NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Home Minister Amit Shah chairs Eastern Zonal Council
meeting in Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the
26th Eastern Zonal Meeting in Patna. The Zonal Councils are an important
platform to resolve bilateral, multilateral and regional issues through
dialogue among member states. During the past nine years, the history of the
Eastern Zonal Council has been very successful as more than 1,100 disputes have
been resolved on this platform through dialogue.
2. Union Minister Piyush Goyal flags off 'One Bharat Sari
Walkathon' in Mumbai: Union Minister Piyush Goyal & Poonam Mahajan jointly flagged off
'One Bharat Sari Walkathon' in Mumbai The event organized by the Ministry of
Textiles to promote the handloom sari culture in India by inviting the
participation of women across the country to showcase their ways of wearing
saris and thus present India as a country of “Unity in Diversity It also
promotes the spirit of traditional textiles and supports the idea of “Vocal for
Local”
3. Human Rights Day:10th December: Human Rights Day is observed on December 10th each year. It
serves as a day to reflect on the progress made in promoting human rights and
to highlight the challenges that persist. The theme for Human Rights Day 2023
is "Freedom, Equality, and Justice
for All".
4. Ram Nath Kovind launches book “ Naye Bharat ka
Samveda” in New Delhi: Former President of India, Ram
Nath Kovind launched a book “ Naye Bharat ka Samveda” in New Delhi.
The book is a compilation of speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Indian Constitution. Ram Nath Kovind added, Prime
Minister refers to the Constitution of India as the only book for code of
conduct and guidance for the government.
5. Wax statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar installed in Jaipur
Wax Museum: A wax statue of Constitution architect Baba Saheb Ambedkar was installed in Jaipur Wax Museum, Nahargarh
Fort on the occasion of Mahaparinirvan Day. The wax statue has been
placed in the set of Rashtrapati Bhavan along with the statue of India’s second
great personality, ‘missile man’ and Bharat Ratna Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The
height of the statue is 5 feet 11 inches, while the weight is about 38 kg. After
this wax statue of Baba Saheb, a total of 43 celebrities have been installed in
the Jaipur Wax Museum. It is noteworthy that Jaipur Wax Museum is the first wax
museum in the world which is located in a “heritage site”, Nahargarh Fort. Founder-director
of the museum – Anoop Srivastava
6. Lalduhoma takes oath as Chief Minister of Mizoram: Veteran politician and Zoram People’s
Movement (ZPM) leader Lalduhoma sworn
in as the Chief Minister of
Mizoram at Raj Bhawan in Aizawl. Governor Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati
administered the oath to Mr Lalduhoma. The 74-year-old Lalduhoma joined
politics in 1984 when he was elected as Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) on
Congress ticket. He has walked the political corridor for almost 40 years
before assuming the Chief Ministership. In this year’s elections, he led the
Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) to a decisive victory bagging as many as 27 seats
in the 40-member House. The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) was reduced to 10
seats while the BJP got 2 seats.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Thailand, Myanmar to set up task force as border
unrest intensifies: Thailand and Myanmar will set up a task force
to boost humanitarian assistance to people displaced by fighting between the
Junta army and rebel groups. The decision was taken during discussions between
Myanmar and Thailand's foreign ministers at a meeting in China. The United
Nations estimates say that more than 3 lakh people have been displaced by
fighting since the rebel offensive started in late October.
2. Indonesia to issue free entry visas to travelers from
20 countries: The Indonesian Ministry of
Tourism has proposed issuing free entry visas to travelers from 20 countries
including India. The 20 countries include Australia, China, India, South Korea,
the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, among others. Thailand
extended visa-free entry to Indians till May 2024.
3. UP team to attend World Economic Forum in Davos: A delegation of the UP government will travel to
Davos (Switzerland) to attend the World
Economic Forum meeting there from January 15 to 19 It will brief
delegates about efforts being made to make UP a trillion-dollar economy and
develop metropolitan towns as hubs of different sectors that include efforts to
develop Lucknow as India’s first AI city The UP government’s investor-friendly policies and efforts made
to bring about an improvement in the lives of common people
4. Indonesia’s Ibu volcano erupts, ash up to 1,200m: The Ibu volcano on
Halmahera Island in the eastern Indonesian province of North Maluku erupted. Local time for about
90 seconds, throwing ash up to 1,200 metre above its peak, according to the
country’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG). Standing
as high as around 1,300 metre above sea level, Ibu volcano is classified in the
second danger level, below the highest level of IV. Located on the Pacific Ring
of Fire, Indonesia is one of the countries with the most volcanoes in the
world.
