Current Affairs - December 12, 2017 Current Affairs

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 Shahzad 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.

Universal Health Coverage Day is celebrated annually on December 12 and is promoted by the World Health Organization. December 12 is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for all nations to provide for their citizens affordable, quality health care.

Lalji Singh (70), the eminent scientist and the father of DNA fingerprinting in India, has passed away in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh on December 10, 2017. He was the founder of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) & also served as its director. Singh also found various institutes and laboratories that included laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), Genome Foundation that aims to diagnose and treat genetic disorders affecting the underprivileged people, especially in rural India.

Cartographers surveying Antarctica have discovered that Mt Hope is the tallest mountain in the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) at 3,239 metres above sea level. Until now, maps showed Mt Jackson as the tallest mountain in the territory at 3,184 metres, according to researchers at British Antarctic Survey (BAS). New satellite data reveals Mt Hope being 55 metres taller than Mt Jackson and 377 metres higher than previously thought.

Indian national hockey team has reclaimed the bronze medal at the Hockey World League (HWL-2017) tournament by defeating Germany in the final by 2-1 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha on December 11, 2017. Indian players took the lead in 21st minute through SV Sunil. Germany equalized through its reserve custodian Mark Appel in the 36th minute. A penalty corner conversion by Harmanpreet Singh in the 54th minute sealed the win and the third place for the Indians. India had also won the bronze in the last edition of the tournament in Raipur in 2015.

FE Best Banks Awards are considered as India's most coveted banking awards. These awards are presented annually to banks that have delivered outstanding performance on various parameters including growth, profitability and soundness. ICICI won the Best Mobile Banking Application in the FE Best Banks Awards 2015-16 ceremony.

Uttar Pradesh stands on top of recording highest number of cyber crimes in India followed by Maharashtra. While Assam stands on the fifth position, as per latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 696 cybercrime cases were reported during 2016 in Assam, which is an increase of over 44 percent compared to the previous year. In 2015, there were 483 such cases in the State. All the 696 cases reported in Assam during 2016, 156 had illegal gain as the motive, 329 were on account of emotional motives like revenge, three were committed with an intention to outrage the modesty of women, 59 were attributed to extortion and blackmailing, 41 were committed with the motive of sexual exploitation.

Saudi Arabia will have its first public cinemas in more than 35 years after the government announced the lifting of the ban on movie theatres. Minister of Culture and Information Awwad bin Saleh Alawwad in a statement said that opening cinemas will act as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification. The government statement said that the licensing process for cinema operators will start within 90 days and the films will be subject to censorship according to media policy standards of the kingdom.

Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched first NIC-CERT, a setup of National Informatics Centre to prevent and predict cyber attacks on government utilities. They launched in New Delhi. NIC-CERT has been set up with the objective of creating a comprehensive framework that integrates world-class security components and inbuilt threat intelligence for detection, prevention and incident response.

India bagged a rich haul of 21 medals including six gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals at the 10th Asian Airgun Shooting Championships which was concluded on Monday in Wako City, Japan. On the last of a championship, Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Baker booked quota places for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) by winning a gold and a silver each. Saurabh Chaudhary won both the individual as well as the Team gold in the men's 10m Air Pistol Youth event, while Baker clinched a silver in the women's 10m Air Pistol Youth. India claimed another silver in junior women's 10m Air Pistol. India added four medals to their kitty on the final day of the competition to finish with a total haul of 21 medals over four days, including six gold, eight silver and seven bronze, besides four Youth Olympic Games quotas.

11th December 2017 was celebrated as International Mountain Day all over the world. The theme for International Mountain Day 2017 is: Mountain under Pressure: climate, hunger, migration. It highlights how climate, hunger and migration are affecting highlands and to ensure that sustainable mountain development is integrated into the 2030 Agenda and in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The Union Government has sanctioned Rs. 75 crore for setting up a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Meghalaya. Meghalaya is the only state in the region which has no bottling plant. The new bottling plant will be constructed at an existing site located in Shillong. A memorandum of understanding was inked between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the state government in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in Shillong on December 09, 2017.

Recently 14 United Nations Peacekeepers were killed in Congo and several others were injured. Later UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as the "worst attack" on UN peacekeepers or UN "blue helmets" in recent history. The mission's military, police and civilian staff were encouraged to continue their efforts to implement the operation's mandate, including the protection of civilians

The 11th Ministerial conference of the 164-member World Trade Organization (WTO) has started in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 10, 2017. At the meeting, India is represented by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu who will be pushing for a permanent solution to the public food stock-holding issue which is crucial for operating the food security programme. In it, he will not only have to safeguard the interests of Indian farmers, but will also have to put his foot down on blocking introduction of new issues such as e-commerce. During the course of the 4-day deliberations, the developing nations will resist the efforts by the developed nations to formally set aside the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and place new issues including e-commerce on the negotiating table.

India is all set to host the 2023 World Cup, the global cricketing event's 13th edition after the BCCI confirmed the host nation. India will also host the upcoming Champions Trophy in 2021. The ICC World Cup 2019 will be held in England and Wales. This will be the first time that the event will be held entirely in India: the nation on three occasions previously, hosted the World Cup partially (1987, 1996 and 2011).