Current Affairs 27th December 2017

Current Affairs 27th December 2017 - Important Points

• UP Government launched Prakash Hai to Vikas Hai Scheme on - 25th December 2017
• Singapore's Deputy PM to join Sushma Swaraj at- ASEAN-India PBD 
• Rupani takes oath as Gujarat CM for 2nd consecutive term on - 26th December 2017
• India signed USD 318 million loan Agreement with World Bank for agriculture project in Tamil Nadu  on - 26th December 2017
• Google Doodle honoured Mirza Ghalib on his 220th birthday on - 27th December 2017
• Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem from - Israel

Current Affairs 27th December 2017 - Details

UP Government launched Prakash Hai to Vikas Hai Scheme on - 25th December 2017

The Uttar Pradesh Government initiated ‘Prakash hai to vikas hai’ Scheme, a free of cost household electricity connection scheme for the below poverty line and poor in the state. It was initiated to celebrate former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary, on the eve of Good Governance Day on 25th December 2017. In the beginning, 2 village Lohban and Gausana of Mathura district have been considered under same scheme for 100% power supply. In this scheme, state government aims to cover 16 million power supplies by the ending of year 2018.

Kisan Uday Yojana- UP government has also imitated Kisan Uday Yojana, a project for the farmers of the state under which present 5 Horse Power to 7.5 Horse Power submersible and coupling pairs of farmers will be changed free of cost. The project will cover 10 lakh farmers by the year 2022 and will result into 35 percent electricity saving. The UP Government has signed Memorandum of Understanding with South Korea on to upgrading the coordination in the field of tourism, culture, farming and skill development.

It was signed after a commission from South Korea’s Gimhae city visited Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow and talked on the ways to enhanve cooperation between the 2 nations.

Key Highlights

• The Memorandum of Understanding will go a long way in joining the bond mainly cultural and historical bonds between Uttar Pradesh and South Korea.
• In the past, an accordance was signed to develop Ayodhya and Gimhae as sister cities in year 2000, after which memorial was built in Ayodhya which is visited by many tourists from South Korea annually.
• It is the trust of the South Korea people that 2,000 years ago, Ayodhya princess got married to Korean King Kim Suro. Currently, members of the ‘Crock Clan’ are believed as their successors.

Singapore's Deputy PM to join Sushma Swaraj at - ASEAN-India PBD 

International Affairs Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean will meet India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for a 2-day “ASEAN-India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas” to be organized in Singapore coming month.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Assam, N Chandrababu Naidu and Sarbananda Sonowal, will also accompany her during the function on 6-7th January 2018. 

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is observed annually to mark the participation of overseas Indian group in the progress of India.

Rupani takes oath as Gujarat CM for 2nd consecutive term on - 26th December 2017

BJP MLA Vijay Rupani on Tuesday 26th December 2017 took pledge as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for his 2nd consecutive term in state capital Gandhinagar. Rupani noticed victory from the Rajkot West constituency with a margin of 53,755 votes. 19 other ministers, along with Deputy CM-elect Nitin Patel, also took pledge on this occasion.
The newly nominated cabinet was administered the pledge of office and secrecy by Governor OP Kohli at a mega occasion. Prime minister Narendra Modi, Shah and chief ministers of different BJP governed states attended the ceremony. Rupani and his wife also offered their devotions at the Panchdev  Mahadev temple here earlier to the oath-taking function. Rupani and Patel were nominated as the  leader and deputy leader, respectively, of the BJP legislature party at its meeting on 22nd December 2017.
Vibhavari Dave, the only woman candidate and also the alone Brahmin face in the advisory committee is an important leader from Saurashtra region. She is also a 3-term MLA. With 99 MLAs, the BJP has a lead in the 182-member Assembly, 16 less than its 2012 sum total of 115. the opponent Congress party that had achieved 61 seats in 2012, directed to increase its sum total to 77. The total dominance of the Congress and its allies in the new House is eighty.

India signed USD 318 million loan Agreement with World Bank for agriculture project in Tamil Nadu  on - 26th December 2017

India on 26th December 2017 signed USD 318 million Loan Accordance with the World Bank for Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project to enhance climate resilient agriculture technologies, improve water management exercises and raise market chances for farmers in the state.  The accordance was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary in Department of Economic  Affairs,Ministry of Finance; S. K. Prabhakar, Principal Secretary of PWD, Tamil Nadu and John Blomquist, Program Leader and Acting Country Director of World Bank, India. 

Highlights of the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project 

• Approximately 500000 farmers, are supposed to benefit from Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project.
• The scheme will rehabilitate and udate about 4800 irrigation storage tanks and 477 check dams that are expanded across 66 sub-basins to supply bulk water to irrigation projects.
• It will upgrade the reliability and availability of irrigation water for farming groups, making them less prone to climatic changes. 
• More than 160000 hectares of presently partially irrigated places will come into full irrigation with this scheme. 
• It will help farmers in improving the efficiency of water utilised in farming and grow crops that are resilient to the increasing threats of climate hazards. 
• The scheme will facilitate farmers to move from a mono crop paddy arrangement to mixed cropping including high-value crops, vegetables, spices, millets, fruits, oilseeds and pulses.  
• It will increase the ability of crops to withstand unfavourable effects of climate change by helping smallholder producers in acquiring new conservation applications such as Sustainable Sugar
• Initiative and the System of Rice Intensification. 
• This loan of USD 318 million from the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development has a five year of favourable period and a maturity of nineteen years.

