Current Affairs Update 23 rd and 24 th December

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS : 23rd and 24 th DECEMBER 

NATIONAL:

• 'Twitter Seva' a new service have been launched by the External Affairs Ministry that will enable timely ,transparent,and large scale response to citizens' tweets in real time.198 twitter accounts of Indian missions and 29 regional passport offices will support this service.This service was launched by Minister of state for External Affairs ex-Gen V.K Singh.

• Indian skipper Virat kohli and Bollywood Actors Akshay Kumar,Ranveer Singh,Alia Bhatt and Sonam kapoor have featured in the celebrity 100 list of Forbes 2016.Virat was ranked 3rd in the list,while Akshay came 4th and Ranveer ,Sonam and Alia Bhatt get 12th,18th and 42 nd spots respectively.

• Nusli Wadia has been voted out as an independent director of the company with 75.67% votes going in favour of a resolution moved by Tata Sons to remove him.

• Approximately Rs.7000 Cr. of procurement proposals is cleared by 'Defence Aquisition Council which is chaired by Union Defence minister Manohar Parikkar. These proposals include purchasing six modern surveillance aircraft for Coast Guard,an additional military cargo aircraft C-17 Globemaster etc.

• New Delhi has been named India's most well-read city in the fourth consecutive year with Bengaluru and Mumbai taking second and third spot, according to Amazon in its Annual Reading Trends Report 2016. Karnal,Vadodara and Patna for the first time ever made it to the top 20 cities.

• State owned telecommunication company BSNL is going to start 1900 access points of WiFi hot spots in Assam and 300 new Mobile Exchanges in the state.

• Biju Sishu Surakshya Yojana , a scheme for protection and care of HIV- positive orphan child in the state is launched by Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik.Under the scheme the children would get financial suppoort of Rs.20000 after passing Higher Secondary,the state government would also provide Rs.7000 to Rs.40000 for technical Education to the beneficiary to meet the expenses like admission and tution fee,study material and other related expenses.

• PM Narendra Modi will be on a day's visit to Maharashtra to lay the foundation stone for the grand memorial of great warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.The main feature of the Shivaji Memorial will be a 192 metre tall statue of the iconic martha king .

INTERNATIONAL:

• The World Health Organisation(WHO) told that a prototype vaccine for Ebola may be 100% effective in protection against deadly Ebola.

• Nepal has announced of their upcoming joint military exercise 'Pratikar-1' with China,this exercise will be first of its type .Main focus of this training will be to train  Nepali Forces in dealing with hostage scenarios involving international terror group.

SPORTS:

• Famous Winter Olympian of India Shiva Keshavan clinched a gold medal at the Asian Luge championship on 23 rd December.He finished the 2 heat race with a time of 1 minute 39.962 seconds.

• India Under-19 cricket team clinched the ASIA Cup under-19 title in final against Srilanka at Premdasa Stadium in Colombo,Srilanka.

• India wins bronze at Woman's U-!8 Hockey Asia Cup 2016 tournament in Bangkok .India secured the bronze medal after defeating South Korea 3-0 .

• Argentina reclaims the Team of the year title from Belgium after securing No.1 spot in FIFA rankings.

• India has climbed up a staggering 31 places  to 135 according to current FIFA Rankings, India's best ever ranking in football till date.

AWARDS:

• Indian forward Jeje Lalpekhlua has named 2016's All India Football Federation (AIFF) player of the year award in Best footballer category. Jeje Lalapekhlua ,hailed from  Mizoram will be awarded a prize of 2.5 lakh.

• Actress Sunny Leone will receive PETA's person of the year aaward for his dedication to promote the rescue of homeless dogs and cats as well as her compassion for animals.[PETA: People for ethical treatment of animals].

• Famous Bengali poet 'Sankha Ghosh' named for 2016 jnanpith award , he is the sixth Bengali to get this award.The Jnanpith Award is an indian literary award presented anually by the 'Bharatiya Jnanpith' to an author for their'outstanding contributions towards literature'