DECEMBER 2017

DECEMBER 2017 

International:
• Zimbabwe's ruling party sacks President Robert Mugabe as its leader
  Zimbabwe's ruling party has sacked President Robert Mugabe as its leader. Officials say, Zanu-PF has instead appointed ex-Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa as President. Emmerson Mnangagwa had been fired by Mr Mugabe.
  
  The sacking of Mr Mnangagwa had prompted an extraordinary chain of events as the military intervened to block Mr Mugabe, from installing his wife, Grace, in his place. The first lady has been expelled from the party altogether. Mr Mugabe is set to meet military leaders. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans attended street protests, demonstrating against the Mugabes.
  
• Myanmar, Bangladesh to implement plan to end Rohingya Crisis
  China on 20th November said Bangladesh and Myanmar have accepted China's mediatory role and agreed to implement a three-phased solution proposed by its Foreign Minister Wang Yi to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis.
  
  Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's violence hit Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August when the military intensified crackdown against alleged terrorist outfits of Rohingya Muslims.
  
  China mostly refers to Rohingya crisis as Rakhine state issue, the home of Rohingya people who are mostly Muslims.
  
  Second, the international community should encourage Myanmar and Bangladesh to keep communication in a bid to find a feasible solution to the issue. The two countries have reached an initial agreement on repatriation of refugees fleeing to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
  
  The third phase is to find a long-term solution; he was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.
  
  Stressing that poverty is the root cause of turbulence and conflict, Wang called on the international community to support poverty alleviation efforts in Rakhine state. China, which provided unwavering support for Myanmar's military junta over two decades, is behind a USD 7.3 billion deep-water port in Rakhine, which plays a pivotal role in Beijing's belt and road trade initiative.
  
  It also built USD 2.45 billion oil and gas pipeline project linking the remote coast of Rakhine to southwestern China's Yunnan province, 770-km away.
  
  State Grid Corporation of China launched a power transmission line and a substation project in Shwebo in Myanmar's north western Sagain region, and Myanmar has also bought FC-1 Xiaolong multi-role combat aircraft from China
  
  This three-phased solution won the "acknowledgement" from Bangladesh and Myanmar, Lu said, without elaborating.
  
• 95% of youth in developing nations work in informal sector
  In developing countries, as many as 19 in every 20 young men and women work in the informal economy, compared with adult workers, says a new ILO study, which shows that globally, 76.7 per cent of working youth are in informal jobs, compared with 57.9 per cent of working adults. According to report: 
  • India, Tanzania and Zambia all have an extremely low prevalence of formal wage employment; in all three countries, fewer than one in ten young workers are in wage employment with a contract.
  • In Tanzania and Zambia almost all youth and adult employment is vulnerable...In India, almost half of all young workers are employed as wage labourers, without a written contract
  • As India embarks on a major policy measure to increase job creation, the report cautions that “the youth employment challenge is not just about job creation, but also — even more so — about the quality of work for youth.”
  • 39 per cent of young workers in the emerging and developing world – 160.8 million youth – live in moderate or extreme poverty, ie on less than $3.10 a day.
  • An estimated 21.8 per cent of young people are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET); most of them female.
  • The NEET rates for young men are lowest in developing countries, at 8 per cent, followed by emerging countries, at 9.6 per cent, and the developed countries at 11.3 per cent
  • The incidence of unemployment among youth in South Asia was expected to remain stable, at 10.9 per cent in 2017 and 2018, mainly because “fast economic growth in India, the region’s largest economy, will be compensated by slightly worsening labour market conditions in the rest of the region.”
  
  Informality: A growing force
  • The bulk of international migrant flows consists of young people — around 70% are younger than 30
  • 25.6 million young workers aged 15-29 will enter the labour force and will need jobs between now and 2030
  • By 2030, about 77% of youth labour force aged 15-24 will be in the developing countries of Africa and Asia-Pacific
  
  
• Volcano in Bali erupts for the first time in 54 years
  A volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali has erupted for the first time in 54 years. The country's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said the eruption of Mount Agung began on 21st November. Nearly 1,600 people died when Mount Agung last erupted in 1963. It stirred to life again in September, prompting about 140,000 people to leave the area. Mount Agung lies some 75 kilometers from Bali's tourist areas, which attract millions of tourists every year.
  
• Cuba, North Korea vow to strengthen ties
  Cuba and North Korea have vowed to strengthen ties amid escalating political tensions with the US. In a meeting with his visiting North Korea counterpart Ri Yong Ho on 22nd November, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez reiterated Havana's position that the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula can only be resolved through dialogue and negotiations.
  
  According to Xinhua news agency, Rodriguez also rejected unilateral sanctions and the inclusion of North Korea in the US list of state sponsors of terrorism only two days ago by President Donald Trump's administration.
  
  In response, Ri said the situation on the Korean Peninsula is worsening and is tense because of the increased use of military forces by the imperialists.
  
• Latin America is world’s most violent region for women: UN
  Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region in the world for women, the United Nations said on 23rd November, highlighting Central America and Mexico as particularly dangerous.
  
  In a report presented in Panama, UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) found assaults on women persisted in the region despite severe laws aimed at curbing the phenomenon. The issue of violence against women in Latin America is critical. It’s the most violent region in the world against women outside of conflict contexts
  
  The rate of sexual violence against women outside of relationships is the highest in the world in the region, and the second-highest for those who are in, or were in, a couple, the report stated.
  
  Three of the 10 countries with the highest rates of rape of women and girls were in the Caribbean, it said.
  
  Femicide -- the killing of women -- occurred on a “devastating scale” in Central America, it said, explaining that two out three women murdered died because of their gender.
  
  In some countries it has become a severe crisis. In the Northern Triangle (Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala) and Mexico the problem of femicide and violence against women has reached epidemic levels, in many cases with links to organised crime
  
  Central America’s Northern Triangle is considered the most dangerous area in the world outside war zones, mainly because of rampant gangs and drug cartels.
  
  The UN report noted that 24 of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have laws against domestic violence, but only nine of them have passed legislation that tackles a range of forms of other violence against women in public or private.
  
  It also said that 16 of the countries had femicide on the books, and a few punished newer types of crimes, such as cybercrime, political violence, or acid attacks.
  
  The UN recommended strengthening institutions and policies in the region, and allocating resources to empower women. It also advised that “patriarchal” cultural norms that maintain gender inequality needed to be addressed.
  
  The report added one third of women worldwide have been a victim of violence in their relationship or of sexual violence by people outside their relationship.
  
• Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Sayeed freed after over nine months of house arrest in Lahore
  Pakistan has freed Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the banned JuD and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack from detention. He was released in Lahore. Sayeed was freed after the government decided against detaining him further in any case.
  
  He was under detention since January this year. Punjab province's Judicial Review Board comprising judges of the Lahore High Court on 22nd November unanimously ordered Saeed's release on the completion of his 30-day house arrest.
  
  The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed. Saeed was declared a global terrorist by the US and the UN after the Mumbai attack.
  
  India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to re-investigate the Mumbai terror attack case and also demanded the trial of Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in the light of the evidence it had provided to Islamabad.
  
• Militants kill 235 people in Egypt mosque attack
  Militants killed more than 235 people at a mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai on 24th November, detonating a bomb and gunning down worshippers in the deadliest attack in the country’s modern history.
  
  No group immediately claimed responsibility, but since 2013 Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the mainly desert region, and militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.
  
  The jihadists have also attacked local tribes and their militias for working with the army and police, branding them traitors. The Sinai branch is one of Islamic State’s surviving branches following the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq after military defeats by US-backed forces.
  
  Security has long been one of the key sources of public support for the former general, who is expected to run for re-election early next year for another four-year term. He promised the attack “would not go unpunished”.
  
• 48th International Film Festival of India begins in Goa
  The 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) began on 20th November with a gala opening ceremony in Goa. The opening ceremony, which was organised at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Bambolim, began with a spectacular performance by the Drums of India.
  
  The festival was inaugurated by Shah Rukh Khan.
  
  Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that in 2019, when IFFI completes 50 years, it will be held at a new world class state of the art venue in Goa.
  
  Around 200 films from 82 countries will be screened during the nine-day extravaganza in Panaji. Apart from 20 Oscar-nominated movies, this year’s festival will have over 10 Asia premiers, 3 world premieres and 64 India premiers of international films.
  
  ‘Beyond the clouds’ by legendary Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi was the opening film, while Indo-Argentine film ‘Thinking of Him’ by Pablo César will be the closing movie.
  
  26 feature films and 16 non-feature films belonging to different languages and regions will be screened in the Indian Panorama Section of the festival.
  
  Vinod Kapri-directed Hindi film Pihu will be the opening movie in the feature film category, while Pushkar Puran by Kamal Sawroop will open the non-feature film category of Indian Panorama.
  
  IFFI will also screen two movies - Hindi Medium and Secret Superstar - for visually impaired persons with special audio-described technology. Seven award-winning films from BRICS countries will also be screened at the festival.
  
• India's nominee Dalveer Bhandari re-elected to the International Court of Justice
  India’s Dalveer Bhandari was on 20th November re-elected to the International Court of Justice as the General Assembly overwhelmingly threw its weight behind him, forcing Britain to withdraw its candidate from a hard-fought race to the World Court.
  
  Bhandari and UK’s Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election as the UN could not decide between them after electing four out of five judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
  
  Bhandari, received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all 15 votes in the Security Council to fill the final vacancy on the ICJ after separate but simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.
  
  Soon after the election results were announced, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin was congratulated by representatives of other countries on the floor of the General Assembly. The UK will not have a judge on the bench of the ICJ for the first time in its 71-year history.
  
  Based in The Hague, the ICJ has a bench of 15 judges, five of whom are elected every three years for a nine-year term.
  
  Established in 1945, the role of the ICJ is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions.
  
  The permanent members of the Security Council - the US, Russia, France and China - were understood to have been throwing their weight behind 62-year-old Greenwood.
  
  Rycroft thanked judge Greenwood for his service and paid tribute to his outstanding contribution to the working of the court and to the development of international law.
  
  However, the British Ambassador noted that this was the right time to adopt the joint conference mechanism, which he had pushed earlier, but was opposed by India.
  
  The statue of the ICJ provides in its Article 12 that if after the third meeting, one or more seats still remain unfilled, a joint conference may be formed any time at the request of either the General Assembly or the Security Council for the purpose of choosing one name for each seat still vacant to submit to the General Assembly and the Security Council for their respective acceptance.
  
• Hike in salaries of High Court, Supreme Court judges
  The Union Cabinet on 22nd November approved hikes in the salaries of High Court and Supreme Court judges. After the Seventh Pay Commission, this subject was to be discussed. The Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958 and High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954 will be amended as any decision on judges’ salaries is made through legislative instruments,” Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
  
• Centre promulgates Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance
  Centre has promulgated Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 to encourage bamboo cultivation in non-forest areas. The ordinance exempts bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling and transit permit for its economic use.
  
  Bamboo, though, taxonomically a grass, was legally defined as a tree under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Before this amendment, the felling and transit of bamboo grown on the forest as well non-forest land attracted the provisions of the Indian Forest Act and was a major impediment for bamboo cultivation by farmers on the non-forest land.
  
  The amendment will encourage farmers and other individuals to take up plantation/ block plantation of suitable bamboo species on degraded land, in addition to the plantation on agricultural land and other private lands under the agro-forestry mission.
  
• PM Modi inaugurates 5th global conference on cyber space in New Delhi
  Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi on 23rd November said digital technology has emerged as a great enabler and helping business and economies grow. Inaugurating fifth global conference on cyber space, he said rapid change in digital domain has brought changes in the entire world.
  
  Mr Modi said technology breaks barriers and has given a level playing field to the society. He said power of technology in improving governance is the need of the hour. He said, Indian IT talent is recognised world-wide and Indian companies have made name for themselves globally.
  
  Sri Lanka Prime minister Ranil Wikramsinghe said transparency is central to cyber space. Saying cyber space repository of information, He said super computer pin pointed location of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan when many believed he was in Afghanistan.
  
  Mr Modi also launched UMANG app, which is a unified platform for multiple government of India mobile apps. Prime minister also gave awards to winners of Hackathon.
  
  Global Conference on Cyber Space two-day mega event began in New Delhi. For the first time, the event is being organized in India. The theme of the conference is Cyber for All: A Secure and Inclusive
  
  Cyberspace for Sustainable Development. Representatives from 124 countries and 33 Ministerial delegates from 31 countries are attending the conference.
  
• HRD ministry launches Digital Signature campaign on Constitution Day
  Ministry of Human Resources Development has launched a Digital Signature campaign on Constitution Day affirming faith in Indian Constitution and to generate awareness on fundamental duties enshrined in the Constitution.
  
  People can join the campaign by filling a form online. 26th November is celebrated as Constitution Day.
  
• Results of preventing under-nutrition must be seen by 2022: Indian Prime Minister
  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed the progress made to prevent under-nutrition in India and has stressed that visible results should be seen by 2022, the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence.
  
  The high-level review meeting was attended by officials from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), NITI Aayog and other ministries on 25th November.
  
  The current status of malnutrition, stunting and related problems was reviewed at the meeting. Successful nutrition initiatives in some other developing countries also came up for discussion. The Prime Minister stressed on the need for working towards concrete objectives to reduce stunting, under- nutrition, low birth weight, and anemia.
  
  He emphasised that visible and measurable results should be seen by 2022, the 75th anniversary of independence
  
  Towards this end, real-time monitoring towards progress of nutrition outcomes was discussed, especially in the worst performing districts
  
  Initiatives such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Mission Indra-dhanush, Beti Bachao - Beti Padhao, and the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, were having a positive impact on nutrition.
  
  Modi called for convergence among all schemes of the Union and state governments, which directly or indirectly have an impact on nutrition outcomes.
  
• Rajnath Singh seeks cooperation of States on Central forces
  The Centre and the State governments should engage in greater cooperation so that differences on issues such as deployment of Central forces are resolved quickly, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on 25th November
  
  At the 12th Inter-State Council meeting, he said a number of steps had been taken in recent years by the Centre to promote cooperative federalism.
  
  Andhra Pradesh had opposed the recommendation made by the Puncchi Commission that Central forces could be deployed without the concurrence of the State government.
  
  It also suggested that the Centre should not charge any cost to the State government whenever Central forces are deployed at the request of the State government.
  
• Telangana govt announces waiver of all pending electricity dues of STs
  Telangana State Government has announced waiver of all pending electricity dues of the Scheduled Tribes to a tune of 70 crore rupees and ordered for lifting of the theft cases pending against them in the state. State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced this during a special meeting with ST public representatives held in Hyderabad.
  
  An official release said 40 out of total 70 crore rupees dues, the government will pay to the electricity departments and the Electricity corporations will waive 30 crore rupees. He also said each ST habitation in the state will be provided road connectivity and each ST house will be provided electricity connection at a subsidised rate, and each ST Farmer will get free electricity connection besides schemes like sheep rearing will be extended to STs too.
  
  Bilateral:
• Swiss parliamentary panel approves automatic information exchange pact with India
   A key parliamentary panel in Switzerland has approved a pact for automatic exchange of information with India on financial accounts. The pact will help provide a continuous access to details about alleged black money hoarders in once-all-secret Swiss banks.
  
  The Commission for Economic Affairs and Taxes of the Council of States -- a key panel of the Swiss Parliament's Upper House -- approved the proposed pact with India as also with 40 other countries. The proposal will now be submitted for approval from the upper chamber of Swiss Parliament.
  
