National
• With the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court’s order prescribing a dress code for entry into temples kicking in on January 1, a routine visit gained much more significance as men; women and children were told what they had to wear.
• LPG consumers now have a single short number to dial for help in case of gas leaks. Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the 24X7 all-India helpline â 1906 â for LPG leaks.
• The Union Government is going to roll out LPG-like Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for kerosene from 1st April 2016. The scheme in the initial phase will be implemented in selected 26 districts of eight states.
• A friendship bus service between India and Nepal was flagged off via Champawat district in Uttarakhand after a gap of 27 years.
• The Union government has come out with a concept paper proposing to set up a rail regulator for fixing fares and ensuring level-playing field for private investments in railway infrastructure.
• The Union Government has reserved 33 per cent posts of Constables for women in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to enhance their representation.
• Jharkhand, a mineral-rich but energy-deficit state has become first state in country to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme with Union Government.
• The Union Cabinet approved the closure of the iconic HMT Watches and offered a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to its employees as per the 2007 pay scales.
• The Kerala Cabinet decided to adopt the family of Lt. Col. E.K. Niranjan, the NSG commando who was killed in the Pathankot terror attack.
• Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has decided to implement the stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI from 1st April 2020 in a bid to curb vehicular pollution. Government will directly switch over to BS-VI emission norms from the present BS-IV emission norms and completely skip BS-V emission norms altogether.
• “Show me the man and I will show you the rule,” BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha is quoted as saying in the context of politics within the party in his biography “Anything But Khamosh,” released.
• Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette INS Kadmatt has been commission in the Indian Navy by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan at naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam.
• India’s first River Information System (RIS) was launched by Union Government facilitate safe and accurate inland waterway navigation. It has been launched in phases and the first phase will cover 145-km stretch of National Waterways 1 (Phase I- Haldia to Farakka) on the Ganges River.
• Union Government has decided to merge Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
• With just days left for Pongal festival to start, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has invoked “culture and tradition” to bring jallikattu back.
International
• China has created three new military bodies as part of reforms to modernise its military and improve its fighting capacity.
• Sri Lanka and Pakistan have agreed on the inclusion of services and investment in the bilateral free trade agreement.This would help companies of the two nations to form joint ventures for exports to other nations.
• The announcement from North Korea that it had carried out a nuclear test brought to the frontlines of global attention a phrase not often heard since the Cold War “the H-bomb”.
• The Union cabinet has given its ex-post-facto approval to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh for Mode of Operation of Border haats on India-Bangladesh Border signed in 2010. The MoU also seeks to establish new Border Haats along the border after identification of suitable locations in consultation with Bangladesh Government and concerned State Governments.
• The Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Singapore on cooperation in the field of civil aviation.
• India and France have started their eight-day counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency bilateral military exercise Shakti-2016 in Rajasthan.
• A German historical institute is launching an annotated edition of “Mein Kampf,” the first version of Adolf Hitler’s notorious manifesto to be published in Germany since the end of World War II.
• The absence of government approval has apparently caused the demolition of a giant gold painted statue of Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong.
Business and Economy
• The government has formed a Kamlesh Chandra committee (One man committee) to examine the wage structure and service conditions of gramin dak sevaks, who are extra-departmental agents recruited by the postal department to serve in rural areas.
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for web-based monitoring of watershed projects.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the blueprint of ‘Start Up India’ programme which may include a Startups and Entrepreneurship Law to make it easier for setting up new ventures and closing unviable ones, besides clearing regulatory issues that hamper access to finance.
• India’s e-commerce market is likely to touch $38-billion-mark in 2016, a 67 per cent jump over the $23 billion revenue it clocked last year, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
• Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs. 1 crore on an SBI associate bank, State Bank of Travancore, for violation of some of its instructions.
• The government has reduced the export duty on iron ore pellets to zero from five per cent, a move that will make the commodity more competitive amid subdued demand and weakening prices.
• Andhra Bank has launched Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) at all its branches in association with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM) has received nod from Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire Goldman Sachs’s mutual funds and exchange-traded funds business in India.
• The Cabinet approved conversion of MUDRA Ltd, an NBFC, into MUDRA Bank and also setting up of a Credit Guarantee Fund for loans disbursed under the Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana.
• Taxi-hailing app Uber announced a new start-up mentorship programme in the country in partnership with Invest India called ‘uberEXCHANGE’.
• Tata Trusts and leading global food manufacturer Mars Incorporated have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together to advance agriculture development, address malnutrition and improve food safety in India.
