By: D.K Chaudhary
1. Vijay Rupani Remains Gujarat Chief Minister, Nitin Patel His Deputy
i. Vijay Rupani will continue as chief minister of Gujarat and Nitin Patel as his deputy chief minister, the Bhartiya Janata Party has made the announcement after a meeting of the party’s newly-elected legislators in the state’s capital Gandhinagar.
ii. The BJP had won 99 seats, only seven more than it needed for a majority to form government and 16 less than it had won last time.
- Gujarat Governor- Om Prakash Kohli.
2. India-Switzerland Deal Inked for Information Exchange
i. In a move aimed at combating black money stashed abroad, India signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from January 1, 2018.
ii. The agreement was signed by CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra and Swiss Ambassador to India Andreas Baum at the North Block.
- Switzerland Capital- Bern, President- Doris Leuthard.
3. India’s First design University Opens in Haryana
i. India’s first and only design university, ‘World University of Design’ opened its campus at Sonipat, Haryana. The University is promoted by Om Parkash Bansal Educational and Social Welfare Trust of Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab.
ii. The university is currently located in a sprawling lush green picturesque campus with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and world-class facilities. WUD is India’s first university dedicated to education in the creative domain.
ii. The university is currently located in a sprawling lush green picturesque campus with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and world-class facilities. WUD is India’s first university dedicated to education in the creative domain.
- Haryana CM- Manohar Lal Khattar, Governor- Kaptan Singh Solanki.
4. National Mathematics Day- 22nd December
i. The famed Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s birth anniversary on December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day. It was in 2012 that then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared December 22 as National Mathematics Day.
ii. In 1917, Ramanujan was elected to be a member of the London Mathematical Society. In 1918 he also became a Fellow of the Royal Society, becoming the youngest person to achieve the feat. He passed away on April 6, 1920.
5. Mamang Dai and Ramesh Kuntal Megh Win Sahitya Akademi Award 2017
i. Authors Mamang Dai and Ramesh Kuntal Megh have won this year’s Sahitya Akademi award for their work The Black Hill, a novel, and Vishw Mithak Sarit Sagar, a literary criticism, in English and Hindi respectively.
ii. The Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards 2017 in 24 languages. Seven novels, five collections each of poetry and short stories, five works of literary criticism, a play and a book of essays have won the awards.
iii. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the authors at a special function to be held on February 12, 2018.
- K. Sreenivasarao- Secretary of Sahitya Akademi.
- Sahitya Akademi is India’s National Academy of Letters, it was established in 1954.
