Current Affairs December 26, 2018

In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of December 26, 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. BVP Rao, who represented Archery Association of Assam, has been elected as the president of the Archery Association of India (AAI) in the controversial polls held under a High Court-appointed administrator. Rao beat Rupak Debroy of Tripura at the elections held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

2. The Indian Railways has won 17 awards at the National Energy Conservation Awards (NECA) 2018. This is the highest number of awards bagged by a single organisation. These awards are given by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the Ministry of Power to various institutions for adopting measures for reducing energy consumption and cost. Under 'transport' category, Indian Railways obtained 10 awards for the subsector railway station. In it, Vidisha railway station in Madhya Pradesh won the first prize. Under 'building' category, Indian Railways got three awards for subsector Railway hospitals. Here, Railway hospitals of Izzatnagar division won the first prize. Under 'institution' category, Indian Railways bagged four awards for subsector state PWD, CPWD and PHED. Passenger reservation system complex building of Secunderabad division won the first prize.

3. The Government of India (GoI) has announced the institution of a new award named after freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, which would be given every year for "outstanding efforts" in the field of furthering national integration. The award was announced by Narendra Modi at the DGPs/IGPs Conference at Kevadia , Gujarat on December 22, 2018. The annual award would be given to any Indian who has contributed to national unity in any manner. Sardar Patel, who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, is called the "Unifier of India". He is also remembered as the "patron saint of India's civil servants" for having established the modern all-India services system. He was appointed as the 49th President of Indian National Congress (INC) in Karachi session of 1931. This session became memorable for its resolution on Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy.

4. Dipali Borthakur (77), the legendary Assamese singer, has passed away in Guwahati on December 21, 2018. She was popularly referred to as the “Nightingale of Assam”. For her outstanding contributions to the field of arts, Borthakur was honored with the Padma Shri award in 1998.

5. The Manipur Assembly has unanimously passed the ‘Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Bill of 2018’. The bill recommends a rigorous life imprisonment for those involved in mob violence, if it results in the death of a person. The bill was introduced in the Assembly in the wake of incidents of mob lynchings in the state.

6. On the occasion of Good Governance Day (GGD-2018 ), Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's longest rail-cum-road bridge “Bogibeel” over the Brahmaputra in the Dibrugarh district of Assam. The 4.94km long double-decker bridge, which begins at Dibrugarh and ends at Dhemaji districts of Assam, will connect parts of Arunachal Pradesh by road as well as railway. The Bogibeel Bridge will play a crucial role in defence movement along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge, constructed at an estimated cost of around Rs.5,900 crore, has a serviceable period of around 120 years. The rail link connects two existing railway networks running at south bank and north bank of the river.

7. The 106th Indian Science Congress (ISC-2019) will be held at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab on January 3-7 with theme ‘'Future India: Science and Technology' . It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) has been organising the event annually to bring together science fraternity from across the world to discuss innovations and researches. This year, six Nobel laureates from countries like Germany, Hungary, England and others will be participating in the science congress to make it the largest such gathering of its kind in the country. Eminent scientists from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Science and Technology (DST), University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) are also slated to take part. The science congress will attract over 20,000 delegates including 3000 acclaimed scientists and researchers.

8. India’s national accreditation body, the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) has secured equivalence for its accreditation for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Certification Bodies in Asia- Pacific region. It has signed the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) of the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) on 19 December 2018. Now, NABCB can facilitate export of Indian goods into the world market by attesting that these are certified as per international standards by competent certifying bodies. With this, any industry carrying ISO 45001 certificate with NABCB logo will be recognized in the Asia Pacific region. The immediate beneficiary of this equivalence is the Indian Industry which is exporting products to various countries especially in the Asia Pacific region. NABCB is the third accreditation body in the Asia Pacific Region to become internationally equivalent in the region, the other two being the accreditation bodies of Hong Kong and Mexico. The headquarters of NABCB is located in New Delhi.

9. On December 23, Bala Rafique Shaikh clinched the 62nd Maharashtra Kesari 2018 title by defeating Abhijeet Katke of Pune in the wrestling duel held at Azad ground, Jalna, Maharashtra. He defeated his opponent 11-3 in the one-sided match. Shaikh was honoured with a silver mace and cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. Maharashtra Kesari is an Indian-style prestigious wrestling championship, established in 1961. ‘Kesari’ is a Sanskrit word for ‘Lion’.

10. Real Madrid, a professional football club based in Madrid, has won the 15th edition of FIFA Club World Cup 2018 in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on December 22. They successfully defended their title (their third consecutive) after defeating Al-Ain 4–1 in the final. With the win, they broke the tie with Barcelona to become the outright record winners of the competition.


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