Current Affairs occupy primary place in all competitive exams. No candidate can afford to take current affairs lightly in this era of stiff competition where lakhs of candidates appear for few number of posts. In order to get success in competitive exam, one needs to have excellent grip over the current affairs along with other subjects.
We therefore brings Daily Current Affairs, which are the Summary of the Current Affairs which we cover in our Current Affairs Magazine. You can read all these news in detail in our Current Affairs Magazine.
Current Affairs Summary December 4, 2015
1. PM MODI ANNOUNCES RELIEF FOR RAIN-HIT CHENNAI
The Prime Minister undertook the aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu. He directed that Rs. 1000 crores be released immediately by Government of India to Tamil Nadu for immediate relief. This is over and above Rs. 940 crores which was released earlier.
2. NOKIA SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE ALCATEL-LUCENT MERGER
Shareholders in Nokia approved the company’s acquisition of French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent in a general meeting in Helsinki, Finland. Nokia hopes the merger will help it become the world’s number one network equipment and service provider, with the combined revenue of both companies standing at nearly 25 billion euros ($26.5 billion).
3. KARNATAKA ANNOUNCES RS. 5 CRORE FOR RAIN-HIT CHENNAI
Karnataka announced Rs. 5 crore for relief and rescue operations in flood-hit Chennai. With air, rail and road connectivity to Chennai disrupted, flights, trains and bus services from Bengaluru were cancelled for the next two days.
4. ANDHRA PRADESH SECRETARIAT TO FUNCTION FROM JUNE 1
The Andhra Pradesh government has decided that the state secretariat would function from its new capital region from June 1 next year and asked all its employees based in Hyderabad to shift to Vijayawada region accordingly.
5. ARMY CONDUCTS MAJOR WAR EXERCISE
With about 45,000 soldiers in action, the Indian Army is conducting a major war exercise ‘Drad Sankalp’ at Command-level in the deserts of Rajasthan wherein the capability of the force in a tri-service environment is being tested.
6. AIR INDIA LAUNCHES FIRST DIRECT FLIGHT TO SILICON VALLEY
Air India launched its first non-stop flight to San Francisco which landed in San Francisco connecting America’s west coast with India and making Silicon Valley its fourth destination in the US.
7. ORBITAL TO FLY SPACE CARGO MISSION
Orbital ATK counted down to its first space launch since a sudden explosion last year destroyed its Antares rocket and cargo craft bound for the International Space Station. Planned liftoff of the unmanned Cygnus cargo ship uses a different rocket — an Atlas V made by United Launch Alliance — and is scheduled for 5:55 pm.
8. UK PARLIAMENT VOTES IN FAVOUR OF JOINING SYRIA AIR STRIKES
Britain’s parliament voted in favour of joining international air strikes on Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria. The move proposed by Prime Minister David Cameron’s government was approved by a clear majority of 174 MPs, with 397 voting in favour and 223 voting against.
9. INDIAN BADMINTON LEAGUE RENAMED TO PREMIER BADMINTON LEAGUE
The Badminton Association of India organizing committee has decided to re-christen Indian Badminton League (IBL) as Premier Badminton League (PBL). The League which is scheduled to be held from January 2 to 17 next year is slated to be the largest ever badminton tournament that will bring some of the most noted names in the field of the sport together.
10. INDIAN PLAYERS WIN AT INDONESIA MASTERS
Top seeds P V Sindhu and K Srikanth advanced to the third round of the $120,000 Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold tournament in Malang. Sindhu beat Indonesia’s Wulan Cahya Utami Sukuputri 21-12, 21-9 in a women’s singles match. World No. 9 Srikanth beat Indonesia’s Saputra Vicky Angga 21-14, 17-21, 25-23 in a match that lasted an hour and five minutes.
11. WORLD’S OLDEST PEACH FOUND IN CHINA
Researchers have found a set of fossilized peach pits dating to more than 2.5 million years. Until now, our oldest signs of the fruit came from Chinese archeological records going back about 8,000 years. Su found the pits near a bus station in southwest China, in an area where construction had unearthed rocks from the late Pliocene.
12. JUSTICE TS THAKUR SWORN IN AS 43RD CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA
Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee. The senior-most judge of the apex court, 63-year old Justice Thakur took over from incumbent Justice HL Dattu who retired yesterday.