• Netflix Inc. launched operations in India, with plans starting at Rs. 500 ($7.50) per month. The company will also offer two other plans priced at Rs. 650 rupees and Rs. 800 rupees.
• The Union Cabinet has approved the Stand Up India Scheme to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Women entrepreneurs.
• ICICI Bank will partner FINO PayTech to foray into the payments bank space.
• The Global Economic Prospect report published recently by the World Bank (WB) has projected a robust 7.8 per cent growth for the Indian economy in the year 2016.
• Azim Premji, 70, chairman of Wipro, is the most generous Indian of the year for the third time in a row with donations worth Rs. 27,514 crore to the education sector, says Hurun India Philanthropy List 2015.
• The Supreme Court asked the Centre and public sector banking authorities to consider providing reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes employees in promotion to officers’ ranks at all levels.
Awards
• Former Cricketer Syed Kirmani was honoured with the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in Mumbai (Maharashtra) for his contribution to Indian cricket.
• India’s Test captain Virat Kohli was awarded with the Polly Umrigar Trophy for Cricketer of the Year.
• Mitali Raj was bestowed with Best Woman Cricketer Award in senior player category for the season 2014-15.
• The British writer, Kate Atkinson has won the 2015 Costa novel award for her novel God in Ruins, the companion her previous novel to Life After Life.
New Appointments /Resignations
• Former defence secretary R.K. Mathur was sworn in as the eighth Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.
• India’s third largest IT exporter Wipro Limited announced the appointment of Abid Ali Z. Neemuchwala as the Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of the company.
• Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, whose comments on perceived intolerance in the country had created a controversy, ceases to be the mascot for government’s ‘Incredible India’ campaign as the contract for it has expired.
• Senior United Nations (UN) official Filippo Grandi from Italy has taken the charge as new UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He succeeds Antonio Guterres of Portugal who has retired after heading the Refugee Agency for one decade. He will have tenure of five years.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed Amitabh Kant as the chief executive officer of NITI Aayog. The appointment will take effect after Mr.Kant retires from service in March.
• Urjit Patel, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in-charge of the monetary policy department, has been re-appointed for a term of three years.
• A few days after the appointment of Abidali Neemuchwala as CEO of India’s third largest IT services provider, Wipro has made more changes in its senior leadership structure.
• Renowned telecom engineer and inventor Sam Pitroda has been appointed as Technology Advisor to the Odisha Government.
Sports
• India has won the 2015 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) championship for record seventh time. In the final match played at Thiruvanantapuram (Kerala), India defeated defending champion Afghanistan by 2-1 goal score.
• India’s star amputee mountaineer Arunima Sinha has successfully scaled Mount Aconcagua in Argentina as part of her Mission 7 Summits. It was her 5th successful summit of the Mission 7 Summits that she had climbed on December 25, 2016 after starting on December 12, 2015.
• V.V.S. Laxman’s masterly innings of 281 against Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata has been rated as the greatest Test performance of the last 50 years.
• With a strong recommendation to lawmakers to legalise betting in cricket for all except cricket players, officials and administrators, the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha Committee report said that government servants and ministers should be banned from holding posts in the BCCI.
• Australia withdrew from the ICC Under-19 cricket World Cup in Bangladesh, claiming that the security threat in the country remains as high as it was when the senior team’s Test tour was postponed last year.
• The prestigious Duleep Trophy will return to the domestic first class cricket calendar in the 2016-17 season in a new avatar with matches being day-night affairs played with a pink ball, it was announced.
• Mumbai teenager Pranav Dhanawade scripted history by becoming the first batsman ever to notch up a four-figure score by smashing an unbeaten knock of 1009 in an inter-school tournament in Mumbai.
• Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela broke the world record to gold in the women’s 10 metre air rifle event at the Swedish Cup Grand Prix. Chandela shot 211.2 in the event to surpass the feat of Chinese Olympic gold medallist Yi Siling, who held the record with 211.
Death
• Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was 92.
• Sarosh Homi Kapadia, the 38th Chief Justice of India, bid farewell to the world in Mumbai. He was 68.
• Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away of multiple organ failure in New Delhi after nearly a week-long hospitalisation. He was 79.
Science and Technology
• Scientists have discovered presence of several colonies of an invasive species of snowflake coral (Carijoa riisei) off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari.
Days of the Week
• World Braille Day is annually celebrated on January 4, the birthday of Braille inventor, Louis Braille. The day recognizes the contributions of Louis Braille in helping blind and visually impaired people to read and write.
Current Affairs: 11th January, 2016 Current Affairs Round up December, 2015.
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