Today's Event – 25th December 2021

• 336 – First documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome

• 1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

• 1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.

• 1758 – Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.

• 1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor

• 1814 – Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.

• 1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.

• 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.

• 1831 – The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of Jamaica's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom.

• 1868 – Pardons for ex-Confederates: United States President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans

• 1927 – B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burn copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra, to protest its treatment of Dalit people

• 1941 – Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces

• 1946 – The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.

• 1962 – The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

• 1963 – Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

• 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit

• 1977 – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.

• 1986 – Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-270C, is hijacked and crashes in Arar, Saudi Arabia, killing 63 people

• 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union

• 2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing. 

• 2004 – The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

National Events- 

• The opposition RJD in Bihar should give up its demand for a caste-based census following its leader Tejashwi Yadav’s exogamous marriage, a BJP minister in the state said on Saturday. 

• The Union Health Ministry said that it will send teams to 10 states “which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and Covid-19 cases or has a slow vaccination pace”. According to the order issued by the ministry yesterday, these states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand and Punjab. Also on the list are Punjab and Uttar Pradesh — both are due to hold elections in two months’ time. 

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to former prime minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary.

•  Uttarakhand cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat has reportedly threatened to resign from his post, in what could be a major setback to the BJP in Uttarakhand ahead of the Assembly polls next year.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted Christmas greetings this morning as the country celebrated the festival amid restrictions in public places owing to the Covid-19 pandemic

International Events- 

•  Pakistan and Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have resolved the recent row over border fencing by agreeing that further work on the project that led to a tense situation would be done through consensus, a media report said on Saturday.

•  A US Navy warship has paused its deployment to South America because of a coronavirus outbreak, the Navy said on Friday.

•  At least 13 people died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea late Friday, bringing to at least 27 the combined death toll from three accidents in as many days involving migrant boats in Greek waters.

•  US Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative Friday for the coronavirus following her close contact earlier this week with an aide who later tested positive, her office said.

• The revolutionary $9 billion infrared telescope, hailed by NASA as the premiere space-science observatory of the next decade, was bundled inside the cargo bay of an Ariane 5 rocket poised for blastoff at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) launch base in French Guiana

Job alerts-

• Union Public Service Commission Jobs for Assistant Commissioner, Assistant Engineer, Administrative Officer, Assistant Professor and other posts. Last date 13 January 2022

•  Punjab Public Service Commission Jobs for Functional Manager, Accountants and other posts. Last date 04 January 2022

• Jute Corporation of India Limited Jobs for Accountant, Junior Assistant, Junior Inspector and other posts. Last date 13 January 2022

• West Bengal Cooperative Service Commission Jobs for Technical Assistant, Office Assistant, Supervisor, Cashier, Lower Division Assistant and other posts. Last date 31 December 2021

• State Bank of India Jobs for Chief Manager (Company Secretary),Dy. Manager, Manager and other posts. Last date 13 January 2022

Sports-

•  For the second season running, the erstwhile top division of Indian football will be conducted in a bio-secure environment in Kolkata due to pandemic-related restrictions. In the last few years, the I-League has become truly pan-India, reaching places it never had before. The trend will continue this season, too, with a team from Rajasthan qualifying for the first time

•  Vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) enters day 4 and will feature another three blockbuster matches on Christmas day. The day will begin with Patna Pirates taking on the UP Yoddha at 7:30 PM IST. Following this game, Puneri Paltan will lock horns with Telegu Titans at 8:30 PM IST.

•  “The main aim is to win the Test series. We have the World Test Championship (points) to play for as well and Virat plays a key role in taking the Test team forward. He loves Test cricket,” Dravid said.

•  All eyes would be on Brazilian star Marcelinho Leite Pereira when a spirited Rajasthan United FC make their I-League debut against RoundGlass Punjab FC in the opening day’s fixture at the Kalyani Stadium here on Sunday.

• USA Cricket says the first one-day cricket international between the Americans and Ireland scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled due a positive Covid-19 case among the umpiring team.

Awards and honours-

• TBA 

Technology-

•  Jio's Rs. 2,545 prepaid recharge plan has got a new, limited-period Happy New Year offer. The yearly prepaid plan from Jio that typically comes with a validity of 336 days is now getting 29 days of extra validity. This means the Jio Rs. 2,545 prepaid recharge plan will now last a full 365 days. It's a limited-time offer in the spirit of the New Year and can be availed by both existing and new Reliance Jio users. The plan comes with 1.5GB of high-speed data per day.

