NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Government appoints former SC Judge
Hemant Gupta as new Chief of NDIAC: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment
of former Supreme Court (SC) Justice, Hemant Gupta as the new chairperson
of New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (NDIAC). The govt has also
appointed Anant Vijay Palli as the part-time members of NIDAC. Justice
Gupta was served as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Purpose of NDIAC: To create an independent and autonomous regime for
institutionalised arbitration. Two months after his retirement as
a judge of the Supreme Court, the Centre has appointed Justice Hemant Gupta as
Chairperson of the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre. In a notification issued December
19, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Justice Gupta’s
appointment. He retired on October 16, after a four-year tenure in the top
court.
2. Defence ministry's iDEX-DIO signs
its 150th innovation contract: Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), flagship initiative of
Department of Defence Production, has signed its 150th contract in New
Delhi. The contract was related to an Indian Navy project of
the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT edition. The challenge
was titled ‘Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target
(EMATT) capable of simulating the sound and movement of a submarine’. The iDEX
framework was launched by the Prime Minister in 2018. Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship
initiative of Department of Defence Production, has reached a milestone with
the signing of its 150th contract. The contract relates to an Indian Navy
project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT edition. The
challenge was titled ‘Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Training
Target (EMATT) capable of simulating the sound and movement of a submarine’ and
the winner was Altair Infrasec Pvt Ltd, Pune.
3. Delhi govt schools to introduce pre
lunch 'mini snack' break: Delhi government has decided to introduce mini snack breaks to
battle malnutrition in children. According to a circular by the Directorate of
Education (DoE), schools have been directed to include a 10-minute mini
snack break in the school timetable. The mini break should be 2.5 hours
before the lunch break.
Schools have been asked to prepare a weekly planner of snacks offering
three food choices every day which may include food items such as seasonal
fruits etc.
4. Kerala set to host first
International Beach Festival: Kerala government will host the Bekal International Beach
Festival from 24 Dec - 2 Jan 2022 at the Spice Coast, in the far
north of Kerala. Aim: To revitalise the district’s development by
showcasing its potential. The festival will be staged at the three venues
of Chandragiri, Thejaswini, and Payaswini. The event will organised
by Bekal Resorts Development Corporation (BRDC) in association with the
District Tourism Promotion Council, Kudumbashree, Asmi Holidays.
Kasaragod (Ker), Dec 22 (PTI) The ‘Spice Coast’ in the far north of
Kerala, better known as North Malabar, will bask in myriad colours and the pomp
and splendour of the cultural extravaganza titled ‘Bekal International Beach
Festival’ from December 24.
5. Social Progress Index 2022:
Puducherry best-performing States: According to
the Social Progress Index 2022, Puducherry has emerged as
the best-performing State, followed by Lakshadweep, and Goa. Puducherry
had the highest score of 65.99 for its remarkable performance across components
like personal freedom and choice, shelter, and water and sanitation. Lakshadweep
and Goa followed close with scores of 65.89 and 65.53, respectively.
Jharkhand and Bihar
scored the lowest, 43.95 and 44.47, respectively. Aizawl (Mizoram) attained the
highest SPI score of 72.90 in the country, with five more districts of Mizoram
belonging to this tier, namely Lungei (69.80), Champhai (67.93), Serchhip
(67.77), Saiha (65.79) and Mamit (64.84). Over 69 percent of Uttarakhand’s
districts witnessed Very High Social Progress, whereas 30 percent of Arunachal
Pradesh’s districts fall into this category.
Nagpur is the only
district in Maharashtra that has achieved Very High Social Progress.
6. Vadnagar town, Modhera Sun Temple
added to UNESCO’s tentative list: Three
new cultural sites in India, including iconic Sun Temple at Modhera, historic
Vadnagar town in Gujarat, and rock-cut relief sculptures of Unakoti in
Tripura, have been added to the tentative list of UNESCO world heritage
sites. The UNESCO website describes a tentative list as an “inventory of those
properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination”. Vadnagar,
an ancient city in Mehsana district of Gujarat is steeped in history and
endowed with rich built heritage.
Rock Cut Sculptures and
reliefs of the Unakoti, Tripura have also been added in the list. India has a
total of 40 sites which enjoy the UNESCO World Heritage tag. These include 32
cultural sites, such as Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Harappan-era site in Dholavira,
Elephanta Caves, Red Fort complex in Delhi, and Mahabodhi Temple complex in
Bodh Gaya in Bihar.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Nasa formally retires Mars InSight
lander after 4-year mission: Nasa has announced that Mars InSight lander has been retired four
years after it touched down on the surface of the red planet. It was
the first robotic probe, which was specially designed to study the
deep interior of a distant world. Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) concluded that the mission had ended when two consecutive
attempts to re-establish radio contact with the lander failed. InSight landed
on Mars in late November 2018.
