The Daily Brief – 16th December 2016

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The Daily Briefs are a comprehensive update of current affairs for the day. To know more about them, read this. If you’d like to receive updates for current affairs every day, you’ll need to subscribe here, and all the previous Briefs can be accessed at the archives here. Also, do consider enrolling to our mock tests!

  • NITI Aayog has announced launch of two schemes, Lucky Grahak Yojna Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojna, for promoting digitzation of payments. Lucky Grahak Yojana is for the consumers who will engage in daily transaction using electronic medium. Digi-DhanVyapar Yojana is applicable for those merchants who make digital transactions at establishments.
  • The Parliament passes the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2016 after Lok Sabha approved it. This bill replaces the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
  • Assam government has started a project to make Majuli the first Carbon Neutral District in India. The Project is called  ‘Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development in Majuli’.
  • The 45th anniversary of Vijay Diwas was observed across the country. On this day the soldiers who laid down their lives in 1971 during the Indo-Pak war are remembered. On 16th December 1971, Chief of Pakistan forces General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi and 93000 troops surrendered unconditionally.
  • Rajasthan’s Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje has launched Annapurna Rasoi Yojna which provides subsidized meals for labourers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers, students, working women, senior citizens etc. The tagline is “Sabke liye bhojan, sabke liye sammaan”.
  • The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has notified regulations for liquidation process. An insolvency professional is barred from acting as a liquidator unless that individual is independent of the corporate debtor concerned. Among others, advocates, chartered Accountants, company secretaries & cost accountants with 15 years of experience in their respective fields can serve as insolvency professional.
  • Retired I & B Secretary, Sunil Arora has been appointed as the Director General and CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA).
  • Cyprus has been officially removed from India’s tax blacklist after Central Board of Direct Taxes issued a notification. Cyprus was the only country to have been blacklisted by India as a non-cooperative jurisdiction.

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    Thomas Schelling
  • India and ASEAN have set a trading target at 100 billion dollars to be achieved by 2020. The current trade amount is 57 billion dollars. ASEAN stands for Association of South East Asian Nations. It was formed on 8th August, 1967 by Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.
  • Indian-American woman, Savita Vaidhyanathan was elected as Mayor of Cupertino city in California.
  • The new UN Secretary-General, Antonio Gueterres announced that Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s environment minister will be the UN Deputy Secretary-General. She has formerly served as UN under-secretary-general special adviser on post-2015 development planning to Ban Ki-moon.
  • NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission CYGNSS consisting of 8 satellites, was launched onboard Orbital ATK’s Pegasus rocket XL which will probe the core of hurricanes to study them.
  • EU has agreed to extend sanctions against Russia over turmoil in Ukraine until mid-2017. The sanctions were originally imposed in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Black sea peninsula of Crimea.
  • Nobel-winning economist Thomas Schelling passed away. He won the Nobel for explaining nuclear strategy using the game theory and was the author of the famous book The Strategy of Conflict.
  • Indian batswoman Smriti Mandhana became the only Indian cricketer to be named in the first ever ICC Women’s Team of the Year 2016.The women’s team of the year will be captained by West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor.

    Today’s Quiz

    1. Who has been appointed as the Director General and CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs?





    2. Who is Rajasthan’s Chief Minister?





    3. Assam government has started a project to make which district the first Carbon Neutral District in India?





    4. Which Indian- American woman has been elected as mayor of Cupertino city of California?





    5. Which country has been removed from India’s tax blacklist?









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