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• World Computer Literacy Day will be celebrated on December 2 every year.Now the computer has became part of our human life and this day encourage the development of technological skills, particularly among people.


• It aims to “create awareness and drive digital literacy in undeserved communities worldwide”.


• World Computer Literacy Day was founded by Indian computer company NIIT to mark its 20th anniversary in 2001.

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• The International Day for Abolition of Slavery will be marked on December 2 every year and December 2 2018 is marking the 32nd anti-slavery day. The day marks the 1949 adoption of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.


• This day was first celebrated by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 December, 1986. It aims to end slavery which includes sexual exploitation, forced marriage, trafficking of persons and recruitment of child labour.

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• On December 1 2018 two day Asia Pacific Summit-2018 has started in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.


• This summit was organized by South Korea-based Universal Peace Federation and supported by the Government of Nepal. This summit has attended by 1500 participants from 45 countries including India.


• Focus on various global issues including peace, development, good governance and role of parliamentarians,climate change and role of media.


• Theme 2018 is “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity, and Universal Values”.


• Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli addressed during the inaugural day of summit about the world continues to reel under adverse impacts of climate change, natural and man-made disasters and terrorism.


• Former Prime Minister of India, H.D. Deve Gowda said that are the biggest challenges of today’s world are terrorism & climate change.


• State Counsellor of Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed negative forces everywhere eroding the foundations of peace. She said peace and development are two sides of same coin and peace is very essential for sustainable development.

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• The first entirely online Heads of Government level intergovernmental meeting of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is being held in the Marshall Islands in order to raise a concern about Global warming and set a target to keep the rising temperature beyond 1.5 degree Celsius.


• Climate Vulnerable Forum founded by Maldives government sought to increase awareness about the countries considered vulnerable to Global Warming. India is one of the Observer state of the Forum.

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• On 1st December 2018, The Special Forces of India and United States completed the final maneuvers of their three-day tactical exercise called ‘Vajra Kayaa‘ which is part of their joint military drill ‘Vajra Prahar 2018’ in Jaipur.


• Vajra Kayaa was based on narrative of an imaginary country going into a civil war due to weak democratic structure and which has now been taken over by armed terrorists.

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• On 1st December 2018, the Defence Acquisition Committee (DAC) approved military procurements worth Rs 3,000 crore for the Indian armed forces which include BrahMos missiles for two Indian Navy ships, and Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARVs) for the Indian Army’s main battle tank Arjun.


• The DAC (the ministry’s highest decision-making body on procurement) meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.


• India is procuring two stealth frigates at a cost of USD 1 billion from Russia and both the ships will be equipped with indigenously developed BrahMos missiles.


• Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboron export and India’s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) signed the contract in New Delhi recently to build the Grigorovich-class ‘Project 1135.6’ frigates with technology transfer from Russia. The ships are expected to be delivered by 2027.


• The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) would design and develop the ARVs and it would be manufactured by defence public sector undertaking Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML).


• Recently India signed a deal for the purchase of Russian S-400 air defence missile systems. Both the S-400 and the frigate deal are likely to be affected by the US sanctions countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), if India is unable to secure a waiver.

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• On 30th November 2018 the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the 2nd International Ambedkar Conclave in New Delhi as part of the commemoration of Constitution Day.


• The Forum of SC and ST Legislators and Parliamentarians and the Dr Ambedkar Chamber of Commerce organized the conclave.


• The Government of India has classified the birthplace of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in Mhow (Dr. Ambedkar Nagar) , the Deeksha bhoomi in Nagpur, the Parinarvana temple in Delhi, Chaitya bhoomi in Mumbai and ‘Ambedkar Memorial Homes’ in London as pilgrimage sites”.


• The Union Government is also planning to transform ‘Ambedkar International Center‘ set up in Delhi as a think tank and an institution offering government recognised academic courses, research opportunities, and training programmes for government officials and corporates.

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• On 30th November 2018, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Shipping, Surface Transport and Ganga Rejuvenation inaugurated the second edition of Khasdar Mahotsav at the Ishwar Deshmukh College of Physical Education in Nagpur.


