Current Affairs - December 13, 2019 Current Affairs

Switzerland is to serve as a partner for Bio Asia 2020 has scheduled to be held between 17-19 February 2019 in Hyderabad, Telangana. The event is being organized by the Federation of Asian Biotech Association and the Government of Telangana. The theme of the Bio Asia 2020 is "Today For Tomorrow".

The Centre approved allowances worth Rs.4,800 crore for 4.5 lakh of its employees in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under the 7th Pay Commission. The announcement was made by the Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy. Since J&K and Ladakh are UTs now, all the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) pay and allowances will be given to all the government employees working in these UTs.

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said that India has reduced the emissions intensity of its GDP, that is emissions per unit of GDP, by 21% at the 25th session of Conference of Parties (COP-25) under the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change.The country is aiming to achieve the goal of 35% emissions reduction as promised in the Paris summit in 2015.

The cabinet has also approved increasing the authorised capital of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) from Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore. The Union Cabinet on December 11 approved infusing additional Rs 5,300 crore capital into IIFCL through recapitalisation bonds in the current fiscal year.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) auditors have found that the country's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), under-reported its non-performing assets (NPAs) for 2018-19 by Rs 11,932 crore, and made Rs 12,036 crore less provisions.

The inner line permit (ILP) regime was extended to Manipur on December 11 with President Ram Nath Kovind signing the order in this effect. Earlier it is applicable to Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram.

Parliament passes the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019. It was passed by Lok Sabha on December 10 and Rajya Sabha on December 11. The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there.

Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel launched the Indian Culture web portal. The Indian Culture portal was envisioned by the Ministry of Culture and has been developed by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay while the curation of the data has been done by Indira Gandhi National Open University

Abiy Ahmed Ali received the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December 2019 at Oslo's City Hall. The Norwegian Nobel Committee conferred the 100th Nobel Peace Prize to the Prime Minister in the presence of the Norwegian royal family. Abiy Ahmed was awarded for his extraordinary efforts to end the decades-long conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on December 11 cleared the A.P. Disha Bill, 2019 (A.P. Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019) paving the way for awarding the death penalty for the offences of rape and gang-rape and expediting the verdict in trials of such cases to 21 days.

The Odisha State government has planned to set up 45 fast-track special courts (FTSC) in the State. It aims to ensure speedy trial of cases involving crime against women and children. The announcement was made by the State law minister Pratap Jena. The state also stated that of the total 45 courts, 21 courts will deal with cases that are related to rape and sexual assault.

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.

The 13th South Asian Games concluded in Nepal on 10 December 2019. India topped the championship with a medal tally of 312 medals, of which 174 gold, 93 silver, and 45 bronze. It was followed by Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. In 2019 SAG, athletes from 7 countries namely Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka are participating in 26 different sports. More than 2,715 athletes participated in the event.

Government organized a Symposium on Scope of Science of Ayurveda in Global Health on 11 December at New Delhi. It was organized by the Ministry of AYUSH in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs. It is in line with the Ministry of AYUSH's commitment to promote Ayurveda and Traditional systems of Medicine globally.

Four people won the Right Livelihood Award for the year 2019. The awardees are Greta Thunberg, Aminatou Haidar, Guo Juanmei and DaviKopenawa Yanomami. The award aims to honour Greta Thunberg for her fight against climate change.

ISRO launched the RISAT-2BR1 satellite on 11 December 2019. India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched RISAT-2BR1, the fiftieth flight (PSLV-C48), along with nine commercial satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. RISAT-2BR1 was injected successfully into an orbit of 576 km.

Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) between Government of India and Government of Japan to constitute 'India-Japan Steel Dialogue' to strengthen cooperation in steel sector. MoC will help in capacity building for high grade steel manufacturing in India.

The India Skills Report said that nearly half of the professional degree holders are employable now. The report was released by Wheebox, People Strong, CII. Earlier, nearly 70% of the professional degree holders were found to be unemployable.The report said that there is an overall positive trend in talent supply. Nearly 47% of the students who were surveyed are found to be employable or ready to take-up jobs in 2019. In 2014 the employment rate was only 33.9%.

Exercise Iron Union 12 commenced on 10 December 2019. It is a joint military exercise between the ground forces of the UAE and the United States.

A three day "International Seminar on Climate Smart Farming systems" is being held in New Delhi. It was inaugurated on December 11, 2019. The seminar is being organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.