  A report says the exchange of information under this framework will work like this -- If an Indian has a bank account in Switzerland, the bank concerned will disclose the financial account data to authorities there; the Swiss authority will automatically forward the information to its peer in India who can then examine the person's details.
  
  The pact proposes automatic information exchange with effect from next year and first exchange of information in 2019. It was approved by the Lower House of Swiss Parliament in September. The issue of black money has been a matter of big debate in India, and Switzerland has been long perceived as one of the safest havens for the illicit wealth allegedly stashed abroad by Indians.
  
• India-Myanmar joint Army exercise begins in Meghalaya
  The week-long Army warfare exercise by India and Myanmar, began on 20st November at the Joint Warfare Centre at Umroi near Shillong in Meghalaya.
  
  An officials statement said the exercise code-named India-Myanmar Bilateral Army Exercise (IMBAX) is aimed at building and promoting closer relations with armies of the neighbouring countries. The six-day training exercise also aims to train the officers of Myanmar Army in various United Nations Peacekeeping roles and tasks, the statement said.
  
• India-Russia sign pact for visa free entry of flight crew
  India and Russia have agreed to implement the general declaration for visa free entry of the crew of chartered and scheduled flights between the two countries. A pact on the issue was signed here recently by officials of the two countries.
  
  The agreement will facilitate visa-free entry, stay and exit of crew of aircraft of the designated airlines as well as other aircraft companies operating chartered and special flights in the respective territories on reciprocal basis.
  
  According to official estimates, around 1,200 scheduled flights ply between India and Russia every year. Moreover, about 1,100 Russian chartered flights arrive in India every year. A majority of them land in Goa with Russian tourists.
  
  Economy:
• India ranked 126 in terms of per capita GDP
  India has moved up one position to 126th in terms of per capita GDP of countries, still ranked lower than all its BRICS peers, while Qatar remains the world’s richest on this parameter.
  
  The IMF data, which forms part of the latest World Economic Outlook report of the International Monetary Fund, ranks over 200 countries in terms of per capita GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP).
  
  PPP between two countries is the rate at which the currency of one country needs to be converted into that of a second country to ensure that a given amount of the first country’s currency will purchase the same volume of goods and services in the second country as it does in the first.
  
  India has seen its per capita GDP rise to $7,170 in 2017, from USD 6,690 last year, helping improve its rank by a position to 126th.
  
  Qatar remains top-ranked with per capita GDP of $1,24,930, followed by Macao at the second position with $1,14,430 and Luxembourg third with $1,09,190.
  
  Among BRICS countries, India has the lowest per capita GDP. Russia boasts of a GDP per capita of $27,900, while for China, it stood at $16,620, Brazil at $15,500 and South Africa at $13,400.
  
  Interestingly, as per a recent Credit Suisse report, India is home to 2.45 lakh millionaires with a total household wealth of $5 trillion.
  
  As per the IMF data, the richest 10 countries in the world in terms of per capita GDP also include Singapore (4th, $90,530), Brunei (5th, $76,740), Ireland (6th, $72,630), Norway (7th, $70,590), Kuwait (8th, $69,670), United Arab Emirates (9th, $68,250) and Switzerland (10th, $61,360).
  
  The US has failed to make it to the top 10 and is ranked 13th with a per capita GDP of $59,500, while the UK is ranked even lower.
  
• Centre raises Rs. 14,500 cr from Bharat-22 Exchange traded Fund
  The Centre’s PSU disinvestment plan got a big boost with the Bharat-22 Exchange traded Fund (ETF) subscribed four times and raising Rs. 14,500 crore.
  
  With this, the Centre is estimated to have raised Rs. 52,500 crore from disinvestment in public sector units, making it the highest ever mop-up from stake sales in a fiscal year.
  
  The receipts are also expected to give some relief to the Exchequer, facing revenue losses from the excise duty cut on fuel and reduction in GST rates of over 200 items, while trying to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent of GDP.
  
  The Centre plans to raise Rs. 72,500 crore from stake sales in PSUs this fiscal, including Rs. 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and Rs. 11,000 crore from listing of public sector insurers.
  
  The Finance Ministry is still working on a number of issues, including minority-stake sales and initial public offers in PSUs such as IRCON, IRCTC, Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd and Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, apart from strategic disinvestment in PSUs such as Air India, Engineering Projects (India) Ltd and Central Electronics Ltd. Additionally, a planned merger of oil PSUs ONGC and HPCL is also on the anvil.
  
• Hyderabad Metro Rail gets safety nod
  L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd announced on 20th November that the Railway Safety Commission has given safety clearance for the project.
  
  A team headed by Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety Ram Kripal and members of the Railway Safety Commission inspected various aspects of the metro, including civil works, track, RoB, viaduct, stations, electrical, signalling and train control, telecommunication, and rolling stock among others.
  
  The team conducted speed trials on the Metro train for three days during November 17-19, 2017 and issued clearance for the Mettuguda to SR Nagar route via Ameerpet Interchange Metro Station.
  
• Moody’s Investors Service upgrades ratings of nine PSUs
  Moody's Investors Service has upgraded ratings of nine state-owned firms. These are Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL), Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), NHPC, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and GAIL India.
  
• IREDA inks $100-mn loan agreement with World Bank
  The government’s principal clean energy financing agency, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has signed a $100-million loan agreement to fund shared infrastructure for solar parks in the country. According to IREDA, the World Bank and the Department of Economic Affairs have signed the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loan agreement of $75 million, Clean Technology Fund loan agreement of $23 million and Clean Technology Grant Fund of $2 million to support lending by IREDA to the shared infrastructure for solar parks projects in India.
  
  The World Bank credit line should provide long-term funds, which will help lower the cost of the project and, thereby, the cost of generation of power and help the sector to achieve development of 20 GW through solar parks, of an overall target of 60 GW for ground-mounted solar.
  
• Cabinet approves Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme
  Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra (PM-MSK) to empower rural women through community participation. National level and State level structures will provide technical support to the respective government on issues related to women.
  
  The district and block level Centres will provide support to PM-MSK and also give a foothold to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in 640 districts to be covered in a phased manner. More than 3 lakh student volunteers from local colleges will generate awareness about various important government schemes and programmes as well as social issues.
  
  CCEA has also approved expansion and intensification of efforts for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) through sustained nation-wide advocacy and media Campaign across all districts and focused multi-sectoral action in selected 405 districts of the country.
  
  All low child sex ratio districts will be taken up in the first year itself under BBBP. 190 more Working Women Hostels will be set up to accommodate 19 thousand additional working women. CCEA has also approved additional SwadharGrehs to provide relief and rehabilitation of 26 thousand beneficiaries.
  
  CCEA has also given its approval for expansion of the schemes for Protection and Empowerment for Women for 2017-18 to 2019-20.
  
• 15th Finance Commission gets approval
  The Union Cabinet on 22nd November cleared the setting up of the 15th Finance Commission that will prescribe the formula for devolution of taxes between the Centre and States for the five years commencing on April 1, 2020.
  
  The Finance Commission, a statutory body under Article 280(1) of the Constitution, is set up every five years to decide on how the net proceeds of taxes would be shared between the Centre and States. It also decides the principles for grants-in-aid of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India.
  
  This time round, the panel will have a more unusual task with the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax. There have been many changes. The expenditure pattern of the Centre and States should be maintained and the impact of the new tax on the finances of both the pattern has changed with the GST.
  
• Wage policy for Central Public Sector Enterprises cleared
  The Cabinet on 22nd November cleared the decks for the 8th round of wage negotiations for workmen in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) by approving a policy framework that makes it clear that no budgetary support would be provided by the government for any wage increase, and the entire financial implication would be borne by the respective CPSEs from their internal resources.
  
  In those CPSEs for which the government has approved restructuring/revival plan, the wage revision will be done as per the provisions of the approved restructuring/revival plan only
  
  As per the approved policy, CPSE managements would be free to negotiate wage revision for workmen where the periodicity of wage settlement of five years or 10 years has expired generally on December 31, 2016
  
  Also, CPSE managements need to ensure that the negotiated pay scales do not exceed the existing pay scales of executives/officers and non-unionised supervisors of respective CPSEs
  
  There are about 12.34 lakh employees in 320 CPSEs in the country. Out of these, 9.35 lakh employees are in the workmen category and about 2.99 lakh are board-level and below board-level executives and non-unionised supervisors.
  
  The wage policy also makes it clear that CPSEs must ensure that any increase in wages after negotiations does not result in increase in administered prices of their goods and services. Also, any wage revision “shall be subject to the condition that there shall be no increase in labour cost per physical unit of output.”
  
• Cabinet recommends President to issue ordinance to amend Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
  Union Cabinet has recommended to the President to issue an ordinance to make certain amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The Code, which became operational last year, provides for a market-determined and time-bound insolvency resolution process.
  
• Cabinet approves India's membership for European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved India's Membership for European Bank for Reconstruction & Development.
  
  Membership of the EBRD would enhance India's international profile and promote its economic interests and contribute to an improved investment climate in the country.
  
  It would increase the scope of cooperation between India and EBRD through co-financing opportunities in manufacturing, services, Information Technology, and Energy. EBRD's core operations pertain to private sector development in their countries of operation.
  
• Oil and gas PSU mergers to be exempt from CCI purview
  To ensure that the transfer of State-owned oil major HPCL’s promoter stake to ONGC does not breach any norms on anti-competitive practices the government has exempted the merger of oil and gas PSUs from the purview of competition watchdog CCI. The Centre intends to complete the transfer of HPCL’s stake to oil giant ONGC early next year.
  
  The relaxation will be available for a period of five years. A similar mechanism has been adopted for public sector banks, for a period of 10 years. Originally proposed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2017-18, the HPCL-ONGC deal was approved by the Cabinet in July.
  
  According to the plan, ONGC will acquire a 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL, in line with the government’s objective to create an integrated energy major with businesses spread across the hydrocarbon value chain.
  
• Global rating agency S&P keeps India's sovereign rating unchanged
  Global rating agency, Standard & Poor's (S&P) on 24th November kept India's sovereign rating unchanged, at 'BBB minus' with a stable outlook. S&P said, the ratings reflect the country's strong GDP growth, sound external profile, and improving monetary credibility. It said, the country's strong democratic institutions, and its free press promotes policy stability and compromise.
  
  S&P added that these strengths are balanced against vulnerabilities stemming from the country's low per capita income and relatively high general government debt stock.
  
  The rating stance taken by S&P comes days after Moody's Investors Service raised India's sovereign rating for the first time in over 13 years. Moody's had said that India's growth prospects have improved with continued economic and institutional reforms.
  
• FDI up 17 pc to $25.35 bn during April-September
  Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country increased by 17 per cent to USD 25.35 billion during April-September fiscal.
  
  The department of industrial policy and promotion said on its 'Make in India' twitter handle thta FDI equity during the current FY 2017–18,up to September surged by 17 per cent to USD 25.35 billion from USD 21.62 billion in the year-ago period.
  
  It said that the total FDI into India including equity inflows, reinvested earnings and other capital stood at USD 518.10 billion during April 2000 to September this year.
  
  The main sectors which attract foreign inflows include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile. Bulk of the FDI came in from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan.
  
  Science and Technology:
• India successfully test-fires BrahMos from Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft
  The Brahmos supersonic cruise missile was on 22nd November successfully test fired for the first time from the Indian Air Force's frontline, Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jet, significantly bolstering the country's aerial prowess.
  
  The air-launched BrahMos missile is a 2.5-ton supersonic air to surface cruise missile with ranges of more than 400 kms. The IAF is the first Air Force in the world to have successfully fired an air-launched 2.8 Mach surface attack missile of this category.
  
  The defence ministry said the missile hit a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal from the combat jet. The land and warship versions of the missile have already been inducted into the armed forces.
  
  The defence ministry said, the successful maiden test firing of Brahmos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from Su-30MKI will significantly bolster the IAF's air combat operations capability from stand-off ranges.
  
  Giving details of the test firing, the ministry said the missile was "gravity dropped" from the Su-30 fuselage, and the two-stage missile's engine fired up and straightway propelled towards the intended target at the sea.
  
  Brahmos ALCM, weighing 2.5 ton is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on India's Su-30 fighter aircraft modified by state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to carry weapons. Brahmos is a joint venture between DRDO of India and NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia.
  
  Environment
• Climate change could increase volcano eruptions: study
  Climate change caused by humans is rapidly melting ice in volcanically active regions, which could lead to increased volcano eruptions, a study has found.
  
  The study, led by researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK, found that there was less volcanic activity in Iceland when glacier cover was more extensive and as the glaciers melted volcanic eruptions increased due to subsequent changes in surface pressure.
  
  The study examined Icelandic volcanic ash preserved in peat deposits and lake sediments and identified a period of significantly reduced volcanic activity between 5,500 and 4,500 years ago.
  
  This period came after a major decrease in global temperature, which caused glacier growth in Iceland. The findings, published in the journal Geology, found there was a time lag of roughly 600 years between the climate event and a noticeable decrease in the number of volcanic eruptions.
  
  The study suggests that perhaps a similar time lag can be expected following the more recent shift to warmer temperatures.
  
  Iceland’s volcanic system is in process of recovering from the ‘Little Ice Age’ – a recorded period of colder climate roughly between the years 1500 and 1850 AD, researchers said.
  
  Since the end of the Little Ice Age, a combination of natural and human caused climate warming is causing Icelandic glaciers to melt again, they said.
  
  Icelandic volcanism is controlled by complex interactions between rifts in continental plate boundaries, underground gas and magma build-up and pressure on the volcano’s surface from glaciers and ice. Changes in surface pressure can alter the stress on shallow chambers where magma builds up.
  
  Award:
• Lifetime Achievement Award for Girish Karnad
   Actor-playwright Girish Karnad was conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of theatre at the Tata Literature Live in Mumbai.
  
  Mr Karnad, who has been writing plays, has had his works translated into various Indian languages and helmed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B V Karanth and Alyque Padamsee among others.
  
  At the eighth edition of the Tata Literature festival the 79-year-old playwright, famously known for writing 'Tughalak', spoke on the topic 'Playing on Twenty Tongues' after receiving the honour.
  
  Tata Trusts' Big Little Book Awards', for Author in Bengali Children's Literature, went to Nabaneeta Dev Sen. This year, in its second edition, 'BLBA' recognised champions of Bengali children's literature.
  
  Book of the year, non-fiction, went to 'Age of Anger: A History of the Present' by Pankaj Mishra, whereas the fiction top honour was bagged by Easterine Kire's 'Son of the Thundercloud'. The four-day LitFest concluded with a performance by sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.
  
  Persons in news:
• Dalveer Bhandari:
   India’s nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was on 20th November re-elected to the last seat of the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election. Bhandari received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all the 15 votes in the Security Council after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.
  
• Emmerson Mnangagwa:
  Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe's President on 24th November, marking the final chapter of a political drama that toppled his predecessor Robert Mugabe after a military takeover.
  
  Mnangagwa, until recently one of Mugabe's closest allies, took the oath of office at the national sports stadium on the outskirts of Harare before thousands of supporters, dignitaries and foreign diplomats.

International: 
• Bangladesh High Court upholds death penalty of 139 convicts in 'BDR carnage' case
  Bangladesh's High Court has upheld the death penalty for 139 out of 152 convicts who were given the capital punishment by lower court in 'Bangladesh Rifles carnage' case. The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is the former name of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
  
  A three-member special bench of Bangladesh High Court led by Justice Md. Shawkat Hossain announced the verdict on 27th November.
  
