Current Affairs Update – 20-21st December, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 20th and 21st December, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming IBPS Clerk Mains and LIC AAO 2016, Syndicate Manipal 2016.

• The Senate of United States (US) on 19 December 2015
  ratified reforms to boost the representation of emerging economies at the
  International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of Budget Bill. The legislation will
  now go to President Barack Obama.
• If adopted, it will allow emerging economies and industrial
  powerhouses like India and China to have a greater say in how the IMF is
  managed.

• China’s voting rights will rise to 6 percent from 3.8
  percent and the nation will become the third-largest shareholder, from its
  previous sixth position.
• It would also double the IMF resources to about 660 billion
  dollars.
• As China’s voting rights rise, the US will see its share
  drop from 16.7 percent to 16.5 percent.
• India’s voting rights will also rise to 2.6 percent from the
  current 2.3 percent.
• The biggest losers are European economies which will see
  their voting rights diminished.

• Tata Motors on 20 December 2015 made it to the Top 50 in the
  annual Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2015.
• Prepared by the European Commission, the annual Industrial
  R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2015 was topped by the German automaker
  Volkswagen. In the top five R&D spenders, Volkswagen was followed by
  Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Novartis.
• Tata Motors moved up from last year’s 104th position to 49th
  in 2015. Besides, the firm also showed the largest increase in R&D
  investments on the list.
• In the expanded list of the world’s 2500 top R&D firms,
  there are a total of 26 Indian companies. A total of 829 from the US, 360 from
  Japan, 301 from China, 114 from Taiwan, 80 from Switzerland and 27 each from
  Canada and Israel were listed in the scoreboard.
• In terms of the number of companies on the list, India was
  overall placed at 15th position.

• Miss Spain Mireia Lalaguna Royo on 19 December 2015 was
  crowned Miss World 2015 at the Beauty of Crown Theater in Sanya, China.
• Rolene Strauss of South Africa crowned Mireia Lalaguna as
  her successor at the end of the event. It is the first time Spain has won the
  title of Miss World.
• Miss India Aditi Arya won the People’s Choice Award which
  ensured her direct entry in the competition. Yet the Indian beauty queen failed
  to make it to the final top 20 contestants.

• Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was on 20 December
  2015 crowned Miss Universe 2015 at the final of 64th edition of Miss Universe
  held in Las Vegas, the USA.
• She was crowned by Miss Universe 2014 winner Paulina Vega of
  Columbia.
• Urvashi Rautela who represented India in the contest
  couldn’t make it to top 15 semi-finals round.

• Miss Iraq beauty pageant was held for the first time since
  1972. It was held on 20 December 2015 at a hotel in the capital Baghdad and
  involved eight contestants.
• In the final event of the pageant, Shaymaa Qasim Abdelrahman
  was crowned Miss Iraq. She is a 20-year-old from multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk
  which is situated in the north of Iraq.
• In the week running up to the event, the eight finalists
  embarked on a string of pre-pageant activities, including a visit to a camp for
  displaced people in Baghdad.
• They also participated in a tree-planting ceremony near the
  ruins of the ancient city of Babylon.

• Shajil Kumar of Malayala Manorama has been chosen for this
  year’s International Press Institute (IPI) India Award For Excellence in
  Journalism for his outstanding work on “endangered tribal
  communities” who live on the slopes of Western Ghats in Kerela.
• The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, a trophy and
  a citation.
• The jury, which was headed by former Chief Justice of India
  A S Anand, unanimously selected Kumar’s exclusive report ‘The tale of
  endangered communities’, out of several entries.
• The jury included N Ravi, Chairman IPI India chapter and
  Director, The Hindu, M K Razdan, Editor-in-Chief, the Press Trust of India and
  Riyad Mathew, Senior Assistant Editor Malayala Manorama.
• Kumar had done exhaustive and oustanding journalistic work
  in exposing the fragile lives of very microscopic tribal communities on the
  slopes of Western Ghats in Kerela, who have unique racial and cultural
  characteristics and how they are trapped between tradition and modernity.

