Download : 22nd November 2016 – Current Affairs PDF
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National
Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill to ban commercial surrogacy introduced
- Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016was introduced to ban commercial surrogacy
- Aim:to protect women from exploitation and ensure the rights of the child born through surrogacy.
- There will be a complete ban on commercial surrogacy, but altruistic surrogacywill be permitted for couples under who are unfit to produce child but under strict regulations.
- Bill authorize only Indian citizens to take the benefit of surrogacy. Foreigners, NRIs and PIOs are not allowed to seek surrogacy in the country.
- Single parents, and live-in couples are also not entitled for surrogacy.
- Couples who already have children will not be allowed to go in for surrogacy, however they would be free to adopt a child under a separate law.
- Surrogacy will be allowed only to legally married couples after five years of marriage and with a certificate from a doctor stating that they are medically unfit to produce a child.
- Women within the age group of 23 years to 50 yearsand men aged between 26 to 55 years will be eligible to go in for surrogacy.
- Surrogate mother can only be a close relative, like a sister or sister-in-law who is married and has at least one healthy biological child. A woman can be a surrogate only once in her lifetime.
The Indore-Patna Express train derails, worst train accident in six years
- Indore-Patna Express trainderailed in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh early morning about 3.10am on November 21, 2016.
- It is one of India’s worst train accidents in six years with nearly 133 people killed and more than 200 injured when 14 coaches of the express train derailed near Pukhrayan, about 100 km from Kanpur
- A compensation of Rs 2 lakheach for family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the seriously injured.
- A green corridorwas created for the quick movement of ambulances. More than 30 ambulances were pressed into service.
Income Tax Department to launch Project Insight in May 2017
- Income-tax (I-T) department has signed a contract with L&T Infotech Ltd tolaunch Project Insight in May 2017 from May 2017.
- Aim of the Project :To effectively utilize the vast amount of information at its disposal more effectively to track tax evaders
- Project through implementation of reporting compliance management system, will ensure that third party reporting by entities like banks and other financial institutions is timely and accurate.
- It will also set up a streamlined data exchange mechanism for other government departments.
Sangai Festival 2016 begin in Manipur
- 10-day-festival ‘Sangai Festival 2016’ began on November 21 2016. It will continue till November 30 2016.
- Aim:To promote Manipur as a potential tourist destination.
- A wide range of shows from fashion to rock music, along with activities like boat race and other water sports at Loktakto be held as a part of this festival .
India’s longest expressway inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh
- Six-lane Greenfield Agra-Lucknow Expresswayat Bangarmau in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh is India’s longest expressway, with a length of 302-km and its construction has been completed in 23 months.
- It will have an automatic traffic management system to deal with fog and reduce road accidents.
- It also has an eight-lane bridge across the river Ganga, which will connect Unnao and Kanpur.
International
India ranked 20th on Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2017
- Indiahas been ranked 20th on Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2017 according to Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe Publication.
- Positive trends are seen as well among emerging economies of G20 likeIndia (rank 20), Argentina (36) and Brazil (40), which all improved their ranking
- India, Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, and Germany managed to hold their positions in terms of climate policy.
- Canada (55), Australia (57) and Japan (60)are in the bottom group rated very poor in the index while Japan once again dropped two places as national experts criticize their government for a very poor climate policy.
India’s National Park in National Geographic ‘Best of the World List 2017’
- National Geographic Traveler magazine announced its annual Best of the World list in 3 categories such asCities, Nature, or Culture.
- List highlights 21 placeswhich includes
- Anchorage(USA),
- Baja California
- National Marine Parks(Mexico),
- Banff, Alberta(Canada),
- Canton Uri(Switzerland),
- Cartagena(Colombia),
- Central India’s National Parks,
- Chengdu(China),
- Cradle of Humankind(South Africa),
- Ecuador’s Cloud Forests,
- Finland,
- Georgia(USA),
- Guadeloupe Islands,
- Hamburg(Germany),
- Kauai,
- Hawaii(USA),
- Madrid(Spain),
- Malta,
- Marrakech(Morocco),
- Moscow(Russia),
- Papua New Guinea,
- Seoul(Korea) and
- Via Dinarica(Western Balkans)
2016 Economic Leaders’ Week held in Lima,Peru
- 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit or the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week was held in Lima, Peru.
- The theme of the meet was “Quality growth and human development.”
- Aim of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is to bring the 21 member countries of APEC together and discuss about economic growth, international trade policiesand improvement of life conditions.
- Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a group of 21 nations of Asia-Pacific region which together work in the direction of liberalizing trade and investment, facilitate business and promote economic cooperation, achieve prosperity among member economies.
Business & Economy
Islamic Banking to be opened in Indian banks
- Aim:Gradual introduction of Sharia-compliant ( interest-free banking) in the country
- steps to introduce Islamic banking to make financial inclusion available to those sections of the society that are neglected due to religious reasons.
- Islamic or Sharia bankingis a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam.
- Conventional Bank on the other hand earn their money by charging interest and fees for services.
- In the initial stage, some simple products that are similar to conventional banking products will be introduced as per the government’s notification and later after gaining some work experience, full-fledged Islamic banking may be introduced.
India elected as the Vice Chair of Kimberely Process Certificate scheme 2018
- India has been elected the vice chair for the year 2018 and chair for the year 2019 of Kimberly Process (KP)Certificate Scheme by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council
- KP is a joint initiative of the governments, industry and civil societies to prevent trade in “conflict diamonds“.
- These are the rough diamonds used by political groups to finance wars against legitimate governments.