  Other than the convicts given the capital punishment, 185 had been given life imprisonment, While 200 accused were awarded jail sentences of varying terms.
  
  On 25th and 26th of February 2009 a mutiny broke out at the BDR headquarters in Peelkhana in Dhaka. 74 individuals including 57 army officials lost their lives in the ensuing violence. After the incident, two cases were filed in the Dhaka's Lalbagh Police Station. 846 BDR Jawans were put on trial.
  
  A lower court awarded death penalty to 152 accused on November 5th 2013. 161 were sentenced to life in prison while 256 accused were awarded a 10 year jail term. 278 accused were acquitted for lack of evidence. In all, 568 accused were convicted. When the accused appealed in the high court, it upheld the death penalty for 139 convicts.
  
  The High Court of Bangladesh has observed that there was a motive behind the carnage to destabilise Sheikh Hasina-led government. The High Court also observed that the people behind the conspiracy had designs to create a political crisis in the country.
  
• Freedom of Oxford award taken back from Aung San Suu Kyi
  Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped of the Freedom of Oxford award over her "inaction" in handling the raging Rohingya refugee crisis and turning a "blind eye to violence" in the country that forced over 600,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.
  
  Oxford City Council in London voted unanimously to permanently remove the honour given to 72-year-old Suu Kyi in 1997.
  
  The Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring country following a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state, creating one of the world's most dire refugee crisis.
  
  While the United Nations has described the violence and mass exodus as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", Suu Kyi has dismissed all allegations. Last week, Myanmar signed a deal with Bangladesh to allow the refugees to return home.
  
• North Korea tests its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile
  North Korea said it successfully tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet on 29th November, putting the US mainland within range and increasing pressure on US President Donald Trump to deal with the nuclear-armed nation. North Korea said the new missile reached an altitude of about 4,475 km (2,780 miles) - more than 10 times the height of the International Space Station - and flew 950 km (590 miles) during its 53-minute flight.
  
  North Korea, which conducted its largest nuclear bomb test in September, has tested dozens of ballistic missiles under its leader, Kim Jong Un, in defiance of international sanctions.
  
• Russia clashes with UN and US over aid to Syrian rebels
  Russia's UN envoy has clashed with the world body's humanitarian chief as well as the US and other Western diplomats over extending the delivery of humanitarian aid across borders and conflict lines in Syria. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on 30th November that the current mandate expiring in December, cannot remain as it undermines Syria's sovereignty.
  
  The Security Council has authorised cross-border aid deliveries since 2014. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told council members that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the mandate's renewal, saying it is essential to save lives.
  
• US, China hold low-key military talks amid North Korea tensions
  U.S. and Chinese generals engaged in an unusual set of security talks on 29th November, just hours after North Korea’s most powerful missile test yet, focused on how the mighty American and Chinese militaries might communicate in a crisis.
  
  As President Donald Trump greeted the North’s launching of another intercontinental ballistic missile with familiar demands for China to get tougher with its ally, the low-profile and unpublicized meeting at the National Defense University in Washington was taking place amid signs China is more willing at this time to discuss how the two world powers would manage an even worse emergency on the divided Korean Peninsula.
  
  The Pentagon stressed the talks were scheduled long before North Korea’s surprise missile launch in the on 29th November in Asia. Officials insisted the dialogue wasn’t centered on North Korea or anything else in particular.
  
  Mr. Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from having the capability to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile using military force if necessary. He is running out of time- Some experts said the missile fired on a high trajectory that splashed down in the Sea of Japan showed North Korea’s ability to strike Washington and the entire U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
  
  The threat of a military confrontation is making China rethink its resistance to discussing contingencies involving North Korea, according to experts. Such discussions have long been off-limits for Beijing, which fought on North Korea’s side against the United States in the 1950-53 Korean War and remains its treaty ally.
  
• UN appeals for a record 22.5 billion dollar to provide aid in 2018
  The United Nations appealed on 1st December for a record 22.5 billion dollar to provide aid in 2018 to soaring numbers of people slammed by conflicts and disasters around the world.
  
  The global appeal by UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations aims to raise funds to help the some 91 million most vulnerable of the nearly 136 million people expected to need aid across 26 countries next year. The number of people in need of international assistance worldwide has thus risen more than five percent from last year's estimate.
  
  UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock said in a statement launching the appeal, more people than ever before will need the assistance. Drought, floods and other weather-related catastrophes are expected to continue racking up humanitarian needs.
  
  But Lowcock stressed that conflict, in particular protracted crises, will continue to be the main driver of need in 2018. One conflict clearly tops the charts in terms of humanitarian needs.
  
  National:
• Centre to ask all states to prescribe minimum educational qualifications for Sarpanch
  Centre will write to all states to prescribe certain minimum educational qualifications for holding the office of Sarpanch. According to Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, all state governments must implement what Rajasthan government has done.
  
  In 2015, Rajasthan and Haryana governments amended their Panchayati Raj laws and laid down minimum educational qualifications required to contest Panchayat elections. The Minister said, Rajasthan had done really a good thing, which should be replicated all over.
  
• 48th International Film Festival of India concludes in Goa
  The 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) came to an end at Panaji in Goa on 28th November. The closing ceremony was held at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Bambolim. Amitabh Bachchan. Mr Bachchan was honoured with the Indian film personality of 2017 award.
  
  Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan was honoured with the lifetime achievement award. The best film award was given to French movie 120 Beats Per Minute directed by Robin Campullo.
  
  The best director award was presented to Chinese director Vivian Qu for Angels Wear White. Malayalam film Take-off bagged the special jury award, while lead actor in the film Parvathy was given the Best Actor (Female) award. Nahuel Perez Biscayart received the Best Actor (Male) award for his performance in 120 Beats Per Minute.
  
  The Best Debut Feature Film Director award was given to Kiro Russo for Spanish film Dark Skull. The ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal was given to Marathi movie Kshitij-A Horizon directed by Manouj Kadamh.
  
  Pablo Cesar-directed Indo-Argentine film Thinking of Him was the closing film at IFFI this year, while Beyond the Clouds directed by Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi opened the festival. Around 200 films from 82 countries were screened during the nine-day event.
  
• India unlikely to cut malaria burden by half in 2020: WHO
  India accounted for 6% of global malaria cases and 7% of deaths caused by it in 2016, according to a report released on 29th November by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is in the same ballpark as last year, though the WHO figures also suggest that India is unlikely to reduce its case burden beyond 40% by 2020.
  
  In contrast, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan achieved malaria-free status in 2015 and 2016 respectively. There were an estimated 4,45,000 deaths from malaria globally in 2016, compared with 4,46,000 estimated deaths in 2015. About 80% of the deaths were accounted for by 15 countries, namely India and 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. A key impediment to eliminating malaria is a weak surveillance system.
  
  India and Nigeria, two major contributors to the global burden of malaria, were able to detect only 8% and 16% of cases respectively via the system.
  
  Moreover, 51% of Plasmodium vivax cases — the milder cousin of the P. falciparum— were traced in India. This could at least be partially explained by resistance to chloroquine, the first line treatment to P. vivax infections that has been detected in pockets of the country earlier this decade. For a long time, P. falciparumdominated India’s case burden and, though its share has decreased, there is a slight increase in malaria cases by other parasites.
  
  Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia, says the WHO, are among the countries poised to reduce malaria incidence by over 40% by 2020. India — due to low funding per person at risk and resistance to certain frontline insecticides — is only expected to achieve a 20%-40% reduction.
  
  In 2016, an estimated Rs. 13,000 crore was invested in malaria control and elimination efforts globally by governments of malaria endemic countries and their international partners. The majority (74%) of investments in 2016 was spent in the WHO’s Africa region, followed by the WHO regions of Southeast Asia (7%), the Eastern Mediterranean and the Americas (each 6%), and the Western Pacific (4%).
  
• India re-elected to International Maritime Organisation Council
  India was re-elected to the Council of the International Maritime Organisation at an assembly of the body at its headquarters in London on 1st December. Indian High Commissioner to the UK, YK Sinha represented India at the assembly where India secured the second-highest 144 number of votes from member-countries, just after Germany's 146.
  
  India has been one of the earliest members of the IMO, having ratified its convention and joined it as a member-state in the year 1959. India has been elected to the Council of the IMO ever since it started functioning, except for a two-year hiatus during 1983-1984.
  
  The IMO Council plays a crucial role in deciding various important matters within the mandate of the IMO, in relation to the global shipping industry and its work strategy and budget.
  
• Ockhi cyclone wrecks havoc in Lakshadweep island in 48 hours
  Ockhi cyclone has wrecked havoc in Lakshadweep island in last 48 hours. Heavy rain and storm has resulted in widespread damage in the area. Minicoy and Kalpeni are the worst hit. No casualties are, however, reported from the islands.
  
  In many places, houses and buildings are damaged and trees have been uprooted disrupting traffic and communication network. Heavy rain is continuing in all major islands, though the wind speed has eased, but the sea continues to be rough.
  
  The island authorities, Navy, Air Force, coast guards, police, medical teams along with civilians are involved in relief operations. MeT department reports that the cyclone Ockhi has started to move away from Lakshadweep islands, towards the western coast. The death toll in rain related incidents triggered by cyclone Ockhi in Kerala has risen to ten.
  
  Over 400 rescued fishermen are being brought safe to the shore by the Naval forces, coast guards and police. Search is on for the rest of the missing fishermen.
  
• Andhra Pradesh assembly unanimously passes Kapu Reservation Bill
  In a major boost to Kapu Community, the Andhra Pradesh Assembly unanimously passed the Kapu Reservation Bill to provide five per cent quota in education and employment.
  
  The reservation to Kapu community will be given by including them in the BC list. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that Justice Manjunath commission had recommended reservation to the Kapu community. He said, the bill will be sent to Centre for its consent. He also said that the Centre will be requested to include this reservation in the 9th Schedule, to insulate it from judicial review.
  
  The state already has 29 per cent reservation for Backward Castes. Apart from this, 15 per cent and 6 per cent reservations exist for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. With the quota for Kapus, the total reservation in the state goes up to 55 per cent, beyond the 50 per cent cap set by the Supreme Court for reservations. The Chief Minister assured that the existing Backward Castes will not be affected by this decision.
  
  The Kapu community, with 27 per cent population in the state, has been demanding reservations for decades. Before the 2014 elections, Mr Chandrababu Naidu had promised to give quota to the community on being elected to power.
  
• In 2016, Uttar Pradesh accounted for maximum crimes, says National Crime Records Bureau
  Uttar Pradesh accounted for 9.5% of total crimes reported in the country, while Delhi reported the highest crime rate (974.9) for the year 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
  
  Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 30th November released the annual publication of the NCRB, “Crime in India 2016”.
  
  This year, the NCRB has published data on 19 metropolitan cities with a population of over 2 million and included a new section on Missing Persons & Children, Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and arms seizure.
  
  A total of 48,31,515 cognizable crimes, comprising 29,75,711 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 18,55,804 Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes were reported in 2016, showing an increase of 2.6% over 2015 (47,10,676 cases). IPC Crimes have increased by 0.9% (from 29,49,400 in 2015 to 29,75,711 in 2016). SLL Crimes by 5.4% (from 17,61,276 in 2015 to 18,55,804 in 2016).
  
  Murder cases (30,450) in the country, however, declined by 5.2%, compared to 2015. Rioting (5%) and robbery (11.8%) too showed decline, while abduction cases increased by 6%.
  
  Cases under 'Crime Against Women' have reported an increase of 2.9% in 2016 over 2015. The majority of such crimes were reported under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (32.6%), followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (25.0%), ‘Kidnapping and Abduction of Women’ (19.0%) and ‘Rape’ (11.5%).
  
  Rape cases have reported an increase of 12.4% from 34,651 cases in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence, with 4,882 cases (12.5%) and 4,816 (12.4%), followed by Maharashtra 4,189 (10.7%) in 2016.
  
  Atrocities against SC/ST people have increased by 5.5% in 2016. Of the 40,801 cases registered, 10,426 were reported from Uttar Pradesh, accounting for 25.6%, followed by Bihar, with 14% (5,701) and Rajasthan 12.6% (5,134). The incidence of 'cyber crime' has shown an increasing trend by 6.3%.
  
• International story tellers festival Kathakar inaugurated in New Delhi
  Minister for MSME Giriraj Singh, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Member of Parliament Manoj Tiwari and Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu inaugurated International Storytellers Festival - Kathakar in New Delhi on 1st December. Storytellers and film personalities Vishal Bhardwaj and Mohit Chauhan were also present on the occasion. The three day event which began will continue till 3rd December at Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts.
  
  Bilateral:
• India, Russia ink anti-terror pact
   India and Russia on 27th November agreed to help each other in combating terrorism. The agreement between the two countries for cooperation in tackling all forms of terrorism was signed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russia's Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev in Moscow after they held wide-ranging talks.
  
  The two strategic partners asserted that there were no good or bad terrorists and the menace should be fought jointly.
  
  During the meeting, the ministers emphasized the strength of the relationship between India and Russia that has been consolidated over the past 70 years in all areas. A statement issued by the Indian embassy in Moscow said, the two ministers emphasized that cooperation in the field of security was an important aspect of this bilateral relationship.
  
  Indian and Russian representatives also signed a joint action plan for countering the threat posed by narcotics. This agreement will provide legal framework for bilateral cooperation in this field.
  
• India, Greece sign Air Services Agreement
  India and Greece on 27th November signed Air Services Agreement and MoU on Cooperation in the field of New and Renewable Energy in New Delhi. The pacts were inked after talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and visiting Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece Nikos Kotzias.
  
  The two leaders held a detailed discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship. They also re-affirmed commitment to further expand cooperation in mutually beneficial spheres.
  
• India, Singapore agree to enhance security cooperation
  India and Singapore have agreed to further deepen security cooperation to collectively tackle the threat of terrorism.
  
  In a joint statement after bilateral talks with her Singaporean counterpart Dr Ng Eng Hen in New Delhi, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, India and Singapore remain strongly committed to tackle transnational security threats. On regional security, both Ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining maritime freedom of navigation and trade consistent with international law.
  
  Both Ministers also discussed Singapore’s proposal to expand the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea to all ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting ADMM-Plus countries as well as to establish guidelines for air encounters between military aircraft, to reduce the risk of miscalculations.
  
• Indian and British Army exercise Ajeya Warrior at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges, Rajasthan
  Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR-2017’, a fourteen days training exercise between the Indian and the British Army kicked off on 1st December at the MahajanField Firing Ranges, Rajasthan.
  
  The training contingents comprise of one company (approximately 120 personnel) strength each from 20th Battalion, The Rajputana Rifles from the Indian Army and a similar strength from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment of the British Army.
  
  Participating troops from both Armies had concentrated at the exercise location on 29 November 2017 for pre-exercise preparations.
  
  The exercise started with address by Lt Colonel Sangram Yadav & Major David Granfield & unfolding of events that would take place over next two weeks.
  
  Economy:
• NK Singh appointed Chairman of 15th Finance Commission
   Former Expenditure and Revenue Secretary NK Singh will chair the Fifteenth Finance Commission. Former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and adjunct professor of Georgetown University Anoop Singh will be its full- time members. Chairman of Bandhan Bank Ashok Lahiri and NITI-Aayog member Ramesh Chand will be part-time members. IAS officer Arvind Mehta will be the Secretary to the Commission. The Union Cabinet had on November 22 approved the setting up of the Fifteenth Finance Commission.
  
