Daily Current Affairs, 14th December 2018

1) National Energy Conservation Day: 14th December

•National energy conservation day is celebrated every year by the people all over India on 14th of December. The Energy Conservation Act in India was executed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the year 2001.

•The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is a constitutional body which comes under Government of India and helps in the development of policies and strategies in order to reduce the energy use.

2) Ashok Gehlot To Be New Chief Minister of Rajasthan

•The Congress party has picked old guard Ashok Gehlot over Sachin Pilot as Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Pilot will be the deputy CM of Rajasthan and will also continue as the state Congress chief.

•India’s Grand Old Party won 99 seats of the 199 in the Rajasthan Assembly, just one short of the halfway mark to form the government.

3) Government Sets Up GoM Headed By Arun Jaitley On Stressed Power Assets

•The government has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to vet the recommendations of a high-level panel on stressed power projects.

•The panel, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, had submitted its report in November 2018. The other members of the GOM are Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Power Minister R K Singh.

4) India-Saudi Arabia Sign Bilateral Annual Haj 2019 Agreement

•India and Saudi Arabia signed the bilateral annual Haj 2019 agreement at Jeddah. The agreement was signed by the Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Haj and Umrah Minister of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benten.

•The agreement is a part of strengthened bilateral relations of the two countries. Both India and Saudi Arabia share strong cultural, historical, economic and political relations.

5) India-Russia Mark 18th IRIGC-MTC Meeting

•India’s Minister of Defense Nirmala Sitharaman met with Russian Federation General Sergei Shoigu in New Delhi, marking the 18th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).India and Russia agreed to extend bilateral cooperation on defence joint-venture (JV) manufacturing projects

•In the framework of the bilateral Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership, the IRIGC-MTC meeting discussed a wide range of issues relating to defense equipment, industry and technological engagement between India and Russia as well as after sales support/upgradation of military equipment of Russian origin.

6) National Medical Devices Promotion Council To Be Set Up Under DIPP

•To give a fillip to the medical device sector, which is a sunrise sector, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, announced setting up of a National Medical Devices Promotion Council under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The Council will be headed by Secretary, DIPP. 

•The Medical Devices Industry (MDI) plays a critical role in the healthcare ecosystem and is indispensable to achieve the goal of health for all citizens of the country. The announcement was made at the occasion of the 4th WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices, at Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone, in Vishakhapatnam.

7) World’s 1st Floating Nuclear Plant Operational In Russia

•Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first “floating” nuclear power plant (FNPP) for installation in remote areas, has been started and brought to 10% of its capacity, Russian state-run atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced.

•An FNPP is basically a mobile, low-capacity reactor unit operable in remote areas isolated from the main power distribution system, or in places hard to access by land. They are designed to maintain both uninterruptible power and plentiful desalinated water supply in remote areas.

8) 39th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit Held In Riyadh

•The 39th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit was inaugurated by the King Salman of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. It was announced at the conclusion of the summit that the 40th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit will be held in the United Arab Emirates.




•The presidency of GCC shifts among the six members based on the Arabic alphabet. Although the 39th summit was held in Riyadh upon a request from Oman, Oman will be the president for the next 12 months.

9) MAHE Partners With NIAID TB Portals Program Of NIH, USA

•Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the USA, to become a member of the NIAID TB Portals program.

•Dr. Mahadev Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacy Practice initiated this program in Manipal and represents India in the Program’s Steering committee. The NIAID TB Portals Program is a multi-national collaboration for tuberculosis (TB) data sharing and analysis to advance TB research.

10) Yes Bank Names Brahm Dutt As Interim Chairman

•Yes Bank Ltd has named one of its independent directors Brahm Dutt as the bank’s part-time non-executive independent chairman after former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla resigned from the position. Brahm Dutt is a former bureaucrat and is one of the oldest members of Yes Bank’s board.