Current Affairs - December 1, 2017 Current Affairs

The French film on AIDS "120 Beats Per Minute", directed by Robin Campillo, has won the prestigious Golden Peacock award for best film at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2017), while the film's actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart won the Silver Peacock in the best actor male category in Panaji, Goa. Apart from this, Amitabh Bachchan was felicitated with the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award 2017 and the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

India and Singapore inked a major pact on marine security in New Delhi. It was signed during Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen's visit to India. Naval cooperation pact between India and Singapore envisages increased engagement in the maritime security sphere, temporary deployments from each other's naval facilities, joint exercises and logistics support.

Sibi George is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) Officer of 1993 batch. He is presently Ambassador of India to Switzerland. He has been concurrently appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Holy See, with residence in Berne. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

HEFA board approved projects worth Rs. 2066.73 Cr to improve the research infrastructure in six institutions - IITs Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur and NIT Suratkal. Out of the approved projects, 16 projects are for upgrading Research/academic facilities and 11 projects are for other supporting infrastructure. These projects will help the institutions to improve their standing at the global level.

The Odisha government has launched a 'Fish Pond Yojana' scheme to boost fish production in the state with a budgetary provision of Rs 96 crore. The scheme was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while inaugurating a workshop on 'Doubling of Farmer Income through Dairy and Allied Farming Practices' in Bhubaneswar on November 28, 2017. The scheme aims to create additional 2,200 hectare of fresh water aquaculture farming with 50% financial assistance to farmers.

1 December is observed as World AIDS Day. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. Under the 2017 theme "Right to health", the World Health Organization (WHO) will highlight the need for the 36.7 million people living with HIV and those who are vulnerable and affected by the epidemic, to reach the goal of universal health coverage.

The 7th edition of 'Kathakar - International Storytellers Festival' has inaugurated by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi on December 1, 2017. Kathakar is the only oral storytelling festival in India and is a part of Ghummakkad Narain- the Travelling Literature Festival which was started under the aegis of UNESCO in 2010. The Festival is an attempt not only to preserve the art form but also create new audiences for the same. This year festival will be hosted in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Mumbai.

Actor-activist Dia Mirza appointed UN (United Nations) Environment's Goodwill Ambassador for India. As a Goodwill Ambassador, she will work with the UN to further spread the message on priority areas including clean air, clean seas, wildlife protection and climate change. UN Environment head, Erik Solheim congratulated Dia Mirza to the programme. Dia Mirza joined the prestigious list of UN Environment Goodwill Ambassadors, which includes Hollywood stars such as Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Katy Perry and Emma Watson.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar launched the Jai Kisaan App, a farmer engagement app containing features and functions to fulfill the needs of the farmer community in India. The Jai Kisan app is a one-stop solution on agricultural information and cultivation, covering crop nutrition, protection, seeds, and diagnostic services. Its services include soil testing and customized information wherein farmers will have access to fertilizer recommendations on the basis of crop and target yields.

Snehlata Shrivastava, a 1982 batch IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as new Secretary-General of Lok Sabha. She succeeded Anoop Mishra on December 1 and her tenure will end on November 30, 2018. With this, she has become the first woman Secretary-General of Lok Sabha. Snehlata's appointment was approved by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Prior to this post, she was working as Secretary Law in Central government. Ms Shrivastava has 35 years of rich and varied administrative experience.

India's first crypto-currency exchange "Coinome" has been launched by Mumbai-based payment gateway Billdesk. Coinome is incorporated under Hatio Innovations Pvt. Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BillDesk. It will allow users to be on-boarded via Instant e-KYC. It means that users can start transacting in crypto-currencies almost immediately upon registering. The exchange supports instant deposits using payment gateway and instant withdrawals, thereby allowing transactions even on weekends or business holidays. Currently, Coinome offers the trading of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, but the exchange plans to support 20 mainstream crypto-currencies by 2018.

India and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the health sector. It was signed between Union Health Minister J P Nadda and the visiting Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin. The MoU envisages cooperation in health sector by pooling in technical, financial and human resources for accomplishing the ultimate objective to upgrade infrastructural resources, medical education and research in both countries.

The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2017 gets off to a start with the inaugural address by Narendra Modi in New Delhi.The summit is being hosted against the backdrop of a host of reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax, the potential benefits of which have been acknowledged in a sovereign ratings upgrade by Moody's. India's growing economic clout has also translated into diplomatic victories that are transforming the traditional equations of geopolitics.

Nagaland is all set to celebrate the 54th Statehood Day and the 18th Hornbill festival 2017 today at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama. President Ram Nath Kovind who is on a maiden visit to the state will grace the occasion and inaugurated the 10 day State Hornbill festival 2017. The route leading to Kisama, which is 12Km away from the capital city has been all decked up with decoration to give a festive ride. Tight security arrangement has been made in view of the festival.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) conducted the regional level marine oil pollution response exercise 'Clean Sea-2017' at sea off Port Blair on November 29. The purpose of the exercise was to ascertain preparedness of the ICG, resource agencies and other stakeholders in responding to a major oil spill in line with the provisions of the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP). The highlight of the exercise was participation of one ICG Pollution Control Vessel and integration of the Indian Coast Guard Dornier/Chetak aircraft into the Oil Spill Disaster Management System for aerial assessment/ delivery of Oil Spill Dispersant for mitigation of the spilled oil. The Indian Coast Guard has established three pollution response centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair.