DAILY GK 15-16 DEC 2025
1. CZECH REPUBLIC’S PM
·
Slovak-born and leader of populist ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens)
party Andrej Babis, officially sworn-in as the new
Prime Minister (PM) of Czech Republic by President
Petr Pavel, during a ceremony held at Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic.
·
Andrej Babis
succeeded Petr Fiala, who served as PM of the
country from 2021-2025.
·
Coalition Government: Following the parliamentary
elections, Andrej Babis’s party agreed to form a majority coalition government
with two small political groups, the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD),
anti-migrant party and the right-wing Motorists for Themselves Party.
·
Parliamentary Seats: The new coalition government holds
108 seats in the 200-seat Lower House of Parliament.
·
He served as PM of the
Czech Republic from December 2017 to December 2021 following the 2017
electoral victory of his ANO movement.
·
He became the oldest and
wealthiest Czech PM, as well as the first born outside the Czech Republic, the
first with dual citizenship, and the first whose native language was not Czech.
2.
FIRST WOMEN PRESIDENT OF PCI
·
SangeetaBarooahPisharoty, a senior Indian journalist from
Assam, was elected as the first woman President of
the Press Club of India (PCI).
·
Afzal
Imam was elected Secretary General, Jatin Gandhi became Vice-President,
while Aditi Rajput and P R Sunil were
elected Treasurer and Joint Secretary, respectively, both unopposed.
·
In 2017, She received the RamnathGoenka Excellence in
Journalism Award and in 2023, she was awarded the Parag Kumar Das Journalism
Award.
3. CHIEF INFORMATION
COMMISSIONER
·
Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Raj
Kumar Goyal was sworn in as the 13th Chief Information Commissioner of the Central Information Commission (CIC) for
three years.
·
Following his
swearing-in, Goyal administered the oath to eight newly appointed Information Commissioners (ICs), completing
the Central Information Commission’s full bench of one Chief Information Commissioner
and ten ICs for the first time since
2016.
·
The appointments were recommended
by a three-member committee as mandated by the Right to Information (RTI)
Act, 2005.
·
The committee comprised Prime
Minister (PM), Union Minister Amit Shah, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA),
and the Leader of Opposition in LokSabha,
Rahul Gandhi.
·
New Information Commissioners (ICs): The eight newly appointed Information
Commissioners represent diverse professional backgrounds, including civil
services, journalism, and the legal sector, and join the two incumbent ICs, Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar
Tiwari.
·
New Information Commissioners: Surendra Singh
Meena, Ashutosh Chaturvedi, Swagat Das, Sudha Rani Relangi, P.R. Ramesh,
Khushwant Singh Sethi, Jaya Varma Sinha, Sanjeev Kumar Jindal.
·
Central Information Commission (CIC)Established – 2005.
4. 38TH PRESIDENT OF CHILE
·
Jose Antonio Kast Rist of Chile’s Republican
Party elected as the 38th President of
Chile after winning the presidential runoff with about 58% of the vote, defeating left-wing
candidate Jeannette Jara, and will assume office on
March 11, 2026, succeeding centre-left
President Gabriel Boric.
·
ChilePresident – Gabriel Boric.
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Capital – Santiago.
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Currency – Chilean Peso (CLP).
5.
MD OF SBI
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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired
by PM Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal
of Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance (MoF), for the
appointment of Ravi Ranjan as Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of India (SBI), India’s
largest Public Sector Bank (PSB).
·
Rajiv Ranjan, who was
previously serving as Deputy MD (DMD)of SBI, succeeded Vinay M. Tonse whose
tenure expired on November 30, 2025.
·
After assuming charge as MD of SBI, Ranjan is now responsible
for the risk management, compliance and Stressed Assets Resolution Group
(SARG).
6.
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF NCAER
·
The National Council
of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), appointed Suresh
Goyal as its 11th Director
General(DG).
·
He will succeed Poonam
Gupta, who became a Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) in May 2025.
·
The NCAER, India’s
largest and oldest economic think tank, was established in 1956 through a Public-Private
Partnership(PPP) initiated by then Union
Commerce Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and industrialist J.R.D. Tata.
7.
SBI MD
·
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired
by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, approved the re-appointment of Ashwini
Kumar Tewari as Managing Director
(MD) of the State Bank of India (SBI) for a second two-year extension, from 27 January 2026 to 31 December 2027.
·
With his reappointment,
SBI now has all four MDs in place: Ashwini Kumar Tewari, Rana Ashutosh Kumar
Singh, Rama Mohan Rao Amarraand Ravi Ranjan.
8. ITALY’S DEPUTY PM VISIT TO
INDIA
·
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister(PM) and
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, visited India to
strengthen the India‑Italy Strategic Partnership
and enhance bilateral cooperation.
·
This marked his second visit to India in 2025.
·
Highlights of Italy’s Deputy PM Antonio Tajani’s Visit to
India.