Google Doodle honoured Mirza Ghalib on his 220th birthday on - 27th December 2017

Google Doodle on 27th December 2017 paid respect to the poet Mirza Ghalib on his 220 birthday. Mirza Ghalib was a eminent Urdu and Persian-language poet during the Mughal period.  In the Google Doodle, Ghalib is visualised standing on a balcony of a building of his period with a pen and paper. The doodle marked the sun and a mosque in his background.

Life of Mirza Ghalib

• He was born as Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan in Kala Mahal, Agra on 27th December 1797. 
• He started composing poems at the age of 11 years. Although his 1st language was Urdu, he also spoke Turkish and Persian language. 
• He is more renowned for his Urdu Ghazals among Urdu scholars than for his attainments in Persian language.
• One of the repeated themes in Mirza Ghalib's poems is the idea of life as an ongoing painful struggle which ends only with life itself.
• In 1850, he was recognised with the title of Dabir-ul-Mulk by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II. 
• During the past years of the Mughal Empire, Mirza Ghalib was not only the significant member of the Mughal court, but also the poet educator to the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's son Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza. 
• He also worked as the royal historian of the Mughal court.
• Mirza Ghalib passed away in Delhi on 15th February 1869 and his residence in Delhi has been changed into "Ghalib ki Haveli". It forever houses Ghalib's exhibitions.

Guatemala to move embassy to Jerusalem from - Israel

Guatemala has finalised to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, after US President Donald Trump’s decision in the holy city. It informed that its resolution to follow the US in moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was a "monarch" matter that should not affect bonds with other nations.

Guatemala took this announcement after United Nation General Assembly refused Trump’s decision to have the US recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital with 2/3rd of the majority.

UNGA Vote
On the Jerusalem issue, 128 nations voted for status-quo to keep the international consensus that Jerusalem’s status can only be finalised through peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. 

Only 8 nations voted with the United States opposite the resolution organised in the UN General Assembly, among them Guatemala and friendly Central American nation Honduras.

However, various important American allies countries abstained from the UNGA vote, among them were Australia, Mexico and Poland. Others, nationscsuch as France, Germany, Britain, and South Korea were in the majority of 128 countries opposing any single-sided decision to view Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 

The 8 nations on the US side of the vote were: Guatemala, Nauru, Palau, Israel, Honduras, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Togo.

Why did Guatemala and others stand with the US?
Guatemala and Honduras are majorly dependent on American sponsorships to develop security in their gang-ridden areas. USA is providing them USD 750 million to give better conditions at home. These 2-countries along with El Salvador is popularly known as the Northern Triangle of Central America. 

Guatemala’s Decision
According to its President Jimmy Morales, Guatemala is historically pro-Israeli and in past 7 decades of relations, Israel has been its associate. Despite us only being 9 in the world we have the total reliability and conviction that this is the perfect path.”
The USA informed that they would “take names” of the states diverging its position, and frightened to stop funding to nations “that take our money and then vote against us.”

Jairam Thakur took oath as 14th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh

BJP MLA Jairam Thakur on 27th December 2017 took pledge as the 14th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh at the famous Ridge Ground in Shimla. This will be his single term as chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. 
Thakur took the pledge of secrecy from Governor Acharya Devvrat along with various other cabinet politicians including Mahendra Singh, Sarveen Choudhary, Ram Lal Markand, Suresh Bhardwaj, Anil Sharma, Vipin Singh Parmar, Vikram Singh, Virender Kanwar, Govind Singh and Rajiv Sahjal.

His oath in ceremony was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, former deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and various Union politicians and Chief politicians, including Yogi Adityanath.  
Thakur was nominated as CM of Himachal Pradesh and BJP legislative party chief on 24th December 2017 after the defeat of BJP's chief ministerial leader Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly elections. Thakur registered the victory in the elections from the Mandi seat.

More about Jai Ram Thakur

• He was born on 6th January 1965 at Tandi village in Mandi district. 
• He joined politics during his college days and became a follower of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
• He performed a role in Ram Mandir movement in Jammu in 1980s.
• In 1993, he was provided with a chance to contest Chachiot seat, however, he lost his 1st election with a margin of 800 votes.
• He won his 1st election in the year 1998 from Himachal Pradesh's Chachiot constituency. Chachiot was re-named as Seraj after delimitation in year 2010.
• After that, he won the same seat 5-times continuously. 
• In 2010, he was in the Prem Kumar Dhumal's committee as Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister of Himachal Pradesh.