Current Affairs - December 21, 2018 Current Affairs

Gujarat has emerged as the best-performing state in the Startup Ranking 2018. The National Report on States' Startup Ranking was unveiled by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi. Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan, with a score of more than 85 percentile, have been adjudged the top performers.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) imposed fine of Rs 5 lakh each on Iffco Tokio General Insurance and Royal Sundaram General Insurance for violating motor tariff claims and file & use guidelines. IRDAI also informed the companies violated File & Use guidelines and circulars issued by it from time to time advising insurers that they shall continue to use the coverage, terms & conditions, wordings, warranties, clauses and endorsements of the erstwhile tariff of classes of insurance covers until further orders.

Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) signed MoU with Maruti Suzuki India Ltd for training rural youth for skill development in presence of Minister of Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar. This partnership between the government and the leading industry from the automotive sector will provide training to atleast 5000 candidates in two years with assured placement to the rural youth of our country. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) is the flagship placement linked skill-training programme under the MoRD.

Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma launched the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme(MHIS-IV) in convergence with that of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme. The MHIS-IV targets to cover more than 8 lakh households offering over 2300 medical and surgical packages and up to Rs 5 lakh per family. The new scheme will be functional from February 1,2019.MHIS-IV covers all citizens in the state while the Ayushman Bharat(Centre's Scheme) targeted the bottom 40 percent of lower income families.

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training Programme) developed by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. The Right to Information (RTI) Portal on Judgments/Orders of Supreme Court, High Courts and CIC has been developed by the Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM), New Delhi. This Portal will provide a learning environment for all stakeholders under which a repository on the landmark cases on the RTI will be available at one place.

The central government set up a new National Medical Devices Promotion Council (NMDPC) to plug loopholes in India's regulatory framework for medical devices to ensure safety of patients, pricing and restrictions on import of pre-owned equipment. The council will operate under Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and will have 14 members, including representatives from the Health Ministry and NITI Aayog. The NMDPC has also appointed the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) as a member of the Council. Currently India imports 70-90% of its medical devices with an import bill of over Rs. 31,000 crore. The move to form the council was announced by Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry during the WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices at Visakhapatnam.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) cleared the name of Arti Chhabra Srivastava as the first full-time Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of SEBI for an initial period of 3 years. She is a 1990-batch Indian Ordinance Factory Services officer, and her appointment was approved by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). CVOs are considered an extended hand of the CVC, which is tasked with detecting graft by officials holding public office. Functions of the CVO include: Mainly keeping tabs on its officials and detect and punish corruption and other malpractices, to examine existing rules and procedures of the organisation to eliminate or minimise scope for corruption and malpractices, To ensure observance of rules by SEBI officials relating to annual property returns, gifts accepted, benami transactions and regarding their relatives employed in private firms or businesses.

Mohinder Pratap Singh was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Mongolia. He is presently Director at Headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the government, has decided to have a rule-based dynamic limit for outstanding stock of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) at 6.5% of GDP at current market prices. As per the statement based on the GDP figures, the soft limit works out to $160 billion for the current financial year. The outstanding stock of ECBs as on September 30, 2018, stands at $126.29 billion.

External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi co-chaired the first-ever meeting of India-China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges in New Delhi. India and China had decided to set up people to people mechanism during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in China.

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha launched an official mobile application for Global Aviation Summit 2019. The Global Aviation Summit (GAS) 2019 is scheduled to be held in January 2019 in Mumbai. The application was launched in the presence of R.N. Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Dr. Shefali Juneja, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and other officials of AAI.

Senior bureaucrat Pranab Kumar Das has been appointed as chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the apex policy-making body for indirect taxes. Das, special secretary and member (customs) at CBIC, will succeed S Ramesh. Das, a 1983-batch IRS officer of Customs and Central Excise Cadre was appointed as a member in the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in 2017.

International Human Solidarity Day is organized across the world on 20th December. It is a day to celebrate our unity in diversity and also a day to remind governments to respect their commitments to international agreements. The General Assembly, on 22 December 2005, by resolution 60/209 identified solidarity as one of the fundamental and universal values.

W V Raman has been appointed the new coach of the Indian women's cricket team. Raman is a vastly-experienced coach having been in charge of Tamil Nadu and India U-19 teams in the past. W V Raman will have to now step down as coach of the Bengal Ranji Trophy team to take up the India job. Former India captain Kapil Dev and Anshuman Gaekwad, along with Shanthan Rangaswamy, who are all part of the three-member selection panel.

The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated a three-day conference on Soft Power in New Delhi. The Center for Soft Power is the first center in India that is dedicated to the study of Indian soft power. It was established in collaboration with India Foundation.

Infosys Ltd has appointed Bharti Airtel Ltd's global CFO Nilanjan Roy as chief financial officer, effective 1 March 2019. He replaces interim CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka, who will resume his responsibilities as deputy CFO. Roy spent 13 years with Airtel, before which he worked for 15 years with Unilever across their global operations.

Ashok Kumar was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Djibouti. He is presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Assam government has announced three schemes for the welfare of farmers. The schemes are the Assam Farmer's Credit Subsidy Scheme (AFCSS), Assam Farmer's Interest Relief Scheme (AFIRS) and Assam Farmers' Incentive Scheme (AFIS). The state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that all three schemes will cover five lakh farmers in the first phase. Under AFCSS, whatever amount of loan the farmers took from banks and whatever amount they repaid, 25% of the money will be reimbursed by the state government. On AFIRS, the Minister Stated that currently 3% of the 7% interest against farm loan is paid by the Central government and the remaining 4% is required to be paid by farmers. The state government has decided to pay the remaining 4% loan.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released his book titled "Changing India" at an event in New Delhi. In the book, the Congress leader narrated his journey from an economist to a politician and shared anecdotes from his life.