Current Affairs - December 11, 2017 Current Affairs

State Bank of India has changed names and IFSC codes of nearly 1,300 of its branches. The country's largest lender has changed the names and IFSC codes of branches located in major cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Lucknow, among others.

Uma Shankar, chief general manager (CGM) in charge of the Reserve Bank of India's financial inclusion and development department has taken over as executive director (ED) in the central bank. He has been elevated after Meena Hemchandra the executive director in charge of the central bank's supervision department retired recently.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) has received the Nobel Peace Prize. The leader of an Australian-founded group that received the Nobel Peace Prize has warned humanity is only "one impulsive tantrum" away from a nuclear catastrophe. ICAN had campaigned for a UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Airtel set to boost mobile connectivity; will provide 2,100 uncovered villages and national highways of Northeast region over 18 months. A MoU was signed by the Department of Telecom DoT with Bharti Airtel. They have signed an agreement with DoT and the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for the provision of mobile services in identified uncovered villages and national highways in the northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. As the largest operator in the northeastern states, Airtel will set up over 2,000 mobile towers and sites in unconnected pockets of the region to deliver telecom connectivity in over 2,100 villages over the next 18 months.

BSE's India International Exchange (India INX) received approval from the capital market regulator SEBI on the framework for the listing of debt securities. The move will enable Indian and foreign issuers to issue masala bonds, Eurobonds, and foreign currency bonds from India INX at International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) for the first time.

World Human Rights Day is being observed on December 10. It is a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being. It establishes the equal dignity and worth of every person. This year, the Human Rights Day kicks off a year-long campaign to mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Let's stand up for equality, justice and human dignity is the theme of 2017 World Human Rights Day.

The two-day Aadivasi Mahotsav is started in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur. The festival aimed at displaying the rich and diverse tribal traditions of the central state inaugurated by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram and Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh. Tribal culture, literature and food festivals, tribal olympiad and hackathon will be held during the event.

Senior IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Kharola assumed charge from Rajiv Bansal. He was the managing director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited since February 2015.

The Telangana government will provide broadband internet connection to all households in the state by December next year. With internet connection in every house, healthcare and education in rural areas will undergo revolutionary changes. Under the Digital Telangana project, fiber cables are being laid along water pipelines to ensure broadband internet connectivity to every household.

India will host the Southeast Asia connectivity summit. India's initiative of connectivity with Southeast Asia under its Act East Policy, New Delhi will host an Asean-India Connectivity Summit (AICS) on December 11-12. The event comes ahead of the visit of the leaders of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) here next month for the commemorative summit of 25 years of the India-Asean dialogue partnership.

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.

A unit of China Three Gorges Corp. is building a 1 billion yuan ($151 million) floating solar power plant, the world's biggest, in the nation's eastern province of Anhui. China Three Gorges New Energy Company started building the 150-megawatt project in July and part of the plant was connected to the grid. The project features panels fixed to floats on the surface of a lake that formed after a coal mine collapsed, according to the unit. The entire facility is expected to come online by May 2018.

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki became India's sixth most valued firm, crossing India's largest lender SBI. Maruti Suzuki's market capitalisation stood at $2.74 trillion, marginally ahead of SBI's market value of $2.71 trillion. Reliance Industries is the country's most valued company with a market value of $5.8 trillion, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, ITC and Hindustan Unilever.

Union Shipping and Ports Minister Nitin Gadkari confirmed 24 companies have offered to invest over 60,000 crore rupees in a special economic zone adjoining the country's largest container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. The create employment for 1.25 to 1.50 lakh people. Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the facility in May 2014 and the government was targeting to create 1.50 lakh jobs in the facility. The works of over 2 lakh crore rupees have already started under the ambitious Sagarmala project and port-rail connectivity will alone witness an investment of 1 lakh crore rupees under the project.

Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) are holding a trilateral meeting in New Delhi. The meeting is expected to review global and regional issues of mutual interest as well as discuss trilateral exchanges and activities. The External Affairs Minister will have separate bilateral meetings with her Russian and Chinese counterparts. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi have arrived in New Delhi.