1. 2015
Sahitya Akademi awards announced

i)
The 2015 Sahitya
Akademi awards have been announced for 23 different languages across
categories. Poetry and short story writers dominated this year’s
awards.

ii)
Some of
the poets who have bagged the award include Brajendra Kumar, Dhina Singh,
Ramdev Mishra, KV Tirumalesh, Kshetri Ranjan, & Ram Shankar Awasthi.

iii)
Eminent
authors like Kula Saikia, Man Mohan, Gupta Pradhan & Bhupathi Pattanaik are
among those who received the award for short stories.

iv)
Cyrus
Mistry, KR Meera, & Jaswinder Singh have received the honour for their
novels.

2.   Jet Airways CEO Cramer Ball resigns

i) Cramer Ball recently stepped down as the CEO of
Jet Airways and his resignation will be effective from February 2016.    

ii)
Ball will take
up the post of CEO for Italian airline Alitalia.

iii)
Gaurang
Shetty, the director of Jet airways will be the acting CEO till the new
appointment.

iv)
Shetty
has over 35 years of industry experience and has been with the airline company
for 19 years. He will lead the operating committee in managing daily operations
under the supervision of the board of directors chaired by Naresh Goyal.

3.   AP Shah Committee to examine RIL-ONGC dispute

i) The oil ministry has instituted a committee
under (Retd.) Justice A P Shah to study an oilfield consultant report on the
state-owned ONGC’s charge of Reliance Industries Ltd. siphoning gas from its
adjoining block off the Andhra coast.

ii)
The former
Delhi High Court judge is known for his arbitration skill and has been
appointed to ensure business-like approach in resolution of the dispute between
two of India’s largest oil companies.

iii)
The
committee will investigate the acts of commission & omission in order to recommend
compensation to be paid by RIL due to the undue advantage it has received as a
result of the enrichment of its gas fields from adjacent blocks belonging to
ONGC.

iv)
These
committee’s recommendation will be submitted within next
three months.   

4.   IRCTC ties-up with Paytm to facilitate e-catering
payment

i) Indian Railway Catering & Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC) recently tied-up with mobile commerce platform Paytm to let
passengers use the latter to pay for e-catering services, in addition to the
existing online payment and cash-on-delivery mediums.

ii) IRCTC clocks around 5.5-6 lakh e-ticketing
bookings daily. This is Paytm’s second tie up with IRCTC as it initially
partnered to let IRCTC users pay for tickets booked online through Paytm.

5. HUL signs agreement
with Mosons Group to acquire Indulekha

i)
Hindustan
Unilever has signed an agreement with Mosons Group to acquire its flagship
brand Indulekha for Rs.330 crore in order to strengthen its presence in the
personal care segment.

ii)
With this
deal, HUL will acquire Indulekha and Vayodha, intellectual property, design and
the know-how.

iii)
Indulekha
was launched in 2009 as a premium Ayurvedic hair oil.

6.   35 companies conferred with CII Industrial
Innovation Awards

i)
The
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) presented Industrial Innovation Awards
this year to 35 companies.

ii) Of these, 10 awards were for start-ups and the
remaining 25 awards were for big and small companies. Right Track Admizzionz
Campuz bagged the top award in the start-up category, while Zydus Cadila
received the Most Innovative Company of the Year award.

iii)
CII also
presented six special category awards to companies like Ananya Seeds, Uflex Ltd.,
CoreEL Technologies, etc.

7.   Lok Sabha passes Arbitration &
Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015

i)
The Lok
Sabha recently passed the Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015
in order to make the arbitration process more cost-effective for investors
& ensure quick disposal of cases. The original act was passed in 1996.

ii)
The
amendments are based on a Law Commission report, which seeks to impose a time
limit of 12 months for arbitrators to settle disputes. Parties can also choose
to complete the arbitration process within six months.

iii)
The bill
amends section 12 of the previous act to the effect that when a person is
approached in connection with possible appointment of an arbitrator, he shall
disclose in writing about existence of any relationship or interest of any
kind, which is likely to raise justifiable doubts.

8.   Sumi Ghosh is the new CEO of Tata Starbucks

i)
In
December 2015, Sumi Ghosh was appointed as the new CEO of Tata Starbucks-a 50:50
joint venture of Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks Corp.-after
Avani Davda resigned. Ghosh’s
appointment will be effective from January 1, 2016.

ii)
Presently,
the vice-president of Starbucks Midwestern US region, Ghosh is an eight-year partner
of Starbucks.

iii)
He
has over 30 years’ experience in consumer retail, 10 of
it in brand management and operational leadership roles. Starbucks made a foray
in India in 2012 and runs over 70 stores across the country.

9.   Hubble captures first-ever predicted
supernova explosion

i)
The Hubble
Space Telescope recently captured the image of the first-ever predicted supernova
explosion. These images will help astronomers across the world to test how
mass, especially the dark matter, is distributed within a galaxy cluster.

ii)
On
December 11, 2015, astronomers not only got an image of a supernova in action,
but also saw it when and where they had predicted it would be.

iii)
The
supernova has been nicknamed Refsdal. While the light from the galaxy cluster
(in which the supernova was spotted) has taken about five billion years to
reach us, the supernova exploded nearly 10 billion years ago.

iv)
The
scientists used seven different models of the cluster to calculate the exact
location and the timing of the explosion of this supernova.

10. Francois Hollande to
be Chief Guest at India‘s upcoming Republic Day celebrations

i)
French
President Francois Hollande will be the Chief Guest during India’s 2016
Republic Day celebrations. His visit during this time will help strengthen the
strategic partnership between the two countries.

ii)
This is
the fifth time a French leader will visit India during its Republic Day
celebrations-so far the maximum number from any country.
Earlier, President Jacques Chirac visited India in 1998 and 2006, President
Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1980 and President Nicolas Sarkozy
in 2008.

11. SC appoints Justice
Virendra Singh as the Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh

i) Retired Justice Virendra
Singh was recently appointed as the Lokayukta in Uttar Pradesh after five
nominees were examined by Justice Ranjan Gogoi & Justice NV Ramana of the
Supreme Court.

ii) For the first time the
Supreme Court has exercised its right for such appointments by using its
extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.

12. International Migrants
Day celebrated on December 18

i) International Migrants
Day is annually observed on 18th December. The year 2015 will be remembered as
a year of human suffering and migrant tragedies as millions suffered
exploitation and abuse in human trafficking across the world.

ii) With UN’s adoption of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries promised to protect the
labour rights of migrant workers, to combat transnational criminal human
trafficking networks, among other initiatives.

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