Important Current Affairs 23rd December 2019

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India constructs Girls’ Hostel for Nepal Armed Police Force

• On December 22, 2019, The Government of India (GoI) has granted Rs 2.2 crore (40.42 million Nepali Rupees) for construction of Girls’ Hostel for Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) School in Kirtipur, Kathmandu.

• The construction project was implemented by Nepal APF.

• The inaugural ceremony was attended by Dr Ajay Kumar, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Ramsharan Paudel, Assistant Inspector General, Armed Police Force, Nepal, and others.

• About Nepal:

Nepal Prime Minister: K P Sharma Oli;

Capital: Kathmandu.

President of Nepal: Bidhya Devi Bhandari;

Currency of Nepal: Nepalese rupee.

Govt approved projects worth Rs 7000 cr under Nirbhaya fund

• On December 20, 2019, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoW&CD) has announced the approval of projects worth Rs 7,000 crore including setting up of 1023 fast-track courts under Nirbhaya fund.

• These courts were decided to be set up in order to provide speedy trials of over 1.66 lakh pending cases of crime against women and children in India.

• About Nirbhaya Fund:

• The Nirbhaya fund was set up in 2013 with Rs.1000 crores corpus by the Congress party-led govt. as a tribute to a 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim. Nirbhaya (fearless) was the pseudonym given to the victim to hide the original identity.

• To support initiatives by the government and NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) working towards protecting the dignity and ensuring the safety of women in India.

•The MoW&CD under Nirbhaya fund, has also funded women help desks across all police stations in the country. Anti-trafficking units to protect women and children have also been funded.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Nadal and Barty named 2019 ITF World Champions

• Ashleigh Barty and Rafael Nadal were named International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) World Champions in singles for 2019. This awards will be given at the 2020 ITF world champions 2nd June, in Paris.

Indian Archaeologist honoured in Bangladesh

• Noted archaeologist R. Nagaswamy was honoured at the Silver Jubilee International Conference of Art in Dhaka by Bangladesh. He is an Indian historian, archaeologist and epigraphist. He served as the founder-director of Tamilnadu Archaeology Department. In 2018 he was awarded India’s third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan.

National Bravery Award: Malayali boy bags top bravery award

• Aditya K. of Kozhikode, Kerala has become the first child from the State to bag the Bharat Award for bravery.

• The Bharat Award has gone to Aditya for rescued 20 people from a bus carrying members of the Calicut University Pensioners’ Forum and their families when it caught fire coming down a steep mountain road.

• Two more children from the State are also recipients of the awards. Muhammed Mohsin has been given the award posthumously for saving the lives of three children.

•  Fatah gets the award for rescuing a woman and a girl from an approaching train. Both belong to Kozhikode.

SPORTS

ICC T20I rankings: Radha retains 2nd position in bowlers' list.

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) T20I (Twenty-twenty International) rankings for Women players were released.

• Spinner Radha Yadav remained in the second position in the Bowler rankings which is the highest of all category rankings by an Indian Women’s cricketer in the recently released T20I women’s rankings.

Meiraba Luwang clinches Bangladesh Junior Int'l Series title.

• India's shuttler Maisnam Meiraba Luwang has won the Men's singles Bangladesh Junior International Badminton Series 2019 in Dhaka.

• Top-seeded Meiraba, who hails from Manipur, beat Ken Yong Ong 21, 14, 21-18 in the final lasting 38 minutes on Sunday.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

Dr Sangita Reddy takes over as President FICCI

• Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group was appointed as the President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

• On 23rd December 2019, she is appointed for the year 2019-20, during FICCI’s 92nd Annual Convention in New Delhi.

• She succeeds Mr Sandip Somany, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, HSIL Limited.

President of the Walt Disney Company APAC & Chairman of Star & Disney India, Mr Uday Shankar has been elevated as Senior Vice President of FICCI.

Similarly, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Mr Sanjiv Mehta was appointed as the Vice President of FICCI.

About FICCI:

Established- 1927

Headquarters- New Delhi

Monisha Ghosh named as first woman CTO at FCC in US

• Indian-American Dr. Monisha Ghosh has been appointed as the first woman Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the US government’s powerful Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

• She will take charge on January 13, 2020. She replaces Dr Eric Burger.

• Dr Ghosh will advise Indian-American Chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai and the agency on technology and engineering issues. She will also work with the Office of Engineering and Technology.

• Ghosh received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1991 and B.tech from IIT Kharagpur in 1986.

About FCC:

Founder- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Founded- 19 June 1934

Headquarters- Washington, D.C, US.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

WHO prequalifies first biosimilar medicine to increase worldwide access to life-saving breast cancer treatment

• On December 18, 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that for the 1st time it had approved a “biosimilar” medicine of Trastuzumab named “Ontruzant” to make cheaper breast cancer treatment at an affordable rate to women globally.

• The medicine is derived from living sources rather than chemicals.

• The biosimilar medicine of the Trastuzumab drug was supplied by Samsung Bioepis co Ltd.

• It will be used for the treatment of HER2 (Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)-positive breast cancer and HER2 over expressing gastric cancer.

About World Health Organisation (WHO):

Founded- 7 April 1948.

Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland.

Director General(DG)- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Parent Organization- United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN-ECOSOC)

SUMMITS AND MOU’S

Wipro partners with Nasscom to skill 10,000 students

• Wipro has partnered with Nasscom to train students on emerging technologies. The programme will train on technologies such as artificial intelligence, data science, internet of things, cybersecurity.

• Wipro will train 10,000 students from engineering colleges in India as a part of Wipro’s corporate social responsibility programme “TalentNext“.

• TalentNext aims to improve the quality of engineering education by preparing faculty and academic leaders to train students.

• The programme will now be extended to students directly through Future Skills, a Nasscom platform.

•  “Future Skills” bridges the industry-academia skill gap and help students learn new-age technologies.

Bank of Baroda inks MoU with Gujarat govt to provide MSME loans

• In order to facilitate the flow of credit in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector, Bank of Baroda (BoB), an Indian multinational, public sector Bank, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government.

• As per the agreement, the credit will be provided to the MSME for greenfield projects, startups, women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from backward areas under the Gujarat Single Window Clearance Act 2017 & Ordinance Number 1 of 2019 dated October 24, 2019.

• About BoB:

Founded– 20 July 1908

Headquarters– Vadodara, Gujarat

MD & CEO– PS Jayakumar

Tagline– India’s International Bank

• About Gujarat:

Capital– Gandhinagar.

Governor– Acharya Devvrat.

Chief Minister– Vijay Rupani.

Folk dances– Garba, Dandiya Ras, Tippani Juriun, Bhavai.

State Flower– Marigold

19th Joint Commission meeting of India-Iran, held in Iran.

• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar co-chaired the 19th Joint Commission meeting with Foreign Minister of Iran.

• The Joint Commission meeting was held in Tehran, Iran.

• The meeting reviewed the entire gamut of the cooperation and agreed to accelerate work on the strategic Chabahar project.

• The Chabahar port is jointly being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan.

•  It is located on the Indian Ocean in the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.

About Iran :

• Iran Capital: Tehran;

• Currency: Rial;

• President: Hassan Rouhani.