Current Affairs Update - 13th December, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 13 December, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IPPB PO Mains, NIACL AO Mains, IBPS Clerk Mains, IBPS RRB Office Assistant Mains and RBI Assistant Mains 2016-17.

• Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping laid the foundation stones for 17 road projects on 11 December 2016 during two functions held at Jiribam and Imphal. The project’s overall cost is estimated to be around Rs 1152 Cr.
• Also present in the function at Jiribam was the Union Minister of Human Resource Development- Prakash Javedkar along with other BJP leaders. The function at Imphal, on the other hand, was attended by the Chief Minister of Manipur, O Ibobi.

• Gadkari announced that the Union Government will be handing over the responsibility of Imphal-Jiribam highway (NH 37) to National highways and infrastructure development corporation Limited (NHIDCL) from the Border Roads Organisation of Indian Army.
• The national highway was until now maintained mostly by transporters and people of Manipur.
• The repair work will mainly focus on two bridges on the highway-Barak and Makru, as they aren't strong enough to support heavy trucks and vehicles.
• The whole project is expected to be completed within three years at a cost of about Rs 141 Cr.
• The Ministry-owned NHIDCL will also take over the Ukhrul -Toloi-Tadubi projects that cover a stretch of 115 km, costing about Rs 64 Cr.
• Other projects that will be handed over to NHIDCL include Churachandpur- Singhat- Sinzawl-Tuivai project and Tamenglong-Khongsang road. While the former covers a stretch of 162 km with a total estimated cost of Rs 168 Cr, the latter covers 40 km at a cost of about Rs 19 Cr.

• India and Indonesia on 12 December 2016 signed three agreements to boost the bilateral relations between the two nations. They also resolved to deal with terrorism.
• The agreements were signed in New Delhi after delegation-level talks that were held between the two nations during the visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo to India. President Widodo was on a two-day visit to India from 12 December to 13 December 2016. This was the first bilateral visit of an Indonesian President to India.
• Agreements signed during this visit of President Joko Widodo to India include
• MoU on Youth and Sports Cooperation: It was signed between the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Indonesia.
• MoU on Standardization Cooperation between the Bureau of Indian Standards and the National Standardization Agency of Indonesia.
• Joint Communiqué on the Voluntary International Cooperation to Combat Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fishing and to promote Sustainable Fisheries Governance between the Union Government and the Government of Indonesia.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in December 2016 signed an agreement with a consortium of six companies to deliver India's first industry-built satellite by late 2017.
• The agreement was signed between M Annadurai, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) and the consortium lead Alpha Design Technologies P Ltd.
• ISAC assembles India's satellites for communication, remote sensing and navigation. It is for the first time that ISRO outsourced the construction of entire satellite.

• It includes assembly, integration and testing (AIT) of two spare navigation satellites in a row in around 18 months.
• The consortium is led by Alpha Design Technologies P Ltd, a defence manufacturing contractor.
• The others in the consortium are Newtech Solutions, Aidin Technologies and DCX Cables of Bengaluru, Vinyas Technologies of Mysuru and Avantel Systems of Hyderabad.
• The development work will start around January 2017 and the first satellite will be out in around nine months.  

• Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) at an inaugural event in Parade Ground, Fort Kochi on 13 December 2016.
• Titled ‘Forming in the pupil of an eye’, the three-month long festival will witness participation from 97 artists from thirty-one countries across the world. The Biennale is considered to be one of the largest celebrations of contemporary art in South Asia and similar to its last two editions, this time also the venues of art display are scattered across Kochi.
• In his speech, the Chief Minister acknowledged the rise in credibility of the Biennale in the global contemporary art scene and stated that the government is looking to give it a permanent home.  He further added that the Biennale provides an ideal platform for the conglomeration of global thoughts and expression and the free flow of culture.

• The Punjab Government on 12 December 2016 launched country’s first amphibious bus project at the Harike wetland near Amritsar. The project was launched nearly two years after it was announced.
• The water bus, Punjab Harike Water Cruise, will enter the Harike Pattan wetland after transversing on-road and off-road terrains. The project has cost the state government over Rs 11 crore.
• This amphibious bus project was launched by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. After launching the project, Badal took the inaugural ride of the bus with officials and media on Satluj-Beas confluence. He informed that this amphibious bus can travel on land as well as water.