5. 9 December – International Anti-Corruption Day: International Day
Against Corruption or International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) is celebrated every year on
December 9. Objective – To raise awareness among the general public on
the impact of the prevailing malice in many countries. Theme 2023 – UNCAC at 20: Uniting the World Against
Corruption Corruption is such a malpractice that threatens the social
and economic development of societies across the world, which is why this day
aims to educate people on this crucial issue. As an initial step in combating
corruption, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations
Convention against Corruption on October 31, 2003. The authorities also
designated the date of December 9 as World Anti-Corruption Day to raise
awareness about corruption and the role of the Convention in preventing it.
Following the same, the observance of the day was first officially held on 9
December 2005.
OTHER UPDATES:
DEFENCE
1. Indian Army conducts Army Veteran’s Half Marathon,
Honour Run in Delhi: The Indian Army conducted the Army Veteran’s Half Marathon,
Honour Run in New Delhi to commemorate the historic military victory in the
Kargil War. The event was flagged off by Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande. The event was
conducted under the theme of Honour Run and was aimed at strengthening the bond
between the Indian Army, Veterans and the masses, especially the Youth.
2. Gen. Anil Chauhan inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics
Ltd. Avionics Expo: Chief of Defence
Staff (CDS), General Anil Chauhan has inaugurated the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Avionics Expo
2023 in New Delhi. Chauhan said the aviation sector needs to keep up
with a rapidly changing world and new technological innovations. He added that
military affairs are headed to convergence warfare where different technologies
converge to make battles more automated and autonomous. CDS Chauhan also
stressed on the need for Aatma-Nirbharta in the aviation sector to reduce
import dependency, boost the economy, and better handle geo-political and economic
instabilities.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. India ranked 7th in this year's climate change
performance: According to the report released during the
global climate talks COP28, India still remains in the list of countries making
the most efforts towards climate change. The Climate Change Index assesses the efforts of 63 countries and the
European Union to reduce carbon emissions. In this index, China is at 51st
place and America is at 57th place.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1. Union Bank collaborates with Accenture to boost
operational efficiency: Union Bank of India has
collaborated with Accenture to design and develop a scalable and
secure enterprise data lake platform to boost its operational efficiency. This
will also enhance its ability to offer customer-centric banking services and
manage risk. Accenture will work with the Bank to build new AI and machine
learning models that can help generate actionable insights for improved
business forecasting, facilitate personalized offers for customers and enable
intelligence for fraud detection, prevention, and mitigation. The program will
enable the public sector bank to develop robust data visualization and
reporting capabilities including interactive dashboards and reports for
business, operational, and regulatory purposes, per the Bank’s statement.
2. SBI Card joins Bharat BillPay in the credit card
category: NPCI Bharat BillPay (NBBL),
a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI), has successfully integrated SBI Card, one of India’s leading
credit card issuers, into the credit card category of Bharat BillPay. This
integration marks a significant advancement, streamlining the credit card bill
payment process for millions of customers. Noteworthy credit card issuers
already present in this category include Kotak Mahindra Bank, BoB Financial,
Federal Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Canara Bank. SBI Card
has an extensive customer base, totaling around 1.68 crores. Through the
utilization of Bharat BillPay, SBI Card customers gain the advantage of
seamlessly handling their credit card bill payments across various Bharat
BillPay-supported payment channels.
3. UPI transaction limit for medical, educational
services to be hiked to ₹5 lakh: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed enhancing
the limit of UPI transactions undertaken for medical or healthcare and
educational services from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh per transaction. The limit
for various categories of UPI transactions has been reviewed from time to time.
It is now proposed to enhance the UPI transaction limit for payment to
hospitals and educational institutions. This will enable the users who are
comfortable with making payments through UPI to continue using the platform for
high-value payments as well. The transaction limit would no longer be a
bottleneck which refrains the user from using UPI, especially when it comes to
payments which are urgent in nature. Currently, the transaction limit for UPI
is capped at ₹1 lakh, except in a few categories like capital markets (AMC,
broking, mutual funds, etc.), collections (credit card payments, loan
re-payments, EMI), Insurance, etc. where the transaction limit is ₹2 lakh
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