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• Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina heads to the polls in Bangladesh on course for a historic victory, while her ailing opponent faces an uncertain future in a colonial-era Dhaka jail.


• Bangladesh's "Battling Begums"have been fighting each other for three decades, but the 71-year-old Hasina is set to extend her record as the country's longest serving leader after dispatching Khaleda Zia, her chief rival.

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• US president Donald Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to prevent a power vacuum in Syria after the pullout of American forces.


• According to an official statement by Turkish Presidency, the both of the leaders in a conversation yesterday, agreed to ensure coordination between countries’ military and other officials to avoid a power vacuum which could result into abuse of the withdrawal and transition phase in Syria.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a stamp and a coin to commemorate the Paika rebellion of 1817 in Odisha.


• He also inaugurated the new campus of IIT-Bhubaneswar, built at a cost of Rs 1,660 crore, and launched a slew of projects worth Rs 14,523 crore for the state.


• The Paika Rebellion, many claim, was the first war of Independence against the British.


• Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan among others were present on the occasion.

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• One of the earliest Buddhist settlements in Odisha, Lalitgiri, where excavations have yielded ancient seals and inscriptions, has been converted into a museum.


• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the museum through video conference from Bhubaneswar.


• Located in Cuttack district, it became the third site museum of the Bhubaneswar circle of the Archaeological Survey of India after Ratnagiri and Konrak.

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• The country’s first music museum will be set up with assistance from the Central government in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamilnadu, the birth place of Saint Tyagaraja, one of the Trinities of Carnatic music. This was announced by the State Minister for Culture and Tamil Development Shri K Pandiarajan in Madurai.


• The Tyagaraja Aaradhana Music Festival which is held annually in January in Thiruvaiyaru attracts musical talents from all over the world.

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• Manipur Assembly led by CM N Biren Singh passed the 'Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Bill' to reduce the number of mob lynchings in the state.


• The bill recommends life imprisonment for those involved in mob violence if it results in the death of a victim. The assembly also passed the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018 unanimously.

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• State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) in collaboration with Uttar Pradesh government launched a special card called PNB Rupay card, for Kumbh Mela 2019.


• It is aimed to create a model for digitization at this edition of Kumbh Mela for convenient and hassle-free transactions for the participating 12 crore devotees.


• This product can be used even in absence of internet.

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• The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) which works under Ministry of Commerce and Industry, stated that the DIPP has taken up the issue of Angel tax faced by Start Ups in India with the Department of Revenue (DoR), Ministry of Finance.


• Angel tax is a tax that a start-up has to pay on the investment it has received from an angel investor above its “fair market valuation”.Angel tax is a 30% tax levied on investments made by external investors in a company or startup.


• Angel investor is the one who funds a startup when it is taking baby steps to establish itself in the competitive market and normally, about 300-400 startups get angel funding in an year.


• In April, this year, DIPP in consultation with the DoR put in place a mechanism to grant exemption from the provisions of Section 56(2)(viib) of the Income Tax (I-T) Act which provides for taxation of funds received by an entity to genuine investors in recognised startups.


• The move by DIPP to raise the concern with DoR came after many startups in Bengaluru and Mumbai raised the issue on social media with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu after they have reportedly received notices from the tax department to clear taxes on the angel capital raised by them.

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• Bala Rafique Shaikh clinched the Maharashtra Kesari title by defeating Abhijeet Katke of Pune in the wrestling duel held at Azad ground in Jalna, Maharashtra. Shaikh was honoured with a silver mace and cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.


• Maharashtra Kesari is an Indian-style prestigious wrestling championship, established in 1961.

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• Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet were named as Indian women's ODI and T20I captains respectively for the tour of New Zealand.


• India will play three ODIs in New Zealand beginning January 24 as part of the ICC Women’s Championship before playing three T20 Internationals.

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• The Railways has won 17 awards at the ‘National Energy Conservation awards 2018’, held in New Delhi. This is the highest number of awards bagged by a single organisation.


• Under ‘transport’ category, Indian Railways obtained 10 awards for the subsector railway station. Under ‘building’ category, Indian Railways got three awards for subsector Railway hospitals.


• Under ‘institution’ category, Indian Railways bagged four awards for subsector state Public Works Department (PWD), Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and Public Health Engineering Department (PHED).


• These awards were given by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the ministry of power Government of India to various Institutions for adopting Energy Efficiency measures for reducing energy consumption and the cost.

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• US President Donald Trump announced that deputy secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan will take charge as Acting Secretary of Defense from January 1, 2019.


• The post had been vacant as former Secreatary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned recently.


• Patrick Shanahan is a former senior executive in Boeing, world’s largest aerospace company.

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• 21 light years away us in the constellation Cassiopeia, a shimmering “super-Earth”, five times the mass of Earth, dubbed as HD219134 b was discovered.


• Unlike the Earth, however, it most likely does not have a massive core of iron, but is rich in calcium and aluminium alongside magnesium and silicon.


• It shimmers red to blue like rubies and sapphires, because these gemstones are aluminium oxides which are common on the exoplanet.


• According to the researchers it is one of three candidates likely to belong to a new exotic class of exoplanets. The other two exoplanets studied were 55 Cancri e and WASP-47 e.


• The study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

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• SpaceX launched the U.S. Air Force’s newest ‘GPS III’ satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA. This GPS 3 satellite replaces an aging GPS 2R spacecraft launched in 1997.


• The solar-powered spacecraft, dubbed “Vespucci,” is the company’s first official “National Security Space” mission.


• Vespucci’s nickname honours Italian cartographer and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, after whom North and South America were named.


• It was competed through the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.


• The successful GPS III SV01 mission marked SpaceX’s 21st and final launch of 2018, beating the company’s 2017 flight rate of 18 launches.

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• Former Union Minister,Captain Jai Narain Prasad Nishad died at Max Hospital in Delhi after a prolonged illness at the age of 88.


• Jai Narain Prasad Nishad was a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar.


• He served as the Union Minister of state, Environment and Forests (Independent Charge) during 1996-97.