Honours & Awards
1. Nilmani Phookan and Damodar Mauzo won Jnanpith Award
- Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan Jr has won 56th Jnanpith Award and Konkani novelist Damodar Mauzo has won 57th Jnanpith (Gyanpith) Award.
- Nilmani Phookan is known for his work: Surya Heno Nami Ahe Ei Nadiyedi, Manas-Pratima, Phuli Thaka Suryamukhi Phultor Phale, Gulapi Jamur Lagna
- Damodar Mauzo is known for his novels Karmelin, and Tsunami Simon, and short stories Teresa’s Man and Other Stories from Goa.
- Jnanpith is India’s highest literary award.
Honours & Awards
2. Nirmala Sitharaman ranked 37th in Forbes 100 most powerful women list
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been ranked at the 37th position among the Forbes’ rankings of 100 most powerful women of the world.
- She was ranked 41st in 2020 and 34th in 2019
- Top performer: Jeff Bezos’ former wife Mackenzie Scott, followed by Kamla Harris is ranked second, and Christine Lagarde.
- Roshni Nadar Malhotra (52); Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (72), and Falguni Nayar made her debut and was featured at number 88 in the Forbes List.
National Affairs
3. Education Minister launches Bhasha Sangam mobile app
- Education Ministry has launched mobile app titled Bhasha Sangam to help people acquire basic conversation ability in languages other than one's mother tongue to at least 75 lakh people.
- This initiative has been taken under Ek Bharat -Shrestha Bharat Programme.
- It has more than 100 sentences of common usage, both in text and audio format, in 22 Indian languages.
- Apart from this, another mobile app for Ek Bharat -Shreshta Bharat quiz has also been launched
National & International Organizations
4. India ranked 4th most powerful country in Asia Power Index 2021
- India has been ranked as the fourth most powerful country in Asia Power Index with its overall score went down by two points from 2020, standing at 37.7 out of 100.
- The index has been released by Lowy Institute
- India fell short of the major power threshold in 2021 and is among 18 countries in the region to trend downward in its overall score in 2021
- It fell short of the major power threshold.
- Top performers: USA, China and Japan
Obituaries
5. CDS General Bipin Rawat passes away
- Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat passes away in the air crash , along his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board an Indian Airforce helicopter Mi 17 V-5.
- The aircraft crashed in the forest area near Coonoor in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu
- Bipin Rawat was an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College
- He was commissioned on 16th December in 1978 into Fifth Battalion of the Eleventh Gorkha Rifles of the Infantry
National & International Organizations
6. India among most unequal countries: World Inequality Report 2022
- Paris-based World Inequality Lab has released World Inequality Report 2022, that captured certain interesting insights about global income & wealth inequality
- As per the report 2022, India is now among the most unequal countries in the world with an affluent elite
- While the bottom half of Indian population earns Rs 53,610, the top 10% earns twenty times more (around Rs 11,66,520). Top 10% and top 1% hold respectively 57% and 22% of total national income.
National Affairs
7. NITI Aayog, CESL launches e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition
- NITI Aayog in partnership with Convergence Energy Service Limited (CESL), World Resources Institute, India (WRI India) has launched e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition
- It is being supported by Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI)
- Through this, central, state, and city-level government agencies, transit service providers, OEMs, financing institutions, and ancillary service providers will be able to share knowledge and their learnings on e-bus adoption
Sports
8. Ashleigh Barty wins second WTA Player of Year
- World number one Ashleigh Barty has been named WTA Player of the Year for the second time.
- She has won the title in 2019, won tour-leading five tournaments this year including second Grand Slam trophy of her career at Wimbledon where she beat Czech Karolina Pliskova in the final.
- U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu took the Newcomer of the Year title.
- Czech Barbora Krejcikova took the WTA prize for the Most Improved Player of the Year.
National & International Organizations
9. Sunil Arora joins Board of Advisors for IDEA
- Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sunil Arora joined the Board of Advisors for International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).
- IDEA is assisted by 15-member Board of Advisers who are eminent personalities or experts from different backgrounds.
- IDEA:
- It is an intergovernmental organization to support sustainable democracy worldwide.
- HQs: Stockholm, Sweden
- It has 34 member countries.
- India is one of the founding members of IDEA.
National Affairs
10. Giriraj Singh releases ‘Localization of SDGs’ through Panchayati Raj report
- Union Minister, Giriraj Singh has released Report on ‘Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Panchayati Raj Institutions’
- On this occasion, two dedicated Dashboards were launched: Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Monitoring Dashboard on monitoring the progress of GPDP and Training Management Portal on Capacity Building and Training of Elected Representatives and Functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions
- India is a signatory of SDGs 2030.
Science & Technology
11. Air version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile successfully test-fired
- Air version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has been successfully test fired from the supersonic fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30 MK-I from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha
- It is a major milestone in the BrahMos development.
- It clears the system for the serial production of BrahMos missiles within the country.
- BrahMos: Joint Venture between India (DRDO) and Russia (NPOM) for development, production and marketing of supersonic cruise missile.
Summits & Conferences
12. NMCG and c-Ganga organize 6th India Water Impact Summit
- National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) along with Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (c-Ganga) are organizing 6th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS) from 9th to 14th Dec 2021
- It is being organized in hybrid mode (online and physically) at NMCG office, New Delhi and IIT, Kanpur.
- Theme: River Resources Allocation, Planning and Management at the Regional Level
- Focus: synchronizing river conservation with long term developmental needs by resource budgeting
Obituaries
13. Serum Institute of India Executive Director Suresh Jadhav passes away
- Serum Institute of India (SII) Executive Director Suresh Jadhav (72 years) passed away in Pune, Maharashtra after a long illness.
- He was instrumental in the development of the Covishield vaccine for Covid-19.
- He was also instrumental in setting up the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network.
- He represented Serum Institute of India on the GAVI board and was also instrumental in the liaison between the national and international regulatory authorities.
Schemes
14. Cabinet approves continuation of PMAY-G till March 2024
- Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of Department of Rural Development for continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) till March 2024
- Under this, financial assistance is to be provided for the construction of the remaining 155.75 lakh houses within total target of 2.95 crore houses.
- Phasing out of EBR and provision of entire scheme funding through Gross Budgetary Support shall be decided in consultation with Ministry of Finance.
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