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• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is visiting China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, only days after warning he may take an alternative path if the United States does not ease sanctions and pressure on his country.


• The visit, confirmed by North Korean and Chinese state media, will likely lead to Kim’s fourth summit with Xi in the past year and comes amid plans for a second summit with Trump aimed at denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

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• A male attacker injured 20 children inside a primary school in China’s capital.


• Three of the children have serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the Xicheng district government said on its social media account, adding that the attack took place at 11:17 a.m. on 8 January 2018.


• The suspect was apprehended at the scene and an investigation has been launched, All of the injured children are receiving hospital treatment.

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• China passed law to make Islam compatible with socialism and ‘sinicize’ it within next five years.


• The law was passed after Chinese government officials met representatives from eight Islamic groups.

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• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared the redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill thus providing Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.


• First introduced in Parliament in 2016,the bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955.


• It enables grant of Indian nationality to people from minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians— from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don’t possess any proper document.


• This would, however, nullify the 1985 Assam Accord under which any foreign national, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after 1971 should be deported.

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• The Union Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Shri Prakash Javadekar stated that the HRD ministry has introduced a 70-point grading index to assess the quality of school education offered by states.


• A state performance grading will be done wherein the states will be marked out of 1,000 scores on 70 parameters.


• By doing so the ministry expects that it will give the correct picture of where every state stands and will create an atmosphere of a fair competition to improve each other’s performances.


• In another move the ministry has also decided to print more books of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) as against only 2 crore books two years ago.


• The ministry has set the target of printing 6 crore books this year so that the parents who want to send their wards to private schools, should get cheaper and quality books.


• Furthermore the school curriculum will also be reviewed to ensure holistic education in which there will be time for physical education, value education, life skill education and experiential learning.

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• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved 10 pc quota in jobs and educational institutions for economically weaker sections in general category.


• For the implementation of the quota, Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution will have to be amended.


• This would be availed by those whose annual income is below Rs 8 lakh and have up to five acres of land.


• The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation.

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• During the visit, Ms Erna Solberg hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. She delivers the Inaugural address at the Raisina Dialogue and will address India-Norway Business Summit.


• Several agreements will be signed after the talks including one on facilitating dialogue to boost bilateral trade which currently stands at 1.2 billion dollars.

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• BJP formed 17 groups for upcoming Lok Sabha election. The election is expected to be held in April-May. The party’s president Amit Shah announced the formation of 17 groups in preparation for the election. Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Rajnath Singh is to head the party’s “sankalp patra” (manifesto) committee.


• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will head its publicity wing. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will head a 17-member committee to reach out to social and volunteer organizations.


• Defence Minister Sushma Swaraj will preside over a group that will produce literature for the polls.


• Mr.Prasad will head the party’s media group while Union Minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the wing which will organize meetings of intellectuals.

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• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to transfer an interim dividend of up to Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore ($4.32 billion-$5.8 billion) to the government by March.


• The funds are crucial to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent of the GDP for the financial year ending in March, as the government's revenue shortfall may be as high as Rs 1 lakh crore.

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• The government has amalgamated three Regional Rural Banks Punjab Gramin Bank, Malwa Gramin Bank and Sutlej Gramin Bank into a single RRB with immediate effect.


• The sponsor banks of the RRBs are National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Government of Punjab and Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Punjab and Sind Bank.

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• The Group of States’ Finance Ministers (GoFM) led by Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi approved levy of 1%‘calamity cess’ by Kerala for a period of two years to fund rehabilitation work in the state of Kerala. It will recommend the same to the GST council meeting which will be held in January 10, 2019.


• The goods and services, which will attract the 1% cess, would be decided by Kerala and any other state considering to do the same would have to approach the council.


• It also suggested the GST council to allow additional borrowing over the permitted limit by states hit by natural calamity.

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• Airport Authority of India (AAI) banned single-use plastic items at 16 airports.


