Current Affairs December 27, 2018
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of December 27, 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. Late music composer Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar has been bestowed with the Mohammed Rafi Lifetime Achievement Award, which consists of Rs. 1 lakh and a trophy. Kudalkar formed a successful and long partnership with Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma and as music composers they belted out hit tracks like 'Bindiya Chamkegi', 'Main Shayar Toh Nahin' and 'Hansta Hua Noorani Chehra' among others. The award was instituted by an NGO headed by Mumbai BJP Chief Ashish Shelar. While playback singer Usha Timothy was honoured with the Mohammed Rafi award and Rs. 51,000 at a programme held in suburban Bandra She has sung 1,000 songs in multiple Indian languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bhojpuri and Marathi, among others.
2. Mount Etna, the active volcano in quake-stricken Italian island of Sicily, has recently erupted on 24th December 2018. A chain of around 130 earthquakes have rocked the volcano with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0. The quake was the strongest in the region after Mount Etna erupted, spewing ash and forcing the temporary closure of Sicilian airspace. Despite the closure of a part of the highway running along the coast, the airport at the eastern city of Catania, the capital of the province, was open. Mount Etna, which is Europe's highest and most active volcano, is 3,300m high with frequent eruptions recorded in the past 2,700 years. Its most recent eruptions occurred in the spring of 2017 and its last major eruption in the 2008/2009 winter.
3. Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will resume commercial whaling in July 2019. As per officials, leaving the IWC means Japanese whalers will be able to resume hunting in Japanese coastal waters of minke and other whales currently protected by the IWC. However, Japan will not be able to continue the so-called scientific research hunts in the Antarctic that it has been exceptionally allowed as an IWC member under the Antarctic Treaty. The withdrawal also means Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC's ban on commercial whale hunting. Tokyo argues that whaling is an important part of Japan's traditions, and the withdrawal would allow fishermen to pass country's rich whaling culture onto the next generation. The IWC, established in 1946 to conserve and manage the world's whale and cetacean population, introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.
4. The Maharashtra government has launched Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Schools in Mumbai on the occasion of 94th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister. The school is affiliated to the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) with an aim to achieve higher education standards in rural areas.
5. The Haryana government has recently decided to renamed Child Care Institutes as Jagannath Ashrams. This was announced by the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while addressing the people during a dance competition organised by women wing of All India Vaish Federation (AIVF) in Karnal on December 25, 2018.
6. Divya Patidar Joshi has been crowned the prestigious Mrs India 2018 at the Mrs. India My Identity Beauty Pageant 2018 finale in Delhi on December 25, 2018. Hailing from Madhya Pardesh’s Ratlam, Divya won the crown of Mrs India from among 24 promising contestants. She won all the rounds of Beauty with Brain contest along with Best Cat Walk title. Now, she will represent India at the Mrs Universe 2019 event.
7. Sulagitti Narasamma (97), the renowned social worker and Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Bengaluru on December 26, 2018. Born in 1920, she hailed from a community that was at the time referred to as ‘untouchable’. She is best known for extending free of cost midwife services to women at a time when medical help was hard to come by in rural areas. It is believed that she learned the art from her grandmother, Marigemma, at a very young age. She had helped deliver more than 15,000 babies in Krishnapura, a remote village in Pavagada taluk in Karnataka. Her work received special recognition in Krishnapura & was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Tumkur University in 2014. She was also conferred with the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018.
8. The photo division of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) is organizing the 7th National Photography Awards in February 2019. Entries for all the awards have been invited from across the country. The photographers will be awarded in mainly three categories - life time achievement award, awards for professional photographers and the awards for the amateur photographers. The award for professional photographer has two categories- professional photographer of the year award with cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh and special mention awards with cash prize of Rs. 50 thousand. The Life Time Achievement award carries a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh. The entries can be sent to the photo division by 31st of December 2018. Those interested can visit the division's website
9. On 26th December, the tribal Baduga community in the Nilgiris district of Tamil nadu is celebrating their annual Heddaiyamman festival. In this connection, thousands of devotees clad in the traditional white dress of the community flocked to places like Kannerimukku and Kerbetta near Kotagiri and Hallu Kerai near Coonoor to pay obeisance to their presiding deity. People observe 48 days fast and walk in religious processions, holding up a holy shaft which symbolizes the miracle of the traditional Badaga goddess. The celebrations will continue throughout the coming week in different villages including Petthala, Beragani, and Ketti. The Badagas are an indigenous tribal group in the Nilgiris and occupy more than 400 remote hill villages in the district.
10. Noted sitar player Manju Mehta has been conferred with the 'Tansen Samman' for 2018 by the Madhya Pradesh government for her contribution in the field of music. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar presented the award to Mehta at the inaugural ceremony of the 2018 Tansen Music Festival on December 25. She was given a cash award of Rs 2 lakh and a memento. Mehta is a recipient of several honours & learnt music from legendary sitar maestro late Pandit Ravi Shankar. Meanwhile, the 'Raja Mansingh Tomar Honour' was given to the Sankat Mochan Pratishthan in Varanasi for 2017 and the Natrang Pratishthan of New Delhi for 2018. The award is given to institutions for nurturing good music. The Tansen Music Festival is organised every year by the MP culture department in the memory of Tansen, one of the greatest artists in Indian history. It is being held in Gwalior since the past 94 years.