NASA’s InSight mission has ended
after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission
controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern
California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts,
leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out
of energy – a state engineers refer to as “dead bus.”
2. UI ranks MAHE as most sustainable
university in India: According to
the UI Green Metric World University Rankings 2022, Manipal Academy of Higher
Education (MAHE) has been topped in India and ranked 121st worldwide for being
the most sustainable university. In 2022, 1050 universities from 85 countries
had been participated. Top universities: Wageningen University
Research (Netherlands); Nottingham Trent University (UK), University of
Nottingham (UK), University of Groningen (Netherlands), Iniversity of
California, Davis MAHE’s total score for this
year was 8,050 with six criteria: Setting and Infrastructure, Education and
Research, Energy and Climate Change, Waste, Water, and Transportation. The UI
Green Metric World University Ranking is a ranking on green campus and
environmental sustainability initiated by Universitas Indonesia in 2010. It
helps in measuring each participating university’s commitment in developing an
environmentally friendly and sustainable university.
3. India-Indonesia Investment and
Business Forum meeting held in Port Blair: A
meeting of the Joint Task Force Committee of ‘India-Indonesia Investment
and Business Forum’ to identify new areas of cooperation, develop
infrastructure, tourism, trade, and connectivity to enhance business relations
was held in Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar. This is the second meeting
of the Task Force Committee. The first meeting was held in the Indonesian
Capital of Jakarta on November 25, 2019. Indonesia’s Sabang port in Aceh is
around 90 nautical miles from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India is keen to
expand trade and tourism with Indonesia. Indonesia’s Sabang port in Aceh is
around 90 nautical miles from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. From Port Blair, the
distance from Chennai and Kolkata is 794 nautical miles and 901 nautical miles
respectively. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia in 2018,
he called for a Joint Task Force Committee from both sides to boost bilateral
investments.
4. Elon Musk to step down as Twitter
CEO: Billionaire Elon Musk
will step down as chief executive of Twitter Inc. once he finds a
replacement, but will still run some key divisions of the social media
platform. Musk’s Twitter post came as a reply to his earlier poll, where he
asked people if he should resign as the head of Twitter. He also promised that
he would “abide by the results” of the poll. The result of the poll showed that
57.5% of respondents were in favour of Musk stepping down. This is the first time
Musk has mentioned stepping down as chief of the social media platform. Twitter,
Inc. is an American social media company based in San Francisco, California.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1. Viacom18 gets broadcast rights of
Olympic Games Paris 2024: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced
that Viacom18 Media Private Limited (Viacom18) has secured the exclusive
media rights to broadcast the Olympic Games Paris 2024. It has
also secured the non-exclusive rights to the Winter Youth Olympic Games
Gangwon 2024, in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka. In 2024, Olympics will be hosted by France in Paris,
beginning from July 26 to August 11.
2. FIFA picked Morocco to host Club
World Cup in February 2023: FIFA has announced
that Morocco will host the next football Club World Cup. The tournament
will take place from 1-11 Feb 2023. The most recent edition of the tournament
was held in the UAE in February 2022 and was won by the English football club,
Chelsea. Morocco also hosted Club World Cups in 2013 and 2014, which were won
by Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, respectively. Only European and South
American teams have won the Club World Cup since it was revived in the current
format in 2005. FIFA has long wanted to launch an expanded version with 24 or
32 teams in a tournament played in June.
3. New Delhi to host the 36th Asian
Wrestling Championships 2023: The United World
Wrestling (UWW) announced that the 36th Asian Wrestling Championships
2023 will be held in New Delhi from 28 March to 2 April 2023. The Asian Championships
will be held in New Delhi for the 36th time. The annual gathering will take
place for the seventh time in the Indian capital. It will offer ranking
points to the wrestlers which will determine their seedings for the World
Championships to be held in Belgrade, Serbia from 16 to 24 Sept 2023. The World Wrestling
Championships is scheduled to take place in Belgrade, Serbia from 16 to 24
September 2023. The first edition of the Asian Wrestling Championships in 1979
was also held in India with Jalandhar as the host city. Mumbai hosted it once
in 1987.
4. 21st December – Winter Solstice Day:
December 21 is a day of great events, as it marks
the Winter Solstice. Also known as December solstice, hiemal solstice or
hibernal solstice, the event takes place when one of the Earth’s pole is tilted
away from the sun at its maximum distance. Apparently, this causes the day to
have the shortest period of daylight due to being away from the sun, with the
longest night of the year. This day is marked once every year on either
December 21 or 22 mostly in countries witnessing the winter season, like the
UK, the US, India, Russia, China, and Canada. Summer Solstice (21 JUNE) is
the longest day of the year which is considered as the start of the
summer season.
Equinox twice a year,
day and night are about the same length in both the Southern and Northern
Hemispheres.
