current Affairs 2017

#GA
DECEMBER CURRENT AFFAIRS
■Awards & Honours■
▪Pankaj Advani of India wins the World Billiards title in Bengaluru.
▪Portugal and Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo wins 2016 Ballon D’Or Cup.
▪Sahitya Akademi award for 2016 has been announced today for 24 languages.
▪ICFA presents `Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2016` to Ratan Tata
▪Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, beat rival Lionel Messi to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or award for a fourth time.
▪Indian all rounder Ravichandran Ashwin named as the Test Cricketer of the year 2016 by ICC for his outstanding performance during the year. He is also named as the Cricketer of the year.
▪Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, conferred the Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as awarded the ‘honoriuscausa’ (doctor of letters) on December 26, 2016, for his contribution towards promotion of Urdu culture.
▪The Jnanpith Selection Board named the eminent modern Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh for the 52nd Jnanpith Award for 2016 on December 23, 2016 chaired by writer and scholar Namwar Singh.
▪Mumbai-based writer Jerry Pinto, Tamil author Vannadhasan, Hindi writer Nasira Sharma are among 24 writers named for the prestigious SahityaAkademi Awards 2016.
▪The Indian filmmaker Onir won the Hollywood Independent Documentary Awards for his Indo-Australian documentary, “Raising the Bar” which was selected as the ‘Best Foreign Documentary Feature’.
■International News■
▪The Beipanjiang Bridge of China is now open for public travel. The height of the bridge is 1,854 feet(565 metres) above the sea level. It overtook the Si Du River Bridge of Hubei to become the world’s highest bridge.
▪India overtakes Britain as the World’s sixth largest economy by GDP after the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France.
▪The Russian ambassador to Ankara was shot dead in an attack at an art gallery in the Turkish capital by a gunman.
▪External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been included in Foreign Policy magazine’s 2016 list of 15 Global Thinkers.
▪Time magazine named President-elect Donald Trump its Person of the Year.
▪President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani on December 19, 2016, unveiled a landmark bill of rights, guaranteeing freedom of speech, protest, fair trials and privacy for the citizens of the nation.
■Important Days in December■
December 1 : World AIDS Day
December 3 : United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities
December 3 : Disabled Day
December 4 : Navy Day
December 5 : International Volunteer Day
December 5 : World Soil Day
December 5 : International Volunteer Day
December 7 : Armed Forces Flag Day
December 7 : International Civil Aviation Day
December 9 : International Anti-Corruption Day
December 10 : Human Rights Day
December 11 : UNICEF Day
December 14 : National Energy Conservation Day
December 15 : International Tea Day
December 16 : Victory day of Bangladesh
December 18 : Minorities Rights Day
December 18 : International Migrants Day
December 19 : Goa’s Liberation Day
December 20 : International Human Solidarity Day
December 23 : Kisan Divas (Farmer’s Day)
December 24 : National Consumer Rights Day
December 25 : Good Governance Day (India)
December 25 : Quaid-e-Azam Day
December 26 : Boxing Day
■National News in Current Affairs December 2016■
▪The Union Government launched an initiative, Swachh Swasth Sarvatra, on December 29, 2016, to strengthen health centers in open defecation-free blocks.
▪24th National Children’s Science Congress inaugurated in Pune by Harsh Vardhan
▪Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the online reader’s poll for TIME Person of the Year 2016.
▪India will host its first ever ITTF World Tour event in New Delhi from February 16-19, 2017.
▪Union Government announces lucky draw schemes for two programs for digital transactions. One is Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and the other Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojana for businessmen who opt for cashless transactions.
▪The two-day 6th BRICS Health Ministers Meet was held from December 16- December 17, 2017 in New Delhi.The health delegates of BRICS nation-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa along with other Senior Officers of representative department attended.
▪The Union Government appointed vice chief of army staff Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the new Army chief, while vice chief of air staff Air Marshal BS Dhanoa has appointed as the new chief of the Indian Air Force.