• Cyclone Vardah struck coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The severe cyclonic storm made a landfall on the east coast near the Pulicat Lake on 12 December 2016.
• The storm affected the normal life in Chennai, Nellore District in Andhra Pradesh and Bengaluru in Karnataka.
• The low pressure wind system was first noticed in the Bay of Bengal on 5 December.
• It went onto grew into a very severe cyclonic storm. But at the time of landfall it was weakened into a severe cyclonic storm.

• Indian Actress Priyanka Chopra has been appointed as United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) newest Global Goodwill Ambassador.
• The decision was announced by the world-renowned soccer player David Beckham and British actress Millie Bobby Brown on 12 December 2016 on the eve of UNICEF’s 70th anniversary at United Nations headquarters in New York. Also present at the grand affair were other UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors such as Orlando Bloom, Jackie Chan, Ishmael Beah, Kidjo and Femi Kuti.
• While accepting the esteemed honour, the actor thanked UNICEF for the experience she had gained through field trips to villages and centers across India and the work they had achieved in the country. She further pledged to become a driver of change and work towards ensuring that every child’s voice is heard and that their rights are protected and respected world over.

• Pulkit Trivedi was on 12 December 2016 appointed as Industry Director of Facebook India for e-commerce, retail, travel and financial services verticals.
• Trivedi will lead in building and maintaining strategic relationships with clients in India.
• Recently, Pulkit held the position of Head of Industry and e-commerce at Google India.
• He has over 18 years of extensive industry experience covering sales, business development and partnerships in companies such as Google, Intel, Microsoft IBM and HCL.

• Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo has won the esteemed 2016 Ballon d'Or award. The decision was announced by France Football magazine in Ballon d'Or ceremony on 12 December 2016.
• This is Ronaldo’s fourth Ballon d'Or award. He won his first award in 2008, the same year in which he won the FIFA World Player of the Year. He subsequently won the 2013 and 2014 honours as well. In 2015, he was beaten by Argentina’s Lionel Messi.
• The voting was done by 200 respected football journalists from across the world, each of whom picked their top 3 from the 30 short-listed names.
• Ronaldo won by a good margin. Messi came second followed by France’s Antoine Griezmann in the third position. Luis Suarez and Neymar also made it into the top 5.

• India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani on 12 December 2016 won the World Billiards title. To win the title, he defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 6-3 in the summit clash held in Bengaluru.
• For Advani, it was the 11th world billiards champion title in his over 15-year long international billiards career.
• In early 2016, he won the Asian 6-Red snooker title in May and a bronze medal at the IBSF World snooker championship in December.
• Pankaj Advani is the only player in the world to win world titles in all formats of snooker and billiards. So far, he won 16 titles in both the formats.

• A black civil rights leader Viola Desmond will appear on the new Canadian $10 banknote. The announcement was made by Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau in December 2016.
• She will be the first Canadian woman to figure on a banknote. She replaced the Canada's first Prime Minister John A Macdonald. Macdonald will now move to a higher bill when new banknotes will go into circulation in 2018.
• Desmond is popularly known for her struggle against anti-black segregation and racism in Canada in the 1940s.

• To tackle the world’s worst inflation, Venezuelan Government announced demonetisation of Bolivar Fuerte 100 banknotes. The demonetisation will be effective in next 72 hours.
• President Nicolas Maduro on 11 December 2016 announced that the Bolivar 100 banknotes, worth only two US cents on the black money, will be withdrawn from the market on 14 December 2016. He also gave 10-days time to Venezuelans to exchange the notes at the central bank of the country.
• In addition to this demonetisation of the country’s biggest banknotes, Venezuelan President also ordered the closure of the border with Colombia for 72 hours. This closure would help him in cracking down on currency smuggling by what he has called mafias trying to destabilise the socialist-run economy.
• The border closure comes as Maduro is trying to curb Venezuela's galloping inflation and roll out a new range of bank notes after announcing that the government would pull from circulation a 100-bolivar bill.

• China in December 2016 successfully launched the advanced weather satellite Fengyun-4 satellite into geostationary orbit. The satellite was launched onboard of Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province.
• This launch marked the 242nd mission of China’s Long March series of rockets. 

• Fengyun-4 Series is China’s second-generation geostationary meteorological satellites series after Fengyun-2 satellite series.
• It is also the country’s first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in highest orbit.
• It was launched with an aim to make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of atmosphere, space environment and clouds of China and its surrounding regions.
• It will extensively help in improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts and will also improve the accuracy of forecasts.

Regards



Team ExamPundit