• The West Bengal Government on 18 December 2015 cleared the
  proposal for setting up five new districts in the state. These five new
  districts will increase the number of districts of West Bengal to 25.
• Earlier, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised
  about setting up new districts for better administrative control and for
  deliverance of public service at the door steps of the people staying in remote
  areas.

• Kalimpong: It will be carved out of Kalimpong subdivision of
  the State’s Darjeeling district.
• Basirhat: It will be formed out of North 24 Parganas
  district.
• Sunderbans: It currently stretches across parts of the North
  and South 24 Parganas districts.
• Jhargram: It will be carved out of Paschim Midnapore
  district.
• Burdwan (Industrial) and Burdwan (Rural): The existing
  Burdwan district will be bifurcated into Burdwan (Industrial) and Burdwan
  (Rural).

• Chennaiyin FC was crowned as the champions of the 2nd Indian
  Super League (ISL) Football tournament on 20 December 2015. In the final played
  at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Goa, Chennaiyin defeated the hosts
  FC Goa, 3-2.
• Goa was leading 2-1 till the 87th minute, but an own goal
  from their keeper, Laxmikant Kattimani, in the 90th minute and Colombian Stiven
  Mendoza’s strike seconds later helped Chennai win the title.
• Mendoza, who finished as the tournament’s highest scorer
  with 13 goals, bagged the ‘Golden boot’ as well as the ‘Hero of the League’
  award.

• Kane Williamson, 25, on 21 December 2015 became the first
  cricketer from New Zealand to top the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s)
  Test rankings. He clinched the spot after guiding the Black Caps to a
  series-clinching five-wicket win in the second Test against Sri Lanka in
  Hamilton.
• With this, Williamson moved above England’s Joe Root (886
  points) and South Africa’s AB de Villiers (881) to sit on 889 points.
• Besides, 2015 has been a golden year for Williamson, who
  took aggregate to 1172, the highest by a New Zealander in a calendar year.

• FC Barcelona on 20 December 2015 won the 2015 FIFA Club
  World Cup. To win the title, Barcelona defeated Argentina’s River Plate by 3-0.
  The final match was held at the International Stadium in Yokohama, Japan.
• From Barcelona, Luis Suárez of Uruguay scored two goals,
  while the remaining goal was made by Lionel Messi of Argentina.
• With this goal, Messi became the first player to score in
  three finals after leading Barca to victory in 2009 and 2011.
• At the end of the annual event, Suarez collected the
  Player-of-the-Tournament and Golden Boot awards.
• So far, the event was held for 12 times and Barcelona tops
  the table of winners with three titles overall.
• The 2013 title was won by FC Bayern Munich that was held in
  Morocco.

• The host Singapore Slammers on 20 December 2015 beat the
  table toppers Micromax Indian Aces in the final to win the crown of the Indian
  Premier Tennis League (IPTL) – 2015. They defeated Indian Aces 26-21 in the
  final played at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
• With this, Singapore Slammers won the prize money of 1
  million US dollars while the Micromax Indian Aces got 500000 US dollars as
  runners-up.
• For IPLTL 2015, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Male
  category was Ivan Dodig (Aces) while in the women category, the MVP was Belinda
  Bencic (Slammers). Both the MVP won 50000 US dollars each as prize money for
  their dominant tennis they played.

• Bengaluru FC (BFC) midfielder Eugeneson Lyngdoh and striker
  Bala Devi on 20 December 2015 was named the 2015 All India Football Federation
  (AIFF) Player-of-the-Year and woman Footballer-of-the-Year respectively. The
  awards were announced at the AIFF Annual General Body Meeting held in Margao,
  Goa.
• Lyngdoh was chosen the winner on basis of votes from Coaches
  of I-League Clubs and he will be presented a prize of 2 lakh rupees along with
  a Trophy. Bala Devi will be presented with a Trophy along with a prize of 1
  lakh rupees.
• Pritam Kotal was declared the 2015 AIFF Emerging Player of
  the Year.
• Besides, AIFF also introduced a new award the 2015 AIFF
  emerging Woman Footballer of the Year, which went to Pyari Xaxa.
• Furthermore, Football Association of Odisha (FAO) bagged the
  2015 AIFF Award for Best Grassroots Programme.
• The 2015 AIFF Award for long time contribution to Indian
  Football was awarded to Coca Cola.

