Daily Current Affairs 25 & 26 December 2019: We have collected the latest current affairs for 25 & 26 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 25 & 26 December 2019

PM Modi Launches Atal Bhujal Yojana to Conserve Ground Water

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL) on December 25, 2019, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• What is ATAL JAL? It is an initiative designed with the objective of strengthening the institutional framework for participatory groundwater management and bringing about behavioral changes at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management in seven States namely Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
• Total Outlay: Rs. 6000 crore to be implemented over a period of 5 years (2020-21 to 2024-25).
  • Of the total amount, 50% shall be in the form of World Bank loan, and be repaid by the Central Government.
  • The remaining 50% shall be through Central Assistance from regular budgetary support.
• PM also named the Strategic Tunnel under Rohtang Pass after Vajpayee, meaning that the Rohtang Tunnel, connecting Manali, Himachal Pradesh with Leh, Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir, will now be known as Atal Tunnel.

Dharmendra Pradhan Launches India’s first long distance CNG bus

• The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan has unveiled India’s first long distance CNG bus fitted with CNG cylinders.
• The newly launched bus can travel around 1000 kilometre in a single fill, and hence will eventually help to reduce vehicular pollution.
• The first long range interstate CNG bus will ply from Delhi to Dehradun.
• The project has been executed by Indraprastha Gas Limited, the largest CNG distribution company of India.
• Several similar type of buses will soon ply between Delhi to Jaipur, Chandigarh and Agra.

Tamil Nadu Tops Good Governance Index 2019

• The Minister of State for Public Grievances and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh launched Good Governance Index in New Delhi on December 25, 2019 on the occasion of Good Governance Day.
• The Good Governance Index (GGI) has divided the states and union territories into three groups namely big states, north-east and hill states, and union territories to rank them on certain indicators separately.
• Among the big states category, Tamil Nadu has bagged the top position followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka as top three.
• In the north-east and hill category, Himachal Pradesh has topped the ranking followed by Uttarakhand, Tripura.
• Among the union territories, Pondicherry has got the first position, followed by Chandigarh, Delhi.
• The good governance index aims to provide quantifiable data to assess and compare the states of governance and impact of various interventions taken by all the state governments and the UTs.

Centre approves Rs 453 crore loan to Tamil Nadu for building fishing harbours

• The Government of India has approved loan worth Rs 453-crore loan for Tamil Nadu government at a subsidised interest rate of five percent for setting up three fishing harbours.
• This amount will be released from the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) that has a corpus of Rs 7,522 crore.
• Tamil Nadu is the first state which has signed the agreement to avail loan under the FIDF.
• The loan is given for a tenure of 12 years and there would be moratorium of two years on repayment of principal.
• The Centre is providing interest subvention of 3 percent on the loan released from the FIDF.

Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria Begins 5-Day bilateral goodwill visit to Egypt

• Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria is on a five-day visit to Egypt from December 24 to 28, 2019 to strengthen the long-standing bilateral relations between New Delhi and Cairo.
• RKS Bhadauria is the current Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.
• He assumed office on 30 September 2019 after superannuation of Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa.

Major Anoop Mishra Receives Army Design Bureau Excellence Award for Developing bulletproof jacket ‘Sarvatra’

• Indian Army officer Major Anoop Mishra has developed a bulletproof jacket named ‘Sarvatra’ that can effectively provide protection to troops from lethal sniper rifle bullets.
• The officer was awarded the Army Design Bureau Excellence Award by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat for indigenously developing a bullet-proof jacket.
• As per Maj Anoop Mishra, Sarvatra is level 4 bulletproof jacket, developed at the college of military engineering in Pune and can provide full-body protection against sniper rifle bullets.

RBI sets lending cap on NBFC-P2P platforms at Rs 50 lakh

• In order to protect consumers interest, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set Rs 50-lakh cap on the aggregate exposure of a lender to all borrowers across all Non-Banking Financial Company – Peer to Peer (NBFC-P2P) lending platforms at any point of time.
• Also, such investments of the lenders on P2P platforms should be consistent with their net-worth.
• The lender investing more than Rs 10 lakh across P2P platforms will need to produce a certificate to P2P platforms from a practising Chartered Accountant certifying minimum net-worth of Rs 50 lakh.

Dennis Muilenburg steps down as Boeing CEO

Virat Kohli Named in the List of Five Wisden Cricketers Of The Decade

• Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been included in the list of five cricketers of the decade announced by Wisden (Wisden Cricketers‘ Almanack).
• Apart from Kohli, the other four cricketers in the Wisden Cricketers Of The Decade List
  are – Steve Smith (Australia), Dale Steyn (South Africa), AB de Villiers (South Africa) and Ellyse Perry (Australia).

Manu Bhaker & Anish Bhanwala clinch 5 gold medals at 63rd National Shooting Championships in Bhopal

• Commonwealth Games champions Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala has secured 5 gold medals at the 63rd National Shooting Championships in Bhopal.
• The Haryana based 17-year-old Bhaker, clinched four gold medals (individual and team events in senior and junior) in the women’s 10 meter air pistol.
• Anish, 17, won individual gold medal in the senior men’s 25 meter rapid fire pistol event.
• Apart from them, Devanshi Dhama bagged the silver in the senior women’s 10 meter air pistol event while Yashaswini Singh Deshwal won the bronze medal in the same event.

Indian weightlifter Rakhi creates two new national records at Qatar International Cup

• Indian weightlifter Rakhi Halder clinched a bronze medal in the women’s 64kg weight category at the Qatar International Cup in Doha.
• With this, she created two new national records in both snatch and total lift with her personal best effort of 218kg (95kg in snatch + 123 kg in clean and jerk).
• In June, the Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Halder had clinched the gold with a combined effort of 214kg (94kg+120kg).

Good Governance Day: December 25

• In India, Good Governance Day (Susasan Divas) is observed annually on December 25 to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018).
• Good Governance Day was established in 2014 to honor PM Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the Indian people of accountability in government.

Hindi author Ganga Prasad Passes Away at 80

• Renowned Hindi author Ganga Prasad Vimal passed away in a road accident in southern Sri Lanka. He was 80 years old.
• Born in 1939 in Uttarkashi, in Uttarakhand, Vimal wrote more than one dozen poetry collections, short story collections and novels. He received several Hindi literary awards.

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Second edition of Eat Right Mela inaugurated in New Delhi by Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan

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Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that NDA government will launch Digital Radio in 2024

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Telangana’s Kamareddy district secured the United Nations International Children’s and Education Fund (UNICEF) 2019 Award for effective implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in water sanitation and hygiene sectors

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Typhoon ‘Phanfone’ kills at least 20 in Philippines