Daily Current Affairs and GK | 8 December 2022

Topic: Summits/ Conferences/ Meetings

1. Fiji will host the 12th World Hindi Conference from 15 to 17 February 2023.

• The 12^th World Hindi Conference will be organized by the Ministry of External Affairs of India in collaboration with the Government of Fiji.
• The online registration for the conference has begun. The registration fee for Indian citizens is Rs. 2000.
• "Hindi: From Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence" is the main theme of the conference.
• External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar had earlier launched the website and logo for the Conference.
• The Hindi language is very popular in New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore, Mauritius, etc.
• Hindi is the 3rd most spoken language in the world with around 615 million speakers.
• First World Hindi Conference was organized from 10 to 12 January 1975 in Nagpur.
• World Hindi Day is celebrated every year on 10 January to promote the Hindi language around the world.

Topic: Space and IT

2. ISRO is planning to develop Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal ‘Geo-Ladakh’ for Ladakh.

• The Ladakh government has approached the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) for developing Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal ‘Geo-Ladakh’.
• The portal will provide geospatial data visualization and analytics for Ladakh. It consists of Spatial viewer, Carbon Neutrality, Geospatial utility mapping and Geo-Tourism.
• The project’s main aim is to give training to officials of Ladakh on Geospatial techniques and applications.
• IIRS and UT-Ladakh Administration signed an MoU in January 2022 for carrying out the project
• The project encompasses spatial database generation using remote sensing, geospatial techniques, and the development of a Geo-portal for hosting this database.
• ISRO is also planning to set up an optical telescope at Hanle for tracking spacecraft and space objects.
• Indian Institute of Remote Sensing is an institute for research, higher education and training in the field of remote sensing. It is located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Topic: Important Days

3. Armed Forces Flag Day 2022: 7 December

• National Armed Forces Flag Day is celebrated every year on 7 December. It is also known as the National flag day of India.
• This day is celebrated every year to honor the martyrs and the soldiers of the armed forces protecting the motherland.
• The day is celebrated to collect funds from the people for the welfare of the armed forces personnel.
• The money collected is used for the welfare of serving personnel and ex-servicemen.
• Indian Armed Forces Flag Day is being celebrated since 1949.
• Armed forces Flag Day Fund:
  • It was constituted by committee formed by then Defence Minister Baldev Singh in 1949. In 1993, related welfare funds were consolidated into a single Armed Forces Flag Day Fund (AFFDF).
  • It is managed by a Managing Committee. Defence Minister (Raksha Mantri) is chairman of this committee.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: National Appointments

4. Arun Kumar Singh appointed as Chairman of ONGC.

• On 7 December, Arun Kumar Singh has been appointed as the chairman and managing director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
• Singh is the former Chairman and Managing Director of BPCL.
• This is the first time that a retired officer has been appointed as the head of a Maharatna PSU.
• In February 2022, the Government of India had set up a Search-cum-Selection Committee (SCSC) to fill the post of CMD, ONGC.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to appoint Arun Kumar Singh as the Chairman of ONGC for three years.
• He retired in October 2022 as the chief of BPCL. He became eligible for the post after the oil ministry relaxed the age criteria.
• The post of regular CMD of ONGC was lying vacant since April 2021.

Topic: Miscellaneous

5. Deepika Padukone will unveil the FIFA World Cup trophy.

• Deepika Padukone has become the first global star to be chosen to unveil the trophy of the final match of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
• It will possibly be the first in FIFA history.
• Recently, Deepika Padukone was also selected as a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival.
• The final of the Football World Cup will be held on December 18 at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.
• This time Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup. This is the 22^nd edition of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
• It is the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world and the Muslim world.

Topic: National News

6. Government gives nod to Print and Digital Media Association as a self-regulatory organization.

• The Print and Digital Media Association (PADMA), a self-regulatory organization for news and current affairs publishers across the country, has received government approval.
• With 47 digital news publishers, the organization will look into complaints related to digital media news content on its forums.
• On 2 December, this was informed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting through an official order.
• The organization will be headed by former High Court judge Mool Chand Garg and part-time member of Prasar Bharati Ashok Kumar Tandon and journalist Manoj Kumar Mishra will be its members.
• The Print and Digital Media Association shall perform the functions prescribed in sub-rules (4) and (5) of rule 12 for the purpose of redressal of complaints relating to the Code of Conduct under the Rules.
• The body will also ensure that the member publishers agree to comply with the provisions of the rules, including furnishing of information required under rule 18.
• With this, the ministry has approved nine self-regulatory bodies from May 2021 under Rule 12 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Conduct) Rules, 2021.
• These include DigiPub News India Foundation, Online Media Confederation (India) and NBF - Professional News Broadcasting Standards Authority, among others.

Topic: State News/Delhi

7. Aam Aadmi Party has won Municipal Corporation of Delhi election with absolute majority.

• According to State Election Commission, Aam Aadmi Party has won 134 seats.
• Bharatiya Janata Party won 104 seats, and Congress won nine seats.
• Independent candidates won three seats. A total of over one thousand three hundred forty-nine candidates including 709 women were fighting elections.
• The polls for 250 municipal wards in Delhi were held on 4th of December. Voter turnout was 50.48%.
• Municipal Corporation of Delhi:
  • It is one of three municipalities in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
  • Others are New Delhi Municipal Council, and Delhi Cantonment Board.
  • On 22 March 2022, Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill was approved to merge the 3 municipal corporations to a single body.
  • The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi formally came into existence on 22 May 2022.

