25 December 2017
-The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on December 25, inaugurated a new metro link between Noida and Delhi. He unveiled a plaque at Botanical Garden Metro Station, to mark the inauguration of a portion of the Magenta Line of the Delhi Metro, connecting Botanical Garden in Noida with Kalkaji Mandir in South Delhi
-Oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology have joined hands to develop, establish and promote rice straw-based bio-fuel production in the State. BPCL has chosen OUAT as its technology partner for effective utilisation of rice straw for bio-fuel production. Financial support of Rs. 5 crore has been extended for the purpose.
-Karnataka government on December 24 launched the Bengaluru city logo, the first Indian city to do so, in a bid to resurrect its image as a tourism destination. With this, it joins cities like Amsterdam in The Netherlands and New York in the US to have its own logo.
– At least 10,000 people were killed in the Chinese army’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, according to a newly released British secret diplomatic cable. “Minimum estimate of civilian dead 10,000,” the then British ambassador Alan Donald said in a telegram to London. The estimate, given the day after the crackdown, is almost 10 times higher than estimates commonly accepted at the time.
24 December 2017
–NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has developed an app named ‘HAVEN’ that could turn a mobile device into a kind of motion sensor in order to notify you when your devices are being tampered with. The app could also tell you when someone had entered a room without you knowing, if someone had moved your things, or if someone had stormed into your friend’s house in the middle of the night
-Over 5,100 schoolchildren from 35 schools set a world record on 23 December by forming the largest shape of the human lungs at the Thyagaraj stadium in Delhi. The bid was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records. The event was organised by the Lung Care Foundation in an effort to create awareness around the ill-effects of air pollution.
-NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, the first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died. He was 80. He was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty space walker’s jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above a blue Earth. He travelled more than 300 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger during the spacewalk
–A tropical storm named Tembin in the southern Philippines unleashed flash floods that swept away people and houses and set off landslides, reportedly leaving more than 120 people dead and 160 others missing.
-The Thomas Fire (California, USA) is declared the largest wildfire in California’s modern history after torching 273,400 acres.
-The UN Security Council has adopted a new and tougher set of sanctions against North Korea that drastically cut its export of crude oil and related products and other goods, and seeks to withdraw its citizens working abroad who are a rich source of foreign currency. This move will lead to loss of $250 million in revenue to Pyongyang.
-Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and 15 others were found guilty of corruption in a second case pertaining to the fodder scam by a special CBI court in Ranchi on 23 December. The case is related to the alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 84.5 lakh from Deoghar district (now in Jharkhand) treasury between 1994 and 1996 when Mr. Prasad was the Chief Minister of Bihar
–First official four day international test match will be played between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
-Former India wicket keeper Saba Karim was on 23 December appointed as General Manager (Cricket Operations) of the BCCI.
-The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched two satellites into space on Dec. 22 on separate missions to study the Earth and test new ion engine technology. The Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C) satellite and the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS) were launched by a JAXA H-2A rocket.
–Russia has agreed a deal to build a nuclear power station in Sudan, weeks after President al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, visited President Putin.
22 Dec. 2017
-India on 21 December, 2017 announced a development assistance of $25 million for Myanmar’s Rakhine State, from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims recently fled following incidents of violence against the community.
