December Current Affairs -2009 Part 2

·         Asian Development Bank will make available a loan of US$ 150million to the Government. This amount will be utilized for the development of 300 identified khadi institutions. (Go for Part 1)

·         The government has decided to extend the ban on futures trading in sugar for another nine months till September 2010, commodity market regulator FMC said.

·         The Minister of Railways, Kumari Mamata Banerjee flagged off the first ever ‘Yuva’ train from Howrah Railway Station. Unemployed youth of 15-45 years to be eligible ‘YUVA TRAINS’ to be fully Air Conditioned with Chair car fare to vary between Rs.299 & Rs.399.

·         The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) will award D Lit (Honoris-causa) degrees to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, painter M F Hussain and former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmedi for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields.

·         Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled 'Gori', country's lone albino crocodile, as the mascot for the 15th National Youth Festival (NYF)-2010.

·         Russia successfully test launched a nuclear-capable missile that struck its target across the country in the Russian Far East. The RS-20V Voevoda intercontinental ballistic missile known by the NATO codename Satan.

·         In 2009, Ukraine first ever became the world's third grain exporter after the United States and the European Union, outstripping Russia and Canada.

·         Mexico City enacted Latin America's first law recognising gay marriage and said it hopes to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed.

·         Japan unveiled a record 92.29 trillion yen ($1 trillion) budget for the fiscal year(2010-11), reflecting the prime minister's campaign pledge to boost spending for child support and slash wasteful outlay for public works.

·         Mongolia, the land of the legendary warrior Chinggis Khan, is all set to open its first major IT outsourcing centre with India's help.

·         State-run National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) said it has signed agreements with the Bhutan Government to prepare project reports for two hydro-electric power projects in the Himalayan kingdom.

·         The world's first training centre for British post-graduate diploma MRCP, which enables medical graduates to go for the coveted membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, has been set up at the Trivandrum Medical College by its alumni.

·         Gorakhpur railway station in Uttar Pradesh is all set to create a record of having the longest platform in Asia after Kharagpur. The platform would be 1.378 km long. So far, Kharagpur had the longest platform stretching upto 1.072 km. 

·         The number of suicides in Japan exceeded 30,000 in 2009 for a 12th consecutive year. Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates, behind only a group of former Soviet bloc countries, says the World Health Organization.

·         N Ram has been chosen for this year's prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Journalist award.

·         Popular Kannada actor Vishnuvardhan died of cardiac arrest in Mysore.

·         The introductory meeting of the Expert Committee for up gradation of National Film Awards (NFA) was held in New Delhi . The Committee members unanimously selected Sh. Shyam Benegal the Chairman of this expert Committee.

·         Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced that very shortly Punjab Government would give uninterrupted power supply to villages falling on border areas of state.

·         According to a Forbes list titled, 'Eight Indian CEOs At Big US Companies', there are as many as eight such chief executive officers including the likes of(Chennai-born) Indra Nooyi and(Nagpur-born) Vikram Pandit. The others in the prestigious league include Adobe Systems' Shantanu Narayen, Francisco D'Souza of Cognizant, storage devices firm LSI's Abhijit Talwalkar, Jai P Nagarkatti of biopharma Sigma-Aldrich, audio and infotainment equipment firm Harman International's Dinesh C Paliwal and Surya Mohapatra of Quest Diagnostics.