▪India’s longest range nuclear capable missile Agni-5 successfully test fired from the Kalam Island off Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface ballistic missile has a range of over 5000 Km.
▪33 MLAs from the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) switched sides to join BJP under the led by current chief minister Pema Khandu.
▪Assam Launches Health Insurance Scheme ‘Atal-AmritAbhiyan’ which will provide coverage against several critical illnesses.
■Banking & Finance Affairs■
▪NPCIs RuPay Card usage at Merchant Terminals Increases 7 times after demonetisation
▪Bank of Baroda (BoB) launches agriculture investment credit scheme to help the farmers in doubling their income by the year 2022 in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on December 31, 2016in Rajasthan.
▪Twitter partners with ICICI Bank for advanced customer care
▪MobiKwik, a mobile wallet firm has received an in-principle approval from the RBI on December 28 to set up a Bharat Bill Payments Operating Unit (BBPOU).
▪Pune based public sector lender Bank of Maharashtra, has adopted the village of Malangaon, in Sangli district, Maharashtra, with the help of District Collector and several government officials to make it a completely cashless village.
▪ICICI Bank Launches EazyPay app for Merchants
■Persons & Places in News Dec 2016■
▪Bollywood Actress Priyanka Chopra appointed as UNICEF Global Good will Ambassador for campaign “For Every Child.”
▪Senior journalist and actor Cho Ramaswamy died at the age of 82 in Apollo Hospital in Chennai.
▪Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa died in Apollo Hospital after cardiac arrest in Chennai at the age of 68.
▪Sarbananda Sonowal led Assam government has roped Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra as the brand ambassador of the state tourism.
▪Mahesh Bhupathi appointed as India’s Davis Cup Captain who will succeed present Captain Anand Amritraj.
▪World famous singer and Pop superstar George Michael died at the age of 53.
■Science and Technology■
▪India successfully launches its own earth observation satellite Resource sat-2A into the orbit from Sri Harikota. The satellite will serve nation for next five years.
▪Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched mobile app BHIM to promote and make digital transactions easier.
▪Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched an Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) system in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa. It will extend to others states.
▪Govt to launch Aadhaar Payment App to simplify digital transactions on December 25, 2016 to eliminate the fee payments for service providers like card companies such as Mastercard, Visa etc.
▪A free instant messaging service for work and business environments, Flock has launched world’s first chat operating system”FlockOS” by Bhavin Turakhia, Flock CEO on December 20, 2016
■General Knowlegde: Books and Authors■
▪The book titled ‘Courts of India – Past to Present’ released by the Supreme Court of India.
▪Gujarat based dairy cooperative company Amul launched the updated edition of ‘Amul’s India 3.0′ covering topical grounds and popular incidents from the contemporary context and the book takes on fifty years of India’s history.
▪Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment released the first issue of a National Newspaper ‘Saanjhi Saanjh’, dedicated to Senior Citizen, in the National Capital on December 19, 2016.
▪Ravindra Kumar, the first IAS officer as well as the first Seafarer of India, to climb the Mount Everest has written a motivational book for students, which released by the Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha on December 12, 2016 in New Delhi.
▪President Pranab Mukherjee on December 11, 2016, released three books at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on the occasion of his 81st birthday.
▪The biography of Dipa Karmakar who is the first Indian female gymnast ever to compete in the Olympics is going to written by Vimal Mohan, Digvijay Singh Deo and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi.
■Sports & Games■
▪Former Serbian professional tennis player Ana Ivanovic announced her retirement from Tennis at the age of 29, on December 28. As of 2016, she has career earnings of over $15 million.
▪Virat Kohli becomes the first Indian Captain to score three double centuries in Test matches.
▪Vijender Singh defeated Francis Cheka via knocked out in the third round to successfully defend his WBO Asia Pacific super middleweight title in Delhi.
▪India defeated Belgium 2-1 in the final of Junior Hockey World Cup 2016 to win the title for second time after 15 years in Lucknow.
▪Indian cricket team scores it’s highest ever innings total of 759 for 7 wickets in test match history.