13. INDIA JUMP SIX PLACES TO 166TH IN FIFA RANKINGS
India jumped six places to the 166th spot in the global football rankings in the latest list released by FIFA, while Belgium retained their top position after grabbing it for the first time last month. India was 172nd in last month’s rankings after losing five consecutive 2018 World Cup qualifying matches.
14. FLIPKART ACQUIRES MINORITY STAKE IN MAPMYINDIA
Flipkart has acquired a strategic minority stake in CE Info Systems Pvt Ltd, the makers of MapmyIndia. Flipkart will deploy MapmyIndia’s location intelligence capabilities across its logistics network, strengthening its first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery operations, with several unique and industry-first services in the pipeline, such as better address verification, real-time shipment tracking, facility mapping, and theft minimisation via geo-fencing.
15. FIFA APPROVES 12-YEAR TERM LIMIT FOR PRESIDENT
FIFA’s Executive Committee “unanimously” approved a programme of reforms which includes limiting presidents to a maximum 12 years in charge and introducing “transparency of compensation” for leading officials. The programme of reforms presided over by Reform Committee chairman Francois Carrard must get the approval of the 209 member federations at FIFA’s extraordinary congress on February 26.
16. ARBITRATION BILL TABLED IN LOK SABHA
A bill aimed at amending a law on arbitration for speedy settlement of high value business disputes was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Arbitration and Reconciliation Bill, 2015 seeks to replace an ordinance promulgated in October. For speedy settlement of commercial disputes, the Cabinet had in August cleared the bill to amend the Arbitration Act to fix a timeline for arbitrators to resolve cases. Under the proposed amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, an arbitrator will have to settle a case within 18 months.
17. INDIA’S POWER SECTOR REMAINS NEGATIVE: MOODY
Faced with challenges like fuel supply risks, cost overruns at private plants and financially weak discoms, India’s power sector outlook remains negative, says Moody’s Investors Service.
18. EXPRIMENT TO DETECT RIPPLES IN SPACE-TIME
The European Space Agency (ESA) had launched a prototype lab to test a key part of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. A Vega light rocket lifted off from the ESA’s space base in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying a “technology demonstrator” called LISA Pathfinder into orbit. The European Space Agency launched a rocket carrying two cubes of gold and platinum almost a million miles from Earth so that scientists can see how they’ll behave in free fall. Also known as gravitational waves, these ripples were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago but have never been directly detected.
19. PHP 7 WITH IMPROVED CPU AND MEMORY OPTIMISATION RELEASED
The new version of the popular scripting language PHP 7 is released which promises a 100-percent-plus improvement in performance of full-stack applications. PHP 7 is powered by a new engine called “phpng” which is company’s attempt to compete with interpreters such as hhvm, which Facebook utilises. The new engine is focused on improving the way the language works with memory allocation, data structures, and data types. The core engine is now more optimised for CPU and memory. PHP 7 is claimed to have halved memory and CPU instructions compared to PHP 5.6.
20. BREACH OF PRIVILEGE MOTION AGAINST OUTLOOK MAGAZINE
A BJP member Kirit Somaiya in the Lok Sabha has tabled a breach of privilege motion against weekly news magazine ‘Outlook’ over an article in it wrongly attributing some statements to Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr Somaiya said that the magazine has already apologised for wrongly quoting the Home Minister.
21. TRAI FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF BHARATNET
Telecom regulator TRAI has said said it was for the effective implementation of BharatNet, for which it had floated a consultation paper whose recommendations will be available by next month. BharatNet envisages connecting every panchayat through a fibre network and offering multiple services online. The cost for rolling out BharatNet would be $70 billion.
22. DENA BANK GETS BOARD APPROVAL TO DILUTE GOVERNMENT STAKE
Public sector lender Dena Bank has got board approval for dilution of government holding to up to 52 per cent and raise capital up to Rs 2,500 crore from various bonds. To raise equity capital of the Bank by diluting GOI holding up to 52 per cent, on obtaining necessary approval government. Government shareholding in the bank was 65 per cent at the end of September 30.
23. JAPAN ASTEROID PROBE CONDUCTS ‘EARTH SWING-BY’ IN SPACE QUEST
A Japanese space probe launched last year passed by Earth today to harness the planet’s gravitational pull to propel it toward a far away asteroid in its quest to study the origin of the solar system. The explorer, named “Hayabusa 2”, conducted an “Earth swing-by” and came as close as 3,090 kilometres (2,000 miles) above ground after 7 pm (1000 GMT), before switching its orbit to continue toward tiny Ryugu asteroid.