  The panel, which is a statutory body under Article 280(1) of the Constitution, will prescribe the formula for devolution of taxes between the Centre and States for the five years commencing on April 1, 2020. It is expected to submit its report by October 30, 2019.
  
  This time around, the Finance Commission will have to finalise its recommendations in a new setting — after the abolition of the Planning Commission and Plan and Non-Plan expenditure as well as the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
  
  It will also review the current status of the finance, deficit, debt levels, cash balances and fiscal discipline efforts of the Union and the States and suggest a fresh fiscal consolidation roadmap. Significantly, Singh, who is a former Member of the Rajya Sabha, had recently chaired a committee to review the FRBM Act and goalposts.
  
  The panel has also been tasked with proposing measurable performance-based incentives for States based on deepening the GST net, population, progress in capital expenditure, sanitation and drinking water efforts as well steps to curb populist measures.
  
• PM Narendra Modi flags off Hyderabad Metro Rail
  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation Hyderabad Metro Rail on 28th November. Mr Modi unveiled a pylon at Miyapur metro railway station on the outskirts of Hyderabad to mark the formal inauguration of the first phase of Hyderabad Metro from Miyapur to Nagole.
  
  The stretch of 30 kilometres with 24 metro stations will be open for commercial operations from 29th November onwards.
  
• PM Modi, Ivanka Trump inaugurate Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad
  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28th November gave a clarion call to global Entrepreneurs to invest and take part in the Indian growth story. He said India has provided an enabling atmosphere by removing redundant laws and improving ease of doing business.
  
  He was addressing the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit after formally inaugurating the three-day event along with US President Donald Trump's advisor and daughter Ivanka Trump.
  
  Stating that several measures have been taken to provide enabling atmosphere in favour of entrepreneurship, Mr Modi said fiscal deficit has been contained and stringent measures have been taken against black money.
  
  The Prime Minister further said that by December next year, every household will be provided electricity through Sowbhagya programme. He said a comprehensive energy policy is in the pipeline.
  
  He further said infrastructure projects are progressing well and agriculture and food processing industry is flourishing in the country. Stating that India will not satisfy herself by the improvement of the world bank ranking to 100 from the 140, he said, the country will strive to achieve 50th rank.
  
  Mr Modi said India has been giving women honour and due respect from ancient times. Mr Modi said about 50 per cent of the loans under Mudra programme have been given to women.
  
  Ivanka Trump said without growth of women, humanity will not prosper. Strongly advocating that the cutting edge technology will help entrepreneurs, she asked them to be innovative and think to stand apart.
  
  Ivanka Trump will take part in two plenary sessions mainly on women entrepreneurship during the summit. She leads a delegation of entrepreneurs that has representation from 38 states of the US.
  
  Over 1500 delegates from 150 countries are taking part in the summit focusing on 'Women first-Prosperity for all'. Ten countries are being represented by all women delegations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Ivanka Trump a wooden box of Sadeli craft.
  
  Sadeli craft is a highly skilled craft technique, native to Surat, of fabricating geometric patterns in wood. It was traditionally used for decorating doors, windows and furniture. It is now also used for embellishing jewellery boxes, containers and photo frames.
  
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India upholds net neutrality
  The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has upheld the basic principles of an open and free internet in its recommendations on net neutrality.
  
  Net neutrality means that telecom service providers must treat all internet traffic equally, without any regard to the type, origin or destination of the content or the means of its transmission.
  
  TRAI on 29th November recommended prohibiting Internet service providers from making any discrimination in traffic while providing web access by either blocking or throttling some apps, websites and services or by offering fast lanes to others.
  
  The telecom regulator's recommendations pave the way to end all sorts of discriminatory practices that telecom operators may exercise to differentiate among services. It has suggested changing licence terms of players to explicitly restrict any form of discrimination in Internet access based on content.
  
  TRAI has also restrained service providers from entering into pacts with any person which discriminates on content, protocol or user equipment.It has recommended that the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) may identify specialized services.
  
  However, the specialized services may be offered by the service provider only if they are not usable as a replacement of Internet access services. Internet of Things (IoT) as a class of services are not excluded from the scope of restriction on non-discriminatory treatment.
  
  However critical IoT services identified by DoT would be automatically excluded. The other recommendations include reasonable measurement for traffic management by Internet access service provider.
  
  In finalising these recommendations the TRAI issued a pre-consultation paper in May last year and followed it up with a detailed consultation paper on 4th of January this year focussing especially on questions of requirements, design, scope and implementation of net neutrality framework in India.
  
• Ivanka Trump, Cherie Blair, Chanda Kochhar share common ideas at GES
  Advisor to US president Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and wife of former British Prime Minister Cherie Blair, and ICICI bank MD, Chanda Kochhar have shared common ideas that cutting edge technology and a strong family support will take forward women Entrepreneurship.
  
  They took part in a plenary panel discussion along with Karen Hughes Quntos of Dell company on 29th November on Innovations in Workforce development and Skills training during the ongoing GES in Hyderabad.
  
  The plenary session was moderated by Telangana IT minister K Taraka Ramarao. He stressed on 3 Cs for growth of women entrepreneurs they include confidence, capacity and capital.
  
  Ivanka laid emphasis on technology as it reduces the barriers in starting businesses for women entrepreneurs. She said technology opened tremendous opportunities for women.
  
  She also added that US government is actively considering a policy in support to providing enabling environment for women entrepreneurs by New Year are so.
  
  Taking part in the deliberations, Cherie Blair said using IT advantages will help women to reach their goals. Referring her own experience, she said by taking advantage of technology, she is reaching out women in need across the world.
  
  Laying emphasis on strong family support for each step that women take, Chanda Kochhar said her bank is providing wide training programmes that bridge the digital divide. She said one lakh youth are being trained every year in various sectors out of which 50 percent are women.
  
  In another panel discussion, Badminton National coach Pullela Gopichand and Mithali Raj and Sania Mirza opined that community has to connect with the champions and sports winners.
  
  Gopichand pointed out that the country should have a vision to encourage local sports as sports itself is local one. Sports need to be played at regional level and asked intellectuals to put their brains together to promote this.
  
  Harsha Bhogley who moderated the discussion said women are doing well but athletes are facing tough situations.
  
  There are discussions held on various topics such as future of cinema, mentoring and networking, innovations to bridge the digital divide, investments in healthcare and Agritech Matters- Feed billions by harvesting technology are among others on 29th November on the GES.
  
• ADB approves $500-mn loan for rural roads in five states
  Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 29th November said it will provide a $500 million loan to improve rural road connectivity in five states, including Assam and West Bengal.
  
  The board of directors of ADB has approved the multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) for the 'Second Rural Connectivity Investment Programme' to improve rural roads in five states of India
  
  Under this project, ADB will invest to construct and upgrade over 12,000-kilometre rural roads in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. It will also support state governments to improve rural road maintenance and safety.
  
  ADB is building on the success of previous assistance for rural roads in India. The agency will work closely with the government to improve connectivity for the rural people to access markets, health centers, education and other opportunities
  
  In the first tranche, ADB is expected to invest $250 million in December for construction of initial 6,254 km all-weather rural roads in these states.
  
  This leg of the ADB loan assistance for rural roads builds on the first 'Rural Connectivity Investment Programme in 2012' financing $800 million MFF to add about 9,000 km all-weather rural roads in these five states.
  
• Telangana govt to set up World’s first IT Campus for differently abled persons
  The Telangana State Government will be setting up the World’s first IT Campus for differently abled persons on the occasion of the World Disability Day to be observed on 3rd December.
  
  The state Government has entered into an agreement with a private entrepreneur to set up the Information and Technology campus to focus on creating employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
  
  The Department of IT in a note said the proposed campus will be set up in an area of 10 acres in eth IT park developed by the state Government near the Hyderabad international airport. The Government also said the campus will have all the amenities like Training, Residential facility and Delivery centers that will cater to various clients both domestic and International. The campus is expected to create two thousand jobs in next 5 years by providing apt training.
  
• India saved $15 billion on energy subsidies in past two years: Report
  India has saved over $15 billion on energy subsidies in the past two years, on the back of reforms to curb wasteful consumption in oil and gas subsidies along with the decrease in global oil prices, said a report by the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD).
  
  According to the report, the total value of energy subsidies from the central government has declined substantially between financial years (FY) 2014 and 2016- from Rs 2,16,408 crore ($35.8 billion) to Rs 1,33,841 crore ($20.4 billion).
  
  The report reveals that India has been steadily increasing central government subsidies on electricity transmission and distribution, while reducing subsidies on oil and gas over the past three years. Central government subsidies for electricity transmission and distribution increased from Rs 40,331 crore ($6.7 billion) in 2014 to Rs 64,896 crore ($9.9 billion).
  
  As a member of the G-20, India had in 2009 committed to “phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while providing targeted support for the poorest.” In 2016, transmission and distribution became the main recipient of energy subsidies in India.
  
  These figures, however, do not include the even larger volume of state government subsidies that have been provided through the government’s UDAY program that provided an additional Rs 1,70,000 crore ($25 billion) over 2016 and 2017.
  
  Total subsidies to coal mining and coal-fired electricity have remained stable due to a slight decline in the said period and stood at Rs 14,979 crore ($2.3 billion) in FY16.
  
  In 2016, around Rs 28,500 crore was collected through the Clean Environment Cess- a tax on coal whose revenues are allocated to a clean energy fund. However, out of this total sum, only Rs 9,310 crore was utilised for clean energy development. In the same year, India incurred an expenditure of Rs 14,990 crore to coal subsidies, it added.
  
• India’s GDP growth at 6.3% in 2nd quarter
  GDP growth rate at constant prices during the second quarter of this fiscal is estimated at six point three per cent which is up from five point seven per cent over the first quarter. It was 7.5 per cent in the corresponding period of last year.
  
  Releasing GDP data in New Delhi on 30th December, Chief Statistician of India T C A Anant said the GDP growth has seen a reversal trend from declining trend in the last five quarters.
  
  He said, this growth happened on the back of good growth in manufacturing sector, electricity, gas, water supply and other utilities. Mr Anant said, the manufacturing sector in the second quarter of 2017-18 grew by 7 per cent. Mr Anant said, agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors are estimated to have grown by 1.7 per cent.
  
• 50 new airports to come up under Udan scheme for regional connectivity: Finance Minister
  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India needs to upgrade its infrastructure in coming two decades to become a developed economy. Addressing a Defence Estate function in New Delhi, Mr Jaitley said, no one can expect infrastructure to come out of thin air.
  
  He said the users have to pay for better infrastructure. Saying tax non compliant is impediment on country's development, the Finance minister stressed that government is making more efforts to make system more compliant.
  
• NITI Ayog announces its support to women entrepreneurs
  NITI Ayog on 30th November announced its support to women entrepreneurs in a big way. Addressing a press conference on the conclusion of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, Atal tinkering labs will be specially set up at women-owned schools to promote innovation and instilling entrepreneurship among women at an early stage.
  
  He said, a special cell will be set up to handhold women entrepreneurs and assist them to get fund. He further said, the Atal innovation will have a tie-up with T- Hub, the incubation centre of Telangana.
  
  Earlier, Telangana IT Minister Taraka Ramarao announced that a separate We- Hub, Women entrepreneurs Hub, will be set up to encourage entrepreneurship among women. He also announced a corpus fund of 50 crore rupees to extend assistance to women entrepreneurs.
  
  The summit witnessed nearly 2000 delegates from over 140 countries including 500 investors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the GES on 28th November. US President’s Advisor Ivanka Trump led a delegation of nearly 40 entrepreneurs to the Summit.
  
• Union Cabinet has approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission: Maneka Gandhi
  The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the country. According to Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, the Government is committed to ensure that every child and pregnant woman and lactating mother gets adequate nutrition to eliminate malnutrition and stunting.
  
  The NNM will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies. It will create synergy; ensure better monitoring and issue alerts for timely action. Ms Gandhi said, food which is being served to children will be monitored by the Ministry.
  
  She said, the government will encourage states/ UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and states/ UTs to achieve the targeted goals. She said, results of setting up National Nutrition Mission will show up within a year.
  
  The Women and Child Development Ministry has already designed a real-time monitoring system ‘ICDS -CAS’ to track nutrition goals and Anganwadi functionality.
  
• Central Government eases mine auction rules
  More than two years after it introduced auctions as a means to allot mining rights for major minerals, the Centre on 30th November significantly eased the auction rules in a bid to rekindle investor interest in a process that has been marred by failed auctions.
  
  While 33 blocks of minerals have been successfully auctioned since May 2015, when the mineral auction rules were introduced, as many as 60 auctions have flopped for lack of interest. The development assumes significance as the Centre is looking to auction more than 100 blocks over the next 15 months with a potential value of about Rs. 2 lakh crore.
  
  States can now allocate blocks even if there are less than three bidders in the fray during the second round of auction, as opposed to the existing rule that requires the process to be annulled if there are less than three bidders in the first three rounds.
  
  For an average annual output of up to Rs. 2 crore, bidders now need a net worth of just Rs. 0.5 crore. Similarly, for an average annual output of up to Rs. 20 crore, the net worth norm has been slashed from Rs. 40 crore to Rs. 10 crore.
  
  Rigid end-use conditions on minerals excavated from a block, have been done away with. Miners can now dispose of 25% of unused low-grade ore.
  
  The Centre aims to spur increased interest in the upcoming auctions — 34 mineral blocks are in the pipeline for the rest of 2017-18. The new norms also have a clause to discourage miners from ‘squatting’ on mine leases.
  
  Sports:
• Kidambi Srikanth, Mithali Raj and PV Sindhu bagged awards at Indian Sports Honours in Mumbai
  Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, who won four Super Series titles this year, bagged the Sportsman of the Year award at the inaugural edition of Indian Sports Honours held in Mumbai. Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu was the Sportswoman of the Year award in the individual sport category.
  
  Ravichandran Ashwin, who became the fastest bowler to reach 'Club 300' in Test cricket was awarded Sportsman of the Year award while women's cricket team skipper Mithali Raj was awarded Sportswoman of the Year award in the Team Sport category.
  
  The Indian Women's Cricket Team, which ended as runners-up in the ICC Women's World Cup, were named as the Team of the Year.
  
  While star tennis player Sania Mirza was awarded the Inspirational Honour by the jury, country's first Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra was honoured with the Transformational Contribution to Sport award. Indian Sports Honours is an initiative partnered by India skipper Virat Kohli and Sanjiv Goenka, in line with their vision to support the development of Indian sports.
  
• International Olympic Committee bans five more Russians for life over Sochi doping
  Five more Russian competitors from the 2014 Sochi Olympics were banned for life over anti-doping rule violations. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a press statement on 27th November that the banned athletes include Dmitrii Trunenkov and Aleksei Negodailo, both in the gold-medal winning four-man bobsleigh team, plus biathlon relay silver medalists Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina, who also won silver in the 7.5 kilometers event. Sergei Chudinov, who came fifth in the men's individual skeleton, was also disqualified for doping breaches.
  