·
He co-chaired the
Italy-India Business Forum 2025.
·
Union Minister PiyushGoyal and Tajanisigned the Agreed Minutes of the 22nd session of the India-Italy Joint Commission for Economic
Cooperation (JCEC).
9. 20TH SESSION OF UNESCO
INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL
HERITAGE
·
The 20th Session of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental
Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) held
at the Red Fort in New Delhi, marking the first
time hosted by India.
·
The Red Fort is a 17th-century
UNESCO World Heritage Site which was inscribed
in 2007.
·
It served as the main
residence of the Mughal emperors for nearly 200 years from Shah Jahan who commissioned it in 1638-1648 until the
British colonial period.
·
The Red Fort, managed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under
Ministry of Culture, is constructed mainly of red stone, with marble inlay
in certain structures.
·
During the session, Deepavali,
one of India’s widely celebrated festivals, has been added to UNESCO’s
Representative List of the ICHof Humanity.
10.
INDIA’S FIRST YOGA-AYURVEDA CLUSTER CENTRE
·
University of Patanjali in Haridwar(Uttarakhand) became India’s first Yoga and Ayurveda
focused ‘Cluster Center’ under the GyanBharatam Mission (GBM), a
flagship initiative of the Ministry of
Culture.
·
GyanBharatam Mission safeguards
India’s intellectual heritage, particularly manuscripts and traditional
knowledge, through conservation, research, and dissemination.
·
As of now, the university
has preserved more than 50,000 ancient texts, digitized over 42 lakh pages and
republished 40 manuscripts.
11. MICROSOFT CEO SATYA
NADELLA’S VISIT TO INDIA
·
Satya Nadella, CEO of
Microsoft Corporation, visited India marking his second visit to India in
2025.
·
He met Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
·
He announced a USD 17.5 billion investment (around
Rs 1.58 lakh crore) in India over four years (2026 to 2029) to strengthen Artificial
Intelligence (AI) infrastructure and develop an AI-ready workforce.
·
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the
Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoL&E), and Microsoft.
·
Under the agreement, Microsoft will help bring over 15,000
employers and partners from its global network onto the National Career Service (NCS) platform.
·
Microsoft partnered with Indian Information Technology (IT)
companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro,
and Cognizant to accelerate the deployment of Microsoft Copilot and agentic AI technologies across enterprise
functions within India and globally in Bengaluru.
·
As part of the
partnership, each company will deploy
over 50,000 Microsoft Copilot licenses, bringing the total to over 200,000
licenses.
12. INDIA AND ARGENTINA SIGNED
ICAR-INTA WORK PLAN 2025-2027
·
India and Argentina have
formalized a bilateral Work Plan for 2025–2027 between
the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and
Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) to
deepen cooperation in agricultural research, technology exchange, and capacity
building.
·
Objective is to Strengthen bilateral
cooperation in agricultural research,
technology exchange, capacity building, and sustainable farming practices.
·
ICAR is an autonomous
organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE ),
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare(MoA&FW).
13. INDIA’S FIRST AI DIABETIC
RETINOPATHY SCREENING
·
The Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), in
collaboration with the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (RPC)
at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the eHealth
AI Unit of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW),
launched India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)driven
community screening programme for Diabetic Retinopathy (DR)
at Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi.
·
Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme Objective is to Use AI for early, large-scale detection of diabetic retinopathy in
underserved areas and generate real-time disease data to support national
health planning.
·
Technology is Powered by MadhuNetrAI,
a web-based AI tool by RPC, AIIMS, that automatically analyses retinal images
from handheld fundus cameras for screening, grading, and triaging.
14.
INDIA’S FIRST WILDLIFE-SAFE ROAD ON NH-45
·
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI),
under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), launched India’s first ‘wildlife-safe
road’ on a 2-kilometre (km)
ghat section of the 11.96-km Hiran–Sindoor stretch of National Highway 45 (NH-45) in Madhya Pradesh (MP).
·
The initiative aims to reduce animal-vehicle collisions while
ensuring smooth highway connectivity through ecologically sensitive zones.
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5-millimeter (mm)hot-applied
thermoplastic red surface with raised chequered texture, inspired by
Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, laid over a 2
km ghat section to slow vehicles in wildlife zones.
15.
PARAM VIR DIRGHA INAUGURATED AT RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN
·
President of India Droupadi Murmu inaugurated
the ParamVirDirgha at RashtrapatiBhavan in New Delhi.
·
ParamVirDirghaGalleryt is a dedicated gallery or an
exhibition, honouring the recipients of ParamVir Chakra (PVC), India’s
highest military gallantry award.
·
The gallery displays portraits and stories of all 21
PVC awardees.
·
ParamVir Chakra (PVC): Instituted in 1950, the PVC is India’s highest wartime gallantry award,
conferred for exceptional bravery or selfless sacrifice in the presence of the
enemy.
