Current Affairs - December 14, 2017 Current Affairs

OBOPAY announced that the company has secured a licence for Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate a semi-closed loop wallet in the country. The company would also be using the licence to increase business in its B2B (business-to-business) operations by co-branding the prepaid instrument with a partner brand.

Football legend Diego Maradona unveiled a statue of himself at a grand Indian reception in Kolkata. Diego Maradona, former Argentine World Cup hero was honoured with a massive 12ft, bronze replica in Kolkata. He unveiled the statue of his likeness holding the 1986 World Cup trophy and it would be erected at a park named after him and he handed out cheques worth Rs 10,000 each to 11 cancer patients and flagged off an air-conditioned ambulance.

The Tripura Government has introduced Child Care Leave (CCL) for women employees with minor children for 730 days in their entire service life. Employees enjoying the CCL for children's sickness or examinations would be paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on the CCL. The Supreme Court passed an order in 2014 that a woman employee of the central government could get uninterrupted leave for two years for child care, which would include needs like examination and sickness.

India become the first-ever team to register 300+ totals 100 times in ODIs, after posting 392/4 against Sri Lanka in Mohali. This was also the 25th instance of India scoring 350+ in an ODI innings, second-most by a team after South Africa (26). India was driven by captain Rohit Sharma's 208*, his third ODI double hundred which is also a record in ODIs.

To boost bilateral strategic and defence ties, India and Australia held their inaugural 2+2 Foreign Secretaries and Defence Secretaries Dialogue on December 12, 2107 in New Delhi. In the 2+2 Dialogue with Australia, India was represented by foreign secretary S Jaishankar and defence secretary Sanjay Mitra, while secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson and Secretary of Department of Defence, Greg Moriarty participated from the Australian side. In context of international relations, a mechanism between two countries, wherein their respective defence and foreign affairs ministries, jointly hold discussions is referred to as 2+2 dialogue.

Buddhist monk Dhammapiya from Tripura has been elected as the new secretary general of the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). He was elected on the post at the second general assembly of the IBC held in New Delhi, said a statement from the organisation. The IBC is a global Buddhist forum for preservation and development of heritage sites of the religion in India and other parts of the world.

India has been ranked 100th out of 149 countries at the 11th edition of Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI-2017). The index offers an insight into how prosperity is forming and changing across the world. It is the world's leading global measure of economic and social well-being that studies 104 indicators under these categories: Economic Quality, Business Environment, Governance, Personal Freedom, Social Capital, Safety and Security, Education, Health and Natural Environment. The list is topped by Norway, followed by New Zealand, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden.

India and Morocco signed a MoU for enhanced cooperation in the health sector in New Delhi. Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Dr Abdelkader Amara, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Morocco signed the MoU. The main areas of cooperation include the following: Non-communicable diseases, including child cardiovascular diseases and cancer; Drug Regulation and Pharmaceutical quality control; Maternal, child and neonatal health; Hospital twinning for the exchange of good practices.

Maharashtra government set to legalize all slums built till 2017. The state government plans to extend the cut-off year to regularize 3.5 lakh unauthorized slums in the city to 2017 from 2011. Maharashtra government steps on the way to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of giving everyone a home by 2022. This move will also help boost redevelopment projects such as like Dharavi. It's a step in the right direction to realise the PM's goal of giving everyone a home by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

The Karnataka government will soon launch a digital platform "Seva Sindhu" to address the issues of the common citizens in order to strengthen the ecosystem for government services. For this, the state cabinet has ratified the proposal of "Seva Sindhu. The interactive platform would provide all useful information about local events, employment opportunities, and others. The portal will provide services like income, domicile, caste, birth, death certificates, ration card, approval of social welfare schemes and other administrative work.

South Korea banned its financial institutions from dealing in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency soars in a bubble fuelled by retail speculators, many of them from the country. There are many of them small-time investors, are estimated to own Bitcoins and demand is so high that prices for the unit are around 20 percent higher than in the US, its biggest market. The hyper-wired country has emerged as a hotbed for cryptocurrency trading, accounting for some 20 percent of global Bitcoin transactions about 10 times its share of the world economy.About one million South Koreans, many of them small-time investors, are estimated to own Bitcoins, and demand is so high that prices for the unit.

Central Government has decided to set up special courts to deal exclusively with criminal cases against 1581 Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Out of the 12 special courts, 2 special courts will handle cases against 228 MPs. Other 10 courts will be set up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh where numbers of MLAs facing criminal charges are more than 65.

Indian Railways have introduced a bill tracking system for contractors/vendors of Indian Railways to track the status of their bills. This is in line with the emphasis given by Minister of Railways & Coal, Piyush Goyal on increased use of information technology to go digital and online with a view to promoting transparency and efficiency in the system. The vendor/contractor need to register with the online IT platform developed in-house by CRIS, New Delhi called Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS). The registration enables the vendor/agencies to see their bill status with dates through various stages of processing of bills, the stage at which it is lying, the amount for which it is passed and other details.

Nakul Chopra, currently President of AAAI and Senior Advisor at Publicis Communications, has been elected as the new Chairman of Television ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. He will succeed Sudhanshu Vats, chief executive officer (CEO) at Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Chopra will be the 3rd chairman of the agency and has been on the board of BARC since September 2016. The BARC India is a joint industry body formed to design, commission, supervise and own country's television audience measurement system.

Rohit Sharma is the only cricketer to have scored three double centuries in ODIs. Out of the three double centuries two of them have come against the same opponent Sri Lanka.

Singapore launched its first large-scale electric car-sharing programme to provide commuters with more transport options and steer them away from the need to buy their own cars. It aims to roll out a fleet of 1,000 electric vehicles and 2,000 charging points by 2020. BlueSG said Singapore's service will become the world's second-biggest electric car-sharing programme after Paris.