• Mr Nitin Gadkari in presence of versatile Bollywood Film Actor Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff said that this event is not just a cultural programme but an attempt to provide the future generation with better infrastructure and facilities and make their aware about India’s Rich heritage.

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• On November 29 2018 the two-day Global Agriculture and Food summit had been inaugurated by Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh in Tana Bhagat Stadium, Khel Gaon at Ranchi,Jharkhand. Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi Murmu was the chief guest for the closing ceremony on November 30.


• To showcase rich agri ecosystem of Jharkhand and utilize the available potential in agriculture and food sector.


• To focus on organic farming in Agriculture and Horticulture sector and and simultaneously network with policy makers, agri equipment manufacturers, academicians, agri startups, agri ecosystem companies etc.


• To double the farmers income by 2022 and to make Jharkhand as a food processing hub in eastern India.


• Nearly 10,000 farmers from the Jharkhand had participated in the Summit. Experts in agriculture, research, educationists in agriculture institutions and universities, companies related to agriculture business were also participated in the summit.


• Tunisia, China, Israel, Philipines and Mongolia are participating as associated countries in International session.


• Government of Jharkhand is organizing Agri Trade Exhibition during Global Agriculture and Food Summit 2018 on 29-30th November 2018 at Ranchi.

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• On 30th November 2018 the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched a new mass media campaign “Heart Attack Rewind,” for the elimination of industrially produced trans-fat in the food supply and is a follow-up to an earlier campaign called “Eat Right” by FSSAI.


• The campaign will warn citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans-fats and offer strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives.


• 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 30-second public service announcement will be broadcast in 17 languages for a period of four weeks on YouTube, Facebook, Hotstar, and Voot and will also be placed on outdoor hoardings and run on radio stations in Delhi and the National Capital Region.


• In line with the objective to get Freedom from trans-fat: ‘Trans Fat: India@75′, the FSSAI is committed to reducing the industrially produced trans fatty acids from present 5% to less than 2 % by 2022 in a phased manner.


• Globally, trans-fat intake leads to more than 500,000 deaths of people from cardiovascular disease every year and in May 2018, World Health Organization (WHO) launched a comprehensive plan REPLACE, to eliminate industrially produced trans-fat from the global food supply by 2023.


• Swasth Bharat Yatra, an initiative started under the “Eat Right” campaign which started on October 16 and will end on January 27, 2019, will also seek to create awareness among citizens about trans fats.

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• On 29th November 2018, Bureau of Police Research and Development will organize the 2nd National Conference of Heads of Investigating Agencies in New Delhi. The two-day Conference will deliberate on various legal aspects, procedures and use of technology in investigation to improve its quality and secure effective prosecution.


• The theme of the conference is “Capacity Building of Police Investigators in the Era of New Age Crimes”. More than 200 delegates from all States and Union territories will participate in the conference.

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• On 30th November 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched a new pan-European smartphone payment system called TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) in Rome.


• TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system will let people and companies in Europe transfer euros to each other within seconds and regardless of the opening hours of their local bank.


• U.S. firms PayPal, Google, Facebook and Amazon, and China’s Alibaba and Tencent currently dominate such services in Europe.


• Payments take 10 seconds or less to process and cost the payment provider a fifth of a euro cent, or 0.002 euro; however, the first 10 million transactions for each bank will be free before the end of 2019.


• TIPS system is directly linked to central bank funds, avoiding the need for time-consuming checks between commercial banks.


• TIPS system is open only to providers that have an account at a central bank connected to the euro zone’s TARGET 2 network, meaning it is effectively restricted to European Union banks.


• The platform was developed by the Banca d’Italia – in cooperation with the central banks of Germany, France and Spain.

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• On 1st December 2018, The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) rolled out its revolutionary contracts system for Wrestlers.


• The announcement was made by WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath, who inaugurated the senior National Championship at Nandini Nagar in Gonda(U.P).


• The contracts will be reviewed after one year. The wrestlers have been placed in four Grades.


• Grade A offers financial assistance of 30 lakh rupees and includes the names of star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat along with Pooja Dhanda.


• Grade B contract offers a financial assistance of 20 lakh rupees and includes two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar and Rio Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik.


