Top Headlines : Daily current Affairs - 11-December-2018

Hello Aspirants, we provide 11th December 2018, important Current Affairs which have unique updates of all daily events from various newspapers and Government official websites.
Our complete current affairs helps you to get more marks in Banking, Insurance, SSC, Railways, UPSC,CLAT  and  all State Exams.-Happy Learning!

National News

1. Centre’s Contribution To NPS Hiked To 14% of Basic Salary

·       In a bid to make retirement income scheme more attractive for central government employees, the government has agreed to chip in a higher 14% of the basic salary of an individual as its contribution to the National Pension System (NPS).

·       The move would benefit over 36 lakh central government employees. Currently, the minimum employee contribution in NPS is 10% of basic pay and an equal contribution is made by the government.

2. Indian Railways launched Rail Madad

•         Indian Railways (IR) launched ‘Rail Madad’, a mobile app which will help the passengers to register complaints through mobile phone/web. It will also enable them to communicate real-time feedback on the status of redressal of their complaints.

•         The digital initiative integrates all the passenger complaints received from multiple modes on a single platform. The app has two modes of registration of complaints, web-based and mobile app-based. Web-based complaints can be registered through railmadad.in. For mobile-app based app, the app can be downloaded from Google Play Store or Apple IOS (iPhone) Store.

•         An aggrieved passenger will get an instant ID through SMS on registration of complaint followed by a customized SMS communicating the action taken thereon by the railways.

3. Shi Yomi becomes 23rd district of Arunachal Pradesh

•         Arunachal Pradesh increased to 23 with the formal inauguration of Shi Yomi district by Chief Minister Pema Khandu in presence of Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju.

•         Two more districts would be formally inaugurated in the state within this week taking the total to 25.

•         The state Assembly on August 29 this year passed a bill for the creation of three new districts – Pakke-Kesang, Lepa Rada and Shi Yomi – in the state.

4. Tamil Nadu Government launches 24-hour helpline 181 for women

•         Tamil Nadu Government launched a 24-hour toll-free helpline number 181 for women facing domestic violence and sexual harassment to get assistance ranging from police help, legal aid or medical services including an ambulance.

•         The Service developed at a cost of 62.70 lakh will be available round-the-clock on all days of the week and women can also get information about the welfare schemes aimed at their benefit.

5. First International Conference on Sustainable Water Management Held in Mohali

•         The first International Conference on ‘Sustainable Water Management’ was held at Indian School of Business (ISB) in Mohali, Punjab.
  The theme of the international conference is ‘Sustainable Water Management’.

International News

1. President Kovind Embarks On 4-Day Visit to Myanmar

·       President Ram Nath Kovind and first lady Savita Kovind left for a 4-day visit to Myanmar. During his stay, the President will visit capital Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon, and interact with his counterpart U Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

·       The president will also hold a high-level delegation meeting. Myanmar is a country where India’s “Act East” and “Neighbourhood First” policies intersect.

2. Air Force Chief On 5 Day Visit to Japan

·       Air Force Chief Birender Singh Dhanoa left on a five-day goodwill visit to Japan. During his visit, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa will call on Japanese Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya, Chief of Staff of Japan Air Self Defence Force General Yoshinari Marumo, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano.

·       This visit of the Indian Air Chief will provide further impetus towards expanding defence cooperation between the two countries and pave the way for greater interaction and cooperation in the future.

3. Kazakhstan opened consulate, under Dilip Chandan, in Gujarat to push business ties

•         Kazakhstan opened a consulate, under the leadership of the managing director of Chandan Steel Limited, Dilip Chandan, in Gujarat to further business partnership. The consulate was inaugurated on the eve of the 27th Anniversary of the Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Awards & Recognitions

1. India’s Prathamesh Maulingkar Wins Mister Supranational 2018

·       Goa’s Prathamesh Maulingkar has created history by becoming the first Asian/Indian to win Mister Supranational title in a competition held at Krynica-Zdroj, Poland. The 27-year-old defeated 37 contestants from all over the world in the final round to win the coveted title.

·       At the same pageant, Mister Supranational Poland was adjudged first runner-up, Mister Supranational Brazil was adjudged second runner-up and Mister Supranational Thailand was announced as the third runner-up.

2. Asian Academy Creative Awards 2018 Announced: Complete List of Winners

·       The Asian Academy Creative Awards (AAA’s) have been established to serve the creative industries as the pinnacle of their achievement in content creation and media production. The award ceremony was held in Singapore.

