1. International Summits /Reports
  2. UNFCCC’s Paris Summit
  3. UNDP’s Human Development Index Report
  4. WTO Nairobi
  5. International: Places in News
  6. Books, Authors, Literary awards
  7. Culture Related
  8. Science-Tech
  9. Sports
  10. States in News
  11. Important days

International Summits /Reports

UNFCCC’s Paris Summit

  • United nation conference on climate change (COP-21) Held at Paris, France during November-December 2015.
  • Member-states will prepare “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) to reduce GHG emission and do their best to keep global warming below 2 degree Celcius.
  • 1st world will have to help 3rd world. Review process each five years.
  • Mobilize $100 billion by 2020 to help 3rd world.
  • Will prepare new mechanism similar to Kyoto that allowed for carbon credit.

UNDP’s Human Development Index Report

  • Prepared by UNDP since 1990 based on the formula of Economists Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq.
  • Latest Human development index report released in December 2015.
  • Theme: Rethinking work for Human Development.
  • 1st Rank: Norway and most bogus is Niger at Rank 188.
  • India ranks 130 out of 188. (improved compared to previous year)
  • Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar ranks below us.

WTO Nairobi

  • World trade organization DG is Roverto Azevedo.
  • Ministerial conference held every 2 years. 9th conference held in Bali, Indonesia in 2013.
  • 10th ministerial conference of WTO, Held at Nairobi, Kenya in 2015, December.
  • Outcome: “Nairobi Package” i.e. six decisions on ago, cotton, and LDC.
  • Commitment to abolish export subsidies on agriculture. 1st world to abolish immediately and 3rd world in phased manner in next 8 years.
  • No firm decision on Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for Developing Countries i.e. they could increase duties on imported agriculture items 1st world temporarily to protect local farmers.
  • No solution to the public stockholding norms.
  • Success in IT-trade deal. Almost all IT imports will become import duty free by 2019
Other notable summits in 2015, December
Pakistan
  •  Islamabad: “Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan ” – a meeting  of the donor countries of Afghanistan will be held.  India’s foreign minister will attend it
  • Modi will attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan in 2016.
SCO-China Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet held at Zhengzhou. New Delhi and Islamabad are completing formalities for becoming full members of the SCO. India has opposed the China-Pakistan economic corridor as it involved certain sovereignty issues.”
Internet-China
  • 2nd World Internet conference held at Wuzen, China.

International: Places in News

Modi trips in December
  • Russia: participated in the 16th India – Russia annual summit, Pres Putin gave him gift of a Bengali sword and page from Gandhi’s Diary.
  • Afghanistan: met President Asraf Ghani, gave Mi-25 attack helicopters, scholarship to 500 children
  • Pakistan to attend Nawaz Sharif’s daughter’s wedding. Modi is the only 4th Indian PM to visit Pakistan. Other 3 are- Nehru, Rajiv and Vajpayee.
Burkina Faso Roch Marc Kabore becomes first democratically elected  President
Mauricio Macri Elected President of  Argentina. He wants to improve relations with UK by shifting focus away from Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute+ Former president of football club.
Gambia
  • Majority of its citizens are Muslims and now President declared it an Islamic republic
  • This West African country is popular for its beach tourism, and  gained independence from Britain in 1965.
Sri Lanka India corner setup in Jaffna Public library, to provide, DVDs and coaching  material from India.
Saudi Arabia first time women allowed to vote and run as candidates
Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari: Nepal’s first woman President. Madhesis attacked on her motorcade. Remains to be seen what travel Advice Pratibha Patil would give her.

