Current Affairs Update – 20th December, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 20 December, 2016. These are important for the upcoming RBI Assistant Mains, IPPB PO Mains, NIACL AO Mains, IBPS Clerk Mains and RBI Assistant Mains 2016-17.

• The Union Ministry of Finance on
  19 December 2016 announced various measures to improve ease of doing business
  in the country.
• The objective of these measures
  is to improve country’s ranking in the World Bank’s report on Ease of Doing
  Business.

• eBiz portal shall be mandated for
  starting a business which shall include three services of Ministry of Corporate
  Affairs, Registration for PAN and TAN and also for EPFO & ESIC.
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs and
  Ministry of Labour and Employment will work towards reducing the number of
  procedures for starting a business to 4 and the number of days to start a
  business also to 4.
• Shram Suvidha Portal shall be the
  only portal for filing returns, challan and making online payment for EPFO
  & ESIC contributions as well as other filings and payments.
• Department of Revenue and
  Ministry of Shipping shall work towards increasing the number of direct delivery
  consignments to 40 percent by end of this month.
• These Departments shall also
  ensure that the cost and time to export and import gets reduced substantially
  to bring India within top 50 ranks.
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs
  shall work with the concerned stakeholders so that the provisions recently
  enabled under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code are implemented.
• To further improve the country’s
  rank in the indicator ‘Getting Credit’, Department of Financial Services and
  Ministry of Corporate Affairs shall work towards integrating CERSAI database
  with ROC Registry of Charges to create a single registry of assets.
• The initiative of eCourts should
  be expedited for electronic filing of complaints, summons and payments.

• Mobile phone brand Micromax
  Informatics, and taxi-hailing service Uber today announced a partnership that
  will help Micromax customers book an Uber ride on their phones without having
  to download application.
• Through the partnership, Micromax
  aims to push nearly 100 million devices that offer an integrated experience
  with Uber over the next three years, it said in a statement here.
• This move will propel both the
  companies to create a feature-driven experience for smartphone users and as a
  part of this partnership, the Uber app will come in-built in close to 100
  million Micromax smartphones, the statement said.

• The Union Government on 20
  December 2016 released Rs 450 crore to Telangana for the development of
  backward areas in the state during 2016-17.
• The special assistance was
  released in keeping with the Union Government’s commitments to support the
  development of backward areas.
• These additional resources from
  the Union Government would enable the State to devise and implement schemes
  best suited for mitigation of backwardness and alleviation of poverty.
• The developmental activities
  would improve the physical and social infrastructure bringing these districts
  at par with the developed districts of the state.

• India and Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday
  signed six agreements, including on tourism, agriculture and youth affairs,
  following delegation-level talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kyrgyz
  President Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev here.
• A memorandum of understanding
  (MoU) was signed on cooperation in youth exchange.
• Another MoU was signed on
  cooperation between the Foreign Service Institute and the Diplomatic Academy of
  the Kyrgyz Republic.
• A third MoU was signed on
  cooperation in the field of tourism, while a fourth one was signed on
  cooperation in the field of broadcasting and exchange of audio-visual
  programmes.
• A fifth agreement was signed on
  cooperation in youth development.
• Another agreement was signed on
  cooperation in agriculture and the food industry.
• Earlier on Tuesday, President
  Atambayev was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
• He arrived here on Sunday on a
  four-day official visit to India.

• The Union government on 17
  December 2016 formed a high-level inter-ministerial task force to look into all
  the strategic aspects of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan.
• This task force will be headed by
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra. The other
  members of the team include NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and
  Secretaries in Ministries of Finance, Environment, Power and Water Resource.
• Besides, Chief Secretaries of
  Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab will be invitees in the task force. Jammu and
  Kashmir and Punjab are the states from where the six Indus system rivers flow.

• The Indian Special Forces unit,
  National Security Guard may participate in the upcoming Republic day parade for
  the very first time in the history.
• The decision was taken following
  a meeting between the Union Home and Defence Ministries. The Special Forces
  unit, popularly known as the ‘black cat’ commandos due to their black uniform,
  has already begun its preparation for the parade.

• The NSG would have to choose a
  contingent of about 60 commandos.
• The contingent is expected to
  include personnel from both its army and paramilitary-based units.
• The commandos will for the first
  time display their prowess and commando-style fast march past at the parade.
• The first clearances for NSG’s
  participation have been issued.
• The only commando force to take
  part in the Republic Day celebrations until now has been the troops of Army’s
  Special Forces.

• Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish
  Rawat on 19 December 2016 unveiled the statue of renowned Tamil poet and
  philosopher Thiruvalluvar on the premises of Mela Bhawan in Haridwar.
• Thiruvalluvar is a renowned poet
  believed to have lived between 3rd Century BC and 1st Century BC.
• Thiruvalluvar is a celebrated
  Tamil poet and philosopher.
• His contribution to Tamil
  literature is the Thirukkural, a work on ethics. It is one of the most revered
  ancient works in the Tamil language.
• It is believed that he was born
  either in Thiru Mylai (Mylapore) Chennai in Tamil Nadu or in
  ThirunainarKuruchi, a village in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu.

• The US Electoral College on 19
  December 2016 formally elected Donald Trump as the President of the nation. Six
  weeks after winning the polls, the Republican Candidate Trump was able to
  secure the 270 votes needed to formalise his victory.
• In the voting by 538 electors
  across the country, Trump comfortably crossed the 270 majority mark. At the end
  of polling, he was able to secure 304 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton
  garnered 227 votes
• While the result will be
  officially announced on 6 January 2017 in a special joint session of Congress,
  he will assume the office on 20 January 2017.

• Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar on
  19 December 2016 was appointed as the 44th Chief Justice of India by the
  President Pranab Mukherjee.
• Justice Khehar will be sworn-in
  as the Chief Justice of India on 4 January 2017. He will retire from his office
  on 27 August 2017.
• The incumbent Chief Justice T S
  Thakur on 6 December 2016 had communicated his recommendation to the Union
  Government to appoint Justice Khehar. Justice Thakur will retire on 3 January
  2017 after tenure of a year.
• Justice Khehar will be the first
  Chief Justice of India from the Sikh community.

• Weeks after India demonetised its
  high-value currencies, Pakistan’s Senate on 19 December 2016 passed a
  resolution that seeks withdrawal of high denomination Rs 5000 currency notes.
  This currency note will be withdrawn in a phased manner.
• The resolution was passed with an
  aim to curb the flow of black money in the nation.
• As per reports, the currency
  notes will be withdrawn in three to five years and this time period will help
  the government to purge markets of the notes.
• The resolution was tabled in the
  upper house of Pakistani Parliament by Senator Usman Saif Ullah Khan of
  Pakistan Muslim League. His resolution was endorsed by the majority of
  lawmakers.
• As per reports, the resolution
  said, the withdrawal of bank notes of Rs 5000 will encourage the use of bank
  accounts. It will also reduce the size of the undocumented economy.

• India on 20 December 2016 won the
  five-match test series against England, 3-0-1. In the fifth and final test
  played at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, England wrapped up the second
  innings at 207 in 88 overs.
• Karun Nair’s triple century in
  first innings of the fifth test-match against England was the key factor in the
  enormous win of India.
• India’s first innings total was
  its highest score in Tests and was the most runs made against England by any
  team.

• Renowned environmentalist Anupam
  Mishra passed away on 19 December 2016 in Delhi following a prolonged illness.
  He was 68.
• His seminal work on water
  conservation ‘Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talab’ fired the imagination of common people
  and ecology warriors and gave wings to India’s indigenous wisdom on this
  subject.

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