DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: DECEMBER 9, 2018

Dear Bankersdaily Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs ( December 9, 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

Rs.50 crore Science and Technology Innovation fund, first in the country, approved by Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani:

• Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has approved an Rs.50-crore Science & Technology Innovation (STI) Fund to provide assistance up to Rs.50 lakh to central and state universities and colleges, recognized by UGC and AICTE, for a period of maximum three years, to develop latent talents and encourage research and development in strategic fields.

• The Science & Technology Department of the state has identified Gujarat Council of Science & Technology (GUJCOST) to implement the scheme in fields which will be decided by the government for solving major problems faced by the state.

GUJARAT

• Capital: Gandhinagar

• Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani

• Governor: Om Prakash Kohli

Centre Empowers Lt Governors, Administrators to Set Up Special Courts:

• Lieutenant governors (LGs) and administrators of Union territories have been empowered by the central government to designate civil courts as special courts to adjudicate contracts relating to infrastructure projects.

• Under Section 20B of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (47 of 1963), the state government, in consultation with the chief justice of the high court, can designate one or more civil courts as special courts within the local limits of the area to exercise jurisdiction and to try a suit under this Act in respect of contracts relating to infrastructure projects.

INTERNATIONAL

UN launches new framework to combat international terrorism:

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has launched a new framework to combat the scourge of international terrorism and coordinate efforts across the peace and security, humanitarian, human rights and sustainable development sectors.

• Termed the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, the framework is an agreement between the UN chief, 36 organizational entities, INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization.

Two day 175th Meeting of the OPEC Conference & one day 5th OPEC and Non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held in Vienna, Austria:

• Two day 175th Meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) Conference & one day 5th OPEC and Non OPEC Ministerial Meeting concluded in Vienna, Austria. Qatar withdrew its OPEC membership with effect from January 1, 2019,

• HE Manuel Salvador Quevedo Fernandez, People’s Minister of Petroleum of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, was elected as the President of the conference for 1 year with effect from January 1, 2019, Mr. Agustin Mba Okomo, Equatorial Governor of OPEC was appointed as the Chairman of Board of Governors for the year 2019. The next OPEC and Non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting will convene in Vienna, Austria in April, 2019.

Sheikh Hamdan launches world’s largest Arabic audio library:

• Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of Dubai Executive Council, has launched the Dubai Audio Library, the largest Arabic audio library in the world.

• The library, which targets seven million visually impaired people in the Arab world, is an initiative undertaken by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in collaboration with the website Bookshare.org.

Conference on ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code – A New Paradigm for Stressed Assets’ held in New York, USA:

• A conference on the theme ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of India – New Paradigm for Stressed Assets’ was held at the Indian Consulate in New York. The conference was organized by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) jointly with the Consulate General of India, New York, USA. The Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley was addressing through Video Conferencing.

• Dr. M. S. Sahoo, Chairperson, IBBI also addressed at the function. The Conference was followed by a roundtable with prospective stakeholders of the Indian insolvency regime which witnessed participation of many international fund houses and law firms.

BANKING & BUSINESS

Current account deficit widens to 2.9% of GDP in Q2: RBI

• India’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) widened to 2.9 per cent of the GDP in the second quarter of the fiscal compared to 1.1 per cent in the year-ago period, mainly due to a large trade deficit, the RBI said. The CAD, or the difference between outflow and inflow of foreign exchange in the country’s current account, was USD 19.1 billion during the quarter ended September 30, 2018.

RANKING/REPORTS/INDEXES BY VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS

India to retain top position in remittances with $80 billion: World Bank

• India will retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances this year with its diaspora sending a whopping USD 80 billion back home. India is followed by China (USD 67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines (USD 34 billion each) and Egypt (USD 26 billion), according to the global lender. With this, India has retained its top spot on remittances, according to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief.

India tops in road deaths; globally fatalities increase by 1 lakh in 3 years: WHO report

• According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety, India tops in road deaths with 1.51 lakh road deaths in 2016 and globally the toll of road deaths increased from 1.25 million to 1.35 in a span of three years. The spike in road deaths globally has come as a shocker considering that the countries had pledged to halve their road deaths by 2020.

• The United Nations had declared the 2010-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. According to the report, at this rate, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 3.6 to halve road traffic deaths by 2020 will not be met.

Australia became world’s biggest LNG exporter for 1st time:

• Australia has passed Qatar to become the world’s leading exporter Of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for the first time. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the nation exported 6.55 million tonnes of LNG in November, compared to Qatar’s 6.27 million tonnes.

• LNG is Australia’s third-largest export commodity behind coal and iron ore, with exports of the three worth 165 billion Australian dollars (119.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the 12 months to the end of October 2018. Coal remained the most valuable export commodity at 64.6 billion AUD (46.7 billion USD) followed by iron.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Priyanka Chopra join Angela Merkel on Forbes world’s 100 most powerful women list:

• IT stalwart Roshni Nadar-Malhotra, biotechnology pioneer Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, media mogul Shobhana Bhartia and actor Priyanka Chopra have been named among the world’s 100 most powerful women by Forbes in a list topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

• Merkel, 64, a four-time Chancellor, retained the top spot in The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women 2018. It is the eighth consecutive year and 13 times in total in the 15 years of the annual list she has topped. She is followed by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who for the second year in a row has retained the No 2 spot on the list.

APPOINTMENTS

SoftBank hires Facebook’s Kirthiga Reddy to manage $100 billion vision fund:

• Ex-Facebook exec Kirthiga Reddy becomes first female investing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Following speculation that SoftBank is hiring a China-based team, the Japanese investment giant has brought on its first venture partner for its $100 billion Vision Fund.

AWARDS & HONOURS

Malala Yousafzai Honored by Harvard for Her Work Promoting Girls’ Education:

• Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai was honored by Harvard University for her work promoting girls’ education. Yousafzai received the 2018 Gleitsman Award from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Yousafzai became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 when she was recognized for her global work supporting schooling for all children.

Sunil Mittal received honorary doctorate from ESCP biz school:

• Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, has received an honorary doctorate from ESCP Europe Business School for his innovative entrepreneurship and contribution towards philanthropy in the field of education. He is the first Indian to be honoured with this award in ESCP Europe’s near – 200 years history.

SPORTS

India vs Australia: Ravichandran Ashwin makes Shaun Marsh break unwanted 130-year-old record

• Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin made Shaun Marsh break a 130-year-old Australian batting record after dismissing him for 2 runs on the second day of the first Test. Marsh became the first Australian since 1888 to register single-digit scores in six consecutive Test innings. Marsh had last hit a Test century in January 2018.

BOOKS & AUTHOR

Vice President: President’s range and depth of ideas is immense

• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has released a compilation of selected speeches of President Ram Nath Kovind titled, “The Republican Ethic” in English and “Loktantra ke Swar” in Hindi at a function in New Delhi. The books are collection of 95 of his selected speeches out of a total of 243 speeches made by the President in the first year of his office. They have been divided into 8 sections.

Aspirants can check the Whole planner of IBPS CLERK Prelims Exam 2018 from the below given link. 

IBPS CLERK prelims Exam 2018 – Planner