Source: Cick Here

• Burundi confirmed the small central city of Gitega the country’s new political capital.


• The previous capital Bujumbura, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, became a country‘s economic capital.

Source: Cick Here

• Indians placed at 12th rank in the “Misperception index” according to the MORI Perils of Perception Survey 2018, done by Ipsos India, an independent market research company. It behind several countries like, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Chile and Argentina, among others.


• Thailand, Mexico, Turkey, Malaysia, and Brazil were ranked first in five and performed poorer than India. “misperception index” is based on questions which asked to people and it revealed the wide chasm between what people perceived and what was real. The survey was conducted during September 28-October 16 this year in 37 countries online.

Source: Cick Here

• The tsunami has once again demonstrated herself to Indonesia. The tsunami broke out on the islands and coastal areas of South Sumatra and western Java.


• As the tsunami broke out, the coastal areas suffered a drowning and 62 people were killed. According to the Associated Press, 43 people died after the initial information was reported, but the death toll went up to 62. More than 600 people were injured in the tsunami.

Source: Cick Here

• The Maharashtra cabinet approved an ex-gratia payment of Rs 200 per quintal rate for onions sold between November 1 to December 15.


• Rs 150 crore compensation comes as a big relief to the onion producing farmers who had to sell their produce at low prices.


• The compensation will cover a total of 75 lakh metric tons of onions.

Source: Cick Here

• The Centre has sought Parliament’s approval for an additional equity infusion of Rs.2,345 crore for debt-laden Air India (AI) and a separate sum of Rs.1,300 crore for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which houses the national carrier’s debt and non-core assets.


• The SPV, Air India Assets Holding, comprises Rs.29,000 crore of the Rs.55,000 crore debt of AI and the airline’s non-core assets such as the ground-handling arm and land.


• The purpose is to liquidate the assets and pay off the debt parked in the SPV.


• It had already provided a sovereign guarantee to enable AI to raise Rs.2,000 crore from banks, which the airline has availed. The airline had also raised Rs. 1,000 crore from the National Small Savings Fund.

Source: Cick Here

• The Tripura government has planned to conduct a fresh survey on the Literacy rate in the State. A survey conducted in 2014 had recorded 95% literacy rate in the State.


• This survey was conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute.

Source: Cick Here

• Defence Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) Gurugram.


• The IFC-IOR is aimed to engage with partner nations to develop maritime domain awareness and share information on vessels of interest in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).


• It would also help enhance maritime security and safety.


• The information exchange at the IFC-IOR would be initially undertaken by virtual means, using telephone calls, faxes, emails and video conferencing over internet.


• It would undertake conduct of exercises and training capsules in maritime information collation and sharing.

Source: Cick Here

• The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, on his first visit to Karimnagar, inaugurated the Centre of Excellence Genetic Blood Disorders at the Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences in Karimnagar, Telangana.


• This centre will work on Sickle Cell Anaemia, Thalassemia and Other Genetic Blood Disorders.


• It was set up by Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences.

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• Minister of State for the Women and Child Development Ministry Virendra Kumar released the performance of states and UTs under the maternity benefit programme named Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.


• Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh topped the charts as the best performing states.


• According to the finding, 51.70 lakh beneficiaries are covered annually under the PMMVY.


• Grants-in-aid amounting to Rs 2,048.59 crores and Rs 369.31 crores have been sanctioned to the states and the Union Territories during the year 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.

Source: Cick Here

• 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.


• PCR will include data from entities like market regulator Sebi,corporate affairs ministry, Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to enable banks and financial institutions to get a 360-degree profile of the existing as well as prospective borrowers on a real-time basis.


• PCR assumes significance of rising bad loans in the financial system. The non-performing assets in the banking system stand at about Rs 10 lakh crore. CRILC is a borrower-level supervisory dataset that keeps record of loans of Rs 5 crore and above.

Source: Cick Here

• ICICI Bank projected the GDP to increase to 7.4% in 2019-20.


