Current Affairs Update – 23 December, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 23 December, 2016. These are important for the upcoming RBI Assistant Mains, IPPB PO Mains, NIACL AO Mains and RBI Assistant Mains 2016-17.

• The government of Tripura has
  decided to adopt for cashless payment in all public transactions, starting from
  1 January 2017.
• The government has already
  initiated the process of opening bank accounts including issuing RuPay cards to
  people who do not have any bank accounts.
• According to the Chief Secretary
  of the state, Yashpal Singh, 80% people in Tripura already have at least one
  bank account. So, the state government took the initiative of opening bank
  accounts for those who don’t have such as the tea garden and brick kiln
  workers.
• By New Year, the government plans
  to convert the state into a cashless economy by ensuring that all its state
  departments deal mostly in digital payments.
• Apart from this, the government
  is also building digital infrastructure in the Agartala government medical
  college & hospital, Tripura medical college and hospital and Indira Gandhi
  Memorial hospital. The move has been made to help families of patients, to
  enable them to make digital payments.

• Indian Railways, National High
  Speed Rail Corporation and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on 21
  December 2016 signed a Memorandum for General Consultancy.
• Under the tripartite consultancy
  agreement, JICA promotes smooth implementation of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High
  Speed Railway Project.

• The general consultancy involves
  providing design and bidding assistance for the public works and systems
  required for the construction of the project.
• The JICA will bear the cost of
  general consultancy up to 2020.
• The memorandum is an outcome of
  the Japan-India Summit level talks in December 2015.

• Amul, the popular Indian dairy
  cooperative is planning to invest Rs 200 Cr in a Centralised Milk Processing
  Plant in West Bengal.
• The plant is located at Kandua
  Food Park in Howrah district’s Sankrail town. The work on the plant is expected
  to start in 2017 and be completed by the end of 2018. The proposed plant will
  process milk and other products such as UHT milk, ghee and yoghurt.

• It has been developed by WBIDC to
  cater to the needs of producers and manufacturers of food and agricultural
  products.
• Built on the concept of an
  industrial cluster, the park is an attempt to bring together different
  agricultural processing units and their support facilities to one single
  location so that they all benefit from the shared infrastructure.

• The Minister of State for AYUSH
  Shripad Yesso Naik on 22 December 2016 formally inaugurated the North Eastern
  Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (NEIAH) in Shillong, Meghalaya.
• The objective of the NEIAH is to
  provide good quality medical graduates in traditional medicine generate
  employment and promote tourism in the North East.

• It is an autonomous Institute
  under Union Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and
  Homoeopathy (AYUSH).
• With this inauguration, the
  institute has become the second Ayurvedic College in the North East Region with
  a Homeopathy college.
• It is the only Central Academic
  Institute of AYUSH in the North East Region.
• Its primary aim is to produce
  quality human resource in the area of AYUSH in general and the Ayurveda and
  Homeopathy in particular.

• Government think tank Niti Aayog
  on Friday launched a performance index on health services to nudge states to improve
  health outcomes and improve data collection systems.
• “This initiative (launch of
  ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ index) is envisioned to bring about the
  much-required improvements in the social sector outcomes, which have not kept
  pace with the economic growth in the country. It will be used to propel action
  in the states to improve health outcomes and improve data collection
  systems,” Niti Aayog said in a statement.
• The index is launched along with
  Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• It is meant to capture the annual
  incremental improvements by states rather than focus on historical
  achievements, it noted.
• Secretary-Health C K Mishra and
  CEO Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant jointly released the guidebook for the exercise in
  the first of a series of regional workshops to be conducted across the country
  until February, it added.
• The government’s think tank
  further said it is anticipated that the index will assist in the state-level
  monitoring of performance, serve as an input for providing performance-based
  incentives and improvement in health outcomes, and meet citizens’ expectations.
• The statement said the index has
  been developed over several months with inputs from domestic and international
  experts, including academicians and development partners, seeking feedback from
  states.

