GK and Current Affairs Updates

The plane disappeared from radar two minutes after taking off from Sochi at 05:25 (02:25 GMT), heading for Latakia in Syria.
●    Debris and 11 bodies have been found, with no reports of survivors.
●    The Tu-154 was carrying soldiers, reporters and 64 members of the famed Alexandrov military music ensemble who were to perform for Russian troops.
●    More than 100 divers are involved in a round-the-clock search operation at the site of the crash, Russia's defence ministry says.
●    Russia's transport minister says investigators are looking into an "entire spectrum'' of possible reasons the crash occurred, including the possibility of a terror attack.
●    Earlier, a Russian official had downplayed any suggestion of a terror attack.
●    President Vladimir Putin has said Monday will be a day of national mourning.
●    The flight had originated in Moscow and landed at Adler airport in Sochi for refuelling.
 

The Defence and Research Development Organization (DRDO) yesterday successfully flight tested the Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW), from an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft. 
●    SAAW, an indigenously designed and developed 120 kg. class smart weapon, developed by DRDO, is capable of engaging ground targets with high precision up to a range of 100 kms. 
●    The light weight high precision guided bomb is one of the world class weapons systems.
●    The captive and release trials were tracked by Radar and Telemetry ground stations at ITR during the entire duration of the flight. The performance of all systems were satisfactory with all the mission objectives achieved.
●    Secretary, Department of Defence (R&D) & Chairman, DRDO, Dr S. Christopher, congratulated DRDO and the IAF teams for the successful mission.
●    Scientific Advisor to RM and DG (Missile and Strategic Systems), DRDO, Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, lauded the scientific community of the DRDO for their efforts towards the design and development of this state-of-the-art smart weapon within the set time frame.

Ravichandran Ashwin on 22 December 2016 won the coveted Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.
●    Ashwin was chosen for the award after being adjudged the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Cricketer of the Year. With this, he became the second Indian player after Rahul Dravid to bag the two prestigious prizes in the same year.
●    Ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was awarded with the prestigious trophy in the year 2010. The other recipients of the Sir Garfield Trophy include Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mitchell Johnson among others.
●    Ravichandran Ashwin is a right-handed batsman and right-arm off break bowler.
●    He plays for the Rising Pune Supergiants in the IPL.
●    Ashwin is the fastest Indian bowler to reach the 50-, 100-, 150- and 200-wicket mark in Test cricket.
●    He is the only bowler of recent times apart from Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka to bowl the carrom ball.
 

The White House in the fourth week of December 2016 permanently banned all new oil and gas drilling in the US-owned waters of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.
●    This ban is being termed as a final effort to lock in environmental protections before current President Barack Obama hands over his office to president-elect Donald Trump.
●    To implement the ban on the two Oceans, an area that is roughly equal to the size of Thailand or Spain on Arctic and 31 sea canyons in the Arctic, Obama used a law of 1953 under which a president can block the mining and sale of new offshore drilling rights. The law makes it difficult for his/her successors to reverse the decision.
●    The ban was jointly announced by Obama and Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister.
●    Outgoing President Obama’s decision comes at a time of his departure from his office holds its ground. 
●    It holds ground because of his difference, in relation to policies related to the environment, between him and the president-elect Trump.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently declared that actor Sunny Leone is PETA’s Person of the Year.
●    Leone will receive the award for her commitment for promoting the rescue of homeless dogs and cats, as well as her compassion for abused animals.
●    Earlier in 2016, Leone featured in PETA’s ad campaign, which encouraged people to "be an angel" and adopt a homeless dog.
●    In 2015, Kapil Sharma was chosen for the PETA’s Person of the Year award.
●    Past recipient of the award include Shashi Tharoor, KS Panicker Radhakrishnan, Hema Malini, R Madhavan, Jacqueline Fernandez among others.
●    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization.
●    It was founded in March 1980.
●    It has more than 3 million members and supporters. It is the largest animal rights group in the world.
 

