1. World Aids Day: 1st December
i. World AIDS Day is observed across the world on 1 December annually.
ii. The theme for 2016 World Aids Day is ‘Hands Up for HIV Prevention’.
iii. The day is observed to raise awareness to the Aids pandemic caused by the spread of the HIV infection.
iv. The day is celebrated by the government organizations, NGOs, civil society and other health officials by organizing the speeches or forums discussion related to the AIDS.
2. Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography "Playing it my way" named Book of the Year
i. The autobiography of India’s batting legend Sachin Tendulkar “Playing it my way” has won the prestigious Crossword Book of the Year Award in the Autobiography category.
ii. The book is penned by renowned cricket historian and Tendulkar’s close friend Boria Majumdar.
iii. Earlier, it also had entered the Limca Book of World Records for being the best selling adult hardback across both fiction and non-fiction.
3. Andhra pradesh CM Chandrababu to head central committee to promote e-payments
i. NITI Aayog, under the banner of the Union Government, on 30 November 2016 constituted a 13-member committee to promote cashless economy.
ii. The committee will be headed by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu.
iii. The committee will be formed by Chief Ministers of various states representing different political parties to examine and promote the use of digital payment systems across the country.
iv. The Committee will identify the best global practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment.
4. Naveen Patnaik inaugurates Tata Steel’s 55,000 TPA ferro-chrome plant in Gopalpur
i. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurates the 55,000-tonne per annum (TPA) Odisha ferro-chrome plant set up by Tata Steel at a cost of Rs 542 crore in its Gopalpur Industrial Park in Ganjam district.
ii. The plant is a unique environment-friendly unit with state-of-the-art pollution control equipment and technology such as ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant) and STP (Sewage Treatment Plant).
iii. It is the first plant in India to use briquetting method of chrome ore fine agglomeration.
5. National anthem must be played in theatres before movies, orders Supreme Court
i. The Supreme Court on November 30, 2016, made it mandatory for cinema halls to play the National anthem before the screening of a film in theatres across the country.
ii. A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy said that “People must show respect to the national anthem and the national flag and pay respect to the anthem.
6. Himachal Pradesh Raj Bhawan adopts cashless system after PM’s appeal
i. Raj Bhawan of Himachal Pradesh has adopted the cashless system for all kind of payments. Governor Acharya Devvrat has directed Raj Bhawan’s official in Shimla to use a cashless system or cheque in all kinds of payments.
ii. The direction was issued after the Prime Minister’s appeal in this regard.
7. Federal Bank ties up with Spice Digital
i. Federal Bank has tied up with Spice Digital for cash management services through the bank’s e-collection facility.
ii. As per the arrangement, 20,000 plus retail outlets of Spice Digital can now remit its cash collection at the Federal Bank branches pan India.
iii. This helps the outlets to get replenished its running limits on the spot enabling them to continue to serve the customers hassle-free.
iv. Spice Digital Ltd is a market leader for mobile value added services (MVAS), mobile applications and Internet products and services.
8. 15 new castes to be included in Central OBC list
i. The Union Government has approved inclusion of 15 new castes and modification of 13 other castes in the Central List of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on 30 November,2016.
ii. The proposal was approved by the Union Cabinet Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
9. Govt approves Rs 2,000 Cr for displaced families from Pok
i. Union Cabinet has approved Rs 2,000 Cr development package for one-time settlement of 36,384 displaced families from Pakistan occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Chhamb.
ii. It followed the announcement of the Prime Minister’s Development Package for Jammu and Kashmir in November last year.
10.Cuban rumba and Ugandan music now on UNESCO’s heritage list
Cuba’s sensual rumba dance and Belgium’s thriving beer culture brought new effervescence to UNESCO’s coveted list of “intangible” heritage on Wednesday.
Meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the U.N. body gave the nod to the rumba, which it said evokes “grace, sensuality and joy”, while it said “making and appreciating beer is part of the living heritage... throughout Belgium”. The Cuban delegation to the Addis Ababa meeting dedicated the rumba’s selection to longtime leader Fidel Castro, who died on Friday aged 90.
UNESCO noted that Belgium produces some 1,500 types of beer, while in Cuba because the rumba sprang from poor communities the dance is an enduring “expression of resistance and self-esteem”.
Staying on the festive theme, the World Heritage Committee also enshrined the March 21 new year’s celebrations of 12 countries stretching from Turkey to India, as well as Bangladesh’s April 14 new year’s festival.
The list of “intangible” cultural treasures was created 10 years ago, mainly to increase awareness about them, while UNESCO also sometimes offers financial or technical support to countries struggling to protect them.
On Tuesday, the U.N. body designated Ugandan traditional music, which is dying out partly because it requires materials from endangered species, as intangible heritage “in urgent need of safeguarding”.
Uganda’s Ma’di Bowl Lyre music and dance is one of the oldest cultural practices of the Madi people of Uganda.
It is still performed at some weddings and to celebrate harvests but is at risk “due to it being considered old-fashioned by younger generations” and because it requires materials from plants and animals now endangered.