Topic: International Appointments

8. Dina Boluarte has taken office as the first female President of Peru.

• The Peru's former vice-president Boluarte took the oath of office to become Peru's sixth president in less than five years.
• Her oath-taking ceremony took place hours after a majority of members in the legislative body voted to impeach President Pedro Castillo. 
• President Castillo earlier announced plans to dissolve Congress and install an emergency government before his impeachment vote by lawmakers.
• Peru:
  • It is located in the western part of South America. Its capital and largest city is Lima. Its currency is Sol.
  • Ecuador and Colombia lie in its North. Brazil and Bolivia are located in its east and southeast, respectively.
  • Chile lies in the South of Peru. Pacific Ocean borders Peru on the South and West.
  • Its government is unitary presidential republic.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: National News

9. TRAI decided to not levy any charge for SMS and Cell Broadcast Alerts.

• Telecom Tariff (69th amendment) order 2022 on Tariff for SMS and cell Broadcast alerts disseminated through Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) platform during disasters/non-disasters has been issued by TRAI.
• TRAI has decided that no charges will be levied for SMS and cell broadcast alerts sent during or before a disaster.
• TRAI has taken this step as per the guidelines of the Disaster Management Act.
• TRAI has directed Telecom Service Providers to broadcast messages to all the subscribers through Cell broadcast free of cost during the disaster and non-disaster period.
• TRAI prescribed a tariff of two paise for SMS Alerts and messages sent during the disaster and non-disaster situations other than the direction under the Disaster Management Act.
• The C-DoT created the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) platform, which enables local locations to be marked on a map and sent notifications.

(Source: News on AIR)

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

10. ‘One District One Product (ODOP)’ initiative has been merged operationally with ‘Districts as Export Hub (DEH)’ initiative.

• Ministry of Food Processing Industries had launched the ‘One District One Product (ODOP)’ initiative to help districts in reaching to their full potential.
• ODOP’s main aim is to identify, promote and branding of a product from one district.
• Its main objective is to convert every district in India, into an export hub by identifying products with export potential in the District..
• The ‘One district One product’ initiative was launched by the UP government in 2018 and later it was adopted by the central government.
• Earlier, ODOP GeM Bazaar was launched on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) on 29th August 2022 with over 200 product categories.
• Districts as Export Hub (DEH)’ is an initiative for export promotion, manufacturing and employment generation at the grass root level.

Topic: Banking Systems

11. Single-block-and-multiple debits functionality in UPI introduced by RBI.

• On 7 December, the Reserve Bank of India announced the launch of a 'Single Block' and 'Multiple Debit' functionality to further improve UPI payment services.
• Under this facility, a customer can block a fixed amount in his bank account for a merchant.
• This amount will be automatically deducted from the customer's account after the completion of the service.
• Block amount is that part of the balance in the customer's account, which they want to reserve, i.e block, for a particular purpose.
• According to RBI, this will facilitate making payments in the e-commerce sector as well as investing in securities in the secondary capital market.
• It will also help customers to make hotel bookings as well as purchase government securities using transactions on e-commerce platforms.
• RBI will soon issue instructions to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates and manages UPI, in this regard.
• UPI currently has the facility of time bound transactions and 'single-block-and-single-debit'.
• According to a Worldline report, UPI has emerged as the most prevalent and preferred mode of payment in the country.
• UPI's Person-to-Merchant (P2M) accounts accounted for 42% of total digital payment transactions during July-September this year.
• At the same time, UPI's person-to-person (P2P) accounted for 65% of the transaction volume during the July-September period.
• As per the latest data, 7.30 billion transactions were done through UPI in November. The amount of these transactions was Rs 11.90 lakh crore.

Topic: Indian Economy

12. RBI hiked the repo rate by 35 basis points.

• RBI has increased the policy interest rate repo rate by 0.35 percent for the fifth consecutive time.
• With this, the repo rate has increased from 5.90 to 6.25 percent.
• On 7 December, Governor Shaktikanta Das announced after the bi-monthly review of the Monetary Policy Committee.
• Earlier, RBI has increased the repo rate by 0.40 percent in May, 0.50 percent in June and 0.50 percent in August, 0.50 percent in September.
• So far, the MPC has hiked the repo rate by 225 basis points in 2022.
• He said that the inflation rate is expected to be above 4% in the next 12 months.
• Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for October-December 2022 has been forecasted to rise to 6.6% from 6.5%.
• The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for the financial year 2023 has been estimated at 6.8%.
• He also said that the GDP growth forecast has been reduced to 4.4% for October-December and 4.2% for January to March 2023.
• He said that the foreign exchange reserves have increased by $36.7 billion.

Topic: State News/ Telangana

13. India’s first gold ATM launched in Hyderabad.

• It is also the world’s first real-time gold ATM.
• The Goldsikka ATM can be used to withdraw gold coins unlike usual ATMs where one can withdraw money.
• Through the gold ATM, people can insert their debit or credit cards and buy gold coins.
• The ATM has been launched by Goldsikka Pvt Ltd with technology support from Hyderabad-based startup OpenCube Technologies Pvt Ltd.
• One of the important features of this ATM is that the gold prices are updated live.
• The ATM has a capacity of storing 5kgs of gold. People can buy gold from 0.5 grams to 100 grams.

Topic: Sports

14. Mirabai Chanu wins silver medal at 2022 World Weightlifting Championships in Colombia.

• She defeated Tokyo 2022 champion Hou Zhihua of China to win the silver medal.
• She lifted a total weight of 200 kg.
• It has previously won gold in 2017 at the World Weightlifting Championships.
• China’s Jiang Huihua won the gold medal with a combined weight of 206 kg.
• World Weightlifting Championships is organized by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). It was first held in March 1891.
• Weightlifting related terms: Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Barbell, Bumper plates, Collars, Singlet, Belt, Bomb-out, etc.