National Events
- India celebrated Vijay Diwas on 16th December 2018 marking the 47th anniversary of its victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war of Independence of Bangladesh
- The Union Government has notified Flight and Maritime Connectivity Rules, 2018 allowing phone calls and internet on flights and ship voyage within India’s territory.
- India’s first railway university the National Rail and Transportation Institution (NRTI) was inaugurated in Vadodara. The Railway University will be first of its kind institution in the nation and the third in the world after Russia and China.
- Minister of state for health and family welfare Anupriya Patel announced that West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh emerged the largest beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat.
- Mr. Zoramthanga sworn in as the Mizoram’s new chief minister of Mizoram.
- The state assembly of Jammu and Kashmir has passed law to ban sexual extortion of woman in offices and became the first state in the country to amend law on Sextortion.
- Ministry of Power announced that 9 states have achieved complete household electrification under the PM Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) scheme. These 9 states are: Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana and West Bengal.
- Delhi government launched a 10-day special inspection drive named- “Operation Minimum Wage”, to check implementation of minimum wage rules set by the Union Territory government.
- Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh launched a portal ENSURE- National Livestock Mission-EDEG developed by NABARD and operated under the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries.
- Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a loan agreement of $60 million for financing project for renovation, protection and community-based flood risk management activities along the Brahmaputra river in Assam.
- 23rd International Film Festival of Kerala held at Nishagandhi Auditorium, Kanakakunnu, Kerala.
- NITI Aayog in partnership with a Singapore based AI startup ‘Perlin’ launches ‘AI 4 All Global Hackathon’ to develop AI Applications to make significant positive social and economic impact in India.
- Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched Twitter account @CyberDost to spread awareness about cybercrimes and normal precautions to be taken.
- Union Cabinet has decided to raise contribution of Central Government to National Pension System (NPS) corpus of its employees from 10% to 14%.
- Kerala has become first state in the country to have four international airports with the inauguration of Kannur airport.
- Shi Yomi formally became 23rd district of Arunachal Pradesh after it was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pema Khandu in presence of Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju.
International Events
- Ranil Wickremesinghe has once again become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
- Russian state-run atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced commencement of installation of Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first “floating” nuclear power plant (FNPP).
- European Union (EU) has established India’s first Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Department of European Studies (DES) at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in New Delhi
Sports
- PV Sindhu has she became the first Indian to win the BWF World Tour Finals held in Tianhe, Guangzhou, China
- Belgium Hockey team won their first ever Hockey Word cup title on 16th December 2018. The event was organized at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.
- Shubhankar Sharma became the youngest and the fifth Indian to win Asian Tour Order of Merit in golf. The Indian won it even before the finish of the last two events of the year.
- The second edition of Khelo India School Games rechristened as Khelo India Youth Games will be held from January 9-20, 2019 in Pune, Maharashtra. It will take place at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune.
Awards and Honours
- Indian-American Shree Saini has won Miss India Worldwide 2018 title at a pageant held in the Fords City of New Jersey. Sakshi Sinha from Australia and Anusha Sareen from the United Kingdom were respectively declared first and second runner-ups in the competition.
- Third edition of Women Transforming India Awards was organized by Government think- tank NITI Aayog with the theme– ‘Women and Entrepreneurship’ and 15 winners had been selected.
- 2018 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Star Awards were held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Incheon, Korea. Manika Batra became the first ever Indian Table Tennis player to be awarded the ‘Breakthrough Table Tennis Star’ award.
- MC Mary Kom , six times World Women Boxing Champion and Olympic Bronze medalist honoured with Meethoileima title (means Outstanding Queen)by Manipur government.
- Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered at his country’s Istanbul consulate in October was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the year” along with a group of other persecuted journalists collectively called “the Guardians of the truth”.
- Uttar Pradesh based startup HelpUsGreen has been honored by UN for its works to clean River Ganga by recycling tonnes of floral waste. UN presented the award at the Nations Climate Action award ceremony during the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice.