  It said the five athletes punished were also banned from competing at any future Winter Olympics. The IOC's announcement comes following hearings by an IOC commission into allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia at the 2014 Games, hosted by Russia. The IOC has punished 19 Russian Olympians so far on the recommendation of the commission. The latest sanctions come just a week before a crucial IOC meeting on 5th to 7th of next month to decide whether Russia can compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
  
• Competition Commission imposes Rs 52-crore penalty on BCCI
  Competition Commission of India CCI, on 29th November imposed a fine of over 52 crore rupees on BCCI, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, for anti-competitive practices with respect to IPL media rights. In its 44-page order, the CCI has found the cricket body to be in contravention of competition norms for its assurance to the broadcasters of Indian Premier League.
  
  The BCCI had assured the broadcasters that it will not organize or support another professional domestic Indian T20 competition that is competitive to IPL for a period of ten years.
  
  After a detailed investigation, CCI found that BCCI enjoys a dominant position in the market for the organisation of professional domestic cricket league events in India and described the board as an enterprise in view of its nature of activities. CCI held that the impugned restriction with regard to media rights had no nexus to the legitimate interest of cricket in the country and it was pursued to enhance the commercial interest of the bidders of IPL broadcasting rights.
  
  The CCI also directed the BCCI to desist from indulging into the conduct which contravenes competition norms. It has also ordered the BCCI not to place blanket restriction on the organization of professional domestic cricket league and events by non-members. This will, however, not preclude BCCI from stipulating conditions for approval or granting specific approvals that are necessary to serve the interest of the sport.
  
• IOA formally recognises Boxing Federation of India
  The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) was on 29th November recognised as a national body by the Indian Olympic Association, which removed the terminated Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) as its affiliate after months of indecision.
  
  The BFI, already recognised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the Sports Ministry, finally got the IOA's nod, which had IABF registered as the official body till now. The IOA's decision is expected to end the IABF's attempts at reviving itself.
  
  The body, which was first suspended and then terminated by AIBA for manipulation in elections, has been trying to keep itself afloat by organising a couple of meetings with its former members in the past few months. The Sports Ministry had earlier barred IABF from representing India as it was no longer a national federation.
  
• Ravichandran Ashwin breaks Dennis Lillee's record of fastest 300 Test wickets
  India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest bowler to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets on 29th November in his 54th match, breaking Dennis Lillee’s record during India's win over Sri Lanka in the second Test.
  
  Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record. Ashwin is only the fifth Indian bowler to complete a career 300 wickets in Test cricket behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417) and Zaheer Khan (311).
  
• Kohli Becomes Fourth Fastest Indian to Reach 5,000 Test Runs
  On 2nd December, during the third Test between India and Sri Lanka, Kohli reached the mark of 5,000 runs in Test cricket. He is the 11th Indian to cross the mark. Kohli also managed to cross the barrier of 16,000 international runs, across all formats.
  
  Kohli is the fourth quickest Indian to reach the 5,000 club. The ones reaching the mark before him are Sunil Gavaskar (95 innings), Virender Sehwag (98 innings), Sachin Tendulkar (103 innings), while Kohli reached there in 105 innings, before Rahul Dravid (108 innings).
  
• Mirabai Chanu wins gold medal at World Weightlifting Championship in Anaheim, USA
  Mirabai Chanu on 30th November became the first Indian in over two decades to claim a gold medal at the World Weightlifting Championship in Anaheim, USA. Chanu lifted 85kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk to total an impressive 194kg in the women's 48kg, in the process setting a new national record.
  
  Olympic bronze medalist Karnam Malleshwari had won the top prize in worlds twice - in 1994 and 1995. Some of the world's top weightlifting nations such as Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan could not take part in the competition due to issues related to doping.
  
  President Ram Nath Kovind has congratulated Mirabai Chanu for winning a gold medal in the World Weightlifting Championship.
  
• Odisha CM unveils logo and mascot of Hockey World Cup 2018
  Logo and mascot of Hockey World Cup 2018 have been unveiled at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
  
  As many as 16 countries, including hosts India, will participate in the 14th edition of the Hockey World Cup. The Chief Minister also launched the countdown timer for the international event scheduled to be held in Bhubaneshwar late next year.
  
  Persons in news:
• Surya Prakash: Veteran journalist A Surya Prakash was appointed the chairman of the Prasar Bharati board for a second consecutive term till 8th February 2020.
  
  A panel headed by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu had recommended Prakash's name for the post. Prasar Bharati oversees the functioning of Doordarshan and All India Radio.
  
• Snehalata Shrivastava: Senior IAS officer Snehlata Shrivastava has been appointed as new Secretary-General of Lok Sabha. She will replace Anoop Mishra. Ms. Shrivastava's appointment was approved by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
  
  Currently working as Secretary Law in Central government, Ms Shrivastava has 35 years of rich and varied administrative experience. She will be the first woman Secretary-General of Lok Sabha.
  
• Adarsh Sein: Former Chief Justice of India Justice Adarsh Sein Anand passed away 1st December after prolonged illness. He was the 29th Chief Justice of India from October 1998 to October 2001. He also served as the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission from February 2003 to April 2007.

International:
• South Korea and USA launch largest air exercise
  South Korea and the United States launched their largest-ever joint aerial drills.
  The annual US-South Korean drill, called Vigilant Ace, will run for 5-days, with six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to be deployed among the more than 230 aircraft taking part. Around 12,000 US service members, including from the Marines and Navy, have joined South Korean troops.
  
• US pulls out of UN migrant and refugee pact
  The United States has withdrawn from a United Nations pact to improve the handling of migrant and refugee situations. In a statement, the US Mission to the United Nations said, it has informed UN Secretary-General that US is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration.
  
  The statement said the United Nation's New York declaration contains numerous provisions that are inconsistent with the Trump Administration's immigration principles.
  
  Last year, the UN General assembly unanimously adopted the New York declaration for refugees and migrants. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said that the United States would continue its generosity in supporting migrants and refugees around the world.
  
  However, she said its decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone.
  
  Under Trump and his America First policies, the United States has withdrawn from several global commitments made under the administration of President Barack Obama, including the Paris climate deal. More recently, the United States pulled out of the Paris-based culture and education body.
  
• US Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump’s travel ban
  The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to fully enforce its revised ban on people from eight nations from travelling to the country.
  
  The Supreme Court order has not explained the reasons for its decision but nudged the lower courts that are hearing the arguments on the merit of the case to move faster.
  
  Two appeals courts are expected to hear arguments in separate cases, challenging the ban this week. President Donald Trump’s decision has been challenged on questions such as his legal authority to issue such an order and whether it constitutes a religious test and a Muslim ban, as promised by Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
  
  The Trump administration has argued before the courts that the travel ban is for national security. Six of the eight countries barred by the order are majority-Muslim — Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad and Somalia. North Korea and Venezuela are the other two.
  
  The Supreme Court order, supported by seven of the nine judges, increases the chances of the administration winning the case on merit as and when it reaches the highest court.
  
  Restrictions on travel by people from these eight countries vary in their details. Federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii had partially blocked the restrictions, allowing people from these countries who can establish a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S. to travel.
  
  The courts included grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of people already in the U.S. in this category and students who have secured admissions. Such people will also be barred, with the latest Supreme Court order.
  
• Donald Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital
  US President Donald Trump on 6th December recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He also ordered to start the process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. The move reversed decades of US and international policy on the holy city, which many Arab leaders warned could trigger an upheaval in the already volatile Middle East.
  
  At the same time, Trump reiterated his commitment to the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He said, United States remains deeply committed to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides.
  
  President Trump recognised that the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties and reaffirmed the United States' support for the status quo at the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al Sharif.
  
• Venezuela's Avior Airlines banned from European Union skies
  Venezuela's Avior Airlines has been banned from European Union skies after a commission determined it no longer meets international safety standards.
  
  The European Commission announced that Avior had been added to a list of international airlines prohibited from flying within the union because the European Aviation Safety Agency detected unaddressed safety deficiencies.
  
  The Venezuelan airline is one of a handful still offering international flight destinations as major carriers like United and Delta halt operations in the crisis-ridden nation.
  
• UN Security Council condemns Libya slave auctions
  UN Security Council on 7th December said reports that migrants detained in Libyan camps were being sold into slavery could amount to "crimes against humanity" in a joint statement of condemnation.
  
  It follows global shock over the atrocities suffered in Libya by African migrants, many of whom are trying to reach Europe, being sold as slaves. The council said it condemns such actions as heinous abuses of human rights which may also amount to crimes against humanity.
  
  Since the 2011 collapse of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, Libya has been riven by fighting between militias which hold captives. Libyan authorities exercise little control over them.
  
• Britain and EU reach historic deal on terms of Brexit
  Britain and the European Union reached a historic deal on 8th December on the terms of the Brexit divorce. European Commission, President Jean-Claude Juncker said sufficient progress had been made by Britain on separation issues including the Irish border, Britain's divorce bill, and citizen’s rights.
  
  British Prime Minister Theresa may said EU citizens in the UK will be able to go on living as before and there would be no hard border. She said getting to this point had required give and take from both side.
  
  May said she expected a formal agreement to be approved at the summit. The agreement paves the way for EU leaders at a summit on 14th and 15th of December to open the second phase of Brexit negotiations, covering trade talks and a transition period.
  
  Britain voted in June 2016 to become the first state to leave the EU, after more than four decades of membership, but the talks have been slow moving and often acrimonious so far.
  
• UN rejects US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital
  UN has rejected US recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The decision was taken at a special United Nations Security Council meeting on 8th December. The UN move is expected to set off alarms about the risk of escalating conflict in the West Asia.
  
  Eight of the 15 members of the UN Security Council had called for an urgent meeting to analyze the decision taken by Washington.
  
  The UN in a statement, at the end of the meeting, said the status of Jerusalem must be determined through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to reach at a final status agreement.
  
  National:
• AP Assembly okays 5% reservation for Kapus
  The Andhra Pradesh government’s move to provide 5 per cent reservation for Kapus by creating a separate ‘F’ category among the list of backward classes has evoked mixed reaction. Following the move, people belonging to the Kapu community as well as sub-castes such as Telaga, Balija and Ontari would be classified under the ‘F’ category for education and jobs.
  
  On 2nd December, the last day of the Winter Session, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the AP Kapu Reservation (of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in Services Under the State) Bill. The Bill does not mention political reservation.
  
  The Bill will now go to Governor ESL Narasimhan for his signature, before being sent to the Central Government for inclusion in the Schedule IX of the Constitution. The inclusion takes the total reservation to 55 per cent, higher than the Supreme Court-set cap of 50 per cent for backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
  
  The State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu approved the long-pending demand to provide 5 per cent reservation for Kapus.
  
  The Naidu government had constituted the Manjunath Commission to study the issues relating to demand for reservation by the Kapus. It recommended providing 4-5 per cent reservation, even as the protests headed by Mudragada Padmanabham gathered momentum.
  
• India’s first battery back-up project in Andhra Pradesh
  Andhra Pradesh is planning to develop a 160 MW solar-wind hybrid project with battery back-up facility. Significantly, this is the first such project to be developed in the country. Recently, Tesla announced the commissioning of a 100 MW power pack system, the world’s largest, in Jamestown, Australia. G Adiseshu, Managing Director of AP Solar Power Corporation, told that “this will be first such large-scale hybrid project to be attempted in the country with a battery back-up facility.”
  
• India First Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Opened in New Delhi
  India's first Madame Tussauds wax museum opened in New Delhi. Madame Tussauds has been a successful tourist attraction in places like London, Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Hong Kong. The Delhi facility is the 23rd edition of Madame Tussauds. It will be open for all seven days.
  
• 6th International Tourism Mart begins in Guwahati
  The 6th International Tourism Mart began in Guwahati on 5th December. Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union Tourism Minister KL Alphons attended the inaugural programme. Mr. Alphons said that, with unique sense of music, cuisine and culture, North East is an undiscovered gem of the world.
  
  The 3-day event where delegates from several countries are taking part will put the spotlight on India’s “Act East Policy”, blossoming ties with ASEAN and larger East Asia region. The event has been organized by Ministry of Tourism in association with all North Eastern states. Senior officials from the Railway, Civil Aviation, DoNER, Road Transport ministry will share their views for the betterment of the tourism sector of North East including Assam.
  
• Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar disqualified from Rajya Sabha
  Rebel JDU MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar were disqualified from the Rajya Sabha on 4th December. Chairman of the Rajya Sabha M. Venkaiah Naidu, in a communication, said Ali Anwar and Sharad Yadav cease to be members of the House.
  
  Mr. Naidu agreed to the JDU’s contention that the two senior leaders had “voluntarily given up” their membership by defying their party’s directives and attending events of Opposition parties. The JD (U) had sought their disqualification on the grounds that they had attended a rally of opposition parties in Patna in violation of its direction. Mr. Yadav was elected to the House last year and his term was scheduled to end in 2022. Mr. Anwar’s term was to expire early next year.
  
• Minorities Commission sets up committee to study the matter to give minority status to Hindus
  National Commission for Minorities has set up a three member committee to study the matter to give minority status to Hindus in eight states including Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. The Commission chairman Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi said the committee will give its report within three months and after examining the report the Commission will take a view over the issue.
  
  He said decision in this regard came following the Supreme Court views over the issue asking the petitioner to approach the Commission.
  
  Last month, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a petition seeking its direction to Centre to grant minority status to Hindus in eight states.
  
  The Court had said the issue needed to be decided by National Commission for Minorities and asked the petitioner to approach the commission. The other states are Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
  
• Govt enhances monetary allowances for Gallantry Award winners
  Government has enhanced the monetary allowances for the Gallantry Award winners. The enhancement is for the recipients of post-independence Gallantry Award, pre-independence Gallantry Award and the monetary allowance attached to Jangi Inam, a pre-independence Gallantry Award. This will come into effect from 1st of August this year.
  
  The monetary allowances for Param Vir Chakra (PVC) recipients has been hiked from ten thousand to 20 thousand rupees, for Ashok Chakra from six thousand to 12 thousand rupees while Mahavir Chakra recipients will get 10 thousand instead of five thousand rupees.
  
  Distinguished Service Order, Indian Order of Merit and Indian Distinguished Service Medal will now get eight thousand in place of four thousands rupees. Jangi Inam's monetary allowances has been revised from five hundred to one thousand rupees.
  
• UNESCO recognises Kumbh Mela as cultural heritage of humanity
  India's Kumbh Mela has been recognised by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Kumbh Mela was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at its 12th session in South Korea. Kumbh Mela is considered to be the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth, attended by millions irrespective of caste, creed or gender.
  
  The inscription of elements on the list helps countries which are a part of UNESCO’s convention for safeguarding cultural heritage to mobilise international cooperation and assistance for ensuring that communities continue to practice and transmit such aspects of their heritage.
  
• India declared free from Trachoma, a bacterial infection of eye
  India has been declared free from infective Trachoma which is a contagious bacterial infection of the eye. It causes inflamed granulation on the inner surface of the lids. Releasing the National Trachoma Survey Report (2014-17) in New Delhi on 8th December, Health Minister J P Nadda made an announcement in this regard and termed it as a momentous achievement.
  
  He said, the Survey results indicate that active Trachoma is no longer a public health problem in the country. The Minister said, this has been possible due to efforts that included provision of antibiotic eye drops, personal hygiene, availability of safe water, improved environmental sanitation and availability of surgical facilities for chronic Trachoma.
  
  Bilateral
• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurates 1st phase of Chabahar port in Iran
   The first phase of the Chabahar port in Iran was inaugurated on 3rd December by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. It has opened a new strategic transit route between Iran, India and Afghanistan.
  
