Current Affairs
December 17, 2021
Parliament
- Bills in Lok Sabha today –
- The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021
- Introduced by – Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcasting of India.
- The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021.
- Introduced by – Bhupender Yadav, Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment, Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- The Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
- Introduced by – Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India
- All amendments made to the Surrogacy Regulation (Bill) were accepted.
- Bills in Rajya Sabha today –
- The Mediation Bill, 2021.
- Minister of Law and Justice of India, Kiren Rijiju.
National & International
- Which South Asian country signed an agreement for IT cooperation with India? Vietnam.
- Capital – Hanoi.
- Currency – Vietnamese dong.
- Which country has prohibited laughing, drinking, and shopping for 11 days, and why? North Korea, the 10th anniversary of former leader Kim Jong-il.
- Name the renovated historic Hindu temple of Bangladesh inaugurated by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on December 17 – Ramna Kalibari Temple (Dhaka).
- What is the name of the supertyphoon causing devastation in the Philippines? Rai.
- Locally known as Typhoon Odette in the Philippines.
- Name India-manufactured coronavirus vaccine which was granted emergency approval by the WHO – Covovax.
- 9th COVID-19 vaccine listed by WHO for emergency use.
- The pharma company which produces Covovax – Serum Institute of India.
- under licence from the U.S.-based Novavax.
- Founded in – 1966.
- Headquarters – Pune.
- CEO – Adar Poonawalla.
- Name the indigenously developed single test kit that can detect current COVID-19 variants that is recently approved by ICMR – CoviDelta diagnostics kit.
- Developed by – GenePath Diagnostics, Pune.
- Name the commission that fined the global behemoth, Amazon, a penalty of ₹200 crore – Competition Commission of India (CCI).
- Formed on – 2003 October 14.
- Headquarters – New Delhi.
- Structure – one Chairperson & six members.
- Chairperson – Ashok Kumar Gupta.
- In addition to the penalty, CCI halted Amazon's dealings with which company? Future Group.
- Which state has received 'in-principle' authorisation from the Centre to build the world's biggest nuclear power plant? Maharashtra.
- With the help of France.
- How many nuclear power plants are being set up in Jaitapur of Maharashtra? 6.
- Total capacity – 9900 MW.
- Which organisation is responsible for submitting the Foundational Literacy Index report to the Prime Minister? Economic Advisory Council.
- A literacy rate report in India which indicates literacy among children under the age of ten in Indian states based on their geographical size.
- Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Index 2021 –
- Topper (Large States) – West Bengal.
- Worst Performer (Large States) – Bihar.
- Topper (Small States) – Kerala.
- Worst Performer (Small States) – Jharkhand.
- All India Mayors’ Conference was held at – Varanasi.
- Theme – New Urban India.
- The Reserve Bank of India recently slapped a penalty on India's two largest banks citing rule violations. Which ones are they? ICICI Bank & Punjab National Bank.
- ICICI Bank – Rs. 30 lakhs & PNB – Rs. 1.8 crore
- Which company has bagged an ADE-DRDO supply order for the ABHYAS target platform? Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
- In which Indian state did GAIL sign a memorandum of understanding to build a 500 KLD bioethanol facility at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore? Gujarat.
- Gujarat Chief Minister – Bhupendra Patel.
- GAIL – Gas Authority of India Limited.
- Founded in – 1984.
- Headquarters – New Delhi.
- New State Song of Tamil Nadu – Tamil Thai Vaazhthu.
- Penned by – Manonmaniam Sundaranar,
- Should be sung 55 seconds in Mullaipaani Ragam (Mohana Raagam).
Kerala
- Which country recently decided to set up a food park in Kerala? UAE.
Awards
- Highest Civilian Award of Bhutan – Ngadag Pel gi Khorlo.
- Capital – Thimphu.
- Currency – Bhutanese ngultrum.
- Winner of Ngadag Pel gi Khorlo – Narendra Modi.
- PM of Bhutan – Lotay Tshering.
- First Indian Industrialist to receive Global Entrepreneur of the Year Award – Kumar Mangalam Birla.
- Instituted by – The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Silicon Valley.
- Other recipients – Satya Nadella, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos.
- Chairman of Aditya Birla Group – Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Sports
- Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year 2021 – Simone Biles.
- Winner of SJFI Medal 2021 – Sunil Gavaskar (Cricket).
- SJFI – Sports Journalists’ Federation of India.
- Other SJFI Awards 2021 –
- SJFI Special Recognition Award – Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ).
- SJFI Team of the Year – Indian Men’s Hockey team.
- SJFI Sportsman of the Year – Neeraj Chopra (Javelin).
- SJFI Sportswoman of the Year – Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting).
- SJFI Parathletes of the Year (Men) – Sumit Antil (Javelin) & Pramod Bhagat (Badminton) .
- SJFI Parathletes of the Year (Woman) – Avani Lekhara (Shooting).
- Venue of first-ever national-level Khelo India Women's Hockey League – New Delhi.
Today in History
- 1718 – France, Britain and Austria declare war on Spain.
- 1777 – France acknowledges the independence of British colonies in America.
- 1903 – First sustained motorized aircraft flight by Wright brothers.
- 1928 – Assassination of British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab by Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru.
- 1931 – First meeting of the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta.
- Organized by – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.
- 1938 – Discovery of nuclear fission using uranium by Otto Hahn.
- 1961 – Operation Vijay.
- Annexation of Goa & 2 other Portuguese colonies.
- 1989 – Television Premiere of the show "The Simpsons."
- By Matt Groening on Fox TV.