- India is founder member of Kimberley Scheme of United Nationsfor import/export of rough diamonds to ensure that conflict diamonds are not traded. The scheme is administered through the Department of Commerce.
- No import or export of rough diamonds shall be permitted without this certificate. The chair of this international body is selected by rotation among its members.
Google launched Virtual Exhibition on Iconic Indian Women
- Google with the help of its cultural arm Google Arts & Culturelaunched a virtual artwork and exhibition on November 19, 2016, showcasing the achievements of the Indian women in the country.
- ‘Women in India: Unheard Stories’, is a special project consisting of about 50 artworks and virtual exhibitions on the life of Indian women in history from past 2,500 years and from 26 cultural institutions across the country with more than 1,800 artworks, photographs and videos.
- Google Arts & Culture was created by the Google Cultural Institute to experience art, history, culture and other wonders of the world from over a thousand organizations worldwide.
5 MW solar power plant in West Godavari village
- A 5 MWsolar power plant is commissioned on the Polavaram right canal bund at Gollagudem village in West Godavari district on November 21, 2016
- The plant was set up at a cost ofRs 37.58 crore in 37 acres. It will produce 8.06 million units of power annually.
- India’sfirst solar park with a capacity of 250 MW in Anantapuramu district in Andhra Pradesh, few months before
- Now the overall installed capacity of solar energy is 1000 MW.
People in News
Mahesh Bhalla Appointed As Chief Mentor Of StartUps Club India
- He was the former Executive Director of Dell’s Consumer & SMB business in India
- He has20-years’ experience and also held leadership positions across various companies including Uber, India.
- StartUps Club is the largest community for such ventures in India with over 10,000 plus entrepreneurs on its board
Science & Technology
India conducted Twin Trail of Prithvi-II missile in Odisha
- Successful test firing of two nuclear capable Prithvi-II medium-range ballistic missiles was conducted by the Indian Armed Forceson November 21, 2016, as part of a training exercise.
- The two surface-to-surfacemissiles were mounted on two Mobile Tatra Transporter-erector Launchers (MTL) and launched from the launching complex-III (LC-III) of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur.
- The missiles have been randomly chosen from the production stock and the launch activities were carried out by the specially formed strategic force command (SFC) and monitored by the scientists ofDefence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Destroyer ship ‘INS Chennai’ commissioned into Indian Navy
- ‘INS Chennai’ is the third indigenously built guided missile destroyer in Kolkata class.
- ‘INS Chennai’ was built at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltdin Mumbai; the ship’s construction brings an end to the crucial Project 15A of Indian Navy.
- ‘INS Chennai’ is one of the largest destroyers in the Indian Navy’s fleet and also the final destroyer ship in this class.
- The ship is armed with supersonic surface-to-surface BrahMos missiles and Barak-8 long range surface-to-air missiles.
- ‘INS Kolkata’, was first ship in this class that was commissioned on August 16, 2014 while the second was ‘INS Kochi’which was commissioned on September 30, 2015.
- GJ 536b – ‘Super Earth’ found orbiting nearby star
- Scientists from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) have discovered a new ‘super Earth’ planet GJ 536 bwith a mass around 4 times that of the Earth
- It is a very bright star near to our Sun. Its short orbital period of 7 days
Zika Replicon System to boost Zika Vaccine development
- The tool named “Zika Replicon System” creates a versions of the Zika virus that arestripped of genes (Simpler form of Zika virus) that make them less infectiousfrom the original virus, so that researchers can work safely.
- The new Zika replicon system has deleted some of the genes that give the virus its structure. Hence making it less dangerous.
- The Replicon System has been described by the team in the journal named EBio Medicineand it will be useful for vaccine development of Zika virus.
- Zika virus (ZIKV)is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae and the Flavivirus genus. The virus gets its name from Zika Forest of Uganda where the virus was first isolated in 1947.
Sports
Andy Murray beats Novak Djokovic to win ATP World Tour Finals, seals rank one for year 2016
- Andy Murray(Britain) beats Novak Djokovic(Serbia) to win his first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title held in London, Great Britain.
- With the win Andy Murray sealed the rank 1 for the year 2016as this was the last indoor tennis tournament of the year.
- Murray ended the 4 years victory streakof Novak Djokovic in the ATP World Tournament. (2012-2015). Roger Federer has the record of winning highest number of Finals in the ATP tournament which equals to 6.
- This victory was the 24thconsecutive win for Andy Murray and the title was 5thconsecutive title for him.
Gaganjeet Bhullar defeats Jeev Milkha Singh to win Indonesia Open
- Gaganjeet Bhullarof India won the Indonesia Open on November 21, 2016 with a four-under-par 68 in Jakarta for the second time in his career.
- This was his seventh Asian Tour victoryand a second title of this season with a 16-under-par 272 total
- Jeev Milkha Singhof India, a two-time Asian Tour No. 1 made second place with 17th hole to finish on 72.
India to bid for hosting 2019 Under-20 World Cup
- All India Football Federation (AIFF) to bid for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2019to be hosted in India.
- AIFF has expressed interest to FIFA Competitions Committee several times to host Under-20 at the earliest available opportunity in 2019, which will further give a boost to India’s grassroots initiatives.
- India is keen to host the elite junior tournament to continue the momentum built by hosting the under-17 World Cup, which will be hosted by six Indian cities in 2017.
- Progress made and publicity generated since winning the rights to host the Under-17 World Cup will encourage the continued development of the next generation of footballers.