DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 22nd-23rd DEC 2019

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 22^nd-23^rd DEC 2019

1.      M.GANDHI’S 150TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

ü  President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind presided the 2nd meeting of National Committee for Commemoration of the 150th Birth anniversary (October 2) of Mahatma Gandhi ‘Gandhi@150’ which was held in New Delhi.

ü  Also the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Luís Santos da Costa, announced the Portuguese govt’s launch of Gandhi Citizenship Education Prize to perpetuate Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals. The announced prize will be given annually.

2.      ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF ASSOCHAM

ü  PM Modi addressed the annual meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in New Delhi. This is to celebrate the 100 years of ASSOCHAM.

ü  Theme:  New India Aspiring for 5 trillion USD

ü  PM target’s to achieve 5 Trillion Dollar Economy – To achieve 5 Trillion Dollar Economy by 2024 it is required to boost digital transactions of GST. The government would invest 100 Lakh Crore Rupees in the infrastructural sector and another 25 Lakh Crore Rupees in the Rural Sector in order to achieve the target.

3.      92ND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF FICCI

ü  The 92nd Annual Convention of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) was conducted in New Delhi from December 20-21,2019. The theme for the year 2019 was “India: Roadmap to a $5 trillion economy”.

4.      GAHP REPORT

ü  According to the new report, “2019 Pollution and Health Metrics: Global, Regional and Country Analysis” released by Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP), India leads the world with about 2.3 million (23,26,771 deaths) in 2017 in terms of premature deaths due to pollution.India is followed by China (18,65,566 deaths) & Nigeria (2,79,318 deaths). The United States (US), the world’s third most populous country with 325 million people, stood at 7^th position (1,96,930 deaths).

ü  In terms of untimely deaths due to air pollution only, China ranks first with 12, 42,987 deaths, India ranked 2^nd with (12,40,529 deaths) and Pakistan ranks third (1,28,005).

5.       ‘OPERATION TWIST’ TO REDUCE LONG-TERM INTEREST RATES

ü  RBI has decided to conduct simultaneous sale and purchase of government bonds under the Open Market Operations (OMO) mechanism, a concept similar to “Operation Twist” that was last adopted by the US (United States) Federal Reserve in 2013.

ü  So, the RBI will buy bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore of 6.45% maturing in the year 2029 and issuing bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore maturing in the year 2020.

6.      ADITYA TO RECEIVE BHARAT AWARD

ü  Aditya K. of Kozhikode, Kerala became the first child from the State to receive the highest honour award for bravery, the Bharat award. He was awarded for saving 20 people from a burning bus on the move. The awards will be presented by PM Narendra Modi at the Republic Day event on January 26,2020.

7.      ITF WORLD CHAMPIONS FOR 2019    

ü  International Tennis Federation has announced that Rafael Nadal of Spain and Ashleigh Barty of Australia have been named 2019 ITF World Champions in Singles.

WINNERS OF THE EVENT

CATEGORY	WINNER
Men Singles	Spain Rafael Nadal
Women Singles	Australia’s Ashleigh Barty
Women Doubles	Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France
Men Doubles	Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah

8.      NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ACCESSIBLE ELECTIONS

ü  Election Commission of India (ECI), has organized National Workshop on Accessible Elections 2019 in New Delhi to review the steps taken by ECI to make Elections Public Works Department (PwD) and Senior Citizens friendly. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)  Sunil Arora has released a booklet, ‘Crossing the Barriers – I Got Inked’ during the workshop.