• India’s Abhay Singh on 20 December 2015 won the Under-19
  Singapore Squash Open. In the final of the Old Chang Kee Singapore Open, he
  defeated second seed Alwin Chai of Malaysia.
• He defeated Chai 11-8, 11-3, 11-8 in the final played at
  Singapore.
• With this win, Abhay, the world number one junior player,
  has won seven junior titles in the year 2015. Out of seven titles, two of them
  are international titles.

• Union Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh on 18 December
  2015 announced that Union Government had been taking considerable steps to
  improve production of pulses in order to reduce country’s dependence on
  imports.
• These steps are in tune with the 2016 International Year of
  Pulses launched by the United Nations.
• The UN on 10 November 2015 launched the year at the
  headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. It
  was launched with the theme nutritious seeds for a sustainable future.

• Home-grown FMCG firm Emami Ltd today announced tennis star
  Sania Mirza as the brand ambassador of hair oil and shampoo variants of its newly-acquired
  Kesh King brand.
• The ayurvedic hair oil category is one of the most dynamic
  areas of growth in the Indian hair care market, she added.
• Kesh King is also endorsed by celebrities like Juhi Chawla
  nationally except the southern markets for which Shruti Haasan has been roped
  in very recently.
• Kesh King was acquired by Emami in June 2015 for Rs 1,651
  crore, marking the company’s foray into the ayurvedic hair and scalp care
  segment. The brand portfolio includes ayurvedic medicinal oil, herbal shampoo
  and conditioner and ayurvedic capsules.

• Lakshmi Vilas Bank has appointed Parthasarathi Mukherjee as
  the new managing director (MD) and CEO. The bank today informed the National
  Stock Exchange (NSE) that it has received the approval for appointment of
  Mukherjee for three years from the date of his taking charge.
• The post was lying vacant since September after Rakesh
  Sharma stepped down as MD to head state-owned lender Canara Bank.
• Mukherjee was earlier with Axis Bank as group executive
  (corporate relationships and international business). He was with the bank for
  nearly 21 years. Before that, he worked for the State Bank of India (SBI) for
  nearly 12 years. 

• An Indian-American has been appointed as the Secretary of
  the Texas Board of Professional Engineers that licenses qualified engineers and
  regulates the practice of professional engineering in the US state.
• Sockalingam “Sam” Kannappan, a professional
  engineer and senior design engineer for SNC-Lavalin Hydrocarbons and Chemicals,
  has been appointed as the Secretary of the Texas Board of Professional
  Engineers (TBPE) in Austin.
• Houston-based Kannappan also serves as a board member of the
  Society of Piping Engineers and Designers and an advisory board member of the
  Asia Society’s Texas centre.
• The Indian-American engineer will be signing all
  newly-issued licenses, TBPE said in a statement.
• The board issues, monitors and renews roughly 57,000
  licenses for engineers.

• World Bank Group’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration
  and Development (KNOMAD) initiative on 18 December released the Migration and
  Remittances Factbook 2016.
• The report provides a snapshot of latest statistics on
  immigration, emigration, skilled emigration, and remittance flows for 214
  countries and territories.
• It also updates the 2011 edition with additional data on
  bilateral migration and remittances and second generation diasporas, and recent
  movements of refugees.
• As per the report, the number of international migrants is
  expected to surpass 250 million in 2015, an all-time high, as people search for
  economic opportunity.
• And, India was the largest remittance receiving country,
  with an estimated 72 billion US dollars in 2015, followed by China (64 billion)
  and the Philippines (30 billion US dollars).

• The five-day long 10th World Trade Organisation (WTO)
  Ministerial Conference concluded on 19 December 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya. The
  conference concluded with the adoption of the Nairobi Package that is aimed at
  benefitting organization’s poorest members.
• The conference was attended by trade ministers of 162 member
  countries of the WTO. India was represented by Minister of State (Independent
  Charge) for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman. It is for the first
  such meeting hosted by an African nation.
• The Nairobi Package contains a series of six Ministerial
  Decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed
  countries.

Regards

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