• The C category offers support of 10 lakh rupees and features, among others, Sandeep Tomar, Sajan Bhanwal, Ritu Phogat, and Asian Games bronze medalist Divya Kakran.


• Grade D category offers support of 5 lakhs and includes Rahul Aware, Naveen, Sachin Rathi, and Anshu Malik.


• WFI is the only Indian Olympic Association-affiliated National Sports Federation to offer contracts to its athletes and only the second after the BCCI.

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• Ridhima Dilawari from New Delhi captured her maiden professional title in the 17th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Noida Golf Course.The 18th and final leg of the season will be held from 11th to 14th of this month at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.


• The 20-year-old took a year off after her second year at Columbia university to represent India at the Asian Games.

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• On 1st December 2018, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik won the Gold medals in 57 kg and 62 kg category respectively at the second day of Tata Motors Senior Womens National Championship hosted by Uttar Pradesh.


• Railways topped the event with 188 points whereas Haryana with 186 points and Delhi with 93 points settled for 2nd and 3rd spot respectively.

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• On 1st December 2018, The International Olympic Committee IOC has set up an advisory committee on human rights chaired by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the former United Nations commissioner for human rights starting in 2024. President Thomas Bach said Saturday at meetings in the Japanese capital that “human rights standards” will be included in Olympic host-city contracts beginning with the 2024 Olympic in Paris.


• Bach suggested the committee would focus on issues like the rights of transgender athletes. “We should concentrate on what we can really achieve and what we can really do,” Bach said.


• Bach was asked if the committee would look at human rights in China, where the ruling Communist Party has been criticised for the interment of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in western China.


• Beijing is the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, and spent USD 40 billion. Bach said the IOC would not question China because it “has not the mandate nor the authority to solve the human rights problems” that are clearly “political issues.”


• A recent report by Human Rights Watch said the interment centers in western China involved “arbitrary detention, torture and mistreatment.” “These rampant abuses violate fundamental rights of freedom of expression, religion, and privacy and protections from torture,” Human Rights Watch wrote.

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• From 1st November 2018, a 15 days Cleanliness Drive: Swachhta Pakhwada was observed by Ministry of Civil Aviation to highlight the importance of cleanliness to all the employees by citing the example of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Shri Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary (Civil Aviation) inaugurated the event and requested the employees to maintain cleanliness around their workstations.


• The event was concluded on 15th November 2018.


• Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation presented the award to 3 best performing organizations which are Pawan Hans Ltd, Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA).

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• On 16th November 2018, The Highly prestigious “Outstanding Case Writer’ award” was presented to ICFAI Business School by Mr. Richard McCracken, Director of the an UK- Based independent home of the case method “The Case Centre” at the inaugural Case Collection Managers Meet held in Park Hyatt, Hyderabad.


• The award was for case “Breaking the Code of Silence” and Dr. J. Mahender, the Vice-Chancellor of ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education collected the award on behalf of faculty members of ICFAI Business School.

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• On December 2 2018 Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a president election of Mexico which was conducted on July 2018. His first act after he became president was signed an agreement with three Central American counter parts to create a plan to stem the flow of migrants seeking asylum in the US.


• Lopez Obrador also thanked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, stating he would like to reach an agreement with both Ottawa and Washington to tackle immigration issues.


• Foreign dignitaries including US Vice-President Mike Pence, first daughter Ivanka Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro attended the inauguration in the capital.

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• On December 1 2018, a present Executive Director of Indian Bank Mr. AS Rajeev became Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Maharashtra.


• He had worked in Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank with three decades of professional experience. He is a mathematics graduate with professional qualifications of FCA, MBA, DISA and CAIIB.


• He had covered important areas of banking, including corporate credit, international banking, treasury, risk management, credit monitoring and supervision, NPA management, planning and development, human resources, finance, accounts and taxation among others.

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• On 1st December 2018, Raninder Singh became the first Indian to be elected as the vice-president of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).


• The elections were held during the General Assembly meeting of ISSF in Munich in which Raninder secured 161 votes to make it to the coveted position.


• The 51-year-old Raninder is currently the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).


