Current Affairs for Grade VI, VII & VIII

{December and January}

1. 'World looks at India as an Important Pillar of Stability, Trusted
Friend': PM Modi at Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024.

2. PM inaugurates Maharishi Valmiki International Airport at

Ayodhya Dham. Maharishi Valmiki International Airport in
modern India will connect us to Ayodhya Dham and the divine-
grand-new Ram temple.
3. Phone Pe appoints Ritesh Pai as CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
for International Payments Division.

4. IIT Madras to open new campus at Kandy in Sri Lanka. The

proposal for the new campus was announced as part of the
Budget 2024 by Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremasinghe,
who also serves as the Finance Minister.

5. India is set to take over the chairmanship of UNESCO's World

Heritage Committee and host its 46th session in New Delhi from
July 21 to 31, 2024, marking a historic moment for the country.
6. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award-2023 Winner -1. Chirag
Chandrashekhar Shetty (Badminton) 2. Sri Rankireddy Satwik
Sai Raj (Badminton)

7. Late Savita Kanswal, 1st Indian woman who climbed Everest,

Makalu within 16 days, honored by President Murmu.

8. China Launches Massive Ship to Drill into Earth’s Mantle.

 9. India and Mauritius to Jointly Build and Launch Small Satellite,
which will be launched by ISRO in early 2024. The cooperation
will be between ISRO and Mauritius Research and Innovation
Council (MRIC).

10. India’s First X-ray Polarimetry Satellite Captures Supernova

Remnant. The XSPECT instrument aboard India’s pioneering
XPoSat space observatory has successfully acquired its first
images of the Cassiopeia a supernova remnant.
 11. Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra becomes India's first Dark
Sky Park.

12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Mumbai Trans-

harbour link (MTHL), now named 'Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewari-
Nhava Sheva Atal Setu', the country's longest sea bridge.

13. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has sealed a

significant media rights partnership with Viacom18, spanning the
four-year period from 2023 to 2027. This exclusive agreement
encompasses all FIH events, with the exception of the FIH Nations
Cup.
14. Samir Kumar Sinha, a 1994-batch IAS officer from the Assam-
Meghalaya cadre, has been entrusted with the crucial position of
Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition) in the
Defence Ministry.

15. Jaipur's Divyakriti Singh becomes the first Indian woman to get
Arjuna Award in equestrian games.

16. Sahitya Akademi, announced its annual Sahitya Akademi

Awards 2023 in 24 languages. 9 books of poetry, 6 of novels, 5 of
short stories, 3 Essays and 1 Literary Study have won the Sahitya
Akademi Awards 2023.
 17. Nirmala Sitharaman Secure Spots on Forbes “World’s 100 Most
Powerful Women” of 2023. Nirmala Sitharaman, serving as India’s
first full-time female finance minister, achieves her best ranking yet at
number 32, marking her fifth consecutive appearance on the list. The
top positions on the list are dominated by politicians, with Ursula von
der Leyen, President of the European Commission, claiming the
number 1spot.

18. Taylor Swift named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for
2023. This recognition comes on the heels of her title as the most-
played artist on Spotify, underscoring the widespread impact of her
music and influence.
 19. IndiGo, India’s leading carrier has achieved a historic milestone
by becoming the first Indian airline to transport 100 million
passengers in a single calendar year. This accomplishment places
IndiGo in an elite global club of carriers operating such a massive
scale, solidifying its position among the world’s top-10 airlines by
passenger traffic.

20. Semiconductor powerhouses MediaTek and Nvidia have recently

forged a strategic partnership aimed at bringing artificial intelligence
(AI) to the forefront of the automotive industry. This collaboration
signifies a bold step towards revolutionizing in-car experiences,
shaping the evolution of autonomous driving systems, and
establishing a new standard for smart vehicles.
 21. India has unveiled the world’s first portable disaster hospital,
Aarogya Maitri Cube, a groundbreaking facility in Gurugram that can
be airlifted and consists of 72 cubes.

22. In a recent announcement from UNESCO’s Prix Versailles 2023,

Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport(KIA) Terminal 2
(T2) has achieved global acclaim, being recognized as one of the
‘world’s most beautiful airports.
23. Google parent company Alphabet made a significant
announcement on December 6, unveiling Gemini, its latest and most
advanced AI model to date. In a bid to outpace competitors like
OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama 2, Gemini represents a major leap
forward for the tech giant in the rapidly evolving field of artificial
intelligence.

24. NASA shares mesmerizing picture of 'irregular galaxy' 7 million

light-years away from Earth. NASA shared a stunning photograph of a
'dwarf galaxy' that is considered to be irregular because of its shape.

25. Frederik X proclaimed the new King of Denmark after his mother
Queen Margrethe II abdicates.
26. Places across India lit up with Diyas , fire crackers to mark Ram
Mandir Pran Pratishtha.

27. India overtakes Hong Kong to become fourth-largest stock

market. The Indian stock market has pipped Hong Kong to become
the fourth-highest equity market globally, Bloomberg reported.

28. New mosque construction in India's Ayodhya to begin in May.

Haji Arfat Shaikh, the head of the development committee of the
Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) that is overseeing the mosque
project, said that construction would begin in May, after the holy
month of Ramadan, and the mosque would take three to four years to
build.
 29. Mohan Yadav was sworn as the new CM of Madhya Pradesh.
Bhajan Lal Sharma took oath as a CM of Rajasthan .Vishnu Deo Sai
took office as a CM of Chhattisgarh.

30. Sultan Ibrahim of Johor State installed as Malaysia’s 17th King.