International News
20th Hornbill Festival
- The Hornbill Festival is a 10 Day festival (a celebration held every year from 1 to 10 December) that began with the traditional blessing pronounced by Mongtei of Aniashu villageby beating the traditional gong.
- Nagaland Governor R N Ravi was the chief host of the festival, while Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was the host.
Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act
- Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.
- The Uighurs have been recognized as native to only one region, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.
National News
Nationwide Vaccination Drive
- The central government has announced to launch a nationwide vaccination drive to prevent eight diseases under Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 across the country.
- Children under the age of 2 years and pregnant women are covered under the government's flagship scheme against the eight vaccine-preventable diseases.
Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System
- The Election Commission of India has issued new guidelines for the system and process of registration of political parties.
- The new system is named as the “Political Parties Registration Tracking Management System” (PPRTMS).
Anaemic Mukt Bharat(AMB) Strategy
- Harsh Vardhan Minister of Health and Family welfare told in Lok Sabha that “58.5% of children between the age of 6 months to 59 months are affected by Anaemia”.
- He also added that 53.1% of women between 15-49 years are also anaemic.
S&P reaffirmed India's rating at 'BBB-'
- Rating Agency Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC (S&P) has reaffirmed the Sovereign Credit Rating of India at ‘BBB-‘.
- The economic slowdown is cyclical rather than structural.
Women Help Desks in Police Stations
- Union Home Ministry has sanctioned a sum Rs 100 crore from Nirbhaya Fund for setting up Women Help Desks in Police Stations.
- The Help Desk would consist of experts like lawyers, psychologists and NGOs to facilitate legal aid, counselling, shelter, rehabilitation and training.
India’s Top 10 Police Stations for 2019
- The Ministry of Home Affairs has released the list of 10 best performing Police stations from across the country.
- Prime Minister while addressing the DGPs during the 2015 Conference in Kutch, Gujarat had directed to do grading and ranking of Police Stations.
Banking
November GST Revenue Collection
- The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of November 2019 is Rs 44,742 crore for CGST and Rs 44,576 crore for the SGST.
- Highest growth during the year of 12% is seen in the GST collection on domestic transactions.
NCLT admits Bankruptcy Resolution for DHFL
- The Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted an RBI petition seeking bankruptcy resolution for Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016.
- Rule 5 (a) (i) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Rules, 2019 prescribes that Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) can be initiated against Financial Service Providers (FSP) committing default upon an application made by the Appropriate Regulator.
RBI 5th bi-monthly Monetary Policy
- The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a six-member committee, headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das.
- The RBI has reduced the repo rate by 135 basis points between February and October 2019.
RBI to amend regulatory Guidelines for UCBs
- The guidelines would primarily relate to Exposure norms for single and group/interconnected borrower, promotion of financial inclusion and priority sector lending.
- RBI has also decided to bring UCBs with assets of 500 crore rupees and above under the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits - CRILC reporting framework to strengthen off-site supervision and early recognition of financial distress.
RBI tightens Norms for ARCs
- RBI has put a restriction on the ARCs from buying financial assets from its sponsor firms and lenders (bank or financial institution) on a bilateral basis.
- Asset Reconstruction Company (India) (Arcil), which is sponsored by State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and IDBI Bank is likely to be affected the most.
Availability of NEFT on a 24x7 basis
- The existing discipline for crediting beneficiary’s account or returning the transaction (within 2 hours of settlement of the respective batch) to the originating bank will continue.
- NEFT transactions would be done through automated transactions initiated using ‘Straight Through Processing (STP)’ modes, after the usual banking hours of banks.
RBI imposed monetary Penalty on Andhra Bank
- Deficiencies in regulatory compliance of the bank were found in an examination of current accounts opened by two entities in Andhra Bank.
- RBI came to the conclusion of imposing a monetary penalty after considering the reply from the bank and personal hearing as to why penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with the directions.
Appointments
| Name of the Person | Designation |
| Soma Roy Burman | Controller General of Accounts (CGA) |
| Ursula von der Leyen | President of the European Commission |
| K Vijay Kumar | Senior Security Advisor in the Union Home Ministry |
Important Days
| Date | Day | Theme |
| 1st December 2019 | World Aids Day | Theme: "Communities Make the Difference" |
| 1st December 2019 | Indigenous Faith Day | -- |
| 3rd December 2019 | International Day of Persons with Disabilities | Theme: “Promoting the Participation of Persons with Disabilities and their leadership: Taking Action on the 2030 Development Agenda” |
| 4th December 2019 | Indian Navy Day | Theme: "Indian Navy - Silent, Strong and Swift". |
| 7th December 2019 | Armed Forces Flag Day | -- |
Defence
Exercise MITRA SHAKTI- 2019
- The Exercise MITRA SHAKTI aimed at enhancing interoperability and operational efficiency amongst the armies of both India and Sri Lanka.
- The objective of the exercise is to build and promote positive relations between armies of India and Sri Lanka.
1st Woman Pilot of Indian Navy
- Two other trainee officers of the 7th Dornier Conversion Course (DOCC) also qualified as Dornier pilots along with Shivangi and were awarded at the coveted golden Wings ceremony held at INS Garuda.
- The award of the Wings marks the culmination of one year of flying training at the Air Force Academy (AFA).
Exercise INDRA 2019
- The exercise is being conducted to imbibe the best practices from each other and jointly conducting drills to defeat the scourge of terror as per the United Nation mandate.
- The exercise will consist of a five-day training phase consisting of a comprehensive training curriculum.
Science and Technology
Prithvi-II Missile
- The user trial of the Prithvi-II missile was conducted from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur.
- The missile weighs about 4,600 kg and is capable of carrying 500 to 1000 kilograms of warheads.
TRAI revamped Mobile Number Portability Rules
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revamped Mobile Number portability (MNP) rules.
- According to present rules, telecom operators and MNP service providers are required to process the request of subscribers to change their telecom operator without changing their mobile number within 4 days in the same circle.
Summits and Conferences
First India-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting
- The delegation was led by the Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar, along with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Japan, MOTEGI Toshimitsu, and Minister of Defense of Japan, KONO Taro.
- India has a similar ministerial level 2+2’ dialogue with the US also.
3rd National Public Procurement Conclave
- The conclave is jointly organised by the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
- It is focused to make improvements in the GeM platform particularly in the process of accessing, on-boarding and navigating through the platform.
