December – Weekly Current Affairs (15-21)

India and Maldives signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) during the sixth Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) at New Delhi on December 13, 2019. The agreements were signed for cooperation between the election commissions of the two countries and cooperation between their Financial Intelligence Units.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced on December 13, 2019 that the Delhi government will administer pledge to male students at all schools to behave well with girls and not indulge in crimes against women.

United States, Mexico and Canada inked a revamped version of their regional trade pact USMCA agreement.

Sky Analytics has created an application called ‘Zuri’ that won the Copernicus Masters Award also called Space Oscars, under the Social Entrepreneurship category.

Sweden’s Greta Thunberg has been named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019.

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has approved the Disha Bill, 2019 which paves the way for awarding the death penalty for the offences of rape and gang-rape and expediting the verdict in trials of such cases to 21 days.

Melissa Jefferson has been named as Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year for 2019.

The Puducherry government unveiled a start-up policy which aims to create a corpus fund of Rs 10 crores to support the setting up of start-up incubators and to develop co-working spaces.

The Ministry of Shipping has announced that Mongla and Chattogram have been declared as Ports of Call under ?Coastal Shipping Agreement? between India & Bangladesh.

Railway Sports Promotion Board has been awarded the FICCI India Sports Awards 2019 under the category of Best Company Promoting Sports.

India concluded its campaign at the 13th edition of South Asian Games (SAG) with the highest-ever medal tally with 312 medals including 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze medals. The host nation Nepal stood second with 206 medals and Sri Lanka ranked third position with 251 medals.

Miss Universe 2019 winner is South Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi. Tunzi beat 90 participants to claim the coveted crown. The top three contestants included Zozibini Tunzi, Madison Anderson from Puerto Rico and Ashley Alvidrez from Mexico.

Greta Thunberg has achieved this honor at the youngest age. She was in the news because of her influential and aggressive speeches. She also gave a speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit this year.

The ‘Cricket World Cup 2019’ was the most searched keyword of the year 2019. As per the report, about 2.6 billion people have watched the Cricket World Cup 2019 worldwide.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet celebrating BJP’s landslide victory in the Lok Sabha General Elections 2019 has won India?s ‘Golden Tweet’ honour for 2019. His tweet was the most retweeted and liked tweet of the year, as per Twitter.

Sanna Marin will become the world’s youngest prime minister and Finland’s third female head of the government. The 34-year-old was elected as the leader of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in the coalition, after she beat her rival Antti Lindtman with 32-29 votes at the Social Democratic Party council meeting on December 8, 2019.

The Constitution (126th) Amendment Bill proposes to extend the reservation quota for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies by another 10 years, till January 25, 2030. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 10, 2019.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is ranked 34th in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women of the world. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on the top position in this list.

India was ranked at the 9th position in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2019. The index was released on December 10, 2019 at the COP25 climate summit in Madrid, Spain. Besides India, only one G20 nation -the UK was ranked high in the index, while eight G20 countries were ranked in the worst category of the index.

British PM Boris Johnson’s Conservative party has won a large majority in the UK elections 2019, paving the way forward for a smooth Brexit. The party won 364 seats out of the total 650 seats in the British House of Commons, while Jeremy Corbyn?s Labour Party won 203 seats.

Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh won the Miss World 2019 Title. Miss France Ophely Mezino and Miss India Suman Rao were the first and second runners up of the beauty contest.

India’s Suman Rao won the second-runner up title in Miss World 2019. She was crowned Miss India 2019 on June 15, 2019. Rao took the initiative to help tribal women through financial freedom in the ‘Beauty with a Purpose Segment’.

The Gujarat Police was recently honoured with President’s Colour for its services and courage. This honour is the biggest honor given by the President to the Armed Forces, Para Military Forces and State Police Forces.

The train service between Lahore and Wagah resumed operations after 22 years on December 15, 2019. The shuttle train services between the two stations will complete three round trips daily for Rs 30 per ride.

Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year on December 16 to commemorate the day India established its victory over Pakistan during the 1971 war. India’s victory liberated east Pakistan and paved the way for the formation of independent Bangladesh.

The 36th International Geological Congress will be hosted by India. It will be held in New Delhi with theme – Geosciences: Basic Sciences for Inclusive Development. The International Geological Congress (IGC) is the prestigious global platform for the advancement of earth science.

The National Energy Conservation Day is commemorated annually on December 14. The day’s objective is to showcase India’s achievements in energy efficiency and conservation. In India, the Energy Conservation Act 2001 was enacted by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (B.E.E.).

The protest march by students of Jamia Millia Islamia turned violent on December 15, 2019 after a part of the mob clashed with the police and set public vehicles on fire. The students were protesting against the implementation of the citizenship amendment act 2019.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament for the Ministry of Defence, held in New Delhi.

Amazon’s audiobook company Audible has launched a new app ‘Audible Suno’ in India.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been given death penalty for his unlawful decision of imposing emergency in 2007. The judgement was delivered by a special court in Pakistan on December 17, 2019.

India was ranked at the 112th position in the recently released Gender Gap Index-2019. The index was released by the World Economic Forum. India’s rank has slipped from its previous 108th position in 2018.

Iceland was ranked as the world’s most gender-neutral country in the WEF’s Gender Gap Index-2019, followed by Norway at the second position and Finland at the third position.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 (CAB) proposes to grant Indian citizenship to the religious minorities who have fled from three of India’s neighbouring nations- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan- due to religious persecution or the fear of being persecuted.

India will become the first Asian Country to Host International Geological Congress. India will be hosting the 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) in Delhi during March 2-8, 2020.

Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Narvane, Deputy Chief of the Indian Army, will be the next Chief of the Indian Army. The current army Chief Bipin Rawat is retiring on December 31. Narvane has served in various roles in the Army during his 37-year tenure.

The ‘Surya Kiran’ military exercise between India and Nepal concluded on 16 December 2019. It is organized alternately in India and Nepal. Surya Kiran XIV had participation of about 300 soldiers from both the armies.

The objective of FASTag is to provide smooth route for movement of vehicles at tolls across the country without any line. Earlier, the last date for FASTag was December 15, which has now been extended to January 15, 2020.

Tehran University of Iran has created a robot that can understand, speak and translate 100 different languages. It can also recognize faces and can even kick a football. It is named ‘Surena’. It is weighing 70 kg and capable of running at a speed of 0.7 km per hour.

Indian author Amitabha Bagchi has won DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019, for his novel ‘Half the Night is Gone’. This is his third novel and it is largely based on the age-old zamindari scheme.

Shriram Lagoo, the 92-year-old veteran film and theatre actor passed away on December 17, 2019 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Pune residence. He was considered as one of the greatest Marathi stage actors during the turn of the 20th century.

NCLAT restored Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of Tata Sons on December 18, 2019, three years after he was ousted from the post. Mistry’s restoration would only be applicable after four weeks, which gives the Tata Group time to challenge the order before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of India rejected the review petition of Nirbhaya rape convict Akshay Kumar Singh on December 18, 2019. With this, the court upheld the death sentence of all four accused in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

The Minority Rights Day is observed every year on December 18, 2019 by the National Commission for Minorities. The day is observed to strengthen the cause of the minorities.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently named a star as ‘Bhibha’ and also named its planet as ‘Santamasa’ after Indian Woman Scientist Bhibha Choudhury. Bhibha led to the discovery of subatomic particle pi-meson.

The Central Government recently extended the deadline of the flagship scheme Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) by two years. The scheme was launched in 2015 and was scheduled to conclude in March 2020.

The International Migrants Day is observed annually on 18 December. The Day was established in December 2000.

The Delhi High Court has agreed to hear the plea seeking constitution of a fact-finding committee to inquire into the police crackdown in the Jamia Milia Islamia University, following protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

Around 850 Indian peacekeepers who are serving in South Sudan were awarded with the prestigious UN medal for their service and contribution to promote.

