Source: Cick Here

• World Soil Day is celebrated annually on 5th of December every year. It is celebrated at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the regional offices and through national and local events. World Soil Day 2018 aims to raise awareness and call people to Stop Soil Pollution.


• The International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), in 2002, adopted a resolution proposing the 5th of December as World Soil Day to celebrate the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to human well-being.


• Under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the “Global Soil Partnership“, FAO has supported the formal establishment of World Soil Day as a global awareness raising platform.

Source: Cick Here

• December 5 is annually seen as International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development. It is also called as International Volunteer Day.


• This day celebrates the sacrifice and contributions of the volunteers and organizations and promotes their work among their communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, government authorities and the private sector.


• The theme of the International Volunteer Day 2018 is: “Volunteers build Resilient Communities”.


• It is mandated by the UN General Assembly.

Source: Cick Here

• Qatar’s pure strength is the production of Gas. Qatar is the world’s biggest supplier of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), producing almost 30 percent of the world total.


• Qatar also shares the world’s largest known natural gas field, the ‘North Field’ with Iran.

Source: Cick Here

• External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the Gandhi-Zayed Digital Museum in Abu Dhabi along with Foreign Minister of UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.


• The Gandhi-Zayed Digital Museum, which will promote peace, tolerance and sustainability, is part of the celebrations to mark 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and centenary celebrations of the birth of Shaikh Zayed.

Source: Cick Here

• On 05th December 2018, Finance ministry has approved Rs 850 crore investment to upgrade Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR).


• The sanctioned amount will be invested over FY19 and FY20.


• Decision came after Centre has started a manpower audit of Prasar Bharati, acting on the recommendation of an expert committee in 2014 led by Sam Pitrodawhich recommended that Prasar Bharati ‘undertake a comprehensive manpower audit and human resources planning exercise to map workforce requirements for the future, in line with the public broadcaster’s mandate’.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 5, 2018, the three day 80th session of Policy Commission of World Customs Organisation concluded in Mumbai. It started on December 3, 2018.


• It was organized by Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).


• It was inaugurated by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, and was attended by 102 delegates from 33 nations.


• The Indian delegation was headed by Chairman, CBIC, Shri S. Ramesh, along with Member (Customs), Shri P K Das and senior officers.


• Objective of the WCO meeting was to discuss on various matters related to customs.

Source: Cick Here

• Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate India Water Impact Summit 2018, being jointly organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) from 5-7 December 2018 in New Delhi.


• The India Water Impact Summit is an annual event where stakeholders get together to discuss, debate and develop model solutions for some of the biggest water related problems in the country.


• Nearly 200 domestic and international participants from nearly 15 countries and more than 50 Central, State and Municipal Government representatives are likely to participate in the summit.

Source: Cick Here

• NSD LogoMinistry of Road Transport and Highways has notified dual-fuel usage for agricultural and construction equipment vehicles.
  
• These include tractors, power tillers, construction equipment vehicles and combine harvesters which have originally been manufactured as dual- fuel with diesel as primary fuel and CNG, Bio CNG as secondary, or have been converted as such from in-use diesel vehicles.

Source: Cick Here

• Bihar government has fixed 100 rupees as the charge for people to get their property registered after division of family’s immovable assets.


• This decision was taken at cabinet meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Source: Cick Here

• Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has approved 50-crore rupees to Science & Technology Innovation (STI) Fund to provide assistance up to Rs. 50-lakh to UGC and AICTE recognized central and state universities and colleges.


• The state government had earlier announced similar assistance under the Biotechnology Policy and IT Policy.

Source: Cick Here

• The European Central Bank launched a new system aimed at letting banks settle payments instantly across Europe, helping them to compete with PayPal and other global tech giants. Developed in just over a year, the ECB’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system will let people and companies in Europe transfer euros to each other within seconds and regardless of the opening hours of their local bank.


• TIPS is open only to providers that have an account at a central bank connected to the euro zone’s TARGET 2 network, meaning it is effectively restricted to European Union banks.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 5, 2018, RBI released its 5th Bi-monthly monetary policy produced by the Monetary Policy Committee chaired by RBI Governor Dr. Urjit Patel.


• The Reserve Bank injected durable liquidity amounting to Rs.360 billion in October and Rs.500 billion in November through open market purchase operations, bringing total durable liquidity injection to Rs.1.36 trillion for 2018-19.


• In order to bring about consumer confidence in the digital financial transaction channel, RBI issued ‘Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies’ report.

Source: Cick Here

• On 04th December 2018, According to EY FinTech Adoption Index, India has the second highest FinTech adoption rate among digitally active consumers at 52percent, only second to China at 69 percent.


• Usage is significantly high in large cities with a 66 percent adoption rate followed by 51 percent usage and adoption in small and medium cities.


• In India, fintech industry is being encouraged by the various government initiatives such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and the emergence of UPI which provide a good foundation to boost financial inclusion in India.


• Rural India lags at 33 percent. Money transfers and payments services leading the charge in India with adoption standing at 72 percent.


• Insurance is the next popular category with an adoption rate of 47 per cent, much higher than the global average of 24 per cent.

Source: Cick Here

• India’s largest online market place for financial products, Paisabazaar.com has launched a first of its kind feature Chance of Approval, that will help loan applicants choose their most-suited lender on its platform in India.


