National Events
- Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh topped the Minister of State for the Women and Child Development Ministry released performance of states and UTs under the maternity benefit programme named Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
- Manipur Assembly headed by CM N.Biren Singh has passed the Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Bill,2018 that recommends life imprisonment for those involved in mob violence,if the violence leads to death of a person.
- Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) constituted a Logistics Development Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman EAC-PM.
- National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC), an autonomous corporation under Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BSE Institute Ltd. for facilitating Skill Development Training to the target group of NBCFDC.
- Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced a Rs 2250 crore scheme named as “ Mukhya Mantri Krishi Yojana” which will help around 22.76 lakh medium and marginal farmers to double their income by 2022.
- Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announced the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme to empower small, marginal & landless farmers as well as landless labourers.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, launched the ‘Asiatic Lion Conservation Project’ with an aim to protect and conserve the world’s last ranging free population of Asiatic Lion.
- Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurated the World Herbal Forest Project, a collaboration of Patanjali and Haryana Government, at Morni Hill, near Chandigarh.
- Industry body the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) partnered with IIT-Madras to provide re-skilling/upskilling of four million people on digital skills.
- Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma launched the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme(MHIS-IV) in convergence with that of the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.
- Civil aviation ministry along with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) launched an app named ‘GAS 2019’.
- Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) signed a MoU with Maruti Suzuki India Ltd for training rural youth for skill development under Deendayal upadhyaya grameen kaushalya yojana (Ddu-Gky).
- National Cancer Institute (NCI) which is the largest cancer hospital of India built at a cost of Rs 2035 crore opened for public in Jhajjar, Haryana.
- Haryana government launched a mobile App ‘Shiksha Setu’ to provide students information on attendance, fee, online admission and scholarships of the government colleges of the state
- The book ‘Changing India’ written by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was released.
- Silao Khaja of Bihar which is popular among the tourists visiting Buddhist sites of Rajgir and Nalanda was granted GI tag by Geographical Indications Registry at Chennai.
International Events
- Burundi confirmed the small central city of Gitega the country’s new political capital.
- India and Japan Exchanged notes on Japanese Official Development assistance loan of Yen 105.497 billion (approximately Rs 6668.46 crore) for three projects which are Chennai Metro Project (Phase 2) for JPY 75.519 billion; Program for Japan-India Cooperative Actions towards sustainable Development goals in India for JPY 15 Billion; Project for Dairy Development for JPY 14.978 billion.
- United Nations General Assembly adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first-ever negotiated global framework on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions, in Marrakesh, Morocco.
- Merriam-Webster has chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year
- United Arab Emirates (UAE) President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has declared 2019 to be the “Year of Tolerance.” to highlight UAE as the Global Capital of Tolerance
Sports
- Pune woman Vedangi Kulkarni became the fastest Asian to cycle the globe
- Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) released the Global football ranking topped by Belgium with 1727 points.
- Former India opener WV Raman has been appointed the new coach of the Indian women’s cricket team.
- Belgium defeated The Netherland and won their First Men’s Hockey World Cup Championship held in Bhubaneswar,Odisha
Banking and Finance
- Reserve Bank of India has shortlisted six major IT companies, TCS, Wipro and IBM India, Capgemini Technology Services India, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India, and Mindtree Ltd. to set up a wide-based digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture details of all borrowers and willful defaulters.
- According to a newly released report by Fan Zhang, Senior Economist, South Asia Region, World Bank.- “In the Dark: How Much Do Power Sector Distortions Cost South Asia,” India’s power sector has an “efficiency” gap that costs the Indian economy 4.13% of GDP a year, equivalent to $86 billion in fiscal year 2016.
- C.R.I. pumps, one of the Leading Manufacturer of energy efficient pumps won the National Energy Conservation Award 2018 in the pumps category for the fourth time.
- The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) in consultation with the government of India had decided to have “rule-based dynamic limit” for total Outstanding External Commercial Borrowings(ECBs) to 6.5 Pc of GDP.
- Paisabazaar.com, online marketplace for financial products, and Karnataka Bank entered into a partnership to offer the bank’s home loan product to customers on the Paisabazaar platform.
- Infrastructure Development Finance Company Bank (IDFC Bank) and non-banking financial company Capital First completed their merger process, creating a combined loan asset book of Rs 1.03 lakh crore for the merged entity IDFC First Bank
Important Days
- On 22nd December, India celebrated National Mathematics day honouring the 131st birth anniversary of Great Indian Mathematician Srinivasan Ramanujan.
- December 20 was celebrated as International Human Solidarity Day
- International Migrants Day is observed on 18th December every year.
Index and Ranking
- WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2018 has been released and India has ranked 108th in World Economic Forum (WEF) same as the previous year 2017 at 108th. Iceland holds the top spot in the index for the 10th consecutive year.
- Indians is placed at 12th rank in the “misperception index” according to the MORI Perils of Perception Survey 2018, done by Ipsos India
Summits and Conferences
- 55th SKOCH Summit was held in Constitution Club of India, New Delhi.
- 1st meeting of India China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural & People-to-people exchanges was held in New Delhi.
- 15th edition of a two day Global SME Business Summit was organised by the Ministry of MSME and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Government e-marketplace in New Delhi.
- Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated a three-day conference on Soft Power in New Delhi.
Appointments and Resigns
- B V P Rao was elected as the President of Archery Association of India(AAI)
- LinkedIn, aMicrosoft owned professional networking platform, hired Mahesh Narayanan as the Country Manager for India.
- Harsh Vardhan Shringla was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the United States.
- Madhavi Goradia Divan is appointed as additional solicitor general (ASG) in the Supreme Court.She is the third woman to be appointed as ASG in the apex court.
- Congress leader Kamal Nath,72 took oath as 18th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
- Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel Sworn in as third Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh
- Ashok Gehlot took oath as the Rajasthan 12th Chief Minister of Rajasthan
Defence
- Defence Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) Gurugram.
Awards and Honours
- Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh received South Indian Education Society (SIES) Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati National Eminence Award as part of the Kanchi Mahaswami festival.
- Gujarat Ranked Best Performer in first ever States Start-up Ranking 2018 released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) at an event in New Delhi.
- United Nations Human Rights Prize for 2018,was posthumously awarded to Pakistan’s iconic human rights activist and lawyer Asma Jahangir
- Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had approved the appointment of Pranab Kumar Das as the new Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)
- Arti Chhabra Srivastava is appointed as the first full-time Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of SEBI for an initial period of 3 years.
- Sonam Kapoor named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India’s person of the year.
- Singers Shaan and Arijit Singh were given the “Sangeet Mahasamman” award by the West Bengal government at the inaugural session of the Bengal music and folk culture festival held in Kolkata.
- The 24-year-old Filipino-Australian beauty Catriona Elisa Gray from Philippines bagged Miss Universe 2018 title.