Reviving interest
A black pottery manufacturing process from the Portuguese village of Bisalhaes was also added to the UNESCO list. Designed for decorative and cooking purposes, it features on the village’s coat of arms but the pottery is suffering from “waning interest from younger generations and popular demand for industrial alternatives”, the U.N.’s cultural, scientific and educational arm said in a statement.
Another cultural gem added to the list is Cossack song from Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region. The songs tell stories about the tragedy of war and personal relationships of Cossack soldiers. This art form is also in danger as its participants age, UNESCO said.
11.8900 cases under SC/ST act found false in 2016: Govt
As many as 8,900 cases were found to be "false or mistake of fact or law" under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 2015, with more than half of them being reported from Rajasthan, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
Referring to the data of National Crime Records Bureau in this regard, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla said that Andhra Pradesh has reported second highest number, 1,099 cases while Bihar recorded 664 cases under the category in 2015.
Telangana reported 477 such cases while Uttar Pradesh 400, he added.
In 2014, total number of cases stood at 9,704 with Rajasthan reporting the highest number at 5,018 under the category of "false/mistake of fact or law" followed by Andhra Pradesh (957) and Bihar (670).
In 2013, 9,253 such cases were registered with Rajasthan reporting 4,416 cases followed by Andhra Pradesh (1511) and Bihar (686).
12. Trump's policies could lift global growth: OECD
The OECD lifted its global growth forecasts for 2017 and predicted expansion in 2018 will reach its fastest pace in half a decade as Donald Trump’s planned fiscal stimulus provides a boost to major economies.
World gross domestic product will now expand 3.3 percent next year, up by 0.1 percentage point from September’s forecast, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a semi-annual report. The Paris-based organization sees the global economy expanding 3.6 percent in 2018, the fastest pace since 2011.
The S&P 500 Index has risen to a record high and bond yields have increased since Trump won the U.S. election on Nov. 8. The president-elect’s promises of spending on infrastructure as well as tax cuts should lift U.S. demand, spurring investment and boosting overall output once he takes office in January, increases that should also spill over into the rest of the world, according to the OECD.
“In the aftermath of the U.S. elections, there is widespread expectation of a significant change in direction for macroeconomic policy,” the OECD said. “The boost to U.S. final demand also strengthens import growth” and “the stimulus boosts global GDP growth by around 0.1 percentage point in 2017 and 0.3 percentage point in 2018.”
Forecasts increased for all major economies in 2017.
The U.S. itself will grow 2.3 percent in 2017 and 3 percent in 2018, while the euro area will expand 1.6 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, the OECD predicted. Growth will now be 6.4 percent and 6.1 percent in China and 1 percent and 0.8 percent in Japan, the OECD said.
The organization urged other governments to consider the same fiscal medicine.
“For the last five years the global economy has been in a low growth trap,” OECD Chief Economist Catherine Mann wrote in the report. Exiting this “depends on policy choices beyond those of monetary authorities,” she said, pointing to both fiscal stimulus and structural reform.
In Mann’s view, debt burdens are stabilizing and interest rates remain low, providing a window of opportunity for stimulus now that will actually lower borrowing as a percentage of GDP.
“Debt-to-GDP ratios in most advanced countries have flattened,” she wrote. “It is past time to focus on expanding the denominator -- GDP growth.”
13.Cabinet approves Mumbai Urban Transport Project
i. The Union Cabinet has approved the Mumbai Urban Transport Project Phase-III estimated to cost Rs 10,947 crores on completion.
ii. The Cabinet was chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
iii. The project is expected to be completed in the next five years during 13th Five Year Plan period.
14.SC to Centre: Decide if yoga should be made compulsory in schools
Hailing the recent initiatives taken by Modi government to popularise yoga, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Centre to take a decision regarding making the ancient practice mandatory in schools for students aged between six and 14 by framing a National Yoga Policy.
The court was acting on PILs filed by lawyers J C Seth and Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya seeking imparting yoga training in schools and framing a policy to promote and propagate it. The bench gave the government three months to decide if it can make yoga compulsory for the age category between six years and 14.
RIGHT TO HEALTH
Upadhyaya's plea sought a direction to the ministry of human resources development, National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT), National Council For Teacher Education (NCTE) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to "provide standard textbooks of 'yoga and health education' for students of Class I-VIII keeping in spirit various fundamental rights such as right to life, education and equality."
Right to Health is an integral part of Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution. It includes protection, prevention and cure of the health and is a minimum requirement to enable a person to live with human dignity, it said.
"State has an obligation to provide health facilities to all the citizens, especially to children and adolescents. In a welfare state, it is an obligation of the state to ensure the creation and sustaining of conditions congenial to good health," the plea said. It said that Right to Health cannot be secured without providing 'yoga and health education' to all children or framing a 'National Yoga Policy' to promote and propagate it. "There are about 200 million children, throughout the country, studying in primary and junior classes at the cost of public exchequer. Yoga should be taught to them as a compulsory subject as per the National Curriculum Framework 2005, notified under Section 7(6) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009...," it said.
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