•  Russia has blocked the website of OVD-Info, a prominent human rights monitor tracking political persecution, the group said Saturday, as authorities press ahead with a crackdown on dissent.

•  Google Fit for iOS has reportedly gained the ability to track and measure heart and respiratory rate using an iPhone's camera. The fitness app can measure a user's heart rate when they apply light pressure on the rear camera lens. It can also work if the user's smartphone doesn't have an active internet connection. The front camera, on the other hand, tracks a user's breaths per minute (BPM). Google Fit's heart and respiratory rate tracking feature was first introduced for Google Pixel smartphones in February.

•  The consumer finance unit of China's Ant Group will boost the company's capital to CNY 30 billion (roughly Rs. 35,377 crores) from CNY 8 billion (roughly Rs. 9,434 crore),and introduce 4 new strategic investors, an exchange filing released on Friday said.

• The Netherlands' top competition regulator on Friday said Apple broke the country's competition laws and ordered changes to the iPhone maker's App Store payment policies.

Economy – 

•  As per latest official data released Friday, the number of ‘newly registered employees’ under ESIC in October fell to 12,19,525 from 13,57,348 in September. It was 13,47,727 in August and 13,40,944 in July

•  Continuing its winning streak for the seventh straight session, the rupee on Friday rose by 23 paise to a three-week high of 75.03 against the US dollar as risk appetite improved in view of broader weakness in the greenback.

•  Of the Rs 24,000-crore bond auction, bonds worth Rs 7,267 crore devolved on underwriters — primary dealers. The maximum devolvement of Rs 4,702.68 crore came in the 5.74 per cent government securities maturing in 2026.

•  Of the Rs 24,000-crore bond auction, bonds worth Rs 7,267 crore devolved on underwriters — primary dealers. The maximum devolvement of Rs 4,702.68 crore came in the 5.74 per cent government securities maturing in 2026.

• Mumbai-based Darwin Platform’s revised  Rs 1,814-crore bid to take over the privately-built smart city project by Lavasa Corporation near Pune was on Friday approved by the committee of creditors (CoC). The bid beat the closest competing offer of Rs 1,223.07 crore

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

• There has been a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the capital, with new cases crossing the 200-mark for the first time since mid-June. Delhi on Saturday reported 249 new cases of the infection which is the highest since June 13 when 255 new cases were reported, as per the data. This week, over 144 cases were reported on average each day in comparison to over 70 cases last week and 51.4 cases on average the week before. 

•  Fresh lockdown would be imposed in Maharashtra if demand for medical oxygen touches 800 metric tons per day, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

•  HOURS AFTER Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed anguish at vice-chancellors of private universities in the state not attending a meeting convened by him at Raj Bhawan here, state education minister Bratya Basu on Friday said the government was considering seeking legal opinion on nominating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as Chancellor of all universities in the state.

•  With Christmas and New Year celebrations round the corner, Chief Minister M K Stalin Friday chaired a high-level consultative meeting with medical, public health experts and top officials at the secretariat to take stock of the Covid-19 situation in the state.

• Karnataka logged 270 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, registering a significant dip in comparison to Friday’s tally of 405. The total number of active cases in the state is 7,271, of which 5,890 cases are in Bengaluru Urban alone, said the state health department. The state also reported four deaths, two from Bengaluru Urban and one each from Dharwad and Udupi.

Person in News – 

•  TBA

GK – 

Which state’s tourism department launched the STREET (Sustainable, Tangible, Responsible, Experiential, Ethnic, Tourism) project?

[A] Tamil Nadu
[B] Goa
[C] Kerala
[D] Sikkim

‘HAECHI-II’, which was seen in the news recently, is an operation undertaken by which institution?

[A] Central Bureau of Investigation
[B] INTERPOL
[C] Federal Bureau of Investigation
[D] International Monetary Fund

‘The India Young Water Professional Programme’ has been launched for the first time, in association with which country?

[A] USA
[B] Russia
[C] Australia
[D] Japan

Who is appointed as the chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)?

[A] Vivek Johri
[B] Alaknanda Dayal
[C] Ashutosh Jindal
[D] Puneet Aggarwal

Al Raisi, has been elected as the President of which international organization?

[A] United Nations
[B] International Monetary Fund
[C] Interpol
[D] UNICEF