24. MASSIVE SOLAR FLARES CAN CREATE HAVOC ON EARTH
Researchers said that the Sun has the potential to release solar flares 1,000 times greater than previously recorded, which can rattle the Earth’s communications and energy systems. Led by University of Warwick in Britain, the research has found a stellar superflare on a star observed by Nasa’s Kepler space telescope with wave patterns similar to those that have been observed in solar flares. Our solar system is filled with plasma or ionised gas, originating from the Sun as a result of the solar wind and other more violent solar eruptions, such as solar flares.
25. NASA TO LAUNCH FIRST CUBESAT BUILT BY STUDENTS
US space agency NASA is set to launch three small research satellites, or CubeSats, which have been designed and developed by more than 400 students from two universities and a primary school. CubeSats were selected through the CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) as part of the ninth installment of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) missions.
26. SEBI PROPOSES NEW NORMS FOR GREEN BONDS
With an aim to help meet huge financing requirements worth $2.5 trillion for climate change actions in India by 2030, SEBI proposed new norms for issuance and listing of green bonds. The proposed norms mainly relate to disclosure requirements by the companies intending to issue such bonds, as also to the periodic reporting of fund allocation.
27. GOVERNMENT APPOINTS 3 DIRECTORS ON INDIAN OIL BOARD
With effect from December 2, the government has appointed Bagchi, Chandigarh-based chartered accountant Sanjay Kapoor and Ahmedabad-based tax advocate Parindu K Bhagat on India Oil Company board.
28. YES BANK WINS ‘BANK OF THE YEAR’ AWARD IN UK
India’s fifth largest private sector bank Yes Bank has bagged the prestigious ‘Bank of the Year’award as it plans overseas expansion. ‘The Banker’ magazine’s annual “Banker Bank of the Year Awards” are widely regarded as the Oscars for the banking Industry.
29. PARLIAMENT STANDING COMMITTEE SEEKS LEGAL STATUS FOR AADHAAR
The government has been asked by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by M Veerappa Moily to provide a statutory backing to Aadhaar at the earliest and take immediate steps to address issues pertaining to the project. The committee urged that the government should immediately address the key issues relating to UIDAI and initiate measures for early legislation on the subject.
30. SUBMARINE SINDHURAKSHAK TO BE DECOMMISSIONED
INS Sindhurakshak, the submarine which caught fire after an explosion in August 2013 while it was preparing for a sortie in the Mumbai Naval Docks, is likely to be decommissioned and scrapped by the Navy. 18 Navy personnel, including three officers had died in the submarine accident and the vessel sank near the Mumbai harbour on August 14, 2013.
31. PRESIDENT PAYS TRIBUTES TO DR. RAJENDRA PRASAD
The President Pranab Mukherjee paid floral tributes to Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India on occasion of his birth anniversary at Rashtrapati Bhavan on December 3, 2015.
32. TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION BRICS & EMERGING ECONOMIES UNIVERSITIES SUMMIT, 2015
The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee addressed the delegates of the Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies’ Universities Summit, 2015 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.
33. MOU SIGNED BETWEEN MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS AND MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding use of Non-potable Water released after treatment from sewage/effluent treatment plants located in Ganga and Yamuna River zones for Railway purpose was signed between Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation.
34. DISCOVERY OF MYCOBACTERIAL PROTEIN
Tuberculosis (TB) has been a cause of misery for human beings from ancient times. Scientists at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) have focused their attention at understanding the interaction of pathogenic mycobacteria with the human cell during infection. The team led by Dr Sanjeev Khosla from CDFD has used the knowledge of epigenetics to open a new frontier in the research on host-Mycobacterium tuberculosis interaction. They identified a novel mycobacterial protein Rv1988, which is secreted out of the mycobacterium into the host upon infection and localizes to the chromatin (DNA-histone complex) in the nucleus of the human cell.
35. NTC LTD SIGN INTEGRITY PACT WITH TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
National Textile Corporation Limited (NTC Ltd) became the 51st Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and 49th Central PSU to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Transparency International India (TII) for adopting Integrity Pact (IP).
36. 19% RISE IN INDIAN TOURIST ARRIVALS TO AUSTRALIA
Australia received 226,300 Indian travellers for the year ended September 2015, which is an increase of 19 per cent from the same period the previous year.
37. BLINK AUTHOR WINS PII-ICRC AWARD
BLink’s Saurabh Yadav won the joint-third prize in the PII-ICRC 2015 Annual Awards for his report on the violence in Bodoland. Neha Dixit of Delhi won the first prize for her report on the Muzzafarnagar camps.
