Shane MacGowan, the boozy, rabble-rousing singer and chief songwriter of The Pogues, who infused traditional Irish music with the energy and spirit of punk, died. He was 65.

Born on Christmas Day 1957 in England to Irish parents, MacGowan spent his early years in rural Ireland before the family moved back to London. Ireland remained the lifelong center of his imagination and his yearning. He grew up steeped in Irish music absorbed from family and neighbors, along with the sounds of rock, Motown, reggae and jazz.

He attended the elite Westminster School in London, from which he was expelled, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown in his teens.

MacGowan embraced the punk scene that exploded in Britain in the mid-1970s. He joined a band called the Nipple Erectors, performing under the name Shane O’Hooligan, before forming The Pogues alongside musicians including Jem Finer and Spider Stacey.

The Pogues — shortened from the original name Pogue Mahone, a rude Irish phrase — fused punk’s furious energy with traditional Irish melodies and instruments including banjo, tin whistle and accordion.

The band’s first album, “Red Roses for Me,” was released in 1984 and featured raucous versions of Irish folk songs alongside originals including “Boys from the County Hell,” “Dark Streets of London” and “Streams of Whisky.”

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Dec 2 said nearly 97.26 per cent of the Rs 2,000 bank notes have been returned to the banking system, and only about Rs 9,760 crore worth of the notes are still with the public.

On May 19, the RBI announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 denomination bank notes from circulation.

Thus, 97.26 per cent of the high-value currency in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned to the banking system, it added.

People can deposit and/or exchange Rs 2,000 bank notes at the 19 RBI offices across the country.

People can also send Rs 2,000 bank notes through India Post from any post office, to any of the RBI Issue Offices for credit to their bank accounts in India.

Public and entities holding such notes were initially asked to either exchange or deposit them in bank accounts by September 30.

The deadline was later extended to October 7.

Both deposit and exchange services at bank branches were discontinued on October 7.

Starting October 8, individuals have been provided with the choice of either exchanging the currency or having the equivalent sum credited to their bank accounts at the 19 offices of the RBI.

Meanwhile, queues are being witnessed during the working hours at the RBI offices for exchange/deposit of Rs 2,000 notes.

The 19 RBI offices depositing/exchanging the bank notes are in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

The Rs 2,000 bank notes were introduced in November 2016 following demonetisation of the then prevailing Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 bank notes.

On the flight to Hangzhou for the Asian Games, R Vaishali had turned to Srinath Narayanan about an issue.

The 22-year-old from Chennai, who’s the elder sister of prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, was feeling she had been hovering around the 2450 mark for a long time. Srinath, who had faced the same issue back when he was an active player on the circuit, told her about his experiences.

That small conversation 40,000 feet in the air has had the desired effect. As India went to sleep late on Dec 2 , Vaishali, after moving her queen to c7, forced her opponent Tamer Selbes to resign. In the process, she crossed the magical figure of 2500 rating points to become a Grandmaster (she had already earned her third and final GM norm at the Qatar Masters in October).

Q1) Freedom Fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh was associated with which of the following Organisations?

1. The Swaraj Party
2. Indian National Congress
3. Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
4. Both the Indian National Congress and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association

Q2) Whose death coincided with the launch of the non-cooperation movement in 1920?

1. GK Gokhale
2. Motilal Nehru
3. Dadabhai Naoroji
4. Lokmanya Tilak

Q3) Which of the three freedom fighters of India were hanged to death in the Kakori Train Conspiracy in 1925?

1. Roshan Singh, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan
2. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru
3. Sardar Udham Singh, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan
4. Ram Prasad Bismil, Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqulla Khan

Q4) Which of the Indian activists was popularly known as ‘Lokhitwadi’?

1. Gopal Hari Deshmukh
2. Gopal Krishna Gokhale
3. Pherozshah Mehta
4. Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Q5) Who wrote the lyrics of National Anthem of India?

1. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
2. Annie Besant
3. Rabindranath Tagore
4. Ram Prasad Bismil

Answers

Q1-----------------------4    Both the Indian National Congress and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association

Q2----------------------4    Lokmanya Tilak

Q3-----------------------1    Roshan Singh, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan

Q4------------------------1   Gopal Hari Deshmukh

Q5-------------------------3   Rabindranath Tagore

India has  accorded an initial approval to procure an additional batch of 97 Tejas light combat aircraft and 156 Prachand helicopters to boost the overall combat capability of the armed forces.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also cleared a proposal of the Indian Air Force to upgrade its Su-30 fighter fleet,.

It is learnt that mega procurement projects and the Su-30 upgrade programme are expected to cost the exchequer Rs 1.6 lakh crore. The defence ministry is expected to provide the details of the projects cleared by the DAC soon.

Developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Tejas is a multirole platform designed to undertake the Air Defence, Maritime Reconnaissance and strike roles. Tejas Mk-1A, a Light Combat Aircraft, will have updated avionics, as well as an active electronically steered radar, an updated electronic warfare suite and a beyond-visual Range missile capability. The new variant will be capable of firing a number of weapons from increased stand-off ranges.

Prachand, a Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), is also designed and manufactured by HAL and is a multi-role light attack helicopter with the ability to land and take off from an altitude of 5,000 metres (16,400 feet), making it ideal to operate in the high-altitude areas of the Indian border.

It also has a countermeasure dispensing system that shields it from hostile radars and infrared seekers of enemy missiles, and it can fire a variety of air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles. In addition to having the finest stealth characteristics, armoured shield systems, and dark mode assault capabilities, Prachand also has an advantage over other technologies like radar and infrared signature thanks to its crash-resistant landing gear.

An estimated 3.9 million people are living with HIV in the South-East Asia region, accounting for around 10% of the global burden, said  the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Marking World AIDS Day, observed on December 1,  WHO stated that in 2022, an estimated 110,000 people became newly infected with HIV, and 85,000 people in the region died of AIDS-related causes. This accounted for over 13% of the global burden of AIDS-related death.

Calling on member states, partners, and communities in the South-East Asia Region and across the world, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, said the need is to continue fostering collaboration to address the challenges in ending AIDS by 2030 and to empower communities to lead in shaping the response forward.

Over the past decade, the South-East Asia Region has made substantial progress with a remarkable decline in both HIV and HIV-related deaths. The number of new HIV infections has halved from 200,000 in 2010 to 110,000 in 2022, and similarly, HIV-related deaths reduced to one-third from 230,000 in 2010 to 85,000 in 2022.

In 2022, 65% of people living with HIV were receiving lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, compared to only 17% in 2010. In 2019, Maldives and Sri Lanka were validated to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis, which Thailand achieved in 2016 – the first country in Asia to do so. By the end of 2022, 81% of people in the region living with HIV knew their status, 65% were on antiretroviral therapy, and 61% were virally suppressed. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Dubai to attend the COP28 Summit. He will be attending three sessions during his day-long visit on December 1 and also have bilateral meetings with other leaders on the sidelines of the summit.

PM Modi said that he was attending the Summit on the invitation of his brother, President of UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

PM Modi also said that in keeping with India’s civilizational ethos, India has always laid emphasis on climate action even while pursuing social and economic development.

COP28 will also provide an opportunity to review progress made under the Paris Agreement, and chart a path for future course on climate action. At the Voice of Global South Summit convened by India, the Global South spoke for the need for climate action based on the principles of equity, climate justice, and common but differentiated responsibilities, as well as a greater focus on adaptation.

PM Modi will attend special events including on climate finance, Green Credit initiative and LeadIT. In his bilateral meetings with other leaders, PM will discuss ways to accelerate global climate action.

A new logo of the National Medical Commission (NMC), which regulates medical education in India, has courted controversy as an image of the Hindu deity Dhanwanthari has replaced the national emblem of India, which features four Asiatic lions standing back to back, on the official logo of India’s National Medical Commission (NMC).

It also refers to the organisation as the ‘National Medical Commission - Bharat’ replacing ‘India’, triggering speculations about BJP's alleged plans to remove the word ‘India’ from the Constitution in the upcoming special session of Parliament.

The new logo is already being used on the official website of the NMC, and seems to have been introduced clandestinely with no official intimation being given to the media or public.

Many doctors and medical professionals took to social media, especially X, to slam the change in the logo.