19th December 2016 Important Daily Current Affairs

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Dear Great Ambitionists, here are today's (19th December 2016) Important Current Affairs updates. Happy Reading :)

Daily Current Affairs of 19th December 2016

National Current Affairs

• Today (19th December) is Goa's Liberation Day.
• It was on December 19, 1961, that Goa was liberated from the Portuguese rule after a prolonged freedom struggle and military operation.
• Nation paid tributes to Ram Prasad Bismil & Ashfaqulla Khan, remembering the sacrifices of these revolutionaries.
  
• These both were hanged on this day (19th December) in the year 1927 by British rulers during Kakori Revolution (Kakori Conspiracy)
• Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today announced that non-smartphone users of the Indian Railways will soon be able to book tickets through their mobile phones. 
• He also announced that the Indian Railways is going to introduce e-wallets and encouraging payment through mobile applications.
• Prabhu added that his ministry's focus remained on promoting 'Digital India' campaign.
• The Union Power Ministry is going to launch new mobile application GARV-II to provide real time data of all six lakh villages of the country. 
• Aim of this mobile application : to ensure transparency in implementation of rural electrification programme.
• An NIA court today awarded Death Sentence to five Indian Mujahideen terrorists, including Yasin Bhatkal, for their involvement in the 2013 twin blasts in Hyderabad, wherein 21 people were killed. 
• The terrorists Yasin Bhatkal, Zia-ur-Rehman, Asadullah Akhtar, Tahseen Akhtar and Ajaz Sheikh were convicted on December 13. 
• Note : The prime accused in the case, Riyaz Bhatkal, is still absconding.
• To promote health and health education in villages, the Union AYUSH Ministry has launched ‘Swasthya Raksha Programme’. 
• This programme was initiated through Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS).
• The Department of Telecom (DoT) is going to launch a portal named ‘Tarang Sanchar’ to let users check radiation compliance status of mobile towers and transmitters across country. 
• Using this portal user can also request to get a particular BTS tested by DoT to assess its electro-magnetic frequency (EMF) compliance level.

New Appointments

• Actress Priyanka Chopra will be the Brand Ambassador for Assam Tourism. 
• State Tourism Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that she would work to promote Assam tourism globally. 
• The Assam government have made an agreement with her for two years.

Banking & Economic Affairs

• Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) today fixed 8.65% as the interest on provident fund deposits for 2016-17. 
• This is against the 8.8% rate provided in 2015-16. 
• The lower interest rate is due to the poor rate of return on investments made by the EPFO in all spheres.
• Nepal's central bank has developed a software to facilitate exchanging banned Indian notes in the country. 
• This comes while Nepali banks have been facing an extensive shortage of 100-rupee notes for people who want to visit India. 
• Note : The RBI reportedly indicated that they would only allow exchange facilities for up to ₹25,000 to each Nepali citizen.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed stiff restrictions on depositing more than 5,000 rupees in the scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupees notes.
• The bank said, it can be deposited only once per account till December 30th, that too after explaining to bank officials the reasons for not having done that so far.

Awards & Honors

• Puerto Rico's 19-year-old Stephanie Del Valle has been crowned as the Miss World 2016 at an event held in Maryland, US. 
• Miss Dominican Republic Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramirez was the first runner-up. 
• Important Note : Valle is the second Puerto Rican to hold the title after Wilnelia Merced won it in 1975. 
• India's Priyadarshini Chatterjee also reached the top 20.
• The island of Bali has been picked by travelling reviewer website TripAdvisor as the most popular year-end destination for South East Asian travellers.

Deaths

• Henry Heimlich (96), the doctor who came up with the Heimlich manoeuvre which saved thousands of choking victims, died of a heart attack today. 
• Heimlich came up with the technique in 1974 after reading about high death counts in restaurants caused by diners choking on food. 
• Heimlich won the prestigious Lasker Award for public service in 1984.

Sports Current Affairs

• After claiming his second Wimbledon title and maiden ATP World Tour Finals crown, Britain's world number one Andy Murray won a record third BBC Sports Personality of the Year award today. 
• Murray previously won the award in 2013 and 2015 after his London 2012 Olympic gold and maiden Wimbledon title in 2015.
• Indian batsman Karun Nair, who is playing his career's third Test match, today became the fastest Indian to score maiden double ton in Tests.
• Nair surpassed Vinod Kambli, who took four innings to score a double ton. 
• This is also Nair's maiden Test ton, with his previous best innings score being 13.

This is the end of today's Daily Current Affairs session friends. Good Day :)

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