Current Affairs Update 18th-December

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIR:18TH DECEMBER

NATIONAL:

• For the first of it's kind Himachal Pradesh become first state in India to achieve 100% Aadhar enrollment on basis of its population of 2015. Earlier Delhi,Telengana,Punjab and Chandigarh have achieved this milestone.    
                                                                                                        
• Cement concrete road of more than 2000 kilometers under 'Gopal Bandhu Gramin Yojana' is going to be constructed by Odisha Government. Odisha government has allocated Rs.1000 Cr for this project to be utilised in 30 districts.                                                                                      
• Himachal Pradesh has opened its first Cyber Crime police station at State police Headquarter Shimla.Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh inaugurated this police station.                         
• Tajikistan and India has signed 4 key agreements that include Double taxation avoidance money laundering, and counter terrorisms. PM Narendra Modi and visiting Tajikistan President Emomali Rahman administered the exchange of MOUs in New Delhi following high level delegation talks.
• Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation of Tamil Nadu has been selected for 'Digital India Silver Award' by Union Ministry of  Electronics and Information Technology.  
•  Supreme court has ruled that State governments can levy property tax on mobile towers.  

FINANCIAL NEWS:

• In order to encourage people to adopt Digital Payment Methods The Reseve Bank of India has announced special measures to be adopted between 1st January,2017 and 31 st March,2017.
• In another notification RBI has asked Banks to not to levy any charges up to 1000 Rupees that are settled using Immediate payment service, USSD based *99# and Unified Payment Interface systems and RBI also asked banks to cap Merchant Discount Rates for Debit Card transactions upto 1000 Rupees at 0.25 percent of transaction value , For transactions between 1000 and 2000 Rupees merchant charges will be capped at 0.5 percent.                                                         
• State Bank 'Mobicash Mobile Wallet' (For both Smart and Feature phones) a product by SBI and BSNL is launched by Minister of finance and corporate affairs Mr. Arun Jaitley and Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) and minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha.

INTERNATIONAL:

• A 2700 square meter Skating Space is opened at Grand Palais in Paris,France. It is being considered as World's largest non-permanent indoor ice rink.It will remain open until January 2,2017. It was inaugurated by a featuring skating stunts and acrobatics as part of 'Palais des Glaces' festival.

• Bollywood turned Hollywood actress Priyanka Chopra named in IMDB's most popular celebrities list.She beats Di caprio, J. Law etc. She stands at 55th rank in this list.

APPOINTMENTS :

• Union Defence Ministry has announced the names of next Army Chief and Air Force Chief.
• Lt. General Bipin Rawat is named as next Army Chief and Air Marshal  Birendra Singh named as next Airforce Chief.
• Jharkhand cadre IPS officer Rajiv Jain appointed as the new Chief of Intelligence Bureau(IB).
• Anil Dhasmana is appointed as new chief of RAW(Research and Analysis Wing) , he will succeed Rajinder Khanna.

SPORTS:

• WBO-Asia Pacific Super title is retained by Vijender Singh. He knocked out former world champion Francic Cheka in less than 10 minutes  at Thyagraj stadium in New Delhi.