Current affairs notes on 01/12/2018-5/12/2018

1.World AIDS Day is designated on 1 December every year since 1988.The theme for the World AIDS Day 2018 is "Know Your Status". 

2.Salome Zurabishvili, a French-born Georgian politician, has elected the first woman president in the history of Georgia. She will be inaugurated as President of Georgia on 16 December 2018.

3.The India Rivers Week (IRW) 2018, a unique meeting on rivers in India was held at the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF), New Delhi, from November 24 to 26, 2018. The focus of this year's three-day meet was 'Can India Rejuvenate Ganga?'.

4.The National Mission for Clean Ganga organised a two-day international workshop on Developing a Ganga Museum in New Delhi, museum will be part of Namami Gange Programme.

5.India's Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to be honoured with the Blue Cross by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) for his contribution to the sport of shooting.

6.Renowned flautist Pandit Keshav Ginde has been selected as the recipient of 2018 Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music. 

7.Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated 19th Hornbill Festival in Nagaland on 55th Nagaland Statehood Day. 

8.The Indian Railways launched a software named- 'eDrishti', that will enable the Union Railway Minister Shri. Piyush Goyalto keep track of punctuality of trains as well as freight and passenger earnings from anywhere in the country.

9.World number one Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has retained his World Chess Championship title, beating US opponent Fabiano Caruana in a tie-breaker event.

10.Ex Cope India-18 is the fourth edition in the series of Bilateral Joint exercise held between IAF and USAF, which is conducted in India. This is the first time, the exercise is being planned at two Air Force bases, Kalaikunda and Panagarh (West Bengal). 

11.Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh inaugurated Global Agriculture and Food Summit 2018 in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Seven countries, including China, Israel and Malaysia are participating in the two-day Summit.

12. The 7th India and China joint military exercises - 'Hand in Hand' - will focuss on counter-terrorism operations.

13.Navy Day is being celebrated in India on 4th December. The day is celebrated in honour of the maritime force's role during the war with Pakistan in 1971 when Indian warships attacked Karachi port and successfully hurt Pakistani operations in the western coast.

14.Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won Ballon d'Or 2018 in Paris.

15.The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) has started in Katowice, Poland from 3-14 December 2018.

16.India will host the G20 summit in 2022, when the country celebrates its 75th year of Independence. The announcement was made at the closing ceremony the 2018 G-20 held in Argentina’s captial Buenos Aires.

17.In February 2019, India’s first international indigenous film festival will take place in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

18.The Ministry of Home Affairs released a booklet in the English language titled "A Handbook for Students on Cyber Safety" to aware the Students and Adolescents about the cyber safety.

19.The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has submitted a formal expression of interest to bid for 2032 Olympics. Mumbai and Delhi are the top two options under consideration by Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

20.Olympique Lyonnais striker Ada Hegerberg became the first woman to be awarded a Ballon d'Or at a grand ceremony in Paris. 

21.As a part of the Swachhta Pakhwada of Ministry of Civil Aviation (2018), the 15 day cleanliness drive, has successfully been observed in M/o Civil Aviation and all of its organization.

22.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E K Palaniswami recently wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to stop the process of a feasibility study for the Mekedatu dam project in Karnataka. it is across the river Cauvery from Tamil Nadu.

23.NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission is all set to reach the Bennu asteroid – a rock that may predate the solar system – where its primary mission is to hover just above it, grab a sample of rock and dust and bring it back to Earth.

24.80th Session of the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organization (WCO) was held recently in Mumbai. The Session was organized by the WCO and hosted by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

25.Qatar has announced that it would leave OPEC on January 1, 2019. The decision comes just days before OPEC and its allies are scheduled to hold a meeting in Vienna, Austria.

26.A 50MW floating solar plant will be set up in the country’s largest reservoir Rihand dam in Sonbhadra district in UP.

27.A 50MW floating solar plant will be set up in the country’s largest reservoir Rihand dam in Sonbhadra district in UP.

28. Train 18 India’s first engine-less train-breached the 180 kmph speed threshold during a test run in the Kota-Sawai Madhopur section

29.India’s heaviest and most advanced satellite GSAT-11 was recently launched from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana.It was launched onboard Ariane-5 launch vehicle from French Guiana.

30. With the launch of ExseedSAT 1, Exseed Space has become the first Indian privately-funded startup to successfully send a satellite into space.

31.Odisha’s Kandhamal Haldi (turmeric), famous for its healing properties, is all set to receive GI tag.

32.The Union Government has constituted a six-member committee to look at selling of 149 small and marginal oil and gas fields of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL). It is chaired by the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar.

Thank you.