Current Affairs Update 27 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. 27 December 2018
VP Naidu confers ‘Champions of Change’ award to Manipur CM
- Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has presented the Champions of Change Awards 2018. The award has been instituted by media platforms Power Corridors and Panchayati Times.
- Some winners of the award are:
- N. Biren Singh (Manipur Chief Minister )
- Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Union MoS for Food Processing Industries)
NITI Aayog Releases Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts
- The NITI Aayog has released the Second Delta ranking for the Aspirational Districts which measures the incremental progress made by them between June 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018.
- It measures six developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.
- The most improved districts: Virudhunagar of Tamil Nadu has topped the ranking for most improved district
- Top- Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu); Second- Nuapada (Odisha); Third- Siddharthnagar (Uttar Pradesh)
- In this rank Pakur district of Jharkhand has been placed last at 111th position i.e it is a Least Improved over the period of June – October 2018.
- Fast Movers Ranking – The districts which have shown great initiative and displayed a qualitative jump in their scores between June and October 2018
| Rank | District (State) | Rank (Oct 2018) | Rank(June 2018) |
| 1 | Kupwara (Jammu and Kashmir) | 07 | 108 |
| 2 | Ranchi (Jharkhand) | 10 | 106 |
| 3 | Siddharthnagar (Uttar Pradesh) | 3 | 103 |
- In the second Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts 111 districts have been ranked as against 112 district in the First Delta Ranking.
- ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
Railways develops AI-powered robot USTAD to check for faults in trains
- Railways have developed an Artificial Intelligence-powered robot named USTAAD. It will examine parts of the coach in real time with an HD camera and transmits them over Wi-Fi and send them to engineers for repairs and maintenance.
- It has been developed by mechanical branch of Central Railway’s Nagpur division and stands for USTAAD (Undergear Surveillance Through Artificial Intelligence Assisted Droid).
- It will soon be introduced in other zones of Indian Railway
Indian Oil, ONGC, NTPC most profitable PSUs in FY18: Public Enterprises Survey 2017-18
- As per the Public Enterprises Survey 2017-18, which mapped the performance of central public sector units, the top three most profitable PSUs in FY18 were:
- Top- Indian Oil Corporation (13.37%)
- Second- Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (12.49%)
- Third- NTPC (6.48%)
- BSNL, Air India and MTNL were the top three worst performing PSUs and contributed 52.15 per cent of the total loss incurred by CPSEs in 2017-18.
- There were 339 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) in 2017-18, out of which 257 were in operation. Remaining 82 of the CPSEs were under construction.
- Total paid up capital in 339 CPSEs as on 31.3.2018 stood at Rs.2,49,988 crore
Centre tightens e-commerce norms to protect offline stores
- The Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India has tightened e-commerce norms and barred online retail firms like Amazon and Flipkart from selling products of companies in which they have stake.
- Some major points are:
- FDI in e-commerece- 100% (Automatic Route)
- An entity having equity participation by e-commerce marketplace entity will not be permitted to sell its products on the platform run by such marketplace entity.
- e-commerce marketplace entity will not mandate any seller to sell any product exclusively on its platform only.
- e-commerce marketplace entity will be required to furnish a certificate along with a report of statutory auditor to Reserve Bank of India, confirming compliance of above guidelines, by 30th of September of every year for the preceding financial year.
- The above decision will take effect from 01 February, 2019.
UP Police launch ‘Trinetra’ an AI-powered face recognition app to catch criminals
- Director General of UP Police launched an AI powered mobile app named ‘Trinetra’ for UP Police.
- The application has a data base of five lakh criminals as well as AI, face recognition and hosts many more tech features. It will help the UP Police in solving the cases faster.
- It is connected with the data from the all the prisons, DCRBs, SCRB, and CCTNS and creates non-ambiguous, non-repetitive data of criminals active in the state.
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana to have separate high courts from Jan 1
- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will have separate high courts from January 1, 2019. The order regarding the same has been signed by President Ram Nath Kovind and issued by the Union Law Ministry.
- For Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh High Court )- Andhra Pradesh will have its own High Court at its capital Amaravati- It will have 16 judges
- For Telangana (Telangana Highcourt)- High Court at Hyderabad shall become the High Court for Telangana – It will have 10 judges
3rd Dwijing Festival begins in Assam
- In Assam, the third Dwijing Festival has begun on the bank of Aye river at Chirang district.
- The 12 day long event will see participants from Thailand, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Govt pegs FY19 current account deficit at 2% of GDP on slide in oil prices
- Government has pegged the current account deficit (CAD) for 2018-19 (FY19) at
about 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Earlier, the government had estimated the CAD would be 2.8 per cent of GDP.
7th tranche of electoral bonds sale to kick off from Jan 1: Finance Ministry
- The seventh tranche of the sale of electoral bonds will take place from January 1-10, 2019.
- Electoral bonds is an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
- SBI is the only authorised bank to issue such bonds through its 29 branches.
- An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue. No payment would be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period.
C A Kuttappa takes over as India’s chief boxing coach
- Dronacharya awardee C.A. Kuttappa has taken over as India’s chief boxing coach.
- He has replaced coach S R Singh at the beginning of the national camp which started December 10.
- He is known for shaping some of the India’s most successful boxers such as Vijender Singh, M Suranjoy Singh and Shiva Thapa
Former Padma Shri awardee Prof Hamidi Kashmiri passed away
- Noted Urdu and Kashmiri poet and writer Hamidi Kashmiri passed away at the age of 86 years.
- He was a former vice chancellor of the University of Kashmir. Hamidi Kashmiri is a recipient of the Padma Shri (2010), Ghalib Award and Sahitya Akademi Award (2005).