  External Affairs Ministry in a release said, Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan represented India at the inauguration of the Phase-1 of the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar. The Ministry said, during his two day visit to Iran, Mr Radhakrishnan represented India in the 2nd meeting of the India-Iran-Afghanistan Ministerial-level Trilateral Meeting on Chabahar Port Development and involving the respective Ministers of Iran and Afghanistan.
  
  In the Trilateral meeting with Iranian Transport Minister Dr Abbas Akhoundi and the Afghanistan Trade and Commerce Minister Mr Humayoon Rasaw, the three sides reviewed and positively assessed the progress in the development of Chabahar Port.
  
  They reiterated their commitment to complete and operationalise the Port at the earliest that would contribute to bilateral and regional trade and economic development and also provide alternate access to landlocked Afghanistan to regional and global markets.
  
  The three sides also commended the recent joint efforts which led to the transit of first tranche of one lakh ten thousand tonnes of wheat from India to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port.
  
  The Ministers agreed to further intensify efforts on issues concerning regional connectivity and focusing on Chabahar Port development under the Trilateral Transit and Trade Agreement at the Trilateral Meeting. The completion of the internal procedures on the ratification process by Iran is expected to lead to full and early operationalisation of the Transit and Trade arrangement between the three countries though the Chabahar.
  
• India, Israel to open centre for floriculture in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu
  India and Israel are coming together to set up a centre for excellence in floriculture at Thally in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.
  
  The centre, the first agro-technology development centre to be set up with Israel’s assistance in the State, would be officially inaugurated on 7th December.
  
  The centre at Thally and a similar centre planned for vegetables to be established in Dindigul form the part of a three-year Indo-Israel agricultural partnership signed between Mashav and mission for integrated development of horticulture of the Agriculture Ministry. The Dindigul centre, specialising in vegetables such as capsicum, cucumber and tomatoes, is expected to be launched in January next year.
  
  These centres would not only develop agricultural practices suitable for selected geographical regions, but would also transfer the best practices to farmers in and around.
  
  More such centres of excellence are planned in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in near future, said Dan Alluf, an Israeli Embassy official. Centres in Karnataka would come up in Dharwar, Kolar and Bagalkot and would focus on vegetables, mangoes and pomegranate, respectively. The centre in Andhra Pradesh would come up in Kuppam and would work on both floriculture and vegetable research.
  
• India, Cuba sign MoU for enhanced cooperation in health sector
  India and Cuba on 6th December signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for enhanced cooperation in the health sector.
  
  Health Minister J P Nadda and Public Health Minister of Cuba, Dr Roberto Tomas Morales Ojeda, signed the MoU in New Delhi.
  
  Terming it as historic, Mr Nadda said, the MoU between the two sides is important for exchanges in the health sector and to develop institutional framework. He also suggested that a Joint Working Group be formed for implementation of the MoU.
  
  The objective of this MoU is to establish comprehensive inter-ministerial and inter-institutional cooperation between the two countries in the field of health by pooling technical, scientific and financial and human resources.
  
• India joins Wassenaar Arrangement for country's defence and space programmes
  India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement after completing the internal procedures. The membership will facilitate high-technology tie-ups for country's defence and space programmes. India has become the arrangement's 42nd participating State.
  
  External Affairs Ministry statement said that India's entry into the Arrangement would be mutually beneficial and further contribute to international security and non-proliferation objectives.
  
  The plenary meeting of Wassenaar Arrangement held in Vienna decided to admit India on 7th December. India's entry into the export control regime would enhance its credentials in the field of non-proliferation despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
  
• Urban Affairs Ministry inks agreement with German firm GIZ for technical cooperation in transport projects
  Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has signed an agreement with German firm GIZ for technical cooperation in the implementation of transport projects in Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar and Kochi.
  
  The agreement has been signed by the ministry's officer on special duty Mukund Kumar Sinha, and GIZ Country Director Wolfgang Hanning in the presence of Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
  
  An amount of around 29 crore rupees through GIZ is envisaged for this purpose over a period of three years. The main objective of the agreement is to improve planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport.
  
  Economy:
• Venezuela to launch new virtual currency
  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the creation of a new virtual currency in a bid to ease the country's economic crisis. He said the Petro would be backed by Venezuela's oil, gas, gold and diamond wealth. Opposition MPs, however, poured scorn on the plan.
  
  Venezuela's economy has been hit by falling oil revenue and the plummeting value of its existing currency, the bolivar.
  
  President Maduro has also railed against US sanctions which he describes as a blockade. In a televised announcement on on 3rd December, Mr Maduro said the new crypto-currency would allow Venezuela to advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade. He gave no details on how, or when, the new currency would be launched.
  
  Venezuela is mired in a deep economic crisis triggered mainly by a fall in crude oil prices and a drop in oil production. Petroleum is its main source of hard currency. Over the past year, the Venezuelan bolivar has plummeted 95.5 per cent against the dollar on the black market.
  
• RBI may cut policy rate: Fitch
  Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s monetary review of RBI, rating agency Fitch on 4th December said the central bank had headroom to "keep the policy rate low" to perk up the economy, which grew "weaker than expected" in the second quarter.
  
  There is widespread expectation that the RBI would maintain status quo on the policy rate. Fitch, which assigns its lowest investment grade to India, recalled its earlier scaling down of India's economic growth estimate to 6.7 per cent for the current financial year from 6.9 per cent.
  
  However, retail food price inflation rose to 1.90 per cent in October from 1.25 per cent in the previous month, pushing up the rate of price rise to 3.58 per cent from 3.28 per cent. Inflation was still within the rate of four per cent, plus or minus two, mandated to the Monetary Policy Committee.
  
  Fitch said it expected inflation to rise to 3.9 per cent by this month-end, compared with 3.4 per cent in the corresponding period previous year.
  
  The rating agency said it had revised down India's economic growth to 6.7 per cent for the current financial year from 6.9 per cent in its September outlook. It said economic growth at 6.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2017-18 was weaker than what it expected, though it was a rebound compared with 5.7 per cent in Q1. It had also cut growth forecast to 7.3 per cent for 2018-19, from 7.4 per cent.
  
• Govt's public debt rises by 2.53% in July-Sept quarter
  Public debt of the central government rose by 2.53 per cent to 65.65 lakh crore rupees in the July-September quarter compared to the previous quarter.
  
  According to the Quarterly Report on Public Debt Management for July-September 2017 which was released by Finance Ministry, the public debt was 64,03 lakh crore rupees at end-June 2017. Internal debt constituted 93 per cent of public debt at end-September 2017, while marketable securities accounted for 82.6 per cent of public debt.
  
• Reserve Bank of India keeps repo rate unchanged at 6%
  The Reserve Bank of India kept its key lending rate unchanged after its monetary policy review, on 6th December. The 6-member Monetary Policy Committee headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel kept the repo rate, the rate at which the RBI lends, short-term, to banks, unchanged at 6 per cent.
  
  The reverse repo rate was kept steady at 5.75 per cent. The Reserve Bank said the reason for the decision was achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index inflation of 4 per cent, while supporting growth.
  
  Expecting the price situation to harden, the RBI raised its inflation estimate to 4.3 to 4.7 per cent, from the earlier projection of 4.2 to 4.6 per cent, for the second half of the current fiscal.
  
  The MPC decided to continue with its neutral policy stance. The apex bank retained its GDP growth forecast of 6.7 per cent for 2017-18.
  
  The Reserve Bank said the recent rise in global crude oil prices may sustain. And it said the implementation of farm loan waivers by some states, partial rollback of excise duty and VAT in the case of petroleum products, and a decrease in revenue due to a reduction in GST rates may result in fiscal slippage.
  
  Finance Ministry has said, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its fifth bi-monthly policy statement has recognized that inflation remains firmly under control.
  
  Taking note of the MPC statement, the Ministry said that it has retained its inflation projection for the second half of the financial year 2018 while assessing that the risks to this projection are evenly balanced. The Ministry said, due to this reason, it has maintained a neutral policy stance.
  
  The MPC has also retained its annual GVA forecast for the financial year 2018 of 6.7 per cent recognizing several significant developments and emphasizing the Government’s reform efforts such as GST, Bank Recapitalization Package and improving Ease of Doing Business Ranking.
  
• Govt engages ICICI Bank to enable cashless payments on e-NAM
  The government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with the national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).
  
  At present, e-NAM participants are doing payments through traditional ways via bank branches, debit cards and net banking.
  
  Online payments should to be smooth and without any delay which is why ICICI Bank has been roped in as a banker for e-NAM.
  
  ICICI Bank will enable BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments.
  
• RBI rationalises charges on debit card transactions
  In order to promote digital payments, RBI has come out with differentiated merchant discount rates (MDR) for debit card transactions, prescribing separate caps for small and large traders.
  
  MDR is the rate charged to a merchant by a bank for providing debit and credit card services. As per the latest notification, MDR charges for small merchants with an annual turnover of up to 20 lakh rupees has been fixed at 0.4 per cent with a cap of 200 rupees per transaction by debit cards through Point of Sale (PoS) machines or online transactions.
  
  For accepting payments via QR (quick response) code based transactions, the charge will be 0.3 per cent subject to a cap of 200 rupees per transaction.
  
  In case the annual turnover of a merchant is over 20 lakh rupees, MDR charges would be 0.9 per cent with a cap of 1,000 rupees per transaction. If the transaction is through QR code, the charges will be 0.8 per cent with a similar cap. The directions will come into effect from 1st January.
  
• Govt extends deadline to link Aadhaar with PAN by 3 months to March 31
  The government on 8th December extended the deadline for mandatory linking of PAN with Aadhaar by three months to March 31, 2018.
  
  This is the third extension given by the government to individuals to link the Permanent Account Number (PAN) with the biometric ID.
  
  The Centre had already informed the Supreme Court that it is willing to extend till March 31 the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes. As of November, 132.8 million out of 330 million PANs have been linked to the 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar.
  
• EU, Japan conclude world's largest free-trade agreement
  The European Union and Japan concluded negotiations on a free-trade deal to create the world's largest open economic area, signalling their rejection of the more protectionist stance of US President Donald Trump.
  
  The two parties, who agreed the outlines of a deal in July, said on 8th December negotiators had now finished a legal text that would open up trade for economies making up about 30 per cent of global output.
  
  Japan and the EU will join hands and build a free, fair and rule-based economic zone, which will be a model of an economic order in the international community in the 21st century.
  
  Japan had been one of the signatories to the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-nation trade alliance that Trump ditched on his first day in office. Abe said a "new era" would now start for the EU and Japan.
  
  The deal, combining the 28-nation bloc and the world's third largest economy, will remove EU tariffs of 10 per cent tariffs on Japanese cars and the 3 per cent rate typically applied to car parts.
  
  For the EU, it will scrap Japanese duties of some 30 per cent on EU cheese and 15 per cent on wines as well as allowing it to increase its beef and pork exports and gain access to large public tenders in Japan.
  
  In the past five months, negotiators worked on stabilising tariffs in services, regulatory cooperation and the means to protect food and drink categories so that, for example, only sparkling wines from a specific Italian region can be called Prosecco.
  
  Discussions will continue on the contentious issue of investor protection. Japan has been reluctant to adopt the investment court system the EU has devised as an answer to fierce criticism that disputes between foreign companies and states should not be settled by opaque tribunals.
  
  The European Union is also hoping to seal free trade agreements with the Mexico and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
  
  Environment
• No BS-IV vehicle registrations beyond June 2020: Govt draft rules
   The government has come out with a draft notification to amend Central Motor Vehicles Rules to prevent registration of BS-IV compliant automobiles built before April 1, 2020 beyond June 30, 2020.
  
  In a major step to curb vehicular pollution, the government last year decided that the country will leapfrog directly from Euro IV emission norms for petrol and diesel to Euro VI standards from April 1, 2020.
  
  Issuing draft notification to amend Central Motor Vehicles Rules, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has invited objections and suggestions from stakeholders, affected persons and public by December 20 for consideration.
  
  The notification said these rules will be called the Central Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2017 and shall come into force on the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette.
  
  The notification said: "New motor vehicles conforming to Emission Standard Bharat Stage-IV, manufactured before April 1, 2020 shall not be registered after June 30, 2020." It said amendment in the rules will be done in exercise of the powers conferred by section 110 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
  
  The notification further said, "provided that, the new motor vehicles of categories M & N, conforming to Emission Standard BS-IV, manufactured before April 1, 2020 and sold in the form of drive away chasis, shall not be registered after September 30, 2020."
  
  Vehicles having at least four wheels and used for the carriage of passengers fall under category M while power-driven vehicles having at least four wheels and used for the carriage of goods fall under category N.
  
  Last year, the decision to advance the date by four years to April 1, 2020 for implementation of BS VI (equivalent to Euro VI norms followed globally) was taken at an inter- ministerial meeting for supply of cleaner auto fuel, by altogether skipping the Euro V grade norms. The decision was taken at a time when an intense debate was going on rising level of pollution.
  
  Sports:
• Deepika Kumari wins bronze medal at Indoor Archery World Cup
  India's Deepika Kumari has won bronze medal at the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 2 that concluded in Bangkok on 3rd December. Deepika, seeded third, defeated 13th seeded Sayana Tsyrempilova of Russia 7-3 in the women's recurve bronze play-off.
  
  Korean second seed Kim Surin shattered the former world number one's gold medal dream with a thrilling 6-5 win in the shoot-off and Deepika had to settle for third place.
  
• Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics over state-sponsored doping
  Russia were banned from the 2018 Olympics on 5th December over state-sponsored doping but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, Russian competitors would be able to compete under strict conditions.
  
  The IOC announced the decision after examining evidence of state-sponsored doping over several years that reached a high-point at the Winter Olympics hosted in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. The decision was taken in the IOC's executive board meeting on 5th December in Lausanne, Switzerland.
  
  However, the IOC said that Russian athletes would be able to take part in the Games, as independent competitors under the Olympic flag.
  
  Nations have in the past been barred from taking part in the Olympics, notably South Africa during the apartheid years, but none has ever been handed a blanket ban over doping.
  
• India win three-Test series against Sri Lanka
  India on 6th December won the three-Test series against Sri Lanka 1-nil after the final Test between the neighbours ended in a draw at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. The visitors made 299 for the loss of 5 wickets on the fifth and final day on 6th December. Skipper Virat Kohli was adjudged Man of the Match and Man of the Series for his two double centuries.
  
• Sushil Kumar resigns as National Sports Observer
  Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar has also quit his role as a National Sports Observer for wrestling. He was among 12 national observers appointed in March this year.
  
• Virak Kohli in second position in ICC Test Player rankings
  India captain Virat Kohli has moved up three places to grab second position among batsmen in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings, after registering his career-best score in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka, which ended in a draw in New Delhi on 6th December.
  
  Australia captain Steve Smith, is the current No. 1 in ODIs and T20Is. Smith is now on 938 points while Kohli is on 893 points.
  
• India wins five medals at 10th Asian Airgun Shooting Championships
  India won five medals at the 10th Asian Airgun Shooting Championships in Japan. On the opening day of the competition at Wako City on 8th December, Ravi Kumar won an individual bronze in the men's 10 metre air rifle, while Arjun Babuta won individual silver in the corresponding junior men's event.
  
  India also bagged three team silver medals in each of the three air rifle events. However, Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang missed out on an individual podium finish. Overall, India had seven individual finalists across the three events held on 8th December. This will be the same range where the shooting competitions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be hosted.
  