• This entails air travellers not getting any single-use plastic items like straws, plastic cutlery and plastic plates etc at passenger terminals and city side.


• The 16 airports declared as single-use plastic free are: Indore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, Trichy, Vijayawada, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Madurai, Raipur, Vizag, Pune, Kolkata and Varanasi.


• The first batch of 16 airports was selected on the basis of third-party assessment carried out by Quality Council of India.


• Furthermore, Quality Council of India will assess/check the implementation of the ban of single-use plastic items at 34 airports handling 10 lakh passengers per annum. The assessment will be completed by January 31, 2019.


• Also, the authority has formulated an environment policy to reduce green house gases (GHG) and sustainable development by implementing cost effective carbon mitigation action.

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• 25 years old Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah finishes 2018 as the highest international wicket-taker of 2018 with 78 wickets after taking 9 wickets in the 3rd Test Match against Australia held in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia.


• South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada ranked 2nd in the list of Highest International wicket taker of 2018 with 77 wickets.


• Indian spin bowler Kuldeep Yadav along with Adeel Rashid and Rashid Khan ranked 3rd with 76 wickets in 2018.

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• Rohit Danu, Indian Arrows’ 16-year-old footballer, became the youngest goal-scorer in the I-League.


• Danu, aged 16 years, five months and 27 days, beat the previous record of Arrows’ Jitendra, who was of 16 years, six months and 13 days when he scored against Shillong Lajong on December 26, 2017.

• The global software major’s Infosys Science Foundation awarded its 10th Infosys Prize 2018 to six eminent professors for winning across different categories of science and research at an awards ceremony in Bengaluru.


• The winners were felicitated by the Chief Guest, Prof. Manjul Bhargava, Fields Medalist and R. Brandon Fradd, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University.


• The Infosys annual award includes a pure gold medal, a citation and a tax-free prize purse worth $100,000 (or its equivalent in Indian rupees).


• The winners were selected by a six-member jury of renowned scientists and professors, namely Kaushik Basu, Pradeep Khosla, Shrinivas Kulkarni, Amartya Sen, Mriganka Sur, and Srinivasa Varadhan from 244 nominations received in six categories.

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• The Vice President of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu conferred awards on 17 persons for their outstanding contribution in different fields of textiles sector during the day long ‘National Conclave on Accomplishments and Way Forward for Textiles Sector’ in New Delhi.


• The national conclave which was organised to address the issues faced by textile sector was inaugurated by the Union Textiles Minister, Smriti Irani and was also addressed by the Minister of State, Ajay Tamta and Textiles Secretary, Raghvendra Singh.


• During the ceremony Vice President, Shri Naidu was presented commemorative stamps on GI registered handicrafts.


• The inaugural session was followed by panel discussions on technical textiles, ease of doing textiles business, handicrafts, access to global markets and supply chains and fashionizing weaves.


• The conclave was a part of a two-day event, on 5th – 6th January 2019 in New Delhi, to highlight the achievements of the textiles sector. The event was inaugurated with a textiles fashion show “Artisan Speak” at Red Fort.


• On 5th January 2019, after the textile show at Red Fort, the event witnessed the presentation of eight special recognition awards for the excellent work in textiles sector and felicitation of 16 artisans who have enriched the handloom sector with their creative work in weaving and printing.

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• Alok Verma reinstated as the CBI chief by the Supreme Court, three months after the government divested him of his powers and sent him on forced leave.


• Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana were both sent on leave in October amid a bitter feud between the CBI’s top two. Supreme Court strikes down CBI Chief Alok Verma’s removal. However, at present, Alok Verma cannot take any major policy decisions.


• Supreme Court stated that the High Power Committee under the DSPE Act needs to act within a week to consider Alok Verma’s case.

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• Mysore-born Gita Gopinath has joined International Monetary Fund as its chief economist, becoming the first woman to occupy the top IMF post.


• Ms Gopinath's joined last week at a time, when she believes the world is experiencing a retreat from globalisation, posing challenges to multilateral institutions.