Books, Authors, Literary awards

Raghuveer Chaudhary
  • This Gujarati novelist, poet and critic has won 51st Jnanpith Award with prize amount 11 lakh rupees.
  • Served as Teacher @Gujarat university
  • Served as Columnist at Sandesh, Divya Bhaskar and other newspapers.
  • Won Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel Uparvas (1977)
  • Jnanpith award was started in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, and given to authors in one of the 22 Indian languages listed in Schedule Eight of the Constitution.
  • Other Gujarati authors who won Jnanpith award- Uma Shankar Joshi (1967), Pannalal Patel (1985) and Rajendra Shah (2001).
Sahitya Akademi awards 2015
  • Given to 6 poems, six short stories, 4 novels- but list too big to be memorized so not pasting here.
  • Notable novel: Cyrus Mistry for Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer.
Jamaludeen Mohamed Sali This Indian-origin Tamil Short Story writer from Singapore becomes winner of this year’s prestigious South East Asia Write Award.
Vikram Sampath Organiser of the 4th edition of Banglore literacy festival, he had to resign after participant objected to his comments against “award waapsi”
Poet Jayant Mohapatra This Indian English poet returned Padma Shri but  kept Akademi award.
Tony Parsons Man and Boy
Max Lerner Nine Scorpions in a Bottle
Sharad Paward
  • Autobiography-‘Life On My Terms: from grassroots to corridors of power’.
  • Author is the supremo of Nationalist congress party (NCP) and former Agri. Minister under UPA government.
Fu Zhibin Chinese author who criticised the Communist govt , sent to jail
Madhuri Bose
  • The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence An Insider’s Account (Subhash and Sarat Bose)
  • This lady author is grandniece of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Culture Related

Tirupati United Nations University has sanctioned a Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) to Tirupati. Total 127 RCEs spread across the globe, there are only six in India viz.,

  1. RCE-Srinagar, working on western Himalayas,
  2. RCE-Guwahati on Eastern Himalayas,
  3. RCE-Chandigarh on wetland ecosystems,
  4. RCE-TERI (Goa) on Youth empowerment and energy and
  5. RCE-Kodagu on traditional knowledge and tribal communities of Western Ghats.
  6.  RCE-Tirupati will work  on Eastern Ghats, coastal communities, marine ecosystem, biodiversity  and sustainable development.
Buddhism
  • Highest population #1:  Maharashtra,  #2:  Kerala.
  • Adurru in Andhra Pradeshis a 2,400-year old Buddhist site located on the western bank of the Vainetaya, a tributary of river Godavari.
  • Among the three most popular Buddhist stupas in the world, the first one was constructed in Adurru, the second in Ranchi and last one in Sarnath
Channapatna handicraft
  • Tipu Sultan brought Persian artisans to give free coaching to local wooden toymakers in Channapatna town of Karnataka.
  • Channapatna is a lacquering art- uses veg.dye from shellac insect and  food pigments.
  • It is protected under GI-tag.

Channapatna-toys GI Tag

Science-Tech

Tactile Books To be brought by NCERT and IIT-Delhi for blind students. These books give tactile feedback upon touching the maps and diagrams.
PSLV C-29 ISRO will be sending six satellites belonging to Singapore,  including TeLEOS-1  commercial remote sensing satellite. (launch from shriharikota). This test will help when we launch multiple satellites with a single rocket but want to place them in different orbits.
Milk in India
  • Holstein Friesian (Hf) and Jersey cows — give superior milk yield compared to desi cows but they are more susceptible to illness, we need to give them more antibiotics- hence their milk unacceptable on international standards, due to antibiotic residue.
  • Solution: give them herbal mixture of aloe vera and turmeric, which can decrease antibiotic residue by over 49 per cent.
Shaheen 1A Pakistan successfully test-fired a nuclear capable ballistic missile with a range of 900 kilometres, It is capable of delivering different types of warheads to a range of 900 kilometers.
Project Loon Google’s Project  that uses helium-filled balloons to provide data connectivity in remote areas. It does not require towers and optical fibres. But government of India is reluctant in giving clearance to Google   Fearing  that same frequency will interfere with mobile network.

