Current Affairs - December 30, 2017 Current Affairs

Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid was awarded the Globe Soccer's Best Player award, in Dubai. Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Globe Soccer's Best Player award for the second consecutive year and fourth time overall. And Real Madrid club was named the best club of the year. Also, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was given the best coach award.

NASA has scheduled to launch the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) in the middle of 2020. WFIRST has a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument. This will capture the sky area 100 times larger than the previous Hubble telescope. WFIRST will study about dark energy. The Wide Field Instrument will also enable WFIRST to measure matter in hundreds of millions of distant galaxies through a phenomenon stated in Einstein's relativity theory. WFIRST will picture how matter is structured throughout the universe. This will help scientists to test the governing physics of the assembly of universe.

the 78th session of the Indian History Congress started at the Jadavpur University campus, in Kolkata on 28th December 2017. The 78th session of Indian History Congress is held for three days. It consists of 6 sections - Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India, Countries Other than India, Archaeology and Contemporary India. It also stages speeches of famous historians Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also addresses the congress. Main focus of the Indian History Congress is promotion and encouragement of scientific study of Indian History, holding Congresses and publishing of the proceedings, bulletins, memoirs, journals etc.

The 78th session of the Indian History Congress (IHC) has started at the Jadavpur University campus in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 28, 2017. The 3-day IHC will have six sections this time - Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India, Countries Other than India, Archaeology and Contemporary India. The aim of conducting Indian History Congress is for promotion and encouragement of the scientific study of Indian History, holding Congresses and publishing of the proceedings, bulletins, memoirs, journals and other works.

China has launched the world's largest human genome research project to document the genetic makeup of one lakh people. The objective of this project is to detect the genetic links between health and sickness and use that information to generate precision medicines for the future. The project envisages to decode the hereditary information contained in each of the 25000 known human genes. The project will be executed in four stages viz. collecting, sequencing gene samples, gathering the data and sharing the findings.

Kavitha Bharanidaran broke Guinness World Record in yoga marathon by performing the longest yoga marathon. Kavitha Bharanidaran hails from Chennai. She is mother of a 3 and a half year old kid. She started performing yoga on 23rdDecember 2017 at 7 am and broke the record by doing the longest yoga marathon at 02:02 am on 28th December 2017. She has broken the record that was created by Pradnya Patil of Nashik. She is still continuing the marathon and has planned to continue it till 30th December 2017 to create a new record.

Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur allotted portfolios to his council of ministers. Notably, BJP registered a comfortable win in Himachal Pradesh after winning 44 seats of the state's 68 seats. He has been allocated Irrigation and Public Health, Horticulture and Sainik Welfare departments and Kishan Kapoor is given a charge of Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Election. He has given Education, Parliamentary Affairs and Law and Legal Affairs.

Nirmala Sitharaman launched a start-up incubation center called the Centre for Entrepreneurship Opportunities and Learning (CEOL) in Mangaluru, Karnataka. She has allocated Rs. 1.5 crore from her MPLAD (Member of Parliament's Local Area Development) scheme for the development of CEOL. She represents Karnataka as an MP in the Rajya Sabha.

India has signed a loan agreement worth $40 million with the World Bank (WB) for UP Pro-Poor Tourism Development Project on December 28, 2017. The purpose of the project is to increase tourism-related benefits for local communities in Uttar Pradesh. The total project cost is around $57.14 million, out of which $40 million will be financed by the World Bank, and the remaining amount will be funded out of the state budget. The programme duration is five years. The project is expected to have far-reaching social, economic and environmental benefits by targeting local communities and entrepreneurs near some of the main tourist and pilgrimage attractions in Uttar Pradesh, namely, Agra as well as Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana and Govardhan in the Braj region.

Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO announced to launch 31 satellites, including India's Cartosat-2 series earth observation spacecraft, in a single mission onboard its Polar rocket on January 10. The mission will be the first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission after the unsuccessful launch of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H in August this year. The mission's main payload would be India's Cartosat-2 series earth observation satellite. PSLV-C40 will be used for the launch from the spaceport in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.The mission would be a combination of 28 nanosatellites from foreign countries, including Finland, US and one micro and nanosatellite from India along with one Cartosat satellite.

Ex-football superstar George Weah has been elected as the new president of Liberia after beating Vice President Joseph Boakai in a runoff with 61.5% of the vote. Now, he will succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president. George Weah is the only African footballer to have won both FIFA World Player of the Year and the prestigious Ballon D'Or for Europe's best player. He entered politics after his retirement from the game in 2002 and is currently a senator in Liberia's parliament.

China successfully tested its first photovoltaic (solar) highway based on home-grown technology in country's eastern Shandong province. With this, China became the second country in the world to construct a photovoltaic highway. China's photovoltaic highway is constructed using solar panels which have a thin sheet of transparent concrete on top of them, protecting the surface.

Telangana becomes first state to offer free power to farmers 24 hours a day. From January 1, 2018, farmers in Telangana will get 24-hour free power supply. This is a first of its kind initiative, undertaken by Telangana State Government which will benefit 23 lakh farmers in Telangana. Electricity supply is of utmost importance for farmers who use motorised pumps for irrigation. Supplying free 24-hour electricity to all farmers in the state will create an overall power demand of 11000 MW which will be fully met by March 2018.

Senior IAS officer Manisha Nanda was appointed as Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Principal Secretary to the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister. Manisha Nanda is a 1985 batch IAS Officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre. She is currently the Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning, Housing and Urban Development. She has been appointed as the Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Principal Secretary to the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off 'Adi Shakara Sandesh Vahini', from a place near Piravom, Kerala. This mobile museum, showcases various aspects of the life of Adi Shankaracharya, an early 8th century Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. The mobile museum would cover various places including Kalady, Udupi, Dharmasthala and Sringeri. It will reach Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh on January 22, 2017 where a 108-feet high Ashtadhatu statue of the saint would be installed.