Current Affairs Update – 11th December, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 11th December, 2015. These are important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Mains and Insurance Exams.

• Union Government on 10 December 2015 slashed the Minimum
  Export Price (MEP) of onions to 400 US dollars per tonne from 700 dollars a
  tonne. The decision to slash the MEP on Onions was taken at a meeting chaired
  by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
• MEP is the rate below which no traders are allowed to export
  their goods. The rise in MEP restricts exports and improves domestic supply.
• Earlier on 23 August 2015, the MEP on onions were hiked to
  700 dollars per tonne, as prices at both wholesale and retail levels were
  skyrocketing on lower output due to unseasonal rainfall. 
• However, earlier in first week of December 2015, Maharashtra
  government asked the Union Government to slash the MEP for onions to help boost
  overseas shipments after its wholesale prices went down to the 10 rupees per kg
  level.

• Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover will set up a
  one-billion pound premium manufacturing plant in Slovakia to make all-new
  aluminium vehicles as part of its commitment to deliver lightweight cars, the
  company said on Friday.
• The UK-based luxury car maker clinched an agreement with the
  government of the Slovak Republic to build a new plant in the city of Nitra,
  western Slovakia. The new world-class 1-billion pound worth premium
  manufacturing facility is expected to employ around 2,800 people over time.
• It is anticipated that the first cars will come off the
  production line in late 2018.
• The factory will have an initial capacity of 150,000
  vehicles and construction will commence in 2016.

• India ranks 135 among 147 nations on women empowerment as
  per United Nation’s Human Development Index, Women and Child Development Minister
  Maneka Gandhi said today.
• “According to the Human Development Index as reported
  in the Human Development Report 2014 published by United Nation Development
  Programme, India ranks 135 out of 147 countries,” Gandhi said in a reply
  to Lok Sabha.
• The report titled ‘Women and Men in India-2015’ by Ministry
  of Statistics and Program Implementation highlights the status of women
  covering health, education, work and decision making along with social obstacles
  in women empowerment.
• She also said over 80 per cent women in India do not receive
  full ante-natal care during pregnancy, while replying to another question.
• “As per the Rapid Survey of Children Report 2013-14,
  full Ante-Natal Care (receipt of 3+ ANC, at least one dose of TT and consumption
  of 100 Iron Folic Acid Tablets/syrup) has been received by 19.7 per cent of
  pregnant women,” she said.

• Shah Rukh Khan has regained his position as India’s
  top-earning celebrity with estimated earnings of Rs 257.5 crore this year, pushing
  Salman Khan to the second position in the latest Forbes list.
• Shah Rukh had lost his top rank to ‘friend and archrival’
  Salman last year and had slipped to the third position, Forbes said in its
  annual India Celebrity List for 2015 today.
• Incidentally, the list comes a day after Salman Khan was
  acquitted by Bombay High Court in a nearly 13-year-old hit and run case.
• Salman’s estimated earnings, as per the latest list, stands
  at Rs 202.75 crore — more than Rs 50 crore less than that of Shah Rukh Khan.
  Amitabh Bachchan is at third position, down from his second position last year.
• Forbes said the total wealth of top 100 celebrities stood at
  Rs 2,819 crore, while cinema and cricket dominate the top-ten positions.
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been ranked fourth and is followed
  by Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Deepika Padukone
  and Hrithik Roshan in top-ten.

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda on 10
  December 2015 released the India Health Report: Nutrition 2015.
• The report by Transform Nutrition consortium offers a
  critical analysis of the current situation with nutrition at the national and
  state levels in India.

• It provides easy-to-understand, state-wise data dashboards
  for 28 states and Delhi that give a comprehensive view of nutrition and its
  determinants.
• It looks at disparities in these outcomes and their multiple
  determinants across geographical regions, socio-economic classes, and
  demographic groups and helps identify strategic choices for policy-making at
  the state level.

• Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and O.P. Jindal
  Global University (JGU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
  facilitate collaboration between emerging research universities in South Asia
  for teaching, academic and research activities.
• The MoU was signed on Decemebnr 9th at the start of a
  three-day British ministerial visit led by Secretary of State for Business,
  Innovation and Skills Sajid Javid and Minister for Universities and Science, Jo
  Johnson, to promote cooperation in education, skills and research.
• QMUL’s Vice Principal David Sadler and O.P. Jindal
  University’s Vice Chancellor C. Raj Kumar signed the MoU, under which QMUL
  expresses support for the International Institute for Higher Education Research
  and Capacity Building (IIHEd), O.P. Jindal Global University, in its endeavour
  to create the Association of Emergent South Asian Research Universities
  (AESARU).
• The AESARU is perceived as a network of universities that
  are relatively newly-established, aspire to a significant research ambition in
  their institutional mission, aim to contribute to economic and social progress
  and are genuinely not-for-profit in their operating model.

• Veteran Indian actor Naseerudin Shah on 9 December 2015 was
  honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th edition of Dubai
  International Film Festival (DIFF) in Dubai.
• Besides, Egyptian actor Ezzat Al Alayli, award-winning
  French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila and French actress Catherine Deneuve were
  also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival.

• Salman Rushdie is this year’s recipient of the Mailer Prize
  for lifetime achievement.
• The author of Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses and
  other novels was presented his award by Laurie Anderson at a ceremony on
  Thursday night at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, the New York City borough
  where Norman Mailer was raised and lived off and on until his death in 2007.
• Mr. Rushdie, like Mailer, is a former president of the
  American chapter of PEN, the literary and human rights organization. He said
  Mailer had inspired him to help found the PEN World Voices Festival, an annual
  gathering of writers from around the world.

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was today conferred with
  an honorary doctorate in International Relations by Jawaharlal Nehru University
  here for Japan’s role in India’s economic development.
• The Japanese prime minister is on a three-day visit to India
  during which he will hold annual summit talks with his Indian counterpart
  Narendra Modi.
• Upon receiving the doctorate degree, which was conferred on
  him by JNU Vice Chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory, Abe expressed hope that his
  meeting tomorrow with Modi will further elevate Indo-Japan ties.
• JNU has Japanese Studies Programme at research, postgraduate
  and undergraduate level in the School of International Studies and School of
  Language, Literature and Culture Studies.

• On My Terms: From the Grassroots to the Corridors of Power,
  an autobiography of Sharad Pawar was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
  on 10 December 2015.
• The book was released on the 75th birthday of Pawar, the
  Maratha strongman and the leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
• In this book, Pawar has detailed his experiences of
  political and social issues spanning 50 years. He, in his book, has provided a
  detailed account of the reason which helped in creation of rough patches in his
  relation with Rajiv Gandhi. He tells that his proximity with Chandra Shekhar
  brought rough patches to his ties with Rajiv.

• Myanmar on 9 December 2015 inaugurated a new stock exchange,
  named Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), with plans for six companies to start
  trading in March 2016.

1. First Myanmar Investment Company
2. First Private Bank Limited
3. Great Hor Kham Public
4. Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation
5. Myanmar Citizens Bank
6. Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public

• The United Nations agencies and partners on 9 December 2015
  launched the Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016. The purpose of the initiative
  is to mobilise international support to tackle triple crisis of poverty,
  insecurity and climate change that plagues the Sahel region in Africa.
• Highlights of Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016
• It includes a regional plan that calls for 1.98 billion US
  dollars to provide vital assistance to millions of people in nine countries
  across the region.
• It will focus on tackling dire effects of climate change,
  abject poverty, fast population growth and a tormenting rise in violence and
  insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region.

• Mauricio Macri Blanco was on 10 December 2015 sworn in as
  the President of Argentina. He succeeded Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de
  Kirchner who was in the office for two terms between 2007 and 2015.
• Mauricio Macri is the leader of the centre-right Cambiemos
  (Let’s Change) coalition. He secured 51.5 percent of votes in the elections
  held in November 2015.
• He defeated Centre-left Peronist candidate Daniel Scioli who
  secured 48.5 percent votes.           

• Power and automation company ABB India Ltd said it has appointed
  Sanjeev Sharma as its managing director effective January.
• He replaces Bazmi Husain, who ABB said in September will
  take over as the global chief technology officer for ABB Group. Husain was
  leading ABB India as its managing director since 2011.
• Sharma, who joined ABB in 1990, was the global managing
  director for ABB’s low voltage systems business unit based out of Malaysia
  prior to the new post, a statement said. He started his career working for ABB
  in India and has also lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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