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• Christmas is an annual festival, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.


• Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations and is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season centered around it.

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• Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday is being celebrated as Good Governance Day across the country on 25 December.


• The day was established in 2014 to honor the Bharat Ratna by fostering awareness among the people on accountability in Governance and Government.


• The BJP stalwat had served as the country’s Prime Minister betwen 1998 and 2004. He passed away on August 16 this year at AIIMS in Delhi after prolonged illness.

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• Thailand has become the first Southeast Asian nation to legalise the use of marijuana for medical use and research.


• The junta-appointed parliament voted 166-0 to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 to legalise the medicinal use of marijuana.


• Marijuana was used in Thailand to relieve pain and fatigue until its use was criminalised in the country in the 1930s.

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• US President Donald Trump has said that Saudi Arabia will spend the necessary money to help rebuild Syria following the US' exit from the war-torn country.


• Trump tweeted "Isn't it nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbours rather than the US, that is 5000 miles away", Trump last week announced to withdraw nearly 2,000 US troops from Syria.

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• Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has invited United States President Donald Trump to visit Turkey in 2019.


• White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said While nothing definite is being planned, the President is open to a potential meeting in the future,".

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• The Triple Talaq bill will be taken up for discussion and likely be put to vote on December 27 in the Lok Sabha.


• The BJP has issued a three-line whip for members to strictly attend the Lok Sabha session over the bill. The bill will deem the practice 'illegal', with the husband supposedly facing a prison sentence of three years.

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• judicial services at a function organised by the All India Lawyers Board in Lucknow The minister did not mention reservation for other backward classes, but going by the UPSC model for all-India.


• Civil services, there would be provision for OBCs as well in keeping with the SC-mandated implementation of the Mandal Commission's recommendations.

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• Sadaiv Atal, a memorial of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was dedicated to the nation on his 94th birth anniversary. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among the dignitaries who paid floral tributes to the former statesman at the memorial built near the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, where his funeral took place on August 17.


• Sadaiv (always) Atal memorial will be managed by a trust headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

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• A 25 feet high statue of former Prime Minister Bihari Vajpayee will be installed in the Lok Bhawan in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced.


• He was speaking at a function held to celebrate the 94th birth anniversary of the late leader.


• Governor Ram Naik and the Chief Minister led the state in paying tributes to Vajpayee. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Vidhan Sabha Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit were also present.

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• Union Minister for Science and Technology and Environment Harsh Vardhan said India is firmly on its course to become one of the top two scientifically advanced nations in the world by 2030.


• The minister said the country has made significant progress in the fields of nano technology, space science under the Narendra Modi government while it is already on the top spot in terms of providing tsunami early warning.

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• Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic adviser in the finance ministry, maintains a fine balance between his profession of an economist advising the government on the financial sector and his interest in reading and writing on history.


• In an interview, Sanyal talks about supervising more closely the larger systemically important non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and the need for structurally lowering real interest rates in sync with lower inflation level.

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• The real estate sector has been down and out for about five years, with the last two years being particularly bad on the back of demonetisation and implementation of Real estate (regulation and development) Act (RERA) 2016 and goods and services tax (GST).


• So, at the beginning of 2018, the sector clutched on hope, though tentatively, that the worst was behind and things would only improve from thereon.

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• India’s Arjun Bhati bagged the first position against Americas Aksel Moe during the three-level final match in the US Kids Junior Golf World Championship in Malaysia.


• Arjun scored a total of 222 points followed by America and Vietnam at 2nd and 3rd position with 225 and 226 points respectively.

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• The International Weightlifting Federation announced in Paris that five weightlifters have been provisionally suspended after the reanalysis of weightlifters’ urine samples collected during 2012 London Olympics.


• The Weightlifters who are banned are Ukrainian Oleksiy Torokhtiy, Uzbek Ruslan Nurudinov both where the participants of 105 kg Category, Valentin Hristov of Azerbaijan who participated in 56 Kg Category, Armenia’s Meline Daluzyan and Belarusian Mikalai Novikau.

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• Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh released the list of top 10 performing police stations across the nation.


• The list was announced in the 3-day Inaugural Session of the DGPs or IGPs Conference in Gujarat.
  
• The list was prepared by the Intelligence Bureau (IB).


• The police stations across the country were checked for various parameters like infrastructure, detection of registered crime cases and friendly relations with the public.


• The top three police stations in India for 2018 are Kalu (Bikaner, Rajasthan), Campbell Bay ( Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Farakka (Murshidabad, West Bengal).


• Other police stations have been ranked as 4-Nettapakkam (Puducherry), 5– Guderi (Karnataka), 6– Chopal (Himachal Pradesh), 7– Lakheri (Rajasthan), 8– Periyakulam (Tamil Nadu), 9– Munsyari (Uttarakhand), 10– Churchorem (Goa).

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• After claiming a historic Fifth World Drivers’ Championship, Lewis Hamilton has added to an ever-growing list of accolades after taking home the inaugural Drivers’ Driver of the Year. This was the first time the vote had been run by the F1 bosses, with seventeen of the 20 drivers taking part.


• Max Verstappen led the charge in second place, after finishing the season with five straight podium finishes. Fernando Alonso took the final step on the podium, despite only scoring 50 points for uncompetitive McLaren team this year.

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• The Ministry of Personnel appointed P V Bharathi as the MD and CEO of Corporation Bank, effective from February 1, 2019 till March 31, 2020 – the date of her superannuation.


• Bharathi is presently the Executive Director of Canara Bank.


• Additionally, Birupaksha Mishra and Balakrishna Alse S have been appointed as executive directors in Corporation Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, respectively.


• Mishra is currently the General Manager, Central Bank of India and Balakrishna is GM, Corporation Bank.


• Also, K Ramachandran has been appointed as the Executive Director of Allahabad Bank from the current post of General Manager.


• Ramachandaran will hold office up to the date of his superannuation, which is June 30, 2021.

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• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) announced the appointment of Sangeeta Verma as its member in its 4-member council including the chairperson.


• Verma is a former Indian Economic Services (IES) officer and had been appointed for a period of 5 years.


• The other members of the council include Chairperson: Ashok Kumar Gupta, 2 other members: Augustine Peter and UC Nahta.

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• Researchers from California Institute of Technology, United States of America (USA) made world’s smallest tic-tac-toe game board using dynamic DNA microscopic organic structures that can be programmed to transform into Pre designed patterns.


• Using this technique they fashioned a microscopic game of tic-tac-toe in which players place their X’s and O’s by adding special DNA tiles to the board.


• They had chosen to make the world’s smallest version of the Italian polymath Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic painting Mona Lisa.


• DNA consists of a backbone and four types of molecules known as bases. These bases are adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine.

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• Former Liberal Democrats leader of UK Politics, Paddy Ashdown, died at 77.


• He was the longest serving leader of the Lib Dems in its history where he led from 1988 to 1999.


• He had also served with the Royal Marines for 13 years.

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• Famous Bengali poet Nirendranath Chakraborty died following a cardiac arrest in Kolkata, Wet Bengal at the age of 94.


• He was born in 1924 and His first book of poems ‘Nil Nirjone’ was published in 1954.


• He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1974 for his poem ‘Ulanga Raja’ (naked king).


• He was also a recipient of ‘Ananda Purashkar’ and was the president of Paschimbango Bangla Akademi. He was also conferred with the Bangobibhusan honour in 2017 by West Bengal government.