• The NRAI president was also awarded the ISSF diploma of honour gold medal at the General Assembly by the outgoing longest serving president of the ISSF, Olegario Vazquez Rana, who was at the helm for 38 years.


• Vladimir Lisin, of Russia was elected as the seventh president of ISSF and Alexander Rather was elected as the new secretary general of ISSF in the same General Assembly meeting.


• Also Indian Shooter and 2008 Olympic gold medalist, Abhinav Bindra was honoured with the prestigious Blue Cross, the highest recognition of the ISSF in the meeting. He is the now the first Indian be conferred with shooting’s highest award.

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• On 30th November 2018, The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has appointed former Uttarakhand High Court judge, Justice U C Dhyani, as head of the three-member committee to oversee rejuvenation work of the Ganga River.


• It also directed few measures to be adopted by enforcing agencies for cleaning of the river.


• Earlier on 6th August 2018, Justice Arun Tandon was appointed as the head of the said panel but he was replaced after the NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel was informed that he would be busy with the upcoming Kumbh event at Allahabad.


• Other Members of the committee include nominee of Central Pollution Control Board and nominee of IIT Roorkee.


• The NGT ordered that decentralised processing facilities should be set up closest to the source of generation of solid waste near hotels, dharamshalas and ashram for segregation and treatment of biodegradable waste and its appropriate disposal.


• It also directed that digital display boards be set up at major Ghats (Bathing enclosures), where quality of the water may be displayed.


• The NGT ordered to implement the Supreme Court order which directed that every cinema hall, and video parlors should have at least two slides of messages on environment in each show and information films of short duration should be shown in Cinema halls.


• The bench further added that 5-7 minutes programme should be broadcast once a week by Doordarshan and AIR on the subject of environment and the subject may be made compulsory in schools, colleges and universities for general growth of awareness of environment.

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• On December 1 2018 Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu announced about the a portal called ‘Digital Sky’ which is a online registration method for drone operators in the country. Both pilots and owners of the drones should be registered in this portal to operate.


• Nano drones can start flying legally already but for drones of micro size and above categories, operators are required to register on the Digital Sky portal.


• Payments for Unmanned Aerial Operator’s Permit (UAOP) and Unique Identification Numbers (UIN) will be accepted through the Bharat Kosh (bharatkosh.gov.in) portal.


• Ministry added that Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS) or drone operators or remote pilots need to file a flight plan to obtain the permission to fly and location for below zones will be announced shortly “Flying in the ‘green zones’ will require only intimation of the time and location of the flights via the portal or the app.


• Permissions will be required for flying in ‘yellow zones’ and flights will not be allowed in the ‘red zones’.


• It also implements ‘no permission, no take-off’ (NPNT) – a novel system of software-based self-enforcement to minimize deviations from the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) to allow safe flying of RPAS in India.

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• On 1st December 2018, in Kohima (Nagaland) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announces a pan India single mobile app “112 India” which is connected to the Emergency Response support system (ERSS) exclusively for women in emergency. A‘SHOUT’ feature has been made available exclusively for women in the ‘112 India’ app.


• Rajnath Singh said women in distress will able to seek immediate assistance from nearby registered volunteers as well as from the Emergency Response Centre (ERC) by using the ‘SHOUT’ feature.


• With this Nagaland became the first state in the Northeast and second in the country after Himachal Pradesh to launch a pan-India single-number emergency mobile application which will have a special women safety feature for immediate assistance from police and volunteers.


• Under the ERSS project, women will be able to receive immediate assistance from police, health and fire departments as well as from other agencies using number 112. The ERSS has been integrated with police, fire, health and women helpline numbers to provide emergency services through the emergency number ‘112’.


• The app will assist the first responders in locating and tracking the woman in distress using GPS for effective response.

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• UK’s Cambridge Dictionary has confirmed “nomophobia” the inaugural People’s Word of the Year (2018).Cambridge Dictionary has named “nomophobia” which means the “fear or worry at the idea of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it” became word of the year 2018.


• It defeats the new words such as “gender pay gap”, “ecocide” (destruction of the natural environment of an area, or very great damage to it), and “no-platforming” (the practice of refusing someone an opportunity to make their ideas or beliefs known publicly, because you think these beliefs are dangerous or unacceptable).