NATIONAL

Good Governance Index 2021

• Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah released the Good Governance Index 2021 Good Governance Day at New Delh.
• The Report was prepared by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances
• The Good Governance Index for the 2021 has covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. Namely-
  1. 1. 1. Agriculture and Allied Sectors,
        2. Commerce & Industries,
        3. Human Resource Development,
        4. Public Health,
        5. Public Infrastructure & Utilities,
        6. Economic Governance,
        7. Social Welfare & Development,
        8. Judicial & Public Security,
        9. Environment,
        10. Citizen-Centric Governance.

• The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories-(i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.
• Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa top the composite rank score covering 10 sectors. GGI 2021 says that Gujarat registered 12.3% increase and Goa registered 24.7% increase over GGI

2019 indicators.

• The states that topped sector wise are listed below-

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• GGI 2021 reveals that in the North-East and Hill States category Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir have registered an overall increase of 10.4% and 3.7% respectively over GGI 2019.
• GGI 2021 reveals that in the Union Territories category Delhi tops the composite rank registering a 14% increase over the GGI 2019 indicators. Delhi has performed strongly in Agriculture & Allied Sectors, Commerce & Industry, Public Infrastructure and Utilities and Social Welfare & Development.

Centre of Excellance on Water Reuse

• The Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) launched the NMCG-TERI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Water Reuse.
• The CoE on Water Reuse is the first of its kind to be established in the country through a collaboration between NMCG and TERI.
• The Center of Excellence will be setup to design and foster research and innovation including identification of knowledge gaps for research and need for new ideas, supporting targeted research and spurring and nurturing needed innovation.

Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)-Rajiv Rajan Mishra

Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)- Ajay Mathur.

Foundation Stone laid for BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre

• The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh laid the foundation stone for Defence Technology & Test Centre and BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre, established by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
• A first of its kind Defence Technologies & Test Centre (DTTC), over approximately 22 acres is being set up to accelerate the growth of the defence and aerospace manufacturing clusters in Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC).
• It will consist of a Deep-Tech Innovation & Startup Incubation Centre, .   Design & Simulation Centre, Testing & Evaluation Centre, Centre for Industry 4.0/Digital Manufacturing, Skill Development Centre, Business Development Centre.
• It will cover over 200 acres and produce the new BRAHMOS-NG (Next Generation) variant, which carries forward the lineage of the BRAHMOS weapons system.
• This new centre would be ready over the next two to three years and will commence production at a rate of 80-100 BRAHMOS-NG missiles per year.

New Variety of Rose

• A new variety of Rose was named M.S Swaminathan, after the famous agriculture scientist M.S Swaminathan.
• The new variety of Rose is Magenta purple coloured growing 4to5 feet with a dark green granular surface with large leaves and regulat thorns and is highly disease resistant and was bred by M.S Viraraghavan, a famous horticultist.
• Another new variety of rose was named as Jewel of Monkompu, bred by KSG son nuresery in Bengaluru.
• This Variety of rose is sparkling pinkish floribunda rose.

Indian Naval Ship with food aid enters Mozambique

• As part of yet another deployment undertaken by Indian Navy under Mission SAGAR, Indian Naval Ship Kesari entered Port of Maputo, Mozambique.
• These deployments were conducted in solidarity with India’s extended Maritime Neighbourhood and highlights the importance accorded by India to these special relationships.
• 500 Tons of food aid has been shipped by INS Kesari to support the efforts of Government of Mozambique to cope with ongoing drought and concurrent challenges of pandemic.
•  India also remains committed to supporting the capacity building efforts of the Armed Forces of Mozambique. To this end INS Kesari is carrying two Fast Interceptor Craft and self defence equipment to be handed over to the Armed Forces of Mozambique.

Authors selected under PM-YUVA

• National Book Trust, India, under Ministry of Education, today announced the results of the All-India Contest organized on the Theme ‘National Movement of India’ under the PM-YUVA Mentorship Scheme as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav programmes.
• As per the Scheme, 75 Authors were to be selected through this contest for a Scholarship-cum-Mentorship Scheme for the young authors below the age of 30 years.
• The All-India Contest was organized from 1^st June-31^st July 2021 through MyGov and National Book Trust, India platforms. Nearly 16000 entries in 22 Official languages and English were received from all across the country including some from Indian Diaspora Community.
• All the book proposals were read by multiple panels of experts and went through three layers of scrutiny.
• The selected authors will undergo six-months of Mentorship in which they would be provided research and editorial support under the guidance of eminent authors and the Editorial Team of National Book Trust, India to develop their book proposals as full-fledged books to be published by the Trust as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav initiatives.
• During mentorship, the selected authors will receive a scholarship of ₹50,000 per month for a period of six months. Further, a royalty of 10% will be payable to the authors on successful publications of their books.

INTERNATIONAL

Powerful space telescope launched

• NASA has launched the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope into orbit to make breakthrough discoveries on the origins of the Universe and Earth-like planets beyond our solar system.
• The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's premier space observatory of the next decade, launched in an Ariane rocket from the European Space Agency's base in French Guiana.
• The Webb telescope will reach its destination in solar orbit some 1.5 million km from Earth - about four times farther away than the moon.
• Webb's special orbital path will keep it in constant alignment with the Earth as the planet and telescope circle the sun in tandem.
• It will see farther into our origins, from the formation of stars and planets, to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe. It intends to show humans what the Universe looked like even closer to its birth nearly 14 billion years ago.
• Webb, named after one of the architects of the Apollo Moon landings, is the successor to the Hubble telescope. Jointly built by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, the new observatory is, however, 100 times more powerful.

Japan Approves COVID-19 pill

• Recently Japan has approved the use of  COVID-19 antiviral treatment pill called Molnupiravir developed by Merck & Co Inc.
• National broadcaster NHK reported that the approval was widely expected and opens the door to shipments of 200,000 doses across the country from this weekend.

BANKING, FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

Centre for Economics and Business Research releases its report

• The British consultancy, Centre for Economics and Business Research has released a report on economic oputput of different nations.
• The repoprt revealed that world's economic output will exceed 100 trillion dollar for the first time next year.
• The report showed that, India is set to overtake France next year and then Britain in 2023 to regain its place as the world's sixth biggest economy.
• It also predicted that China is set to overtake the United States as the No.1 economy in dollart terms by 2030.
• The report showed Germany was on track to overtake Japan in terms of economic output in 2033. Russia could become a Top 10 economy by 2036 and Indonesia looks on track for ninth place in 2034.

SIDBI signs MoU with West Bengal

• The Small Industried development bank of India has signed Memorandum of Understanding with West Bengal government to develop MSME ecosystem inside the state.
• The project management unit of SIDBI will work with the West Bengal Government to facilitate the development of MSME `department.

Chairman of SIDBI- Sivasubramanian Raman

MISCELLANEOUS

• Dec 25^th is observed as death anniversary of Madan Mohan Malaviya.
• Dec 25^th is observed as Good Governance day, to annually mark death anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.