Current Affairs Questions for IBPS Clerk and Canara Bank PO: 4th December 2018

The Asia Pacific Summit-2018 began in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The theme of two-day Summit is “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity, and Universal Values”. Around 1500 participants from 45 countries, including India, attending the summit. They will discuss various global issues, including peace, development, good governance and role of parliamentarians, climate change and role of media.

Since 1992, the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) has been annually observed on 3 December around the world. The theme for this year’s IDPD is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”.

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 in West Bengal.

The Asia Pacific Summit-2018 began in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The theme of two-day Summit is “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity, and Universal Values”.

Since 1992, the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) has been annually observed on 3 December around the world. The theme for this year’s IDPD is “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”.

The G-20 Summit 2018 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. G-20 is a grouping of the world’s 20 major economies. This year, the theme of the summit was ‘Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development’.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be the Chief Guest at the 2019 Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. The anouncement was made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Mr Modi also stated that Mr Ramaphosa’s visit will further cement business and people to people ties between India and South Africa.

India’s first locomotive-less train, known as Train 18, has breached the 180 kilometres per hour speed limit during a test run at Kota-Sawai Madhopur section in Rajasthan. When this indigenously designed train is made operational, it will become the country’s fastest train.

The G-20 Summit 2018 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. G-20 is a grouping of the world’s 20 major economies. This year, the theme of the summit was ‘Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development’.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited United Arab Emirates to co-chair the 12th session of the India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting for Economic and Technical Cooperation with UAE Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Mrs Swaraj also inaugurated a Gandhi – Zayed Digital Museum in Abu Dhabi to mark the celebrations of 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth and centenary celebrations of the birth of Shaikh Zayed, founder of the modern UAE.

The World Bank has unveiled 200 billion US Dollars in climate action investment for 2021 to 2025, adding that this amounts to a doubling of its current five-year funding. The move coincides with a UN climate summit in Katowice.

The UN climate summits, i.e. so called COP (Conference of the Parties) are global conferences, in the course of which action for climate policy is negotiated. The Climate Change Conference 2018 was held in Katowice, Poland. Previously, Poland hosted them twice – in 2008, in Poznan and in 2013, in Warsaw.

It was again all Ethiopian Show in Pune International Marathon 2018. Atlawim Debebe of Ethiopia won the Full Marathon with the timing of 2 hours 17 minutes 17 seconds. Teshome Getachew claimed second and Bekele Asefa third position. Both of them are also from Ethiopia.

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. The aim of the Summit is to promote Jharkhand as a key player to attract investment in the agriculture sector.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched a new mass media campaign calling for the elimination of industrially produced trans fat in the food supply. Called “Heart Attack Rewind”, the 30 second public service announcement (PSA) – the first mass media campaign of its kind – will support FSSAI’s global target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the World Health Organization (WHO) for complete elimination of trans fat.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. The FSSAI has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded approval for the acquisition of defence equipment worth nearly Rs 3000 crore which includes BrahMos Missiles, and Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARVs) for Battle Tank Arjun. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Raninder Singh has become the first Indian to be elected one of the four vice-presidents of the International Shooting Sport Federation. The 51-year-old Raninder also heads the National Rifle Association of India.

Leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been sworn in as the new Mexican President following his landslide victory in the July 2018 presidential election. Lopez Obrador, 65, took oath before a crowd that included world leaders and a strong majority in both houses of Congress.

The International Shooting Sport Federation, also known with the acronym ISSF, is the governing body of the Olympic Shooting events in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun disciplines, and of several non-Olympic Shooting sport events. Headquarters of ISSF is in Munich, Germany.

State-owned Bank of Maharashtra announced that AS Rajeev has joined the lender as its managing director and chief executive officer. Prior to this, he was executive director of Indian Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India has approved the merger of SBM (Mauritius), India with SBM Bank (India). RBI has sanctioned the Scheme of amalgamation of the entire undertaking of SBM Bank (Mauritius) Limited, India with SBM Bank (India) Limited which has been granted licence by the Reserve Bank to carry on the business of banking in India through Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) mode under the Banking Regulation Act. SBM Bank is the first foreign bank to set up a wholly owned subsidiary (WOS), to provide universal banking service with a focus on wholesale banking, trade finance, capital market and retail banking.

Moody’s Investors Service’s annual Banking System Outlook on India estimated the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) for the current financial year and next fiscal to grow at 7.2% and 7.4%, respectively.

NATHEALTH has announced the appointment of Siddhartha Bhattacharya as Secretary-General. In his new role, Siddhartha will lead the organization and work with key partners in realizing NATHEALTH’s vision/mission to spearhead the goal of high quality, affordable health for all.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) announced that its board has approved the merger with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH India) through an-all equity deal, valuing the total business of the latter at Rs31,700 crore.