14th December 2014 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• United Nations members have reached an agreement on how countries should tackle climate change.
• Delegates have approved a framework for setting national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.
• Differences over the draft text caused the talks in Lima, Peru, to overrun by two days.
• India has strongly advocated a “balanced approach” in the draft text of a new binding pact to cut global carbon emissions to make sure that polluting countries pay and not the poorest nations, as crucial U.N. climate talks remained deadlocked.

National Affairs

• Today is National Energy Conservation Day.
• This day is celebrated every year by the people all over the India on 14th of December.
• The Energy Conservation Act in India was executed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the year 2001. 
• Government to set up a nation wide toll free helpline to help people share their drug related problems.
• For the first time, the new government calendar, brought out every year by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, may come in a mobile phone app avatar also.
• The calendar which has 'Clean Green India' as its theme and will highlight the government's flagship schemes and initiatives will be launched in the coming days.
• Keeping in line with the Narendra Modi government's focus on utilising technology and to connect with people, the Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) which publishes the calendar has tied up with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the mobile app version.
• The Special Investigation Team, SIT on Black-Money‬ has pitched for making tax evasion a serious criminal offense.
• The purpose is to force foreign countries to reveal names and account details of Indians stashing illicit wealth abroad.
• SIT Chairman Justice M B Shah stated that the step will help add more teeth to India's pursuit of black money kept abroad and check generation of unaccounted wealth within the country.

New Appointments

• Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has been appointed as a member of  International Advisory Board (IAB) which provides strategic policy advice to the Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the programmatic direction of International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC).

Awards & Honors

• Music maestro A.R. Rahman may get his third Oscar nomination in the best original score category after making it to the list of 114 probables, while Hindi film Jal also features in the long list of best picture Oscar hopefuls.
• Rahman has made it to the list for three of his films, including Hollywood movies The Hundred-Foot Journey and Million Dollar Arm and Rajinikanth-starrer Kochadaiiyaan.
• The nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced on January 15 and the ceremony will be held on February 22.

Sports

• Pakistan beat India 4-3 to seal their spot against Germany in the Men's Hockey Champions Trophy final
• Pak players Muhammad Tousiq & Ali Amjad suspended for one match by International Hockey Federation for making obsence gestures at spectators during the semi-final match with ‎India‬.
• These players will not be part of the final against ‎Germany‬ this evening. 
• The Federation also reprimanded another player Shafqat Rasool.

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

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