Current Affairs - December 8, 2019 Current Affairs

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi met the Prime Minister of Mauritius H.E. Mr. Pravind Jugnauth in New Delhi on December 6. Prime Minister Jugnauth accompanied by his spouse, Mrs Kobita Jugnauth is on a private visit to India. Prime Minister Modi extended his warm felicitations to Prime Minister Jugnauth on his re-election with a resounding mandate. Prime Minister Jugnauth thanked Prime Minister and reiterated his commitment to further strengthen and deepen the fraternal and enduring bilateral ties between the two countries.

On December 6, 2019, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached a deal deepening their output cuts. They have set the target as 500,000 barrels a day. The action is being implemented in order to eliminate surplus and bolster crude prices.

The 2nd Nagaland Honey Bee Day was celebrated on 5 December 2019 at the Heritage, Old DC Bungalow, Kohima, Nagaland. It aims to give more effort to continue on mission for more production of honey and to make Nagaland a Honey destination. The theme of the Honey Bee Day is Save Bee Save Life.

Several leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh, President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu paid tribute to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar on the occasion of his death anniversary on December 6, 2019.

The University of Mysore (UoM) is to set up a separate Department of Disabilities and Rehabilitation Studies (DDRS) on its campus at Manasagangotri. It was approved by the University of Mysore Academic Council.

Jharkhand's Mahuamilan railway station has become the latest among these to get the facility. Mahuamilan station becomes the country's 5500th station to get free wifi facility. Free Wi-Fi service to passengers are being provided under RailWire. The Railways began the service of providing free WiFi at their stations from January 2016 from the Mumbai Central station.

Government to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament. The Bill proposes to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to undocumented non-Muslims (Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Sikh) from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. The Bill shall not apply to Tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura as included in the sixth schedule of the Constitution.

K Vijay Kumar is appointed as a Senior Security Advisor in the Union Home Ministry. He will be advising the Home Ministry headed by Amit Shah on security-related matters of Union Territory of JK and Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

Civil Defence Day is celebrated on 6 December 2019 in India. Day is observed every year. The day aims to make aware of the citizens and highlight the importance of Civil Defence. Civil Defence being a voluntary Organisation. It acts as a protector to the civilian population during the crisis. The Civil Defence and Home Guards are the twin Voluntary organizations for the cause of defence to the nation. These organizations are based on the concept of safety of the common man.

Odisha government on December 6 distributed free laptops to Plus Two (+2) meritorious students under the 'Biju Sashaktikaran Yojana' as part of their government's youth policy in Odisha. The state government had started distributing free laptops with the aim to inspire and upgrade the skill of the young people of the state.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the proposal for the up-gradation of the 39 Government Medical Colleges and Institutions (GMCIs) in the third phase of PMSSY on 7th November 2013. It also approved a cost of Rs.150 crore each, Rs.120 crore for the Central Contribution and Rs.30 crore for the State Share. Total outlay in respect of each of the 39 GMCs is Rs.150 crore: (Center share-Rs.120 cr) + (State share-Rs.30 cr)

Priyanka Chopra was honoured with the UNICEF's Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award 2019 or her contribution as the Goodwill Ambassador of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The 24th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is being held at the Nishagandhi Auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram from December 6 to December 14, 2019.

Aiming to control the human-elephant conflicts, the Assam government launched Anti-Depedration Squads of the state forest department which would be stationed at 15 majorhuman-wildlife conflict districts in order to mitigate the problem and to ensure safety of both humans and wildlife.

The government has approved seven projects for setting up FM transmitters in the premises of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) to strengthen FM coverage along the Indo-Nepal border. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told Lok Sabha that projects would be in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The 4th India Water Impact Summit was held from 5-7 December 2019 at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.The Summit was organized by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) led by IIT Kanpur. Theme: The theme of the 2019 summit is Valuing Water | Transforming Ganga. The theme focuses on the Financing of High Impact Projects in the water sector.

Aberdeen in Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the best police station in India, followed by Balasinor in Gujarat and Ajk Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh. The government has prepared a list of best performing police stations in the country.

Armed Forces Flag Day is observed on 7 December. It is observed every year in India. The day is observed to honor the martyrs and the men of the Armed Forces who valiantly fought on the borders to safeguard India's honor.

The Odisha government is to merge the State's Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (Kalia) scheme with the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) yojana due to financial constraint. KALIA Chhatravritti scheme was launched by the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in December 2018.

BJP candidate KC Ramamurthy was declared elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka, for which bypoll was necessitated following his resignation as the Congress member. The Congress and JDS had not fielded candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypoll.