Current Affairs in Short: 27 December 2021

Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, Indian-Origin Philanthropist, named South African of the year

•  Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, an Indian-origin philanthropist and a founder of the Disaster Relief Group ‘Gift of the Givers’, has won the prestigious South African of the Year Award. It is run by the Daily Maverick Newspaper.

•  The South Africans across the board voted for Sooliman and put Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in second place.

•  In his acceptance speech, Dr. Sooliman called on Muslims worldwide to care for all the communities around the world in order to change the Islamophobic perceptions.

•  ‘Gift of the Givers’ was started by Dr. Sooliman after his religious mentor in Turkey asked him to do so in 1994. Since then, the organization has undertaken relief work in more than 44 nations after natural disasters.

Switzerland government to allow Simple Legal Gender Transition

•  From January 1, 2022, the people in Switzerland will be able to legally change their gender by a visit to the Civil Registry Office. This has put the country at the forefront of Europe’s gender-identification movement.

•  Switzerland has now joined Portugal, Belgium, Norway, and Ireland as one of the few countries in Europe that will allow the person to legally change gender without any medical diagnosis, hormone therapy.

•  Under the new rules written into the country’s civil code, any individual aged 16 and above who is not under legal guardianship is eligible to adjust their gender and legal name by self-declaration.

•  Earlier in September 2021, Switzerland had legalized civil marriage as well as the right to adopt children for same-sex couples.

Prime Minister Modi to inaugurate Kanpur Metro Rail Project on December 28

•  PM Modi will visit Kanpur on December 28, 2021, to inaugurate the completed section of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project.

•  During the program in Kanpur, PM will also inaugurate the Bina-Panki Multiproduct Pipeline Project, and before that he will attend the 54th convocation ceremony of IIT Kanpur.

•  The completed section of the Metro project in Kanpur is 9-km long from IIT Kanpur to Moti Jheel. He will inspect the Kanpur Metro Rail Project and will also take a ride from the IIT metro station to Geeta Nagar.

•  The entire length of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project is 32 km and it has been built at a cost of Rs. 11,000 crores.

Election Commission of India meets Health Secretary to review Covid situation in poll-bound states

•  The Election Commission of India (ECI) on December 27, 2021, met Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to discuss the rising number of Omicron cases in five poll-bound states.

•  The Election Commission and Health Secretary are also scheduled to hold a meeting in January 2022.

•  The officials discussed the increasing covid cases along with the vaccination status, particularly in the five states that will go to assembly polls early in 2022. The five states are- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab.

•  Amid the Omicron threat, the Allahabad High Court on December 23, 2021, had requested the Election Commission of India to postpone the upcoming Assembly polls in UP for 1-2 months.

AAP wins four wards in Chandigarh Civic Polls

•  Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won four wards while BJP has bagged 3 and Congress 2 in the 35 seat- Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Elections. The news was announced by the State Election Commission.

•  On the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Poll results, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia said that AAP has been contesting elections in the state for the first time and as per the trends, Chandigarh has given AAP a grand welcome.

•  The Chandigarh Municipal Elections are politically significant for the contesting parties in the state for upcoming assembly elections in Punjab.