DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: DECEMBER 28, 2018

Dear Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs (December 28, 2018) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness , Static GK and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

NATIONAL

Odisha CM inaugurates 26th National Children’s Science Congress :

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the 26th National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) at the SOA University in Bhubaneswar.It will conclude on December 31.
• This year’s theme is ‘Science, Technology and Innovations: For clean, green and healthy nation’.
• About 800 delegates from 15 countries are participating in the the 26th National Children’s Science Congress.
• The annual event, which provides a platform to children to showcase their creativity and ability to innovate, will showcase technical sessions, exhibitions and discussions.

STATIC : ODISHA

Governor : Ganeshi Lal

Chief Minister :Naveen Patnaik

Tourism Ministry signed MoU to develop a mobile Audio Guide App for five iconic sites :

• The Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, Shri. K J Alphons handed over a Memorandum of Understanding under the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ project to M/s Resbird Technologies for development of a mobile Audio Guide App for five iconic sites.
• The five iconic sites for which the mobile Audio Guide App is to be developed are Amer Fort (Rajasthan), Kaziranga (Assam), Colva Beach (Goa), Kumarakom (Kerala) and Mahabodhi Temple (Bihar).

India Announces INR 4,500 Crore Assistance To Bhutan :

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs. 4,500 crore financial assistance to Bhutan for its 12th five-year plan after holding wide-ranging talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering.
• The new five-year plan of Bhutan began in 2018 and will continue till 2022.
• Modi stated that the hydro power cooperation with Bhutan is a key aspect of bilateral ties and that work on the Mangdechhu project will soon be completed.

Second Delta Ranking under Aspirational District Programme released by NITI:

• Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant released the Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts Programme.
• The ranking shows the incremental progress achieved by 111 aspirational districts (out of 115) during June 1, 2018 to October 31, 2018, across six key development sectors.
• The 6 developmental sectors are: Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.
• The data has been received from household surveys conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners, namely, TATA Trusts and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (IDInsight).

Central Railways introduces technology to eliminate manual examination of trains :

• The mechanical branch of Central Railways’ Nagpur division has introduced a new state-of-the-art technology called Automated Train Examination System (ATES) for the enhancement of train safety.
• ATES also checks every train passing through the track on which it is installed and immediately warns about hot axle and brake binding cases.

STATIC: Central Railways

Headquarters: Chhatrapati Sivaji Terminus, Mumbai

VP Naidu confers ‘Champions of Change’ award to Manipur CM :

• Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh conferred the ‘Champions of Change’ award by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu in Delhi. He was recognized for his leadership role in transforming the governance in the north-eastern state.
• At a programme to identify the progress made in 115 ‘aspirational’ districts, Manipur was chosen for its all-round development on various parameters in all its ‘aspirational’ districts.
• The award selection jury was led by former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishna and former Supreme Court judge Sudha Mishra.

Railways Develops Robot USTAAD, To Check For Faults In Trains :

• To make trains more safe by eliminating human errors, Central Railway has developed an AI-powered robot which would click pictures and record videos of the under-gears of trains and send them to engineers for repairs and maintenance.
• It is named as USTAAD (Undergear Surveillance through Artificial Intelligence Assisted Droid).

INTERNATIONAL

GHMC is awarded the Best Capital City in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings:

• The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been awarded Best Capital City in the Solid Waste Management in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings.
• Swachh Survekshan was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).
• The Swachh Survekashan survey ranks cities on various sanitation parameters. The GHMC was also at the 27th place among 4,041 cities.

Russia successfully tested hypersonic missile Avangard :

• Russia has conducted a final test of a nuclear-capable glider that flies at 20 times the speed of sound.
• The missile was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains and hit its target on a test site in Kamchatka, about 6,000km away.
• Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius that come from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.

Divya Patidar Joshi Crowned Mrs. India 2018 Title :

• The Mrs. India My Identity Beauty Pageant 2018 finale was held in Delhi and Divya Patidar Joshi was crowned with the prestigious honour.
• Hailing from Madhya Pardesh’s Ratlam, Divya won the crown of Mrs India this year from among 24 promising contestants.
• She won all the rounds of Beauty with Brain contest along with Best Cat Walk title.

Isolated Turkmenistan launches first messaging app :

• The repressive central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, where the likes of Facebook and Whatsapp are banned, launched its first messaging app.
• The privately developed BizBarde app will allow the exchange of messagers, files, photos and videos.

STATIC: Turkmenistan

Capital: Ashgabat

Currency: Manat.

Israel’s parliament approved a law to permit exports of medical marijuana:

• Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved of a law to permit exports of medical marijuana which made Israel the 3rd country after the Netherlands and Canada, to take its medical cannabis global.

STATIC: Israel

Capital: Jerusalem.

Currency: Israeli new shekel.

41st Meeting of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee Held in New Delhi :

• The 41st meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee was held in New Delhi.
• In the meeting, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of another 3,10,597 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
• A total of 864 projects with a project cost of Rs 14,662 crore with central assistance of Rs 4,658 crore has been approved in the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Shri Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Four day 12th Annual ISDSI Conference commenced in SPJIMR, Mumbai :

• The four day long 12th Annual Indian Subcontinent Decision Sciences Institute (ISDSI) conference commenced in SPJIMR, Mumbai.
• The theme of this international conference is “Data-Driven Decision Making in the Digital Age”.

The main objective of this conference is to provide a platform for academicians, researchers and practitioners to:

• Disseminate research, providing insights into the challenges, opportunities, emerging strategies and analytical tools in the domain of decision making;
• Present case studies on the application of tools and techniques;
• Explore cutting-edge ideas, results, and share experiences.

Nepal caps expenditure of its citizens in India :

• Nepal imposed a monthly limit on the amount of Indian currency its citizen can spend in India.
• According to that Nepali citizen would be unable to spend more than ₹1 lakh per month while paying for goods and services in India and that the decision was taken to address the country’s current account deficit.
• The policy applicable to prepaid, credit and debit cards of Nepali banks came into effect.

STATIC:NEPAL

Capital: Kathmandu

Currency: Nepalese rupee.

BANKING & ECONOMY

RBI launches survey to capture retail payment habits in 6 cities :

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will capture payment habits of individuals in six cities, including four metropolitan towns. For the purpose, the central bank has launched a ‘Survey on Retail Payment Habits of Individuals (SRPHi)’.
• According to RBI release, the survey will cover a sample of 6,000 individuals from various socio-economic backgrounds across six cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Guwahati.
• The survey seeks qualitative responses from individuals on their payment habits.

STATIC : RBI

Headquarters: New Delhi

Governor : shaktikanta das

APPOINTMENTS

Air Marshal Rajeev Sachdeva takes over as Deputy Chief of Integrated Defense Staff (Operations):

• The Defense Ministry appointed Air Marshal Rajeev Sachdeva who had served in three out of four wings of Integrated Defense Staff (IDS) headquarters as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defense Staff (Operations).
• He take over the position from Rajeev Sachdeva.

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