GK and Current Affairs Updates

The National Pollution Control Day 2016 was observed on 2 December 2016 in India with an aim to make aware the people and industries about the need of Pollution Control Acts.
●    This day is observed every year to give honour to thousands of human beings who lost their lives in 1984 due to the Bhopal gas tragedy in Bhopal.
●    This catastrophe was the worst in the world's industrial history and people there still continue to witness physical and mental disabilities. 
●    Bhopal gas tragedy happened in the night of 2 December to 3 December 1984 due to the discharge of the poisonous chemical Methyl Isocyanate and other chemicals that released from Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
●    Due to leakage, more than 500000 people were exposed to the poisonous gas of MIC and around 2259 died immediately. 
●    Later, it was declared by Madhya Pradesh government around 25000 people died because of the gas-related diseases.

Persons afflicted with Parkinson's disease and acid attack survivors will soon be considered disabled under law. 
●    The Persons with Disabilities Bill (PWD), which is set to be tabled in Parliament, lists 21 infirmities. 
●    People falling under these 21 categories will be recognised as disabled and be eligible for affirmative action and benefits under the law.
●    A proposed amendment to the 1995 Act had increased number of disabilities from seven to 19. 
●    However, the bill was referred to a group of ministers for discussion and two more categories were added. 
●    They argued that the disorder was a debilitating stigma in rural areas and recognising it would help sensitise the general population. 
●    The other key additions to the 1995 Act are autism, thalassemia, haemophilia, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell disease and dwarfism.

Yoga, India’s one of the ancient practices to keep oneself healthy, has been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
●    It was inscribed on the list during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The declaration describing Yoga as a Human Treasure got unanimous support of the 24 members of the Committee.
●    With this, Yoga became the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. The previous intangible cultural heritage list includes
●    Chhau dance 
●    The Buddhist chanting of Ladakh 
●    Sankirtana - the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur 
●    The traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab 
●    Ramlila- the traditional performance of the Ramayana 

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment launched the 2nd phase of Tele-medicine services for providing specialist medical services at a distance to insured workers. 
●    In this phase ESIS dispensary, Dimapur (Nagaland), Shillong (Meghalaya), Agartala (Tripura) has now been connected to ESIC Hospital, Joka, Kolkata w.e.f. 1st December, 2016.  
●    The first phase was launched in September, 2016 by connecting Employees State Insurance Corporation’s(ESIC) Model Hospital Basaidarapur with three ESIS dispensaries at Katihar (Bihar), Unnao (UP) and Rudarpur (Uttrachal).
●    ESI Corporation has been providing health care and other social security benefits to the workers of specified wage group since the last 65 years as a labour welfare measure.  
●    Under this new initiatives, ESIC has launched Pilot Project of Tele-medicine Services at 11 ESI locations at NO Cost; in coordination with Health Informatics and Electronic Division (HIED), C-DAC, Mohali.

Russia's ban from global athletics will continue until at least February.The country has been banned from competition by the sport's world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since November 2015 over state-sponsored doping and missed the Rio Olympics.
●    The head of the IAAF taskforce set up to assess Russia's anti-doping progress revealed that, although the country had made progress towards the conditions of their readmission to the international fold, they were still not ready to return.
●    There are no major athletics championships before February.
●    In the meantime, Russian athletes can still apply to the IAAF doping review board to compete if they can demonstrate they have undergone a testing system, as the US-based long jumper Darya Klishina did successfully for the Rio Games.
●    The ban has led to Russian athletes missing the Olympics in Brazil and its current extension means the bulk of them will also likely miss the March 3-5 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

India’s renowned theoretical physicist Thanu Padmanabhan has won a ten-year-old challenge on dark energy. 
●    The Professor presented his idea on the dark energy to the international community of astrophysicists back in 2006 and asked everyone to prove him wrong by next decade — 2016. 
●    It is now confirmed that everyone failed to prove him wrong and he won his own challenge on the dark energy.
●    Dark matter is the most mysterious entity in our universe as no one has actually seen or experienced what dark matter is. 
●    Scientists believe that more than one-third of our universe is made up of dark matter and it is a hot topic among cosmologists and space enthusiasts.
●    Padmanabhan presented his idea on the dark matter at the 23rd Texas Symposium on December 15, 2006, and asked the attendants and physicists all around the globe to prove his idea wrong in next ten years.
●    It was Wiltshire who openly accepted the challenge and said he will prove the theory wrong. 

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed a MoU with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for cooperation in the area of zoonoses, anti-microbial resistance, nutrition and pesticide residues. 
●    The MoU signing ceremony was presided over by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. 
●    Some of the significant outcomes of the MoU are as under:
●    Exchange of scientific literature, information and methodology;
●    Utilization of facilities and expertise in programmes of common interest as may be mutually agreed upon.
●    Exchange of pertinent research material
●    Zoonoses have been defined as diseases and infections that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. 
●    Around 60% of all human diseases and around 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic however; these are missed, not recognized or understood in developing countries like India.

Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, on 1 December 2016 launched ‘Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan’. 
●    The Abhiyan aims at making people aware about the cashless economic system.
●    The programme was launched in line to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to youth in Mann Ki Baat, where Prime Minister called for making people aware about digital economy and cashless modes of transactions.
●    For creation of a cashless economy, Javadekar appealed to the faculty and especially young students to come forward and join Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan. 
●    For participation of youth and faculty, HRD Minister also launched a webpage where students can register themselves. 
●    They can also provide their feedback and suggestions on the initiative as well as upload the progress of their work.
●    HRD Minister also appealed to higher education institutes to receive nothing in cash (fee/fines/deposits) and pay nothing in cash (wages/salaries/vendor payments). 

Magnus Carlsen won the 2016 World Chess Championship on 30 November 2016 in New York City, USA.
●    Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster.
●    He became a chess Grandmaster in 2004, at the age of 13 years. This made him the third-youngest grandmaster in history.
●    In November 2013, he became World Champion by defeating Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship.
●    On the May 2014 FIDE rating list, he reached his peak rating of 2882, which is the highest in history.
●    He successfully defended his title in November 2014 by defeating Anand once again.
●    In 2014, he also won the World Rapid Championship and the World Blitz Championship, thus holding all three world championship titles.
●    The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in chess.
●    It commenced in 1886.
●    From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

Kerala’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple decided to ease the dress norms for women devotees, allowing them to wear salwar kameez and churidar while offering their prayers at the shrine.
●    The much-criticised dress code of the Temple required men to wear dhoti while entering the temple and women to wear a saree, dhoti or Pavada and blouse. 
●    While salwar suits have been allowed, modern outfits like jeans, sleeveless tops and dresses will still not be permitted.  
●    The century-old structure is located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. 
●    Featuring high walls and a 16th-century Gopuram, the temple has been built in Dravidian style. 
●    The principal god in the temple is Vishnu, who is enshrined in the ‘Anantha Shayanam’ posture .
●    Only those who profess Hindu faith are permitted to enter the temple. 
●    A review of the temple’s six unopened vaults in 2010 led to the revealing of rare jewels, solid gold idols studded with precious stones, kilos of gold jewelry, crowns, coins bars and a heavily studded pure golden throne. 
●    This makes the temple one of the wealthiest places of worship in the world.