Daily Current Affairs 21 December 2019: We have collected the latest current affairs for 21 December 2019 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. The GK current affairs will help you score more in these competitive exams. Improve your general knowledge with our daily online current affairs. You can also read the daily current affairs on our mobile app.

Current Affairs 21 December 2019

Uddhav announces Mahatma Jyotirao Phule loan waiver scheme of up to Rs 2 lakh for Maharashtra farmers

The Maharashtra government has announced a loan waiver scheme named “Mahatma Jyotirao Phule loan waiver scheme” under which farmers in Maharashtra will get a loan waiver of upto Rs two lakh.
The cut-off date for the scheme is September 30, 2019.

RBI Announces special Open Market Operation (OMO) Purchase and Sale of Government of India Dated Securities

The Reserve Bank has decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) for ₹10,000 crores each.
This has been done after a review of the current liquidity and market situation and an assessment of the evolving financial conditions.
The RBI will buy ₹10,000 crore of 6.45% government bonds maturing in 2029 and simultaneously sell ₹10,000 crore of short-term bonds maturing in 2020.
This Move by RBI is trending on social media with the name “Operation Twist”. Operation Twist is a move taken by U.S. Federal Reserve in 2011-12 to make long-term borrowing cheaper.

Govt relaxes guidelines for reissue of OCI cards

India has relaxed certain Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) guidelines for reissue of passport for those below 20 years of age and those above 50 years.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has granted this “temporary relaxation” till June 30, 2020.
For OCI cardholder below the age of 20 years: In case an OCI cardholder below the age of 20 years has not got OCI card re-issued on change of passport, he/she may travel on the strength of his/her existing OCI card bearing old passport number subject to the condition that along with the new passport, the OCI cardholder carries old passport mentioned in the OCI card
For OCI cardholder above the age of 50 years: In case an OCI cardholder who has attained the age of 50 years and got his/her passport renewed subsequently but has not got his/her OCI card re-issued on renewal of passport, he/she may travel till June 30, 2020, on the strength of existing OCI card along with the new and old passports.

EChO Network launched to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership

Prof. K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India has launched EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India. It was launched in New Delhi.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Limited, RoundGlass, India Climate Collaborative, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) are the founding partners of the EChO Network.
Over time EChO Network intends to create an international distributed institute comprising individuals housed within industry, government, private, and academic sectors, combining their expertise and resources collectively to tackle large scale problems.

Wipro, NASSCOM jointly launch ‘Future Skills’ to boost engineering teaching

Wipro has partnered with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) to launch the ‘Future Skills’ platform to enhance the quality of engineering education.
‘Future Skills’ platform is a part of Wipro’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, TalentNext and aims to target 10,000 students from over 20 engineering colleges in India.

First Global Refugee Forum held in Geneva, Switzerland

The first-ever Global Refugee Forum was held on 17 and 18 December 2019 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to strengthen the collective response to refugee situations as well as achieve the objectives of Global Compact on Refugees, affirmed on 17 December 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly.
The forum focused on the following areas: arrangements for responsibility-sharing, education, jobs and livelihoods, energy and infrastructure, solutions and protection capacity.
Global Refugee Forums will henceforth take place every four years, meaning the next is scheduled for late 2023.

Ethiopia Launches First Satellite Named ETRSS-1 From China

Ethiopia has launched its first satellite named Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS)-1 which took place at a space station in China.
The Chinese Long March 4B rocket (CZ-4B) carried the ETRSS-1 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China.

Rafael Nadal, Ashleigh Barty named ITF World Champions for 2019

Ashleigh Barty (Australia) and Rafael Nadal (Spain) have been named as the ITF’s world champions for 2019 women’s and men’s respectively.
They have been named the champions as they finished at the top in their respective category rankings.

International Human Solidarity Day : December 20

Every year International Human Solidarity Day is observed on December 20 to celebrate the unity in diversity and raise awareness about the importance of solidarity.
Solidarity is defined as an awareness of shared interests and objectives that create a psychological sense of unity and ties in a society that bind people together as one.
According to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, solidarity is among the fundamental values that are essential to international relations.

Daily Current Affairs – 21 December 2019