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The Union Environment Ministry has launched a regional project on ‘Climate Resilience Building among Farmers through Crop Residue Management’ under National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) on December 28, 2017. The project was approved at the meeting of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC) under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, C.K Mishra. The first phase of the project has been approved at a cost of approximately Rs. 100 Crore for the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project not only aims to mitigate climate change impacts and enhance adaptive capacity, but will also counter the adverse environmental impacts that arise from burning.

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The 78th session of the Indian History Congress (IHC) has started at the Jadavpur University campus in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 28, 2017. The 3-day IHC will have six sections this time – Ancient India, Medieval India, Modern India, Countries Other than India, Archaeology and Contemporary India. The aim of conducting Indian History Congress is for promotion and encouragement of the scientific study of Indian History, holding Congresses and publishing of the proceedings, bulletins, memoirs, journals and other works.

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Pluto Exchange will launch the India’s first bitcoin trading app for transacting in virtual currencies. The Pluto Exchange mobile app offers a solution to the coordination problem between payment processors, financial gateways and banks. Pluto Exchange will enable transactions using mobile numbers only. With this, by using a four-digit personal identification number (PIN), users can now buy, sell, store and spend bitcoins via a mobile number. The app would permit a range of transactions, including payments, remittances, business-to-business commerce, supply chain finance, asset management and trading.

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The Bank of Baroda (BoB) has signed a MoU with POORTI Agri Services Pvt. Ltd to enable the farmers to purchase agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, seeds etc. provided by POORTI. This is a Platform for Online Ordering & Rural Transformation of India known as “POORTI”. Poorti is a well-established company providing multi-party mobile commerce platform for easy ordering of fertilizers, pesticides, seeds by farmers with loans given by banks. It provides a source of earning to educated rural youth who can act as delivery agents.

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India has signed a loan agreement worth $40 million with the World Bank (WB) for UP Pro-Poor Tourism Development Project on December 28, 2017. The purpose of the project is to increase tourism-related benefits for local communities in Uttar Pradesh. The total project cost is around $57.14 million, out of which $40 million will be financed by the World Bank, and the remaining amount will be funded out of the state budget. The programme duration is five years. The project is expected to have far-reaching social, economic and environmental benefits by targeting local communities and entrepreneurs near some of the main tourist and pilgrimage attractions in Uttar Pradesh, namely, Agra as well as Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana and Govardhan in the Braj region.

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India has been ranked 5th on a list of countries with highest Non-performing Assets (NPA) levels and is on top spot among the BRICS nations, according to latest report by CARE Ratings. The NPA list is topped by Greece (36.4%) followed by Italy (16.4%), Portugal (15.5%) and Ireland (11.9%). All these countries, along with Spain, are commonly referred to as PIIGS, and have been victims of sovereign debt crises in recent years. Spain is ranked at 7th spot below India and Russia. At 9.85%, India’s NPA ratio is 400 points higher than that of Spain’s. The CARE ratings report was compiled in four categories, including low, very low, medium, and high level of NPAs. With NPA ratio of just 1%, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom were listed in the first category, while China, Germany, Japan, and the USA – with less than 2% of NPA – was listed in the second category. Growing economies like Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey were listed in the third category.

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On 29th December, Union Sports Minister Col Rajyavardhan Rathore has sanctioned ex-gratia assistance of Rs. 5 lakh to the family of Nitisha Negi, the teenage footballer who drowned in the sea at Glenelg beach in Adelaide, Australia, on September 10, 2017. The financial assistance was provided under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons’. The main purpose of the scheme is to provide suitable assistance to outstanding sportspersons living in indigent circumstances/injured during the period of their training for competitions. Nitisha from Delhi had gone to Australia for the Pacific School Games, when she and four other teammates got into trouble. Four of the girls were rescued by lifesavers while Nitisha was found dead near a rocky breakwater.

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Ex-football superstar George Weah has been elected as the new president of Liberia after beating Vice President Joseph Boakai in a runoff with 61.5% of the vote. Now, he will succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president. George Weah is the only African footballer to have won both FIFA World Player of the Year and the prestigious Ballon D’Or for Europe’s best player. He entered politics after his retirement from the game in 2002 and is currently a senator in Liberia’s parliament.

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Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand has won the 2017 World Rapid Chess Championship by beating Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev 2-0 in a two-game tie-break in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 28, 2017. The Indian master remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and also beat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the 9th round to settle some old debts – avenging 2013’s World Championship loss to be precise. The 48-year-old Anand has thus claimed his first rapid world title since 2003.

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The 25th edition of National Children Science Congress (NCSC-2017) has started at Science city in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on December 27. The five-day Children Science Congress has been organized by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The theme of the Congress is ‘Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development’ with the special focus on persons with disabilities. 900 young scientists from 30 states are participating in 25th National Children Science Congress. This year, 50 children and teachers from Asian nations have also participated in the event. Apart from science exhibition, various activities such as hands-on demonstrations, presentations by children scientists, poster session and cultural programmes have also been organized in the science congress. The NCSC is an ideal and innovative programme for children to inspire, empower and expand their minds to world.