Current Affairs Assam – December 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of December 2018 )
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December 5
Borgeet may soon get recognition as classical music
- The Borgeet of Assam, a unique creation of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankaradeva and Madhabadeva, may be accorded national recognition as a classical music.
- Borgeet of Assam is purely classical by nature and by its characteristics, music in Assam is rooted way back in the 6th century and a number of Ragas are found in the Charjyapada of the 8th century. Different types of Ragas are also present in the Ojapali, which emanated before the Sankari era.
- Sankaradeva and his chief disciple Madhabadeva introduced the tradition of classical music in Assam during 15th and 16th centuries known as Borgeet.
Luca Modric wins 2018 Ballon d’Or (FIFA World Player of the Year)
- Croatian midfielder Luka Modric won the 2018 Ballon d’Or to end the past decade dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the award.
- Modric beat Ronaldo, Frenchman Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe in the vote. Messi finished fifth.
- Luka Modrić is a midfielder for Spanish club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Croatia national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation, and the greatest Croatian footballer of all-time.
FACTFILE – Ballon d’Or
- Founded in 1956 by France Football magazine, Ballon d’Or honours the player with the best performance over the year based on voting by football journalists.
- It was merged with FIFA World Player of the Year into FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010, before the two awards were separated in 2016.
Number of patents granted by India shot up by 50% in 2017: UN’s WIPO Report
- The number of patents granted by India shot up by 50 per cent in 2017, keeping up a trend of steep increases.
- The WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 report showed that the patents granted by India increased from 8,248 in 2016 to 12,387 last year,
- Of the patents granted last year, 1,712 went to entities and individuals based in India, and 10,675 to foreigners.
- The WIPO said that the steep increase in the number was driven by patents granted to foreigners, which accounted for 85 per cent of the total increase.
The number of patents given to domestic entities has also shown an increasing trend: In 2016, 1,115 went to domestic individuals or entities and 7,133 to foreigners, and in 2015, 822 were granted to applicants in India and 5,200 to foreigners, the report said.
FACTFILE – World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
- The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN).
- WIPO was created in 1967 “to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world”.
- WIPO currently has 191 member states
- Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
- Director-General – Francis Gurry
India’s heaviest communication satellite ‘GSAT-11‘ put into orbit
- India’s heaviest and next generation communication satellite with high throughput GSAT-11 was put into orbit by Ariane-5 rocket of Arianespace from French Guiana.
- Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 is the heaviest satellite built by ISRO. GSAT-11 is the fore-runner in the series of advanced communication satellites with multi-spot beam antenna coverage over Indian mainland and Islands.
- GSAT-11 will boost the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible Gram Panchayats in the country coming under the Bharat Net Project, which is part of Digital India Programme.
- GSAT-11 was developed at the cost of Rs. 600 crore. The payload consists of 40 high power Ku, Ka band transponders built at Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.
ACT Fibernet, Tamil Nadu to empower visually challenged students
- Internet service provider ACT Fibernet joined hands with Tamil Nadu government to introduce Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) for the visually impaired students of Class 11 and 12.
- The digital learning technology will be made available to students of Class 11 and 12 across State and CBSE boards in partnership with Karna Vidya Foundation, and intends to empower students and enable them to overcome challenges through smart technology-oriented education.
- DAISY Software is a globally recognized format that converts text from regular books into computerized content which can be easily accessed by the visually impaired students. It allows students to read full text independently, effortlessly navigate between sentences, thereby making it easy for the students to learn the subject more efficiently.
December 6
Sananta Tanti and Rituraj Basumatary get Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese and Bodo
- Poet Sananta Tanti (Assamese) and Rituraj Basumatary (Bodo) have been chosen for the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018.
- Sananta Tanti won the award for poetry collection Kailoir Dinto Amar Hobo.
- Basumatary bagged it for short story collection Dwngse Lama.
Awardee in other languages
- Budhichandra Heisnamba in Manipuri language
- Loknath Upadhyay Chapagain (who hails from Assam) in Nepali language
- Sanjib Chattopadhyay for Sri Krishner Sesh Kota Din in Bengali language
FACTFILE – Sahitya Akademi Award
- The Sahitya Academy Award is a literary honor in India, which the Sahitya Akademi annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages (24 languages, i.e. 22 listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, along with English and Rajasthani)
- Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of ₹ 100000.
- The plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray.
- During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the plaque was substituted with national savings bonds.
- Chandrashekhar Kambar is the President of Sahitya Akademi.
International Conference on Renewable and Alternate Energy’ (ICRAE-2018) in Guwahati
- An ‘International Conference on Renewable and Alternate Energy’ (ICRAE-2018) organised by the Assam Science and Technology University (ASTU) in Guwahati.
- The inaugural session of the conference was attended by Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, BJ Phukan, Director (Technical) of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited
- The conference aims to promote renewable and alternative energy research, especially emerging research interests such as bio-fuel, bio-energy, fuel technologies, waste-to-energy conversions, climate change, etc.
Assam Bio-Refinery Pvt Ltd (ABRPL)
- Incorporated in June 2018 with equity participation of 50 per cent by NRL, 28 per cent by M/s Fortum 3BV, the Netherlands, and 22 per cent by M/s Chempolis Oy, Finland.
- It will use a new technology for conversion of ligno-cellulosic bio-mass to ethanol for the first time in the country on a commercial scale.
India, Peru to work together to curb customs offences
- India and Peru signed an agreement for mutual cooperation in matters related to customs and intelligence sharing between their customs authorities. Signed on the sidelines of the 80th session of the Policy Commission meeting of the World Customs Organisations (WCO).
- The agreement provides a legal framework for sharing of information and will help in the proper application of customs laws, prevention and investigation of customs offences.
- The agreement will also help in the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of customs offences.
- It is expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries.
India’s first hybrid solar-wind auction yields tariff under Rs 2.70/unit
- The country’s first solar-wind hybrid auction conducted by the state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has yielded the lowest highly competitive tariff of less than Rs 2.70 per unit.
- Union New and Renewable Energy Secretary Anand Kumar said the government has also embarked on the development of non-conventional renewable energy sources.
- While the first round of auctions for floating solar projects had also successfully discovered tariffs as low as Rs 3.22 per unit.
- The country is well on course to install 175 gigawat (GW) of renewable capacity by 2022 and have already installed 73.35 GW, projects worth 21.5 GW are under various stages of implementation and projects amounting to another 25 GW are under various stages of bidding.
Ex-Indian diplomat Preeti Saran elected to UN’s Socio-Economic, Cultural panel
Former senior Indian diplomat has been elected unopposed to an Asia Pacific seat on the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) of the UN.
The UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected the recently-retired External Affairs Ministry Secretary (East) by acclamation on Wednesday to the 18-member committee of experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR).
Members of the CESCR serve in their personal capacities as experts and do not represent their countries even though they may have been nominated by their own nation.
FACTFILE – Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is a United Nations body of 18 experts that usually meets twice per year in Geneva to consider the five-yearly reports submitted by UN member states on their compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
- Members are elected for a term of four years by States parties in accordance with ECOSOC Resolution 1985/17 of 28 May 1985.
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