  Awards:
• Time names 'The Silence Breakers' as Person of the Year for 2017
   Time magazine has named 'the silence breakers' its Person of the Year for 2017 referring to those individuals, mostly women, who came forward this year to publicly expose patterns of sexual harassment and assault by powerful public figures in America.
  
  Those recognized by Time range from famous actresses who took on disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to ordinary women who shared their stories of abuse using the hashtag #MeToo and its foreign language equivalents.
  
  One of the figures singled out by Time, Ashley Judd was the first actress to come forward on the record to make accusations against the 65-year-old Weinstein.
  
  Persons in news:
• Narendra Modi: Microblogging site Twitter has said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most tweeted about world leader after US President Donald Trump this year. The figures were released on 4th December.
  
  Twitter said, Mr Modi with 37.5 million followers is the second most tweeted about world leader, after Mr Trump with 44.1 million followers. Other world leaders to figure in the top-10 list include Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
  
  Two postings of former US President Barack Obama were among the top-three most-liked tweets of 2017. His two other tweets were among the 10 most popular tweets of the year. Mr Obama's twitter handle has 97.6 million followers.
  
• DK Sarraf: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of DK Sarraf, the former Chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, as the new Chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
  
  S Rath, the Former Director (Operations), Oil India Limited, has also been appointed as a Member in the board after replacing K K Jha. SS Chahar, Ex-Member, Cyber Appellate Tribunal, too, has been appointed as Member (Legal) in the board.
  
• Shashi Kapoor: Veteran Bollywood actor and the romantic screen icon of the 70s and early 80s, Shashi Kapoor who immortalised the line "Mere Paas Maa Hai", died on 4th December after prolonged illness. He took his last breath at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai.
  
  Born on March 18, 1938, to the illustrious theatre and film actor Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor hit the spotlight at the age of four, acting in plays directed and produced by his father.
  
  The youngest of Prithviraj’s three sons, Shashi Kapoor appeared in over 175 films including some international projects. He started acting in films as a child artiste in Raj Kapoor's films ‘Aag’ and ‘Awara’ in the late '40s. Some of his memorable films include "Deewar", Waqt, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Kanyadaan, Sharmilee, "Kabhie Kabhie", "Namak Halal", Satyam Shivam Sundaram, "Kaala Pathar" and others. He also worked in some offbeat films like ‘Chaar Diwari’ and ‘Prem Patra’.
  
  He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2011 and received the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award in 2015.

International: 
• UN tells North Korea to keep communication channels open to avoid risk of war
  The United Nations has told North Korea that there is an urgent need to keep channels open to avoid the risk of war. The UN said this in a statement after the visit of its under-secretary-general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman's to Pyongyang, the first highest-level trip by a UN official to the isolated nation in six years. The statement said, during the visit, Mr Feltman had a series of meetings with North Korean Foreign Minister Yong Ho and his deputy PAK Myong Guk.
  
  They exchanged views on the Korean Peninsula and agreed that the current situation was the most tense and dangerous peace and a security issue in the world.
  
  The UN envoy emphasised the need for the implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions. He said, there can only be a diplomatic solution to the situation, achieved through a process of sincere dialogue. North Korea said, it has agreed to regular communication with the UN. Mr Feltman's visit came after the US and South Korea launched their biggest-ever annual joint air exercises.
  
  The exercises were held a week after North Korea test-fired a powerful new intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say is capable of reaching the US.
  
• India, China, Russia vow to boost maritime trade, fight terrorism
  Notwithstanding the South China Sea dispute, India, China and Russia on 11th December agreed to support freedom of navigation and overflight rights based on the principles of international law in an effort to boost maritime trade.
  
  This was reiterated during the 15th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China, also known as the RIC. Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi and his Russia counterpart Sergei Lavrov held the meeting with Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.
  
  The statement assumes importance considering that freedom of navigation has come under threat with China ignoring The Hague Tribunal’s verdict on South China Sea. Ever since South China Sea dispute escalated, India has always asserted adherence to international maritime law.
  
  On the issue of tackling terrorism, the joint communiqué called for “swift and effective” implementation of existing international commitments on countering terrorism, including the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and targeted sanctions relating to terrorism and the FATF International Standards worldwide.
  
  In another significant decision, the RIC Foreign Ministers also welcomed the beginning of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed upon between E3/EU+3 and Iran in Vienna on July 14, 2015 regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.
  
• US reject solution to food security issue at WTO meeting
  Talks at the 11th Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Buenos Aires appear to be heading towards a collapse, as the US has refused to engage in the effort to find a permanent solution to the public stock holding issue. On the third-day of the conference, Assistant US Trade Representative Sharon Lauritsen said, the permanent solution was not acceptable to America.
  
  India has all through been maintaining that a permanent solution was a must have and failure to do so would impact the credibility of the strong multilateral trade institution.
  
  The Indian delegation, led by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, in cooperation with the G33 grouping, is pitching hard for a permanent solution as it is crucial for the livelihood of 800 million people across the globe.
  
  The conference, which began on 10th December ended on 12th December, with very little time for any substantial retrieval of positions by the WTO members.
  
  Under the global trade norms, a WTO member country's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 per cent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88.
  
  Apprehending that full implementation of food security programme may result in breach of the WTO cap; India has been seeking amendments in the formula to calculate the food subsidy cap.
  
• More than 6700 Rohingya killed in Myanmar
  At least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the month after violence broke out in Myanmar in August. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says, based on surveys of refugees in Bangladesh, the number is much higher than Myanmar's official figure of 400. MSF said it is the clearest indication yet of the widespread violence by Myanmar authorities.
  
  The Myanmar military blames the violence on terrorists and has denied any wrongdoing. More than 647,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since August.
  
• EU leaders approved the starting of the next stage of Brexit talks
  EU on15th December approved the opening of the next stage of Brexit talks after reaching a deal on divorce terms with Britain. European Council President Donald Tusk said, this mean talks can move on to the long-term relationship between the UK and EU, including trade and security.
  
  The first issue to be discussed, as early as next week, will be the terms of a transition period after the UK leaves in March 2019. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned this process would be "significantly harder".
  
• World Health Organisation declared Gabon as polio free
  The World Health Organisation has declared Gabon a "polio-free country", given the lack of new reported or suspected cases in the central African country. According to a WHO statement obtained on 16th December, the UN health agency nonetheless recommended taking the necessary steps to continue monitoring for possible signs of the disease.
  
  Cases of polio have decreased by 99 per cent since 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries and 350,000 cases were recorded worldwide. Now the disease is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the WHO recorded four cases this year -- two in each country. Last year, there were 37 cases globally.
  
  National:
• Election Commission rejects reports of EVM tampering via Bluetooth
  Election Commission (EC) in Gujarat has said an inquiry found that the apprehension about possible Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering through bluetooth technology, raised by opposition Congress, is baseless.
  
  Chief electoral officer (CEO) BB Swain told reporters that the device which the complainant’s mobile phone detected after putting on bluetooth was not an EVM but a mobile phone, carried by a polling agent.
  
• Union Health Minister J P Nadda launches new initiatives on Universal Health Coverage Day
  Union Health Minister JP Nadda launched new initiatives including Laqshya-A Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative and safe delivery application at a function in New Delhi on the occasion of Universal Health Coverage Day on 10th December.
  
  Laqshya initiative is expected to improve the quality of care that is being provided to the pregnant mother in the Labour Room and Maternity Operation Theatres, thereby preventing the undesirable adverse outcomes associated with childbirth.
  
  Mr Nadda said, this will be implemented in Government Medical Colleges besides District Hospitals and high delivery load Sub-District Hospitals and Community Health Centres.
  
  He said the goal of this initiative is to reduce preventable maternal and newborn mortality, morbidity and stillbirths associated with the care around delivery in Labour room.
  
• Govt to set up special courts on cases involving politicians
  The Centre has told the Supreme Court that at least 12 special courts will be set up to decide cases involving politicians as accused. The Ministry of Law and Justice said this in an affidavit filed in pursuance of an order asking it to come up with a scheme for the purpose. It said, 12 such courts for a period of one year will be set up at a cost of 8 crore rupees.
  
  The Centre also sought more time to collect and collate data of pending cases against lawmakers across the country.
  
  The apex court had, last month, directed the Centre to place before it the details regarding 1,581 cases involving MPs and MLAs, as declared by the politicians at the time of filing their nominations during the 2014 general elections. It had asked the government to appraise it of how many among these cases have been disposed of within one year and how many have ended either in conviction or acquittal.
  
• Supreme Court refers petitions on Jallikattu Act to Constitution bench
  The Supreme Court on 12th December referred to a Constitution bench a batch of petitions challenging Tamil Nadu’s Jallikattu Act permitting the bull-taming sport.
  
  The Constitution Bench has been asked to decide whether jallikattu is a cultural right, and whether states can claim protection under Article 29 of the Constitution - which ensures the protection of interests of minorities.
  
  The Bench will also examine whether the Tamil Nadu government had the legislative competence to make amendments and bring in a new law.
  
  On January 23rd, the Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Bill, 2017, exempting jallikattu from the purview of penalty under rules for the list of performing animals.
  
  The Supreme Court had banned jallikattu in May 2014. The court held that bulls cannot be used as performing animals either for jallikattu or for bullock cart races anywhere in the country.
  
  Following this, the central government had passed a notification exempting Jallikattu from the law, which was later stayed by the apex court.
  
• PM Modi dedicates Scorpene-class submarine INS Kalvari to the nation
  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation INS Kalvari, the first of the six Scorpene-class submarines, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on14th December. According to Prime Minister India is playing an important role in combating terrorism via sea, piracy, drug smuggling or illegal fishing.
  
  The Prime Minister coined the acronym SAGAR as 'Security And Growth for All in the Region'.
  
• Central Government approves draft legislation banning instant triple talaq
  The government on 15th December approved a draft law under which the practice of giving instant triple talaq would be made illegal and void and would attract a jail term of three years for the husband.
  
  The draft 'Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill' was considered by the Union cabinet which gave its nod.
  
  The draft was prepared by an inter-ministerial group headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The other members included External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and his junior in the ministry P P Chaudhary.
  
  The proposed law would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat' and it would give power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children.
  • Under the draft law, the practice of giving instant triple talaq would be made illegal & would attract a jail term of 3 years for husband.
  • The proposed law would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat'.
  • The law would give power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children
  
  
  Bilateral:
• Tripura CM Manik Sarkar inaugurates Indo-Bangla Friendship Park at Chottakhola
  Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on 16th December inaugurated Indo-Bangla Friendship Park at Chottakhola in South Tripura district. Chief Minister said this park is a historic witness of friendship between Tripura and Bangladesh. The foundation stone for the 20 hectare park, which encompasses seven hillocks and a lake near the Trishna wild life sanctuary, was laid by the then Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in November 2010.
  
  Two statues of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Indira Gandhi, were put up in the park which was earlier a base for Bangladeshi freedom fighters from where they launched operations against the Pakistani army in Noakhali, Feni and parts of Comilla district of Bangladesh. Space has been alloted to the Indian Army to set up war memoirs and memorials in the park.
  
  Economy:
• Centre sanctions Rs. 75 crore for setting up LPG bottling plant in Meghalaya
   The Centre has sanctioned Rs. 75 crore for setting up a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Meghalaya. Meghalaya is the only state in the region which has no bottling plant.
  
  Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the new bottling plant will be constructed at an existing site located in Shillong itself.
  
  A memorandum of understanding was inked between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the state government in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in Shillong on 9th December.
  
  Union Petroleum Minister said that the Centre has decided to implement the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in the state in full swing.
  
  He said that only 27 per cent of the households in the state are linked with LPG connectivity which is much below the national average.
  
• India to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2018, 7.4 per cent in 2019: UN report
  Indian economy is likely to grow by 7.2 per cent in 2018 and go up further to 7.4 per cent in the following year on the back of strong private consumption, public investment and the ongoing structural reforms, says a UN report.
  
  The 'World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018' report unveiled by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) said overall, economic outlook for South Asia is seen largely favourable and steady for the short term, notwithstanding significant medium-term challenges.
  
  On India, the report has projected a positive outlook despite the slowdown early this year and the lingering effects of demonetisation. The UN DESA report said the GDP growth is projected to accelerate from 6.7 per cent in 2017 to 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019.
  
• India seeks permanent solution to food stockpile issue at WTO
  India has called upon WTO members to find a permanent solution to the public food stockpile issue, saying it concerns the survival of 800 million hungry people across the globe. It also asked them to refrain from raising new issues, especially those which are not linked to trade.
  
  In his address at the plenary session of the 11th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Buenos Aires, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu urged the member countries to reaffirm their commitment to a rule-based multilateral trading system as it would benefit the entire world.
  
  Under the global trade norms, a WTO member country's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 percent of the value of production based on the reference price of 1986-88.
  
  Apprehending that the full implementation of food security programme may result in breach of the WTO cap, India has been seeking amendments to the formula for calculating the food subsidy cap.
  
• Rural job scheme not reducing migration significantly, shows survey
  The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) has succeeded in creating livelihood assets but might not have a big impact in curbing migration -- one of its objective.
  
  According to a survey conducted by Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), almost 78 per cent of households covered reported an increase in water table after building conservation structures through MGNREGA.
  
  There was an 11 per cent increase in rural incomes. But around 80 per cent of the surveyed districts did not show any change in migration. Only 20 per cent districts reported a dip in migration, the survey showed.
  
  In all the 30 districts the survey covered, around 18 per cent beneficiary households of the natural resource management (NRM) component under MGNREGA reported migration with a range varying from 8 per cent in Mahendergarh (Haryana) to 40 per cent in Nainital (Uttaranchal).
  
  The study was conducted in 21 states spread over 14 agro-climatic zones. Around 1,200 (40 from each district) beneficiary households were given the questionnaire. One of the objectives of the rural job guarantee scheme was stopping or lowering migration from rural areas for jobs.
  
  The survey found instances of a delay in wage payment beyond the mandatory 15 days in some cases. But the delay was more acute in payment of material costs than wages. Around 75 per cent of the material cost is from the Centre and the rest from states. The delay in this count could also be because of states’ failure to release their share of material expenditure, the survey said.
  
  In many regions, the average wage earned by an MNREGA worker was lower than the market rate, while in some it was even lower than the minimum wage.
  
  The selection of districts for the survey was based on NRM expenditure per MNREGA worker. The NRM component includes work related to soil and water conservation, groundwater recharge, irrigation-related works and drainage-related works, etc. Of more than 150 types of works permitted under MGNREGA, almost 100 are related to natural resource management.
  
  The survey also showed that cereal productivity increased by 11.5 per cent and vegetable productivity rose by 32.3 per cent in households in areas where such assets were created under MGNREGA. Around 76 per cent of the households surveyed said water conservation and other such kind of assets created were of good quality. Around 73 per cent of the respondents said they themselves were actively involved in the maintenance of assets created under MGNREGA on individual land.
  
• Retail inflation rises to 4.88 per cent in November
  Retail inflation has risen to 4 point 88 per cent in November this year on account of costlier fuel, vegetables and eggs. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), was at 3.58 per cent in October. It was 3.63 per cent in November last year.
  
  Inflation in eggs shot to 7.95 per cent in November on annual basis, as against 0.69 per cent in the previous month.In the fuel and light segment, it was 7.92 per cent, as against 6.36 in October.
  
  For vegetables it was 22.48 per cent in November. The inflation in the segment was a only 7.47 per cent in October.
  