Microsoft and Google’s parent Alphabet are among the tech giants who were named in a case that is currently looking into the death of child labourers.

Writer and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was named among the winners for Sahitya Akademi Awards. He won the prestigious literature award for his novel ‘An Era of Darkness’ in the creative non-fiction category in English literature. The novel which was published in 2016 describes British rule in India.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the ‘Jalsathi’ programme on December 18, 2019 with the aim to ensure supply of safe drinking water to all households in the state. The Odisha government has roped in women volunteers to serve the people as ‘Jalasathis’.

India and the United States signed an industrial security agreement for the transfer of defence technology. The two nations also agreed to intensify their coordination with like-minded countries like Japan to ensure a peaceful Indo-Pacific region and jointly fight against terrorism.

Goa Liberation Day is celebrated every year on December 19. The Indian Army liberated Goa, Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961 by conducting ‘Operation Vijay Abhiyan’.

BP Raju won the ‘India Cyber Cop of the Year 2019’ award of NASSCOM-DSCI. He won this award for solving an online entrance examination fraud case of of an engineering college in Rajasthan. Raju had investigated the case and exposed the fraud in the online entrance examination.

Kuldeep Yadav is the first Indian to take a hat-trick for the second time in international cricket. He first dismissed Shai Hope, Jason Holder and Aljari Joseph of West Indies.

The Braille edition of the book ‘Exam Warriors’ written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was released by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot recently.

Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is holding a one-day special session today to pass a resolution to bring the state under the Inner Line Permit (ILP). Various social organisations and civil society groups have been demanding that ILP may be implemented in Meghalaya in view of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

India, Japan and the US are part of the trilateral naval exercise Malabar. Initiated in 1992, it was originally a bilateral exercise between the US and India. Japan became a permanent member in 2015. It includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.

Agriculture Policy 2020, SAMRIDHI was approved by the Odisha Cabinet recently. It is based on 8 components ? Science and Technology, Adaptation to Climate Change, (Markets) Domestic and Global, Physical and financial, Resource use efficiency and higher productivity and Creating appropriate Infrastructure.

Virat Kohli, the captain of the Indian cricket team, was ranked first in the Forbes’ list of top-100 celebrities of India. Akshay Kumar is in second place and Salman Khan in third place in this list.

The Forbes top-100 Indian celebrities list for the year 2019 ranks Indian skipper Virat Kohli at the top position this year, displacing Salman Khan. The other celebrities in the top 5 of the list include Akshay Kumar at the second rank, Salman Khan at the third rank and Amitabh Bachchan at the fourth position. Shah Rukh Khan does not feature in the top 5, he is ranked sixth in the list.

Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav has become the first Indian bowler to take two ODI hat-tricks. He created the record during India’s second ODI against West Indies at the VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on December 18, 2019.

Anand Mahindra on December 20, 2019 announced his decision to step down as the Executive Chairman of the Mahindra Group. He will be stepping down officially from the position from April 1, 2020. He will then function as the Non-Executive Chairman of the company.

Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa has announced the Gandhi Citizenship Education Award, inspired by his thoughts and life, to help perpetuate the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Antonio Costa said that Gandhi Citizenship Award will be dedicated to social welfare.

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has recently conducted a successful test of the Artillery Missile System Pinaka Mark-II. This system is capable of firing 12 rockets in just 44 seconds.

International Day of Human Solidarity is celebrated by the United Nations on 20 December every year. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution for this day on 20 December 2005.

Punjab Agricultural University recently developed a processing-grade white onion variety for commercial farming. This variety of onion can be processed and it can meet with the requirements of the state demands. In 1994, the university developed an onion variety called Punjab White. Its average yield was 135 quintals per acre.

The National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan recently recognised the official book of standards under India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. The book specifies the standards with respect to identity, strength and purity of the drugs manufactured and marketed in India.

The EChO network was recently launched by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Dr. Vijay Raghavan. The EChO network is to improve ‘cross- disciplinary leadership’ for research and creation of knowledge and awareness about Indian ecology and environment.