Current Affairs Update 22 December 2018
Current Affairs is an important part for many exams. Be prepared for this section with ByScoop which brings all the important Current Affairs in one place. 22 December 2018
Jharkhand announces ‘Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojna’ (MKAY) for farmers
- Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has announced ‘Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojna’ (MKAY) for small and medium farmers.
- Under the scheme the state government would offer Rs 5,000 per acre of land to farmers for the kharif crops who have land less than 1 acre and the maximum land limit is 5 acre.
- The outlay of the scheme is Rs 2,250-crore scheme and will help 22.76 lakh medium and marginal farmers starting from the 2019-20 financial year.
Mamata Banerjee gets Skoch Chief Minister of the Year Award; West Bengal emerges top performing State in Governance
- Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been conferred the Skoch Chief Minister of the Year Award at the 54th SKOCH Summit for her contribution in the overall development of the state and emerging as the best chief minister in the country.
- West Bengal has emerged as the top performing State in Governance as per the Skoch Governance Report 2018.
- Some other awards of the Skoch Governance Report 2018 are:
- SKOCH Governance Person of the Year- K T Rama Rao . Telangana tops in Agriculture and Municipal Governance
- Receives Golden Jubilee SKOCH Challenger Award for Reforms- Suresh Prabhu – The Steady Reformer
- SKOCH Sprinter of the Year- N Chandrababu Naidu
- SKOCH IT Minister of the Year- Nara Lokesh
- Skoch Oil & Gas award goes to ONGC Videsh in the platinum category
Xiaomi gets NPCI nod to launch payment service Mi Pay in India
- National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has given approval to Xiaomi to launch its payment service Mi Pay in India.
- The company has partnered with ICICI Bank and PayU for the service. Xiaomi has already conducted trials and testing of the payment service, and is now inviting beta testers.
- NPCI has given Xiaomi clearance for large group usage, which in case of WhatsApp is limited to one million users.
CCI clears Hitachi Payment’s 26% stake buy in SBI Payment Services
- The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of 26 per cent stake by Hitachi Payment Services in SBI Payment Services.
- State Bank of India (SBI), and Hitachi Payment Services, entered into an agreement in October 2018 to form a joint venture (JV) for establishing a card acceptance and digital payment platform.
- Now Hitachi will have 26% stake in it and SBI will have the rest 74% in the SBI Payment Services.
Pak, China conclude joint air training exercise ‘Shaheen-VII’
- Pakistan and China have concluded a joint air training exercise named ‘Shaheen-VII’ aimed at maximizing the combat readiness of their air forces.
- The ‘Shaheen-VII’ air exercise began on December 3 and culminated on December 21, 2018.
Burundi names Gitega as new capital in place of Bujumbura
- Country Burundi has declared the small central city of Gitega the country’s new political capital.
- The government has just adopted an historic bill making Gitega the political capital and making Bujumbura the economic capital.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Quits Over Policy Differences With Trump
- The United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis announced his resignation on December 21 citing foreign policy differences with President Donald Trump including his failure to persuade Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw the remaining American troops from Syria.
- The resignation of Pentagon Chief, Mattis, will be effective from 28 February 2019 so as to have sufficient time for a successor to be nominated.
- The 68-year-old Mattis, a retired United States Marine Corps General, will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served the Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years.
- Extra Information:Trump made an announcement on December 20 that U.S. troops in Syria would be withdrawn. The president also plans to withdraw at least 5,000 of the 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The decision will have a huge impact on strong U.S. military presence to bolster diplomatic peace efforts in the regions.
IOA Secretary General Appointed Head of South Asian Fencing Federation
- The President of Fencing Association of India (FAI), Rajeev Mehta has been appointed as the head of the South Asian Fencing Federation for a period of four-year.
- Mehta is also secretary general of Indian Olympic Association.
- In addition to this, FAI Secretary General Bashir Ahmed Khan has been elected as the Secretary General of the South Asian Fencing Federation.
- The decision was taken during a recent meeting of the South Asian Fencing Federation in Hyderabad.
- It has also been decided to include the game of fencing in the list of events for the South Asian Games to be held in August 2019 in Nepal.
- The South Asian Fencing Championship will also be held every year from now.
- The first South Asian Fencing Championship 2019 will be held in Chhattisgarh.
China launches its first communication satellite under the Hongyun project
- China on December 22 launched its first communication satellite under the Hongyun Project that aims to provide broadband internet services worldwide to compete with Google and other international firms.
- The satellite was launched from a Long March 11 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC).
- CASIC currently intends to place more than 150 Hongyun satellites on orbits about 1,000 kms above the ground around 2023.
National Mathematics Day Observed on December 22
- India observes the National Mathematics Day every year on 22 December since 2012 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
- 2018 marks the 131st birth anniversary of Ramanujan.
- The day was announced on 26 February 2012 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 Dec 1887- 26 Apr 1920).
- 2012 was also observed as National Mathematics Year.