Current Affairs December 24-25, 2018
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of December 24-25, 2018 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.
1. Indian woman Vedangi Kulkarni has become the fastest Asian to cycle the globe. Hailing from a suburb of Pune, Vedangi cycled into Kolkata in the wee hours on 23rd December 2018, completing the 29,000 kilometers' distance required to qualify as bicycling across the globe. She spent 159 days peddling up to 300km a day in 14 countries. Starting off from Perth in July 2018, she will now be flying back to the Australian city to complete the record by cycling a 15km distance to reach the same place from where she started. Vedangi is a student of the University of Bournemouth in the United Kingdom pursuing a degree in sports management. Earlier, British adventurer Jenny Graham (38) is the fastest woman to have cycled the globe in 124 days in 2018.
2. India’s first music museum will be set up with assistance from the Central government in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu, the birth place of Saint Tyagaraja, one of the Trinities of Carnatic music. The Tyagaraja Aaradhana Music Festival which is held annually in January in Thiruvaiyaru attracts musical talents from all over the world.
3. The National Farmer’s Day (NFD) is celebrated every year in India on December 23 to acknowledge the role of farmers in India’s socio-economic development and to mark the birth anniversary of 5th Prime Minister Late Chaudhary Charan Singh. He used to be referred to as the ‘champions of India’s peasants’ for his strive for the betterment of farmer’s lives in the country. The day is popularly known as Kisan Diwas.
4. In Indonesia, a volcano-triggered tsunami has killed at least 281 people and injured more than thousand in Sunda Strait. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit the coast of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java after a volcano known as Anak Krakatoa (the “Child of Krakatoa”) erupted. Anak Krakatoa has been active since June 2018 & occasionally sending massive plumes of ash high into the sky and in October a tour boat was nearly hit by lava bombs from the erupting volcano. Experts say Anak Krakatoa emerged around 1928 in the caldera of Krakatoa, a volcanic island that violently erupted in 1883. With subsequent lava flows it grew from a submarine setting to become a small volcanic island, with the cone now standing at an altitude of around 300 metres (1,000 feet) above sea level. Since its birth, Anak Krakatoa has been in a “state of semi-continuous eruptive activity”, growing bigger as it experiences eruptions every two to three years. The vast archipelago nation is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
5. The National Consumer Day (NCD) is observed every year in India on 24th December to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities. The 2018 theme is “Timely Disposal of Consumer Complaints”. On this day the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was enacted. The Act aims to provide consumers with effective safeguards against different types of exploitation, such as defective goods, deficiency in services and unfair trade practices. Recently, the Lok Sabha passed the Consumer Protection Bill of 2018, which seeks to replace the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. It also seeks to establish Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at District, State and National level.
6. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently released the list of top 10 police stations in India for Year 2018. The Kalu Police Station (Rajasthan) grabbed the top spot on the list and was followed by Campbell Bay (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Farakka (West Bengal), Nettapakkam (Puducherry), Guderi (Karnataka), Chopal (Himachal Pradesh), Lakheri (Rajasthan), Periyakulam (Tamil Nadu), Munsyari (Uttarakhand) and Churchorem (Goa). The list was prepared by Intelligence Bureau (IB) along with state agencies to ascertain the best police stations in the country. The police stations were assessed on parameters like crime control, community policing and public image etc.
7. The NITI Aayog has recently released the report titled “SDG India Index: Baseline Report 2018”, which evaluates progress in social, economic and environmental terms. In it, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have emerged as top performing states. While, Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are the worst performing states in the government think tank’s first of its kind India Index for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The Aayog has developed the SDG India Index which is a comprehensive index to measure progress of states/UTs, through a single measurable index and the First Baseline Report for 2018 was prepared with the support of United Nations in India.
8. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defense Minister of India, has launched the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) to boost maritime security at Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) Gurugram on 22 Dec 18. IFC will function as a platform where multiple friendly nations can freely exchange non-sensitive information. The intention of this collaborative endeavour shall be to secure the global commons for a peaceful, stable and prosperous region towards the well-being of all. The IOR is vital to world trade and economic prosperity of many countries as more than 75% of the world's maritime trade and 50% of global oil consumption passes through it.
9. The federal government of Burundi has declared Gitega as the country's new political capital on 22nd December 2018. As per officials, Bujumbura will remain the economic capital as many of country’s business activities’ are based there. Burundi is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa, bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.
10. Nirupam Sen (72), Veteran CPI (M) leader & three-time MLA from Bardhaman Dakshin constituency , has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 24, 2018. One of the most prominent faces of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya cabinet after the CPI(M)-led Left Front was voted to power in 2001, Sen was handed the charge of Commerce and Industry. It was under the leadership of Bhattacharya and Sen that the Left Front started selling the dream of industrialisation in the state and shifted focus to private investments. This shift in the policy reaped them heavy dividends, resulting in the Left Front's resounding victory in the 2006 Assembly election.
