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• The theme of the 2018 Human Rights Day is #StandUp4HumanRights.


• 2018 marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

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• A United Nations Conference in Moroccan city of Marrakesh adopted a global pact “The Global compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration” to better handle migrant flows despite a string of withdrawals driven by anti-immigrant populism.


• The pact is described as a “Roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos” by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

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• Niti Aayog with 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 for India.


• NITI Aayog is inviting developers, students, start-ups and companies to participate in the Hacklathon.


• This Hacklathon is a part of National AI Strategy which has a vision to expand the idea of “Artificial Intelligence, AI for All”.

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• Indian Railways’ catering and tourism arm IRCTC announced the launch of the Buddhist Circuit Tourist Train.


• The Tourist Circuit will consist of destinations including: Delhi, Bodhgaya, Nalanda/Rajgir, Varanasi/Sarnath, Lumbini, Kushinagar, Sravasti and Agra.


• According to the IRCTC website, the train will depart on December 8 and December 22 completing a 16-day tour.

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• Kazakhstan opened a consulate, under the leadership of the managing director of Chandan Steel Limited, Dilip Chandan, in Gujarat to further business partnership.


• The consulate was inaugurated on the eve of the 27th Anniversary of the Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan.


• It would help in enhancing development of mutually beneficial cooperation between Kazakhstan and India in the fields of IT industry, engineering, tourism and transport and logistics infrastructure, as well as agriculture.

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• The Central Board of Secondary Education, (CBSE), conducted the largest ever Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) at 2144 centres in 92 cities across the country.


• As many as 16,91,088 teaching job aspirants took the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET). Among them the number of female candidates were 9,78,818 while male candidates numbered 7,12,071.


• 199 transgender candidates also participated in the 11th edition of the teacher eligibility test while 33,107 differently abled candidates filled their applications for the exam this year.

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• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it will implement an ‘Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions’ covering services provided by entities falling under Reserve Banks regulatory jurisdiction.


• The ombudsman scheme will provide cost-free mechanism to redress grievances of customers related to digital transactions to strengthen consumer confidence.


• In another customer protection initiative, the RBI has issued instructions on limiting customer liability in respect of unauthorized electronic transactions involving banks and credit card issuing non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

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• Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, launched jersey for Khelo India Youth Games and announced that 2nd edition of the national-level competition is moving out of the Capital and will be held in Pune, Maharashtra from January 9 – January 20, 2019.


• In its second edition, the games, has expanded its scope, and will allow participants to compete in two categories, (Under 17) and (Under 21), besides allowing students from colleges and Universities to compete.


• In 2019 the number of participants will almost be tripled with 9000 athletes as compared to 3500 young athletes that had participated in the games, in 2018.

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• Indian Skipper Virat Kohli became the first Indian skipper to win a Test in South Africa, England and Australia after defeating Australia by 31 runs in the First Test Match of the Four Match Test Series at Adelaide.


• Former Indian Captains Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni won Test matches as Captains in England and South Africa but not in Australia.


• After this win India became the Second Asian Country after Pakistan to win the Opening Test of a Series in Australia.


• The last Test India won in Australia was at the WACA Ground in Perth in 2008 under the Captaincy of Anil Kumble.

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• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India has been conferred the Skoch Award for National Significance at an event held in New Delhi.


• he Ministry was conferred with the award considering its purpose and critical role played in installing about 73 GW renewable energy capacities in the country.


• The award was given at 54th SKOCH Summit on the State of Power, Oil and Gas and was organized by SKOCH Group, India’s topmost independent think-tank for socio-economic issues with a focus on inclusive growth.


• In a latest push, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had announced its plans for 23 GW of solar projects in Leh and Ladakh regions of Jammu & Kashmir.

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• Prathamesh Maulingkar from Goa, dubbed as Mr. India, became the first Asian/Indian to win 2018 Mister Supernatural title after contesting 37 candidates in the 3rd edition of the competition held in Krynica-Zdroj, Poland.


• He was followed by Mr. Poland at 2nd position and Mr. Brazil at 3rd position.


• Mr. Brazil was also crowned with Mr Popularity sash.

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• 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.


• A 10-member board of Jury of eminent personalities headed by Murali Manohar Joshi selected Kanimozhi for the award presented by Lokmat Group of Newspaper.


• She has been awarded for her outstanding Contribution in Parliament and Strengthening Democratic Values and Principles for Several Decades.

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• On December 10, 2018, 24th Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Urjit Patel, resigned citing personal reasons.


• With his resignation, has become the first governor since 1990 to step down before the end of his term.


• He succeeded ex-RBI Raghuram Rajan in September 2016 and his term was due till September 2019.


• Prior to being the governor of the central bank, he was the deputy governor in RBI.

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• On 10th December 2018, Ananth Narayanan Chief Executing Officer (CEO) of online Fashion Retailer Myntra which is a unit of Walmart Owned Flipkart has resigned from his post.


• The Flipkart Executive, Amar Nagaram will head Myntra after the resignation of Ananth Narayanan.

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• Rashtriya Lok Samata Party(RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the Union council of ministers on account of seat sharing for 2019 elections.


• He was the Minister of State for Human Resource and Development.


• His resignation came a day ahead of the start of Parliament’s Winter Session.

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• India successfully test fired the surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5 from Dr Abdul Kalam Island in the Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast.


• This is the seventh trial of the indigenously-developed surface-to-surface missile, while second one in the last six months.


• Agni-5 is a three stage missile with a length of 17 metre and width of two metre, can carry 1.5 tonnes of nuclear warheads and has a strike range of 5,000 km.

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• Scientists from the Fujian Normal University in China developed a “rewritable” paper that can be drawn or printed on over and over again by changing the temperature.


• The new material consisted of three layers in a sandwich-like structure where the text could be changed or wiped clean over 100 times by changing the temperature.


• According to a study published in the journal ACS Applied Material & Interfaces, the messages can last more than half a year, compared to other re-writable papers.

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• Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the Prime Minister’s office and senior journalist Jagdish Thakkar passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences due to multiple organ failure. He was unwell for some time.


• The veteran journalist, Jagdish Thakkar has worked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his time as the chief minister of Gujarat and former CM Keshubhai Patel and was promoted as the PRO in the PMO after Modi became the PM in 2014.

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• Renowned historian and former vice-chancellor Jamia Millia of Islamia, Professor Mushirul Hasan, passed away at 71.


• Hasan was the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Jamia between 1992-96 and later became the VC between 2004-09.


• He was also the former director general of the National Archives of India.


• He also served as vice-chairman, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, president of the Indo-Iran Society of the Iran embassy and president of the Indian History Congress.