• Its growth forecast for FY 2019 is at 7.2 mainly due to slow consumption.


• It states that one of the biggest factors restricting growth will be the real estate and small scale units as they are yet to recover from effects of GST and demonetisation.

Source: Cick Here

• the seven day 37th Senior National Rowing Championship concluded at Army Rowing Node, College of Military Engineering in Pune. It started on December 17, 2018.


• The competition consisted of categories of 2000 metres and 500 metres.


• It was inaugurated by Lt General Michael Mathews.


• The Army Team emerged as the champions in 2018 and was followed by the Services team that came in second.


• This year, 498 rowers from 24 teams of various States (except West Bengal) and Associations competed in approximately 200 races over last four days.


• It also saw participation by the Asian games medallists Subedar Sawarn Singh and Naib Subedar Dushyant Chauhan in mixed event which was introduced for the first time in the National Championship.

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• Pune woman Vedangi Kulkarni, 20, became the fastest Asian to cycle the globe.


• She spent 159 days peddling up to 300 km a day in 14 countries.


• She started off from Perth in July and will be flying back to the Australian city to complete the record.


• British adventurer Jenny Graham, 38, is the fastest woman to have cycled the globe in 124 days in 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• 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. He was awarded for his contribution to the field of public leadership.


• Professor Dr Manjul Bhargava, Niti Aayog member Dr V K Saraswat and Swami Chidanand Saraswati were awarded for their work in the fields of community leadership, science and technology and social thinkers, respectively.


• Japan-based philosopher and teacher of Hindu philosophy, Dr Sengaku Mayeda, was conferred the award in-absentia in the international category.

Source: Cick Here

• Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has conferred the Skoch Golden Jubilee Challenger Award at the 55th Skoch Summit in New Delhi.


• The Skoch Challenger Awards are the highest independently instituted civilian honours. The Commerce and Industry Minister was awarded for his contribution to reforms, particularly in the power sector reforms.


• A book titled India 2030 was also released on the occasion.

Source: Cick Here

• B V P Rao was elected as the President of Archery Association of India(AAI),the election was held under the Supervision of former Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi.


• Maha Singh was elected as secretary of Archery Association of India,D K Vidyarthi was elected as the treasurer. Sunil Sharma was elected senior vice-president and Rajendra Singh Tomar and Purnima Mahato will be the vice presidents.


• BVP Rao earlier served as vice president of the archery association of the northeastern state. He was also earlier associated with Sports Authority of India in various capacities. For the last four years, he served as an Advisor to Telengana government.


• Vijay Kumar Malhotra has been as the president of Archery Association of India for 40 years from 1973 to 2012,after that he relinquished the position in 2015,he was appointed as the Honorary Life President of AAI. Shri Tarlochan Singh was appointed as the Acting President of AAI.

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• Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned after a clash with President Donald Trump over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Mattis pointed to some of his differences with Trump in a resignation letter he submitted to the White House.


• The retired general emphasized that the United States derives its strength from its relationships with allies and should treat them with respect. He said the country must also be “clear-eyed” about threats, including from groups such as the ISIS.

Source: Cick Here

• India successfully test fired its nuclear capable long range ballistic missile Agni-IV with a strike range of 4,000 km.


• The strategic surface-to-surface missile was flight tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Dr Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast earlier known as Wheeler Island and it is 20 meter long with a weight of 17 tonnes. This was the 7th trial of Agni-IV missile.


• Agni-IV missile is equipped with advanced Avionics, 5th generation On Board Computer and distributed architecture. Radars and electro-optical systems had been positioned along the coast of Odisha for tracking and monitoring all parameters of the missile.

Source: Cick Here

• On December 23, 2018, ‘Nightingale of Assam’ singer Dipali Borthakur passed away at 77.


• She was a Padma Shri recipient in 1998 and was also known as “Asomiya Lata Mangeskar.”


• She was honoured with The Axom Srestho by The Telegraph, Silipi Bota (2010) and Aideu Handique Silpi Award (2012) among others.