Important 20 Weekly Current Affairs from 24 to 30 Dec 2018.
1. PM releases a 100 rupee coin in honor of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi releases a 100 rupees commemorative coin in honor of former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
2. Three states achieve the best performing states under the Maternity Benefits Program: WCD
Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh were the top three performing states under the maternity benefit programme Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY).
3. Lok Sabha passes triple talak bill.
On December 27, 2018, the Lok Sabha is also known as the Triple Tolak Bill, Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018. 245 members of the Lok Sabha voted in favor of the bill, while 11 voted against it.
4. Train 18 officially announce the fastest train of India.
Train 18 officially became India’s fastest train, which ran at a speed of 180 kilometers per hour during a trial run. The first trial run of the train was conducted on Bareilly-Moradabad railway section.
5. Prime Minister inaugurated the Bogibeel rail/road Bridge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bogibeel rail/road Bridge in Assam on 25th December 2018, the birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Bogibeel rail/road bridge is built across the Brahmaputra river in Dibrugarh district in Assam state in north-eastern India. The 4.94 km bridge is one of the longest river bridges in the country.
6. NITI Aayog released the second delta ranking of ADP.
NITI Aayog released the second delta ranking of Aspirational Districts Program (ADP) on December 27, 2018. Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu was ranked as the best district in the ranking. The ranking represents the incremental progress made by the districts between June 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018.
7. PM Modi rename three islands of Andaman and Nicobar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will rename three islands of Andaman and Nicobar after Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on December 30, 2018. These three islands are – Ross Island, Neil Island and Havelock Island.
- Ross Island as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island
- Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep
- Havelock Island as Swaraj Dweep
8. India appointed Harsh Shringla as the next Ambassador of India.
India appointed Harsh Vardhan Shringla as the next Ambassador of India to the United States. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a 1984-batch Indian Foreign Service diplomat, will succeed Navtej Sarna.
9. Thailand approved marijuana as medical use.
Thailand approved licensed use of marijuana for medical use and research on December 25, 2018. Changes will validate the production, import, export, occupation, and use of marijuana products for medical purposes. Thailand will be the first country in Asia to legalize marijuana.
10. Andhra Pradesh got its own High Court.
Andhra Pradesh got its High Court in Amravati since January 1, 2019. It will be the 25th high court in the country.
Andhra Pradesh was divided into two separate states- Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, 2014, both the states were being served by the same High Court in Hyderabad. It is now going to change with the establishment of a separate High Court just for Andhra Pradesh.
11. RBI has allowed SIDBI to use the 1000-crore corpus for lending to MFI.
In order to support the Microfinance of India, it will be encouraged by the approval of the proposal of the Reserve Bank of India for funding MicroLenders in the current Rs 1,000 crore fund for the institutional framework of India. The Indian Small Industries Development Bank (SIDBI) had kept this money for some other purposes and recently sought RBI’s approval to use it for the microfinance sector. [toggle]
- CMD of SIDBI – Mohammad Mustafa
- SIDBI Headquarter – Lucknow
- Established – 2nd April 1990 [/toggle]
12. Cabinet approves the amendment in the POSCO Act, 2012.
Union Cabinet approved the amendment in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012. This change is strictly punished in these changes, there is a provision for severe penalties, including the death penalty for stimulating sexual acts with children.
[toggle] The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 was enacted to provide a robust legal framework for the protection of children from offenses of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography, while safeguarding the interest of the child at every stage of the judicial process.[/toggle]
13. Luca Modric won the Ballan Athlete of the Year Award 2018.
Croatia captain Luca Modric was named the Balkan athlete of the year, in 1994 he became the second football player to win an award after Bulgaria’s former European footballer of the Year, Castro Stokhov.
14. American person Colin O’Brien of became the first person to cross Antarctica alone.
Colin O’Brien, a 33-year-old man from the United States, has become the first person to complete a single track in Antarctica without any assistance. He completed the 1,500 km journey in the frozen continent in 54 days with his supplies on a snow-driven car.
15. Central government declares Khalistan Liberation Force as a banned organization.
The Central Government has declared Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) as a banned organization. In an order of the Home Ministry, said that this decision was taken under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in which the murder of innocent people and police officers in India and the alleged involvement of several bomb blasts on civilian bases. KLF and all its manifestations have been declared under the Illegal Activity Restriction Act.
16. Central government approves Rs 10,000 crore for human space missions ‘Gaganayan’.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Union Cabinet has approved the Gaganayan project, in which the three-member team will be sent to space for at least seven days. The project will cost INR 10,000 crore. Mission will run until 2022. India has already made an agreement with Russia and France to help in the ambitious project.
17. Kattappa was appointed as Chief Boxing Coach of India.
Dronacharya award winner C.A. Kattappa took over as the Chief Boxing Coach of India in the ongoing national camp. He took over as the experienced coach SR Singh at the start of the camp.
18. Sitarist Manju Mehta was awarded ‘Tansen Samman’.
The famous Sitar player Manju Mehta has been honored with ‘Tansen Samman‘ for the year 2018 by the Madhya Pradesh government for his contributions in the field of music.
19. Ricky Ponting inducted into ICC Hall of Fame.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has been formally inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Ponting’s name was kept in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the ICC annual conference in Dublin, with former Indian captain Rahul Dravid and England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Claire Taylor.
20. Burundi’s president is moving the capital to another city Gitega.
The Burundian government has officially declared the small town of Gitega in the center of the country as the new political capital while maintaining Bujumbura as the economic capital. previous capital Bujumbura
About Burundi: [toggle] Burundi, officially the Republic of 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.
- Capital: Bujumbura, new capital Gitega
- Currency: Burundian franc.
- President: Pierre Nkurunziza [/toggle]
Source :
- PIB
- The Hindu
- Business Standard
- JagranJosh