Navigate

  • Current Affairs 11th December 2017

    Updated : 11-Dec-2017

    Current Affairs 11th December 2017 - Important Points

    •  ‘Khelo India’ programme to be launched by - Union Government 
    • International Mountain Day observed on - 11th December 2017
    • ASEAN India Connectivity Summit begins in Delhi on - 11th December 2017

    Current Affairs 11th December 2017 - Details

     ‘Khelo India’ programme to be launched by - Union Government 

    Union government would soon be inaugurating the Khelo India program with a budget of Rs 1756 crore for the period of 2017-18 to 2019-20. The program objects at mainstreaming sports as an instrument for individual development, national development, community development and economic development.
    The declaration was made by the Union Minister State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Rajyavardhan Rathore while speaking at the Yuva Sambardhana Utsav organized by Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, at KIIT Campus, Bhubaneswar on 10th December 2017.
    As per Rathore, the plan marks a watershed moment in the Indian sports history and will affect the entire sports ecosystem, including coaching for excellence, community sports, talent identification, infrastructure, competition structure and sports economy.
    Objective
    The campaign focuses to promote 150 marked schools from various districts and 20 universities across the Nation, as hubs of sporting excellence, which would enable skilful sportspersons to follow both education and competitive sports.
    Other Key Features

    • The program would cover approximately 200 million children under the age group of 10-18 under a massive national physical fitness initiative.
    • It would also handle the launching of a new Pan Indian Sports Scholarship scheme that would cover 1000 most talented young athletes every year across marked sports disciplines.
    • Each athlete nominated under the scheme would get an annual scholarship worth Rs 5 lakh for the duration of eight years.
    • Further, a campaign to mark sports talents under 17 years in schools will also be inaugurated from 31st January 2018 to 8th February 2018 under this scheme.  It will be telecasted live.
    • In fact, the year 2018 will be observed as the Year of sports.

    International Mountain Day observed on - 11th December 2017

    International Mountain Day was celebrated globally on 11th December 2017 with the topic ‘Mountains under pressure: climate, hunger and migration’.
    The day is celebrated to highlight how climate, hunger and migration are affecting highlands and to fortify that sustainable mountain development is united into the 2030 Agenda and in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
    Present year’s theme is also connected to the Mountain Partnership Global Meeting, which is planned to be held from 11th to 13th December 2017 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UNs in Rome, Italy.
    The conference will aim on the challenges and opportunities in certain mountain development and will
    inaugurate a Framework for Action to help concrete actions and establish policies that fortify the resilience of mountain people and environment.
    Did you know?

    • The basics of the International Day go back to 1992, when the Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 “Managing Fragile  Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development” was accepted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
    • The growing attention paid to the significance of mountains led the UN General Assembly to announce 2002 the UN International Year of Mountains.
    • On the occasion, the UN General Assembly appointed 11th December, from 2003 onwards, as ‘International Mountain Day’.
    • The Root Problem Mountain areas are home to more than one billion people. More than half of the human population depends on the mountains for facilities such as fresh water, food and clean energy, which are growingly scarce with time.
    • However, mountains are extremely unguarded to climate change, land degradation, deforestation and natural disasters.
    • The increasing temperatures also indicates that mountain glaciers are melting at unexpected pace, affecting freshwater supplies for millions of people.
    • Presently, around 39% of the mountain population in developing nations, is estimated to be unguarded to food insecurity.
    • Uttarakhand government makes LED bulbs compulsory in all government offices The state government of Uttarakhand has taken a new scheme for energy conservation by making it mandatory for all government offices to use LED bulbs.
    • The move is supposed to decrease the consumption of electricity in offices and civic areas.
      Key Highlights
    • The state government has made mandatory to install LED bulbs in various government offices, educational institutions, civic bodies and institutes taking grants from the government.
    • The scheme is focused at reducing consumption of electricity.
    • All the District Magistrates and HODs have been instructed to strictly execute the orders, following sanctions by the state cabinet.
    • The purchase of sodium vapour lamps and incandescent lamps by all the state departments have also been restricted.
    • All the departments would now have to buy LED bulbs.
    • Talking on the same, the state’s Energy Secretary Radhika Jha stated that 40 lakh LED bulbs have been given so far as against the target of 1 crore LED bulbs. She explained that once the set target is met, it would head to the saving of 39 crore units of electricity every year, which is worth approximately Rs 98 crore.

    ASEAN India Connectivity Summit begins in Delhi on - 11th December 2017

    The ASEAN India Connectivity Summit began in New Delhi on 11th December 2017. The subject of the 2-day Summit is Powering Digital and Physical connectivity for Asia in the 21 st Century.
    The summit would witness the attendance of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and ministers of state for External Affairs, Gen VK Singh and MJ Akbar and Minister of State for Communications, Manoj Sinha.
    The spokespersons from ASEAN include Deputy Communications Minister of Viet Nam, Phan Tam and
    Secretary of State, Ministry of Public Works and Transport of Cambodia Tauch Chankosal.
    Key Focus Areas

    • The main objective areas of the summit are Infrastructure, Roadways, Shipping, Energy, Digital, Finance and Aviation.
    • It focuses at accelerating present connectivity prospects, identifying concerned issues, evolving suitable policy recommendations and forming strategies to amplify economic, industrial and trade associations between ASEAN and India.
    • It would be bringing policymakers closer, senior officials from the government, investors, industry leaders, spokespersons of trade associations and entrepreneurs on the similar platform to intentions on the partnership models that may be accepted between the governments to build infrastructure links between India and ASEAN Nations.
      The Organisers
    • The summit has been arranged by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with AIC and CII.
    • The partner firms are Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Ministry of Shipping and Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.
    • The Associate companies include EXIM Bank, IDFC Institute, National Maritime Foundation and RIS.