India on 23 December 2016 won the Asian Cricket Council Under-19s Asia Cup title. In the final played at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, India defeated hosts Sri Lanka by 34 runs.
●    Opting first after winning the toss, India Under-19 team posted a competitive score of 273 runs for a loss of eight wickets in their 50 overs. 
●    In reply to it, the Sri Lankan side was bowled out for a score of 239 in 48.4 overs.
●    Foundation of India’s total was based on the first five batsman, especially due to the score of 71 and 70 by Himanshu Rana and Shubham Gill respectively. 
●    Later, the fine bowling efforts by Indian spinners helped the Indian side in dismissing the Under-19 team of Sri Lanka and clinch the trophy.
●    Skipper Abhishek 4 for 37 produced a fine display of slow left-arm orthodox bowling and was assisted ably by leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who returned with impressive figures of three for 22 from his quota of 10 overs to dismantle the Lankans.
●    For Sri Lankan Under-19 team, pacer Nipun Ransika and left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama took three wickets each.

Popular bollywood actor Salman Khan topped the 2016 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List. 
●    As per the list released by the Forbes magazine on 23 December 2016, 50-year-old Salman Khan retained the top spot due to the commercial success of his two big releases - Sultan and Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo.
●    Salman Khan’s total earnings constituted 9.84 percent of the total wealth of all the top 100 celebrities for the year.
●    While the top 100 celebrities cumulatively earned Rs 2745 crore, Salman earned Rs 270.33 crore in one year period.
●    Top 10 celebrities of the list in:
●    Salman Khan
●    Shah Rukh Khan
●    Virat Kohli
●    Akshay Kumar
●    MS Dhoni
●    Deepika Padukone
●    Sachin Tendulkar
●    Priyanka Chopra
●    Amitabh Bachchan
●    Hrithik Roshan

Sheva Keshavan, the Winter Olympian from India, won the gold medal at Asian Luge Championship on 23 December 2016. 
●    He braved an injury to clinch the gold at the championship in Nagano.
●    Keshavan who dominated the event finished the 2 heat race in 1:39.962 seconds. 103.4 km/hr was his top speed in the race.
●    Tanaka Shohei of Japan clinched the silver medal in the event with a combined time of 1:44.874 seconds. His top speed was 124.6 km/hr. On the other hand, the bronze medal went to Chinese Taipei’s Lien Te-An. He completed the race in 45.120 with a top speed of 126.3 km/hr.
●    It is an annual Luge competition for Asian countries and it came into existence in 1998.
●    The competition is held in different formats, namely men’s and women’s single events and men’s double events.
●    All editions of the competition are held by Spiral bobsleigh luge, and skeleton track at Nagano, Japan.

The government of Tripura has decided to adopt for cashless payment in all public transactions, starting from 1 January 2017.
●    The government has already initiated the process of opening bank accounts including issuing RuPay cards to people who do not have any bank accounts.
●    According to the Chief Secretary of the state, Yashpal Singh, 80% people in Tripura already have at least one bank account. 
●    So, the state government took the initiative of opening bank accounts for those who don’t have such as the tea garden and brick kiln workers.
●    By New Year, the government plans to convert the state into a cashless economy by ensuring that all its state departments deal mostly in digital payments.
●    Apart from this, the government is also building digital infrastructure in the Agartala government medical college & hospital, Tripura medical college and hospital and Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital. 

The Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution is celebrating the National Consumer Day this year with the theme “Alternate Consumer Disputes Redressal” on 24th December, 2016 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
●    The programme will be inaugurated and presided over by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and will be attended by Shri C.R Chaudhary, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Members of Parliament, Ministers and Secretaries in charge of Consumer Affairs in the States, Officers in the Central Government, and representatives from Industry and the Voluntary Consumer Organisations.
●    High on the agenda of the event will be the discussion on the theme Alternative Dispute Resolution, which is already being practiced in resolving civil disputes, and the Consumer Protection Bill 2015 also has a chapter dedicated to mediation, one of the ADR mechanisms. 
●    New initiatives of the Department on consumer grievance redressal and consumer education, leveraging new age technologies will be launched.
●    The National Consumer Day is observed every year on December 24. On this day, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had received the assent of the President. 
●    The Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the national consumer movement and is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers.