Daily Current Affairs, 05th December 2018

1) World Soil Day: 5 December

•World Soil Day is celebrated annually on the 5th of December at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, the regional offices and through national and local events. #StopSoilPollution is the objective of this World Soil Day on 5 December and throughout the year

•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.

2) PM To Inaugurate India’s Longest Rail-Road Bridge: Bogibeel Bridge

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Bogibeel Bridge, on December 25. It is India’s longest rail-road bridge, connecting the north and south banks of the Brahmaputra, falling in the eastern part of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

•The bridge is 4.94 km long. While former prime minister HD Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone for the Bogibeel bridge in January 1997, the work started only in April 2002 when former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the construction.

3) India’s Heaviest Satellite GSAT-11 Successfully Launched

•India’s heaviest, largest and most powerful satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched by an Arianespace rocket from the French Guiana. Blasting off from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, the Ariane-5 vehicle injected the GSAT-11 into the orbit in a flawless flight lasting about 33 minutes.

•The satellite will play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country and also be a platform to demonstrate new generation applications. As per the ISRO Chairman K Sivan, GSAT-11 is going to be the richest space asset for India and it will provide something like 16 Gbps data link services to the country.

4) 2-day Conference on Partnership Between EU and India Held In New Delhi

•The two-day conference on the partnership between European Union and India for Cultural Heritage Conservation, commenced in New Delhi. Over 30 leading experts deliberated on issues being faced in cultural heritage conservation and exploring innovative solutions to tackle challenges of climate change and urbanisation.

5) India Water Impact Summit-2018 Held In New Delhi

•Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga RejuvenationShri Nitin Gadkari has inaugurated 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) 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. The discussions this year will be on rejuvenation of the Ganga River Basin. The spotlight is on the 5 states, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, and Bihar.

6) Bilateral Air Exercise SHINYUU Maitri-18 Held In Agra

•The Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) held a bilateral air exercise SHINYUU Maitri-18 with Indian Air Force at A F Station Agra. The theme of the exercise is joint Mobility/Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR) on Transport aircraft. The JASDF C2 aircraft along with aircrew/observers are part of this first air exercisebetween the two Air Forces.

•IAF participated with An-32 and C-17 aircraft with aircrew & observers. The focus of the exercise was the IAF and JASDF crews to undertake Joint Mobility/ HADR operations. Display of heavy loading/offloading was also practiced during this exercise.

7) SpaceX Launches 64 Satellites Aboard Reusable Rocket

•SpaceX successfully launched 64 small satellites, including India’s ExseedSAT-1 in the company’s largest-ever “rideshare” mission on a twice-reused Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from a California launchpad. This is a new US record.

•The Falcon 9 rocket carried 15 micro-satellites and 49 CubeSats belonging to 34 different clients including public, private and university sources from 17 different countries across the world including South Korea, France and Kazakhstan.

8) 5th Monetary Policy: RBI Leaves Repo Rate Unchanged At 6.5%

•The Reserve Bank of India has kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.5%. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 6.25%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.75%.

•The decision of the MPC is consistent with the stance of calibrated tightening of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth. On the domestic front, gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed down to 7.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q2:2018-19, after four consecutive quarters of acceleration.

•Based on an overall assessment, GDP growth for 2018-19 has been projected at 7.4% (7.2-7.3% in H2) as in the October policy, and for H1:2019-20 at 7.5%, with risks somewhat to the downside

9) Admiral Sunil Lanba Released Book Titled ‘Blue Waters Ahoy!’

•Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of the Naval Staff, released a book titled ‘Blue Waters Ahoy!’ – chronicling the Indian Navy’s History from 2001-10. The unveiling was a part of an At Home function held at the Navy House in the presence of Ramnath Kovind, the President of India and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

•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.

10) Ministry Of Railways Signs An MoU With Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

•Ministry of Railways’ National Rail Museum (NRM) and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum join hands together to provide an amazing combo offer to Delhi NCR tourists. As a part of the collaboration, a special discount of 35% on ticket prices will be offered to NRM visitors when they visit the Madame Tussauds Museum.

•Similarly, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum visitors will be getting an attractive discount of 30% on combo packages of NRM. National Rail Museum (NRM), managed by Indian Railway, is one of the top edutainment tourist destinations of Delhi NCR area having an annual footfall of more than 5 lakhs. Madame Tussauds wax museum is a leading chain of Wax Museums in the world.

11) State Bank of India Ropes in Swapna Barman As Brand Ambassador For YONO

•State Bank of India has roped in Asian Games gold medalist Swapna Barman as brand ambassador for its digital app YONO. YONO, the bank’s digital platform that makes both lifestyle and banking available through a single app, was launched exactly a year back.

•Swapna won Gold medal in Heptathlon in Jakarta Asian Games with a score of 6026 and is looking to break the 6200 score barrier to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

12) India, UAE Sign Currency Swap Agreement

•India and UAE have signed an agreement on Currency Swap. The two countries also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Development Cooperation in Africa. The documents were signed after the 12th session of India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting for Economic and Technical Cooperation.

•The meeting was jointly co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.