5. 22 December – National Mathematics Day: National Mathematics Day is celebrated on 22
December every year to mark the birth anniversary of Indian mathematical
genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Ramanujan attributed his mathematical theories and
solutions to his family goddess, Namagiri Thayar, or Goddess Lakshmi. On
December 26, 2011, former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, declared
December 22 as National Mathematics Day, while attending the 125th birth
anniversary celebration of Ramanujan at Madras University, the latter’s alma
mater The day was first celebrated in 2012. A postage stamp with Ramanujan’s
image was also issued in 2012 by the then Government of India, to mark National
Mathematics Day. When we talk about Indian mathematicians, Aryabhata is the
first name that comes to mind. He was the first to state that the Earth is
spherical and revolves around the sun, as well as that the correct number of
days in a year is 365. He came up with the concept of zero in the number
system. He was born in 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu. In 1911 Ramanujan published
the 1st of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
1729 is known as the
Ramanujan Number.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1. IFSCA and CEEW sign MoU to cooperate
on sustainable finance: The International Financial Services Centres Authority
(IFSCA) has signed an MoU with the Council on Energy, Environment and
Water (CEEW) for mutual assistance and cooperation in the area of
sustainable finance.
India recently launched Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for the
Environment) as an India-led global movement to protect and preserve the
environment. CEEW research has estimated that India’s net zero by
2070 target would require USD 10 trillion in investments.
Shri Injeti Srinivas, Chairperson
- IFSCA, said, “India has shown global leadership in climate action and has
committed itself to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. This MoU between IFSCA
and CEEW, focusing on broad areas of sustainable finance, is a step towards
achieving climate goals and mobilising global capital, through IFSC, towards
sustainable development”.
2. IPL surpasses $10 billion valuation
and becomes decacorn: The total
valuation of Indian Premier League (IPL) has been surpassed $10
billion, has evolved into a decacorn. According to the D and P
Advisory report titled “Beyond 22 Yards” stated that the league is
currently worth $10.9 billion. According to the reports, the IPL attained the
significant milestone after selling its media rights for the years 2023 to
2027. In less than 15 years since its beginning, the IPL has reached the
milestone.
3. Worldline ePayments India receives RBI
nod to act as payment aggregator: Digital payments services platform, Worldline ePayments India has
received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to act as a
payment aggregator (PA). The authorisation by the RBI was under the provisions
of the Guidelines on Regulation of Payment dated March 17, 2020. Payment
Aggregator: It is a service provider that integrates various options of
online payments together and brings them into one place for merchants. "We've been in the Indian market for more than two
decades and have built a leadership position. We work with merchants from
various segments such as eCommerce, BFSI, Retail, Utilities, Education, Travel
and Hospitality for digital payments," Ramesh Narasimhan, Chief Executive
Officer, of Worldline India, said in the statement.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1. Sudeep Sen, Shobhana Kumar won
Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2021-22: The prestigious Rabindranath Tagore Literary
Prize 2021-22 has been jointly won by Sudeep Sen and Shobhana Kumar. Sudeep
Sen has been recognised for Anthropocene: Climate Change,
Contagion, Consolation (Pippa Rann Books & Media, 2021). While, Shobhana
Kumar for her haibun collection A Sky Full of Bucket Lists (Red
River, 2021).
The winner receives $10,000 along with a Rabindranath Tagore statuette,
while the shortlisted authors each receive $500. The Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2021-22 has been jointly won by
Sudeep Sen for his genre and formbender Anthropocene:
Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation (Pippa Rann Books &
Media, 2021) and Shobhana Kumar for her haibun collection A Sky Full of Bucket Lists (Red
River, 2021).
2. Ministry of Housing & Urban
Affairs won Platinum Icon in Digital India Awards 2022: The
Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has
won the Platinum Icon at the Digital India Awards 2022 for their
initiative “Data Smart Cities: Empowering Cities through Data”. The award was
announced under the ‘Data Sharing and Use for Socio-Economic Development’
category. Sethrichem Sangtam
awarded Rohini Nayyar prize for rural development: Better Life Foundation Founder Sethrichem
Sangtam has been honoured with the first Rohini Nayyar prize for
outstanding contribution to rural development. Reason – To help transform the
lives of 1,200 marginal farmers in Eastern Nagaland. He was awarded the prize
by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery. The family of Late Dr. Rohini Nayyar,
an eminent scholar-administrator who worked on issues related to rural
development has instituted the award.
OBITUARIES
1. Gamaka exponent H.R. Keshava Murthy passes away: Gamaka exponent, H R Keshava Murthy has been passed away at the age of 89 in Shivamogga district of Karnataka. He training in music from his father and later from Venkateshaiah. The Government of India in the field of arts honoured him with Shantala Natya Sri Award by the Government of Karnataka in 1998 and Padma Shri in 2022. Gamaka: It is a form of storytelling by singing that originated in Karnataka, India.
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