             Here is the complete list of winners of Asian Academy Creative Awards 2018:

Sl. No.	Category	Show	Winner
	Indian Winners
1.	Best entertainment host/presenter	Bigg Boss	Salman Khan
2.	Best direction (fiction)	Netflix’s original series Sacred Games	Anurag Kashyap
3.	Best Editing	Sacred Games	Aarti Bajaj
4.	Best comedy program	Queens Of Comedy	Discovery Communications India
5.	Best telenovela or soap opera series	Porus	One Life Studios
6.	Best 2D animated program or series	Lamput	Cartoon Network India
7.	Best Current Affairs program	The Last Drop: India’s Water Crisis	NGC Network India
8.	Best non-scripted entertainment	The Remix	Greymatter Entertainment
9.	Best Drama	Miss Sherlock	Miss Sherlock
	Winners from Other Asian countries
10.	Best actress	Critical Eleven	Adinia Wirasti of Indonesia
11.	Best Actor	The Hunter	Yu Hewei of China
12.	Best Supporting Actor	Kenapa Harus Bule	Michael Kho of Indonesia
13.	Best Supporting Actress	Roseki	Candy Yang of Taiwan

3. Imran Siddiqui honoured with Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award 2018

·       Imran Siddiqui has been honoured with this year's Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award, which is India's most prestigious award.

·       Siddiqui, who is an Assistant Director for Conservation Science at WCS-India monitors tiger in 10,000 sq km, including Nagarjunasagar Srisailam, Amrabad and Kawal Tiger Reserves, and corridors connecting to Tadoba and Tirupati Forests

4.  Shyam Sundar Besra conferred with Sahitya Akademi Award 2018

•         Shyam Sundar Besra, Chief Inspector of Ticket, working in Asansol Division of Eastern Railway of Indian Railways has been conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2018 for his novel 'Marom'.

•         Written in Santali language, "Marom" is primarily based upon natural, social, economic and political conditions of Santhal Pargana, one of the divisions of Jharkhand headquartered at Dumka.

• Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Awards in 24 languages on December 5, 2018. Seven books of poetry, six novels, six short stories, three literary criticism and two essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018.

Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018 Winners List:

Poetry Section:

• Samanta Tanti (Assamese)
• Paresh Narendra Kamat (Konkani)
• S Ramesan Nair (Malayalam)
• Dr Mohanjit (Punjabi)
• Dr Rakesh Kumar Vyas (Rajasthani)
• Dr Rama Kant Shukla (Sanskrit)
• Khiman U Mulani (Sindhi)

               Novels Section:

• Inderjeet Kesar (Dogri)
• Anees Salim (English)
• Chitra Mudgal (Hindi)
• Shyam Besra (Santali)
• S Ramakrishnan (Tamil)
• Rahman Abbas (Urdu)

               Short stories Section:

• Sanjib Chattopadhyay (Bengali)
• Rituraj Basumatary (Bodo)
• Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq (Kashmiri)
• Prof. Bina Thakur (Maithili)
• Bidhichandra Heisnamba (Manipuri)
• Lok Nath Upadhyay Chapagain (Nepali)

              Literary Criticism Section:

• K. G. Nagarajappa (Kannada)
• Ma. Su. Patil (Marathi)
• Dasarathi Das (Odia)

               Essays Section:

• Sharifa Vijliwala (Gujarati)
• Dr. Kolakaluri Enoch (Telugu)

5. DMK MP Kanimozhi gets the best woman Parliamentarian Award

•         Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament (MP), Kanimozhi will be awarded as “Best Woman Parliamentarian – Rajya Sabha” by the Vice-President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu at Dr. Ambedkar International Center in New Delhi.

•         A 10-member board of Jury of eminent personalities headed by Murali Manohar Joshi selected Kanimozhi for the award presented by Lokmat Group of Newspaper.

Banking Business & Economy News

1. RBI may introduce live video KYC for customer verification

•         The Reserve Bank of India may reportedly introduce new modes of customer e-verification, including live video, in financial institutions.

•         This comes after Supreme Court struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar Act in September, thereby nullifying biometric e-KYC.

•         RBI may introduce a digital method that would use XML internet format to extract limited information on customers from the Aadhaar database.

2. Arundhati Bhattacharya appointed as the new chairman of SWIFT India Board

•         Arundhati Bhattacharya, the ex-SBI chief, is . Ms.Bhattacharya will succeed former banker M.V. Nair, who is stepping down after completing five years with the company.

•         SWIFT India is a joint venture of top Indian public and private sector banks and SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). The company was created to deliver high quality domestic financial messaging services to the Indian financial community.

3. India and ADB Sign $31 Million Loan Agreement For Tamil Nadu

·       The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed in New Delhi a Loan Agreement for $31 million to build-up the State Tourism Industry and boost visitor arrivals in Tamil Nadu.

·       The signatories to the tranche 4 loan for Infrastructure Development Investment Program for Tourism (IDIPT) were Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary (Fund Bank and ADB), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, who signed for the Government of India, and Mr. Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director for ADB in India, who signed for ADB.

Sci- Tech & Environment

1. India Successfully Test-Fires Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile Agni-5

·       The indigenously built Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile Agni-5 has been test-fired successfully from Abdul Kalam island under Chandipur Interim Test Range. It can carry both nuclear and traditional weapons. The first test was conducted in 2012 from ITR Chandipur in Balasore district.

·       This is the fourth successful test of this missile. Previously the test of Agni 4 was unsuccessful. Having 17 meters length and 2 meters diameter the missile can hit the target from a distance of 5 thousand kilometers.

