Current Affairs Updates - 12 & 13 December 2017

Current Affairs Updates - 12 & 13 December 2017

New Appointments: National

Pradeep Singh Kharola takes over as Air India CMD

• Senior IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola today took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India.

Banking/Economic Affairs

The Finance Minister said that India has recorded an average growth of 7.5% from 2014-15 to 2016-17.

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that despite subdued global economic growth, India’s growth remains impressive and one of the best in the world during the last three years. He said that India has recorded an average growth of 7.5% from 2014-15 to 2016-17, significantly higher as compared to the growth in the previous two years.

Rankings

As per latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Uttar Pradesh stands on top in recording highest number of cybercrimes in India followed by Maharashtra while Assam stands on fifth position.

•  A total of 696 cybercrime cases were reported during 2016 in Assam, which is an increase of over 44 per cent compared to the previous year. In 2015, there were 483 such cases in the State. 
• Nationally, Assam’s share of cases reported under cybercrimes during 2016 was 5.7 per cent of the total 12,317 such cases across India.

International Affairs

Japan takes the plan to join US-led moon station project one step forward

• Japan eagerly wants to send Japanese astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time by joining the project. The project plans to build a new space station in the moon's orbit.

Mount Hope becomes UK's new highest mountain after satellites reveal previous measurement was wrong.

• Britain has a new highest mountain after new satellite data revealed the peak was almost 400 metres taller than previously thought.
• Mount Hope, in the British Atlantic Territory, was recently re-measured and found to be 377 metres taller than previous calculations.

China Starts World's Biggest Floating Solar Project.

• A unit of China Three Gorges Corp. is building a 1 billion yuan (151 million dollar) floating solar power plant, the world’s biggest, in the nation’s eastern province of Anhui.
• China Three Gorges New Energy Co. started building the 150-megawatt project in July and part of the plant has connected to the grid, according to a Dec. 10 statement. 

The United States, Japan and South Korea began a joint missile tracking drill as tensions in Asia continue to rise over North Korea’s fast-developing weapons programs.

• In the two-day exercise, four Aegis-equipped destroyers from the three countries, including the MSDF’s Chokai, will detect and track computer-simulated missiles and share related information.

Schemes / Programme

Khelo India, a programme strives to promote “Sports for All” as well as “Sports for Excellence,will be launched at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore.

• Addressing functions at Yuva Sambardhana Utsav organized by Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Odisha Zone at KIIT Campus,Rathore said the programme aimed at mainstreaming sports as a tool for individual, community, economic and national development will be launched for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 in the country.

Summit /Conference / Events / Host

India will be hosting the ICC Cricket World Cup on 2023 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2021. 

• This is the first time India would be hosting an ODI World Cup on its own. India has previously co-hosted ODI World Cup on three occasions in the year 1987, 1996 and 2011. Meanwhile, India has won the tournament twice (1983 and 2011) since its inception in 1975.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the “NIC-CERT”, a setup of National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on 11thDecember 2017.

• He mentioned that in the recent past there has been an exponential growth in cyber attacks leading to concerns of data theft which led to the Government drafting the Data protection Act. As Internet with its ever expanding canvas of opportunities is touching the life’s of people, it necessitates the requirement to upscale the existing security infrastructure.

Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will meet Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Wang Yi of China for discussions on deepening coordination in Asia-Pacific region.

• Exactly a month after officials from India, Australia, the US and Japan sat down for talks on cooperation in the “Indo-Pacific”—seen as a possible security framework among the four against a rising China—Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will meet her counterparts from Russia and China on Monday for discussions on deepening coordination in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr. Mahesh Sharma Inaugurates the ‘Bodhi Parva: BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist Heritage’ 

• Dr. Sharma, while inaugurating the three days ‘Bodhi Parva: BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist Heritage’ in New Delhi on December 08, 2017 said that the message of Lord Buddha is as relevant in the twenty first century as it was two and a half millennia ago and has been a unifying force among nations. The values of peace, accommodation, inclusiveness, and compassion that are part of our societies can be attributed to the influence of the teachings of Lord Buddha and Buddhism. 

UN Women in collaboration with Facebook inaugurated a two day event in Mumbai titled 'We The Women' to empower and recognise the magnificent contribution of women in our society.

• The event witnessed speakers from different walks of life including Textile and I&B Minister, Smriti Irani, Sakshi Malik, Mithali Raj, Ekta Kapoor, Karan Johar and others.

Awards & Honours

M.S. Swaminathan has been given 'Yeraringan' Award recently by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India.

• The Vice President said that, “Prof. Swaminathan was a living legend who has done India proud with his extraordinary vision, commitment and pragmatism. He further said that he was truly an iconic figure who has shown to the entire world how research can reach the farms and transform farmers’ lives. He was a man with deep commitment to our country’s development.”

Sports: Awards & Honours

Australia beat Argentina 2-1 in the final of the Hockey World League Final (HWLF) to win gold at Kalinga Stadium

• Argentina, who beat India (who won bronze earlier) in the semifinals, and Australia were tied 1-1 after three quarters of the match. Blake Govers scored the winner from a penalty corner with just three minutes left in the game. 

India's Saurabh Chaudhary qualified for the Youth Olympics Games with a gold medal and a junior world record in 10m air pistol at the ongoing Asia Youth Olympics Games qualification tournament in Wako City, Japan.

• He became the the third Indian to bag quota places for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games at the 10th Asian Airgun Championship.
• The 15-year-old shot a record score of 243.1 in the final to storm to the top of the podium, after finishing third in the qualification round with a score of 573.

Pistol aces Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu bagged a bronze each to continue India's medal charge at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako City, Japan.

• Jitu won an individual bronze in the men's 10m Air Pistol, which also helped the Indian team comprising Shahzar Rizvi and Omkar Singh besides Jitu, to bag the Team gold in the event.
• Heena claimed an individual bronze in the women's 10m Air Pistol. Her effort, along with teammates Shri Nivetha Paramantham and Harveen Srao, helped the Team clinch a silver.

Indian Diving Team won 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals in Indonesia Open Aquatic Championship 2017.

• The five-day championship concluded recently in Indonesia's Jakarta. More than 1,500 athletes from eight countries, participated in the 5-day event. At the championships, the diving category featured athletes from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Obituary 

Lalji Singh, ‘father of DNA fingerprinting in India,’ passes away.

• Eminent scientist and ‘father of DNA fingerprinting in India’ Lalji Singh died following a heart attack on Sunday. He was 70.