38. VASTUPAL JOINS IIM-UDAIPUR BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Rajiv Vastupal, Chairman and Managing Director of the Ahmedabad-based Group Company named Team Rajiv, has joined the Board of Governors at the Indian Institute of Management-Udaipur.
39. HANGLOO BAGS DEWANG MEHTA AWARD
Rattan Lal Hangloo, Vice-Chancellor, University of Kalyani, West Bengal has bagged the 23rd Dewang Mehta Business School Award for his outstanding contribution to education and ‘Best’ Vice-Chancellor of the country.
40. INDIA CROSSES 5 GW-MARK FOR SOLAR INSTALLATIONS
While total commissioned utility solar capacity in India reaches 4.7 GW; rooftop capacity stands at 525 MW. In 2015 year to date, close to 2 GW solar capacity has been commissioned.
41. CABINET OKAYS RELAXED NRLM NORMS
The Cabinet approved changes in rural welfare programmes by expanding the benefits of interest subvention under the National Rural Livelihood Mission to 100 more districts. The move will facilitate focussed and targeted intervention in poverty reduction. The Cabinet also approved the Himayat programme and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY) for skilling and placing youth from poorer sections. It also approved the removal of existing restrictions which limit the allocation of DDU-GKY to 25 per cent of NRLM allocation to enable the Ministry to expand its focus.
42. DENMARK REFERENDUM REJECTS EU JUSTICE, HOME AFFAIRS OPT-IN
Danish voters rejected a government proposal to replace the nation’s current opt-out of the EU’s justice and home affairs rules with an opt-in model in a referendum. With all votes counted, 53.1 percent Danish voters said “no” to the proposal while 46.9 percent are in favor.
43. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTING IN NEWS
A heavily armed man and woman dressed for battle opened fire on a holiday banquet for his co-workers, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others in a precision assault. Hours later, they died in a shootout with police.
44. OSCE MINISTERIAL COUNCIL TO FOCUS ON TERRORISM, MIGRATION, UKRAINE
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council was convened for an annual meeting to discuss terrorism, migration and Ukraine. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia led the OSCE through tough times, under the emerging threat of terrorism and escalating migrant crisis and urged all countries to find joint answers to resolve these important issues.
45. AIIB TO OPEN IN MID-JANUARY
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will open in mid-January next year. According to an agreement, the AIIB will be eligible for opening after no less than ten countries’ legislatures passed the AIIB operational framework and their shares shall be no less than half of the total.
46. GENE SUMMIT ORGANIZERS STRESS CAUTION ON HUMAN GENE EDITING
Organizers of the International Summit on Human Gene Editing said editing genes in human embryos was permissible for research purposes, so long as the modified cells would not be implanted to establish a pregnancy. The group’s guidance follows calls for various bans on the use of the technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, which has quickly become the preferred method of gene editing in research labs because of its ease of use compared with older techniques. The meeting was convened by the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of the United Kingdom.
47. DIGITAL MAP LAUNCHED BY UNICEF
A digital mapping project called ‘Act Now For Tomorrow,’ which was recently launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is helping young people around the world identify climate issues in their communities and find ways to address them. The global climate map is engaging 500 young people from 65 countries.
48. UN JOINS FRANCE AND FOR ACTION ON ELECTRO-MOBILITY
Recognizing that transportation has the highest growth in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of any industrial sector, transport representatives at the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) presented 10 initiatives that aim to reduce these emissions and build more sustainable transport systems. Among the events was the launch of the Paris Declaration on Electro-Mobility and Climate Change & Call to Action. Endorsed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Energy Agency, as well as Tesla Motors and Michelin Nissan-Renault, it reportedly builds on commitments from companies, cities, States and associations that have undertaken decisive efforts towards sustainable transport electrification.
49. CHILDREN UNDER 5 ACCOUNTS FOR 1/3rd OF DEATHS FROM FOODBORNE DISEASES – NEW UN REPORT
Diarrhoeal diseases are responsible for more than half of all foodborne diseases globally and of all those who fall ill after consuming contaminated food, 420,000 people die – almost third of them children under the age of five, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its first ever report on the issue.
50. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
The United Nations is marked this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities (Dec 3) with the theme “inclusion matters” to raise awareness and mobilize support for some one billion people living with disabilities who remain one of the most marginalized groups in the world.
Read these Current Affairs in detail in our Current Affairs Magazine.
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