2. NASA Voyager 2 becomes 2nd human-made object to exit Solar System

•         Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977, 16 days before the Voyager 1, which had entered interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2 now crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere - called the heliopause - on Nov. 5 and was 11 billion miles from Earth.

•         Voyager 2 explored the solar system's outer planets, returning stunning photos of Neptune.

3. Smartworks introduced Smart Mitri, a female AI robot

•         Smartworks, a leading workspaces player, introduced ‘Smart Mitri’, a female AI robot, which will be Smartworks’ in-house productivity mascot. It will play an influential role in handling the overall office management for the facility, ranging from the visitor system to being a counsellor eventually.

•         Smartworks recently launched its flagship facility in Bengaluru. It is spread over 3 lakh sq ft with 6,000 seats. This facility is the firm’s largest centre. With 20 locations across nine cities, the firm caters to more than 500 organizations across large enterprises, SMEs and startups. Some of the clients are Tata Communications, Microsoft, ArcelorMittal, Amazon, Carrier, Otis, Daikin, Lenovo, Bacardi and OLX.

Appointments & Resignation

1. RBI Appoints Shaktikanta Das As New Governor

·       The government has appointed Shaktikanta Das as the new RBI governor, a day after Urjit Patel resigned as RBI Governor. He is the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

·       A former economic affairs secretary from 2015 to 2017, Das worked closely with the central bank. He is currently a member of the Finance Commission of India, and the government’s representative at the Group of 20 summits.

2. Sameer Aggarwal is appointed as CBO of Walmart India

•         Walmart India, the U.S. retail major, appointed Sameer Aggarwal as its Chief Business Officer. Mr.Sameer has been elevated from his position as EVP, chief strategy and administrative officer to the Chief Business Officer with immediate effect. Aggarwal will now lead strategy, merchandising, cost analytics, e-commerce, technology, marketing, and replenishment.

•         Walmart India also appointed Anuj Singh as Head-Category Merchandising. The announcement followed after the resignation of Executive Vice-President (EVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Devendra Chawla. Mr.Chawla had joined Walmart India in July last year from Future Consumer, a part of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group.

Defence

1. Sino-India Joint Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2018 Held in China

·       The opening ceremony for the 7th Sino-India joint exercise Hand-in-Hand 2018, was held at Chengdu, China. Company size contingents of 11 SIKHLI from Indian Army and a regiment from Tibetan Military District of People’s Liberation Army participated in the exercise.

·       The Indian contingent was led by Col Puneet Pratap Singh Tomar, Commanding Officer, 11 SIKHLI, while the Chinese contingent was led by Col Zhou Jun. The aim of the exercise is to build and promote close relations between armies of both the countries and to enhance ability of the joint exercise commander to take military contingents of both nations under command.

2. USAF and IAF calls for more joint air exercises

•         Cope India 2018, the 12-day joint exercise between the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Indian Air Force (IAF) is being held at the Kalaikunda air station in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district. As the bilateral military exercise draws close to the climax, the officials of both the countries said that such joint exercises should be held more frequently.

•          More than 100 personnel of the U.S. Air Force, along with 400 personnel of the Indian Air Force, are participating in the exercise that will conclude on December 14. The U.S. Air Force has sent a dozen F-15 whereas the IAF is participating with a fleet of 10 Sukhoi 30, six Jaguars and four Mirage 2000.

3. In a first, Indian Air Force conducted Exercise 'Cross Bow 18'

•         The Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted combined guided weapons firing of Surface-to-Air Missiles from the Air Force Station located at Suryalanka, Andhra Pradesh. The first-of-its-kind exercise for the Air Force was code-named 'CROSS BOW-18'.

•         CROSS BOW-18 saw the successful firing of four different classes of missiles like Akash, Spyder, OSA-AK-M and IGLA.

Sports

1. Virat Kohli becomes first Asian skipper to win a Test in South Africa, England and Australia

•         Indian Skipper Virat Kohli became the first Indian skipper to win a Test in South Africa, England and Australia after defeating Australia by 31 runs in the First Test Match of the Four Match Test Series at Adelaide.

•         Former Indian Captains Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni won Test matches as Captains in England and South Africa but not in Australia. Out of 43 Tests, India won 25 Tests in Kohli’s Captaincy. After this win, India became the Second Asian Country after Pakistan to win the Opening Test of a Series in Australia.

Obituary

1. Padma Shri Historian Mushirul Hasan Passes Away

·       Professor Mushirul Hasan, a renowned historian, and former vice-chancellor Jamia Millia of Islamia, passed away at the age of 71. Hasan was also formerly the director general of the National Archives of India.

·       Hasan won a number of awards for his work, including the Padma Shri in 2007 and the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. The books he authored include India Partition: The Other Face of Freedom, When Stone Walls Cry, Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia (co-authored with Rakshanda Jalil) and From Pluralism to Separatism: Qasbas in Colonial India.

Important Days

1. International Mountain Day: 11 December

·       International Mountain Day is held every year on 11 December, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains. The theme for 2018 IMD is  “Mountains Matter”. 

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