• Bollywood superstar Salman Khan
  has unseated his actor Shah Rukh Khan to become the top earning celebrity of
  2016 in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 List with an estimated income of Rs.
  270.33 crore.
• The other leading names in the
  list include skipper Virat Kohli, actor Akshay Kumar and M S Dhoni
  chronologically.
• However, the 50-year-old Salman
  is ranked at No 2 in terms of fame, which is topped by ace cricketer Kohli.
• In the fifth rich 100 celeb list
  released by Forbes India, the ranking is based on two parameters: estimates of
  entertainment-related earnings and estimates of fame during the period October
  2015 to September 2016.
• The magazine attributed the rise
  of Salman to his box office hits — the Sooraj Barjatya-directed ‘Prem Ratan
  Dhan Payo’ in late 2015 and then ‘Sultan’ in 2016.
• The magazine further said
  Salman’s estimated total earnings constitutes 9.84 per cent of the total wealth
  of the top 100 celebs at Rs. 2,745 crore for the year.
• SRK at No 2, has reportedly
  earned Rs. 221.75 crore and also comes at No 3 in terms of fame. He lost his
  perch at the top in what was a mixed year for him both in terms of box office
  success and brands endorsed.
• When it comes to fame ranking,
  Test cricket captain Virat Kohli is the most popular celebrity and this has
  improved his earnings rank to No 3 with a reported Rs. 134.44 crore earnings.
  In 2015, Kohli was ranked No 7.

• Sheva Keshavan, the Winter
  Olympian from India, won the gold medal at Asian Luge Championship on 23
  December 2016. He braved an injury to clinch the gold at the championship in
  Nagano.
• Keshavan who dominated the event
  finished the 2 heat race in 1:39.962 seconds. 103.4 km/hr was his top speed in
  the race.
• Tanaka Shohei of Japan clinched
  the silver medal in the event with a combined time of 1:44.874 seconds. His top
  speed was 124.6 km/hr. On the other hand, the bronze medal went to Chinese
  Taipei’s Lien Te-An. He completed the race in 45.120 with a top speed of 126.3
  km/hr.

• India on 22 December 2016
  defeated South Korea 3-0 to secure the bronze medal at the 4th Women’s U18 Asia
  Cup 2016 hockey tournament in Bangkok.
• After the win, Hockey India
  announced cash rewards of Rs.1 lakh for each player. It also announced Rs.50000
  for each member of the support staff.
• In the first half of the game,
  both teams played were goalless. The best chance of the half fell to India’s
  Mahima Choudhary. India took the lead minutes after the break as Ritu scored
  the opener off a penalty corner. Sangita Kumari scored in the 55th and 58th
  minutes.
• China was the winner of the Women
  Under-18 Asia Cup. The country emerged victorious with a 4-2 victory over
  defending champions Japan in the final at the National Hockey Training Centre.

• China on 22 December 2016
  launched TanSat satellite, a global carbon dioxide monitoring satellite, to
  understand the climate change.
• This 620-kg satellite was put
  into orbit by Long March-2D rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in
  northwest China’s Gobi Desert. China is the third country to monitor greenhouse
  gases through its own satellite after Japan and the US.
• This was the 243rd mission of the
  Long March series rockets. Besides TanSat, the rocket also launched a
  high-resolution micro-nano satellite and two spectrum micro-nano satellites for
  agricultural and forestry monitoring.

• An Indian-American engineer has
  been elected as Mayor of South San Francisco city in the US state of
  California.
• Pradeep Gupta, an IIT Chennai
  alumni, was sworn in as the Mayor of the city early in December, a media
  release said.
• With this he has become the
  second Indian-American to be elected as the Mayor of the Californian city.
• Gupta was appointed to the South
  San Francisco City Council for a one-year term on December 31, 2012 and was
  elected to a full four-year term in November 2013.
• Prior to his appointment to the
  City Council, he was on the South San Francisco Planning Commission for three
  years, serving as the Commission’s Chair in 2011.

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Team ExamPundit