• ‘Chance of Approval’, is an advanced predictive algorithm that has been created by Paisabazaar.com using the last four years of lending data.


• Globally a few leading players, like Credit Karma in the US, have developed similar features to improve the acceptance rate on their platforms but this is the first such initiative in India.


• The ‘Chance of Approval’ feature will match a borrower’s profile, like income, credit score, age etc., with the various lending criteria of banks and NBFCs, to provide customers with the chances of getting their loan application approved – Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor – against each lender.


• It is also planning to extend this feature to its other lending products like Credit Card, Business Loan and Home Loan.

Source: Cick Here

• On 4th December 2018, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils were renamed as Delhi Capitals and the announcement was made in a function in the capital held by owners GMR Group and JSW Sports.


• Co-owners Parth Jindal, representing JSW Sport, and Kiran Kumar Grandhi of GMR, unveiled its new identity including a new name and a logo.


• The logo has been inspired by the design of Parliament House‎ and the idea of three tigers inscribed in the logo is derived from the Ashok Chakra.


• Earlier, Mohammed Kaif was named as the team’s assistant coach while Ricky Ponting continues to be the head coach of the team.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 4, 2018, 37-year-old, former Indian opening batsman, Gautam Gambhir announced his retirement from all forms of Cricket.
Gambhir’s career began in 2003 with an ODI against Bangladesh and the Delhi-Andhra Ranji Trophy (scheduled on December 5, 2018) would mark the conclusion of his career in cricket.

• Gambhir played in 58 Tests between 2004 and 2016, scoring 4,154 runs at an average of 41.95, with the help of nine hundreds and 22 fifties.


• He also played in 147 ODIs between 2003 and 2013, besides featuring in 37 T20 Internationals.


• The aggressive opener was India’s top-scorer in the finals of the 2007 World T20 in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup.

Source: Cick Here

• On 5th December 2018, 52 years old veteran Tamil Writer S Ramakrishnan honoured with Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel “Sancharam” which deals with the lives of nadhaswaram artistes.


• S Ramakrishnan has been writing since last 27 years and he had written short stories, novels, plays, children’s literature and translations.


• Ramakrishnan has authored and published 5 novels , 4 books for children, 10 collections of short stories, 24 collections of articles and nine plays.


• He had won Tagore Literary Award, Sangeetha Nataka Academy, Iyal Award and award for best novel from Tamilnadu Government.

Source: Cick Here

• On 4th December 2018, Kenya’s Marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Colombian jumper Caterine Ibarguen was awarded with Male and Female World athlete of the year for the first time at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Athletics Awards 2018 held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.


• Olympic Champion Kipchoge shattered the world marathon record by 78 seconds whereas Ibarguen was Diamond leage champion in both long jumps and triple jump.
  
• Eliud Kipchoge also won the London Marathon 2018.


• Sweden’s Vaulter Armand Duplantis and American Sydney Mclaughlin won the Men’s and Women’s Rising star awards respectively.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 4, 2018, MD & CEO of Axis Capital, Mr. Dharmesh Mehta stepped down.


• The bank had also elevated Salil Pitale and Chirag Negandhi as Joint Managing Directors and Co-Chief Executive Officer.


• Both are currently Co-Head of Investment Banking at Axis Capital since 2016.


• Pitale has been with Axis Capital and Axis Bank since 1999, while, Negandhi has been associated with Axis Capital since 2005.

Source: Cick Here

• On 05th December 2018, Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana.


• The launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA-246 lifted off from Kourou Launch Base, French Guiana carrying India’s GSAT-11 and South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2A satellites.


• Ariane 5 is one of three launch vehicles operated by Arianespace along with Soyuz and Vega.


• The 5,854-kg GSAT-11 will provide high data rate connectivity to users of Indian mainland and islands through 32 user beams in Ku-band and 8 hub beams in Ka-band.


• Satellite is configured around ISRO’s I-6K Bus and has a designed lifetime of more than 15 years.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 5, 2018, German firm BigRep and NOWlab produced the world’s first fully functioning e-motorbike NERA using a 3D printer.


• The bike was conceptualised and developed in 12 weeks and includes 15 parts excluding the electrical components.


• It includes features like airless tires, embedded electronics, and forkless steering.

Source: Cick Here

• On 4th December 2018, researchers led by Dr Devesh Mistry from the University of Leeds, England, discovered a new non-porous material that has unique and inherent “auxetic” stretching properties. The material becomes thicker at the molecular level as it is stretched.


• The findings are published in a scientific journal named Nature Communications.


• This for the first time that synthetically such material is produced in lab that paved the way for commercially creating it. The process does not involve expensive, complex engineering processes such as 3D printing.


• Auxetics are great at energy absorption and resisting fracture and there may be many potential applications for materials with these properties including body armour, architecture and medical equipment.

Source: Cick Here

• On 4th December 2018, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Sunil Lamba released ‘Blue Waters Ahoy!’ a book chronicling the Indian Navy’s history from 2001-10 in New Delhi.


• In the event,the Indian Navy was celebrating Navy Day, which is organized every year on 04th December to commemorate its offensive actions during the 1971 war.


• The book has been authored by Vice Admiral Anup Singh, who retired as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command in 2011.


• The book is the sixth volume in Navy’s history; the first five had covered the period from 1945 to 2000.