Science and Technology
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA’s) revamped planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 100 planets orbiting other stars.
Special Days
• National Youth Day in India is celebrated on Swami Vivekananda birthday on 12 January with great joy and happiness.
• Indian Army Day is being observed every year on 15 January in India. This year it will be the 68th Indian Army Day.
Current Affairs: 17th January, 2016 Current Affairs Round up December, 2015.
Join The Discussion