- Prathamesh Maulingkar from Goa, dubbed as Mr. India, became the first Asian/Indian to win 2018 Mister Supernational title after defeating 37 candidates in the 3rd edition of the competition held in Krynica-Zdroj, Poland.
- Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament (MP), Kanimozhi will be awarded as “Best Woman Parliamentarian – Rajya Sabha” by the Vice-President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu at Dr. Ambedkar International Center in New Delhi.
- Mexico‘s Vanessa Ponce de Leon won the coveted Miss World 2018 crown at the 68th edition of the prestigious Miss World grand event held in the Chinese city, Sanya.
Summits and Conferences
- Fourth edition of Partners' Forum was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12th December in New Delhi.
- 4th WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices “Increasing access to medical devices” was organized in Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
- Ministry of Power launched the ECO Niwas Samhita 2018, an Energy Conservation Building Code for Residential Buildings (ECBC-R) on the occasion of National Energy Conservation Day 2018 in New Delhi.
- The 8th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) that was held in New Delhi
- A two day National conference ‘AYUSHCHARYA’ on Dinacharya (Daily Regimen) and Ritucharya (Seasonal Regimen) for public health promotion was organized by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in New Delhi.
- Fourth edition of Partners’ Forum was organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12th December in New Delhi. The two day international conference was hosted by government of India in association with Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and child Health (PMNCH).
Appointments
- Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) which works under Ministry of Finance notified the Korean Won and Turkish Lira in the List of Currencies for Exchange Rate in order to decrease the transaction cost and enhance the ease of doing business, thereby, benefiting the Indian, Korean and Turkish businesses.
- Renowned English fiction writer Amitav Ghosh has been selected for Jnanpith award, 2018.
- Tata Steel Limited had been declared as the winner of the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the ‘Best Performing Integrated Steel Plant’ in the country for the performance year 2016-17 making it the fourth consecutive year for Tata Steel being honoured with this coveted award.
- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has appointed Brijendra Pal Singh as the new chairman and President of Film and Television Institute of India.
- Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi was elected as Vice-Chair of United Nations (UN) Panel of Auditors at its annual meeting held in New York.
- India’s former economic affairs secretary and current member of the Finance Commission Shaktikanta Das is to be appointed as next RBI Governor. He will be the 25th Governor of the apex bank of the country.
Banking and Finance
- Bhupesh Baghel, who is also the president of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, will be the new chief minister of Chhattisgarh state.
- OBOPAY, the global financial technology company, announced the launch of a new generation pre-payment instrument called- OBOPAY Card-in partnership with Federal Bank and Mastercard.
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its Outlook Supplement has retained India’s growth forecast at 7.3% for current fiscal (2018-19) and 7.6% in following financial year (2019-20)
Committees
- The government has constituted a seven-member panel to select managing directors of public sector insurance companies. The panel would be headed by Banks Board Bureau (BBB) chairman B P Sharma.
Important Days
- December 11 is observed as International Mountain Day
- The International Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10 to commemorate adaptation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme for this year is ‘Stand Up For Human Rights’.
- International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) is observed every year across world on December 9 to raise public awareness of corruption and what people can do to fight it
Index and Ranking
- The recently released rankings by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have placed four Indian Public Sector Undertakings among world’s top 100 arms producers. These companies are as follows: Indian Ordnance Factories (37th Rank) Hindustan Aeronautics (38th Rank) Bharat Electronics (64th Rank) Bharat Dynamics (94th rank)
- India has the highest number of ‘stunted’ children in the world and nearly a third of all stunted children worldwide are to be found in India as per the recently released WHO’s Global Nutrition Report, 2018.
Books and Authors
- The book, ‘Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy’ written by former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian was launched in Mumbai
Defence
- The seventh edition Hand-in-Hand Military exercise between India, China began in Chengdu, China.
- The second edition of service specific exercise AVIAINDRA between Indian Air Force and Russian Federation Aerospace Force (RFSAF) was held at Air Force Station Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