Sports

IPL
  • Justice (Retd) R.M. Lodha committee had suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals  for a period of  two years. So, two new teams formed to replace them.
  • Pune (owned by Sanjiv Goenka, a kolkata based  businessmen)and Rajkot ( owned by intex mobile).
Anil Khanna
  • President of the All India Tennis Association ( AITA)
  • Re-elected as the president of the Asian Tennis Federation ( ATF), for another term of four years
  • He is also the vice- president of the International Tennis Federation ( ITF)
Guye Adola (Ethiopia) and Florence Kiplagat `(Kenya) won Delhi half marathon. Nitendra Singh Rawat and Lalita Babbar won the titles in the Indian Elite section.
Anoop Singh won gold medal in World Bodybuilding and Physique Championships
Vijay Hazare
  • Gujarat has won the 14th season of Vijay Hazare Cricket Trophy,  for the first time in history of cricket.
  • At Bengaluru stadium, Gujarat defeated Delhi.
  • trophy is also known as the Ranji One Day Trophy and is named after the famous Indian cricketer Vijay Hazare and started in 2002.
  •  Tamil Nadu has won this trophy for four times.
59th National Shooting Championship, Delhi
  • Female: Apurvi Chandela from Rajasthan has won a Gold medal in the 59th National Shooting Championship in Delhi.
  • Male: Olympic medallist Vijay Kumar of Indian Army has won gold medal
Hockey World League 2015
  • Australia defeated  Belgium at Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium, Raipur.
  • Top three teams of Hockey World League Final Champions: Australia (1st title). Runner-up: Belgium. Third place: India.

States in News

Uttar Pradesh
Agra
  •  SC directed the Uttar Pradesh govt to make electric furnaces at the crematorium next to the Taj Mahal to save this world heritage.
  • Allahabad HC concered that the leather cluster in Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary will damage Taj Mahal and deter  migratory birds
  • Bird festival is celebrated at Jasrrar Baah Agra.
Mansoorpur Mafi village Located Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh- first time in the past 50 years that women came out to vote in the local elections.
Gorakhpur Area notorious for Japanese encephalitis. AIIMS will be set up here.
Uttar Pradesh Ratna Frank Islam, he is an Indian American businessman from Azamgarh.

 

Andhra Pradesh
Amaravati, Andhra
  • new capital of Andhra Pradesh on the right bank of the Krishna
  • Amrawati was  founded by Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu
  • It has a  giant Dhyana Buddha statue ,  popular place for Buddhists and hosted the Kalachakra in 2006.
  • It is one of the 12 cities in India which has been identified for development under PRASAD and HRIDAY schemes to  improved its tourism infrastructure.
Other places
  • Borra caves In Andhra Pradesh’s Kothavalesa.
  • Kirandul railway  line (Andhra Pradesh)-   was constructed in 60s with Japanese financial aid to transport iron ore from the Bailadila mines to the Visakhapatnam Port for export to Japan.
Cable Bridge Jammu Kashmir

Bridge on the River Kwai Ravi, J&K

Other States in News
J&K
  • First cable bridge of North India, at Basohali town in Kathua district, over Ravi river in Jammu and Kashmir, by border roads Organisation (BRO)
  • It will connect the state with Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
  • Other 3 cable bridges in India – (1) over Yamuna River in Allahabad (2) Bandra-Worli Sea Link @Mumbai (3) Vidhyasagar setu over Hoogly in Kolkata.
Bihar Assembly
  • Vijay Kumar Chaudhary becomes new Speaker of the Bihar Assembly. He is MLA from Sarairanjan Assembly constituency of Samastipur district.
  • Prem Kumar: seven-time MLA of Bihar +  BJP elected him as legislature party leader.
Karnataka
  • authorities of Mahabaleshwar Temple at Gokarana, want help from Mahalaxmi Temple in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district.
  • To restore the idol of Ganesha from Kadama  dynasties in the fourth century
West Bengal
  • Bishnupur was  the capital of the Hindu Mallabhum kings.
  • Ministry of culture is doing a cultural mapping of this town.
  • Famour for Bishnupur gharana of music and Kalinga  School of architecture,  Banukra horse,  Dashabatar tash — a set of playing cards depicting the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu + terracotta arts.
Kerala Kerala is moving to supreme court against TN  or “its failure to comply with Mullaperiyar dam safety regulations while releasing water from the Periyar river.
Haryana
  • India’s largest cancer institute is established at Badhsa, Jhajjar district.
  • Haryana state government wants NHAI   to connect this place,  with Delhi airport and AIIMs.
Tamilnadu
  • Heavy floods in Chennai
  • Ford GPA Amphibious Ship helped in rescue services during the recent rain in Chennai.Also used in world war 2 as Operation Neptune.

Important days in December

1 December World AIDS Day; Hornbill festival in Nagaland
3 December International day of persons with disability.
4 December Hepatitis day; Indian Navy Day
7 December Armed forces flag day; civil aviation day
10 December Human rights day
22 December National consumer Rights day
25 December Christmas

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