  However, in the pulses segment the print continued to show disinflationary trend as it contracted by 23.53 per cent on annual basis.On overall basis, the inflation in the food segment increased to 4.42 per cent in November as compared to 1.9 per cent in the preceding month.
  
• Industrial output growth hits to 3-month low of 2.2% in October
  Growth in the country's industrial production hit a three-month low of two point two per cent in October this year. Factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production, had increased 4.2 percent in October last year, and 4.14 percent in September this year.
  
  Data released by the Central Statistics Office on 12th December showed that growth in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for almost 78 per cent of the index, slowed to 2.5 per cent in October, mining output rose 0.2 per cent, and consumer durable goods output contracted 6.9 per cent.
  
  But consumer non-durables output increased 7.7 per cent, and capital goods output rose 6.8 per cent in October.
  
• WTO talks collapse; no agreement on food security
  The talks at the WTO's 11th ministerial conference have failed, as the US going back on its commitment to finding a permanent solution to the public food stockholding issue. This brought disappointment to developing countries like India.
  
  The four-day conference, which ended without a ministerial declaration or any substantive outcome, did manage to make some feeble progress on fisheries and e-commerce by agreeing to work programmes.
  
  As the US refused to engage, the 164-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) failed to reach a common ground for resolving the food security issue, a demand raised prominently by India.
  
  Following the breakdown of talks, there was no ministerial declaration, though conference chair and Argentinean Minister Susana Malcorra made a statement highlighting the developments.
  
  For India, failure to successfully push the food security the issue was a disappointment, but the officials took comfort from the fact that the country did not yield any ground on other issues and kept its defensive interests in various fields intact.
  
  WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo expressed disappointment over the way the negotiations progressed and called for soul-searching among the member countries. The Indian team led by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, in cooperation with the G33 grouping, had pitched hard for a permanent solution to food security issue as it was crucial for the livelihood of 800 million people across the globe.
  
• Wholesale price index hits 8-month high of 3.93% in November
  Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rose to an eight-month high in November as vegetables, onion and fuel became more expensive, indicating that retail prices could see a further uptick in the coming months.
  
  Though wholesale prices are no longer monitored by the RBI for fixing interest rates, they provide an indication of possible trends in retail inflation.
  
  In its Monetary Policy statement on December 6, the RBI had marginally raised its inflation forecast for the second half of the fiscal and analysts expect wholesale prices to be on the rise as well. Official data released on 13th December showed that WPI inflation rose by sharpest pace this fiscal to 3.93 per cent in November. It had been 3.59 per cent in October this year, and 1.82 per cent in November last year.
  
  Meanwhile, the rate of inflation based on the WPI Food Index rose to 4.1 per cent in November from 3.23 per cent in October.
  
  Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index, hit a 15-month high of 4.88 per cent in November, according to data released earlier this week.
  
• Govt to bear MDR charges on transactions up to Rs 2000 made through debit cards
  The government has decided to bear the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to 2,000 rupees made through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to promote digital transactions. MDR will be borne by the government for two years with effect from 1st of January, 2018 by reimbursing the same to the banks. It will help move towards a less cash economy.
  
  A committee comprising Secretaries, Department of Financial Services, and Ministry of Electronics and IT, and the CEO, National Payment Corporation of India will look into the industry cost structure of such transactions. It is estimated that the MDR to be reimbursed would be 1,050 crore rupees in 2018-19 and 1,462 crore rupees in 2019-20.
  
• Cabinet approves continuation of National AYUSH Mission
  Union Cabinet on 15th December gave its approval for continuation of centrally sponsored scheme of National AYUSH Mission, NAM, from April 2017 to March 2020. The NAM is being implemented by the Central government to provide cost effective AYUSH services. The mission was launched in September 2014.
  
• GST Council decides to implement uniform system of e-way bill
  The Uniform System of e-way Bill for inter-State as well as intra-State movement of good will be implemented across the country by 1st June next year. The decision to this effect was taken by the GST Council at its 24th Meeting held on 16th December. The meeting was held through video conferencing and was chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
  
  The System for e-way bill generation will be ready by 16th of next month and the States may choose their own timings for its implementation on any date before 1st June next year.
  
  In a statement the Ministry of Finance said, the rules for implementation of nationwide e-way Bill system on a compulsory basis will be notified on 1st February next year. It will bring uniformity across the States for seamless inter-State movement of goods.
  
  The GST Council on 16th December also reviewed the progress of readiness of hardware and software required for the introduction of nationwide e-way Bill System.
  
  Science and Technology:
• Artificial intelligence finds solar system with 8 planets like ours
   A solar system with as many planets as our own has been discovered with the help of NASA's Kepler space telescope and artificial intelligence, according to the US space agency. However, none of the planets are expected to be hospitable to life.
  
  The eight-planet system -- the largest known outside of ours -- orbits a star called Kepler 90 some 2,545 light-years away. The newly identified planet, Kepler-90i, is a rocky planet like Earth, but orbits its star once every 14.4 days, meaning a full year there is the same as two weeks on Earth. NASA calculated its average temperature at about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426 Celsius) -- as hot as Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. Scientists found it by using machine learning from Google.
  
  The process involved teaching a computer to scan a trove of 35,000 possible planetary signals collected from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope for search for signs of planetary transits. Transits are the dimming of light when planets pass in front of a star.
  
  The Kepler Space Telescope launched in 2009, and has scanned some 150,000 stars. Astronomers have already confirmed the existence of some 2,500 far-away worlds using Kepler data.
  
  More planets are expected to be found, because researchers plan to apply their neural network to Kepler's full set of more than 150,000 stars. One day, artificial intelligence might even be used to search specifically for more Earth-like planets, which have proven difficult to pin down.
  
  Sports:
• India won bronze medal at Hockey World League Final
  India has reclaimed the bronze medal at the Hockey World League (HWL) Final tournament. In the third-fourth place classification match at Bhubaneswar on 10th July, India defeated Germany. India had also won the bronze in the last edition of the tournament in Raipur in 2015.
  
  Australia defeated Rio Olympics champions Argentina 2-1 in the final of the Hockey World League Final to win gold at Bhubaneswar on 10th December.
  
• India bags 4 Youth Olympic Games quotas, 21 Medals at Asian Championship
  India bagged 21medals at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol at Wako City Japan and also booked 4 Youth Olympic Games quotas.
  
  Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker booked quota places for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) by winning a gold and a silver each on 11th December. Chaudhary won both the individual as well as the Team gold in the men's 10m Air Pistol Youth event, while Bhaker clinched a silver in the women's 10m Air Pistol Youth. India claimed another silver in junior women's 10m Air Pistol.
  
  In all, India added four medals to their kitty on the final day of the competition to finish with a total haul of 21 medals over four days, including six gold, eight silver and seven bronze, besides four Youth Olympic Games quotas.
  
• Roger Federer named BBC overseas sports personality of the year
  Roger Federer has been voted BBC overseas sports personality of the year for a record fourth time. The honour comes after an astonishing season during which he picked up two more Grand Slam titles.
  
  The Swiss who returned from six months out with knee trouble to win the Australian Open before picking up a record eighth Wimbledon crown ranked world number two behind his great rival Rafael Nadal. Federer previously won the award in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Muhammad Ali and Usain Bolt have each won it three times.
  
• India win 10 golds at Johannesburg Commonwealth Wrestling Championship
  Indian wreslters won 10 gold medals and as many silver on 16th December at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Gold medal winners are: Rajender Kumar in 55 kg, Manish in 60 kg, Vikas in 63 kg, Anil Kumar in 67 kg, Aditya Kundu in 72 kg, Gurpreet in 77 kg, Harpreet in 82 kg, Sunil in 87 kg, Hardeep in 97 kg, and Naveen in 130 kg category.
  
  The wrestlers who bagged the ten Silver medals are: Naveen in 55 kg, Gyanender in 60 kg, Gaurav Sharma in 63 kg, Manish in 67 kg, Kuldeep Malik in 72 kg, Manjeet in 77 kg, Amarnath in 82 kg, Prabhpal Singh in 87 kg, Sumit in 97 kg, and Sonu in 130 kg.
  
• Official emblems for Beijing 2022 Winter Games unveiled
  The emblems of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have been named "Winter Dream" and "Flight," respectively. The emblem launching ceremony was held at the National Aquatic Center, which staged the swimming events during the Beijing 2008 Games. In 2022, this venue will be transformed into an ice rink for curling games.
  
  At the launch ceremony, a series of performances were staged with a theme of Winter Olympic Dream. The chief designer of the two emblems is Lin Cunzhen, deputy dean of China Central Academy of Fine Arts' Design School. She started her work in the field of Olympic emblem design back in 2003.

International:
• Sebastian Pinera wins Chile's presidential election
  Billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera won Chile's presidency against Alejandro Guillier. With 98.44 percent of the ballots counted, Pinera, 68, had won 54.57 percent in the run-off vote, to 45.43 percent for senator Guillier, a wider than expected margin in a race that pollsters had predicted would be tight.
  
• US vetoes UN resolution rejecting Trump’s Jerusalem decision
  The United States on 19th December vetoed a draft UN resolution rejecting President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, after all 14 other Security Council members backed the measure. The veto cast by US Ambassador Nikki Haley highlighted Washington's isolation over Trump's announcement that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively ignoring Palestinian claims on the city.
  
  Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that backed the measure asserting that any decisions on the status of Jerusalem "have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded."
  
  Egypt put forward the draft resolution which had included a call on all countries to refrain from opening embassies in Jerusalem, reflecting concerns that other governments could follow the US lead. It demanded that all member-states not recognize any actions that are contrary to UN resolutions on the status of the city.
  
• Tax bill passes Senate in 51-48 vote in US
  United States Senate Republicans on 20th December passed a sweeping overhaul of the tax code in more than 30 years, bringing President Donald Trump closer to scoring his first major legislative victory
  
  The Senate approved the $1.5 trillion tax bill, which includes permanent tax breaks for corporations and temporary tax cuts for individuals, by a final vote of 51-48. The House of Representatives earlier approved the bill comfortably. It was passed by 227 to 203 votes. Republicans have majorities in both Houses of Congress.
  
  For final approval, legislation must go back to the House for a procedural issue before it can be sent to the White House for the President to sign it into law. Once enacted, the legislation will represent the most drastic changes to the country's tax code since 1986.
  
• UN General Assembly rejects US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
  The United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, on 21st December voted, 128-9, in favour of the UN resolution to declare the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital "null and void". India voted in favour of UNGA resolution rejecting US President Donald Trump's proposal to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
  
  A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the UN resolution, nine voted against it and 35 countries abstained. The United States and Israel were joined by Guatemala, Honduras and Togo in opposing the resolution.
  
• UN Security Council slaps new sanctions on North Korea
  The UN Security Council on 21st December slapped new sanctions on North Korea that will restrict oil supplies vital for Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programmes.
  
  The council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that also orders the repatriation of North Korean workers abroad and earning revenue for Kim Jong-Un's regime.
  
  It is the third raft of sanctions imposed on North Korea this year and comes as the United States and North Korea are showing no signs they are willing to engage in talks to end the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
  
  The measures are in response to North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on November 28 that marked an advance in Pyongyang's drive to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike.
  
  National
• Panel suggests host of changes in life insurance sector
   A committee constituted by the IRDAI has suggested host of changes in the life insurance sector, including in the investment norms to improve the returns generated by the funds.
  
  The insurance regulator had notified the IRDAI (Non- Linked Insurance Products) Regulations, 2013 and IRDAI (Linked Insurance Products) Regulations in February, 2013.
  
  However, it was observed that there is a need to review the regulations due to changing market and economic environment, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) said.
  
  In January this year, it constituted an eight member committee to make recommendations on the amendments required in the regulations.
  
  The committee in its report among other things has recommended that the investment norms "should undergo significant change" with a view to improve the returns generated by the funds while taking account of the risks inherent in the various asset classes.
  
  Currently, the report said, the investment norms governing traditional business are quite restrictive, making it difficult, if not impossible, to provide competitive returns to the policyholders. The current investment regulations mandating investment in certain asset classes limit the returns that may be generated to enable better return for the policyholders.
  
  The report also observed that the expectation of generating a return of at least 8 per cent per annum is a "tall order" given that at least 50 per cent of assets of the insurer are mandatorily to be backed by government securities (G-Secs), which currently yield about 6.7 per cent - 7.2 per cent annually.
  
• BJP victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh state elections
  The BJP has retained power in Gujarat for the 6th time in a row and swept the polls in Himachal Pradesh finishing just short of two-third majority. BJP won 99 seats in Gujarat, seven seats more than the mark of absolute majority in the 182-member House. Congress won 77 seats and others 6.
  
  In Himachal Pradesh, BJP wrested power from Congress by winning 44 seats, two seats short of two-third majority, in the 68 member House. The Congress won 21 and others three.
  
  In Himachal Pradesh, Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has won, while former BJP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has lost.
  
• Inordinate delays in the procurement of key military platforms and weapons systems: Parliamentary panel
  A parliamentary panel on 19th December came down hard on the government for inadequate allocation of funds to the three defence services and inordinate delays in the procurement of key military platforms and weapons systems for them.
  
  In its latest report tabled in the Lok Sabha, the standing committee on defence particularly mentioned the capital budget allocated to the Army, the Navy and the Air Force for the current year, saying funds given to them were much less than what they had demanded.
  
  It said the capital allocation to the Army in the budget estimate was Rs 25,254 crore against a projection of Rs 42,500 crore while the Navy was given Rs 37,841 crore when the demand was Rs 51,065 crore.
  
  Similarly, the Air Force was allocated Rs 59,672 crore against its projected requirement of Rs 92,496 crore for the year 2017-18, leaving a major shortfall.
  
  The panel, headed by Maj Gen (retd) B C Khanduri also mentioned that Rs 6,170 crore remained unspent by the Army during the first four years of the 12th five year plan (2012- 17), and called the under utilisation of the funds an indication of an "apathetic" attitude towards modernisation of the force.
  
  The committee said fund crunch was impacting the three forces and it may even hit operational preparedness of the forces. It expressed unhappiness over the "customary nature" of the reply by the defence ministry to these critical issues.
  
  The defence ministry, in its reply to the panel, said it was taking up the matter of funds shortage for the three forces with the finance ministry so that additional money can be given to them.
  
• Panvel Municipal Corporation passes resolution to ban liquor sale
  BJP-ruled Panvel City Municipal Corporation in Mumbai’s neighbouring Raigad district has passed a unanimous resolution banning sale of liquor within civic limits.
  
  The resolution passed during the civic body’s general body meeting will now be sent to Maharashtra Urban Development department for a final approval. Established in 2016, Panvel City Municipal Corporation includes 29 revenue villages of Panvel taluka including Taloja, Kharghar, Kalamboli, Kamothe and Turbhe. The resolution was backed by all parties including the Peasants and Workers Party, Congress, and the Shiv Sena while rejecting the argument that closure of liquor vends will lead to loss of revenue.
  
• India, China holds 20th Special Representatives level talks
  India and China on 22nd December held Special Representative level talks on Boundary Question in New Delhi. The 20th round meeting held between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and State Councillor and Member of Politburo of Communist Party of China’s Central Committee Mr. Yang Jiechi focused on bringing out the full potential of the Closer Developmental Partnership between the two countries.
  
  MEA said in a statement that the Special Representatives undertook a comprehensive review of earlier rounds of the talks and agreed that an early settlement of the boundary question serves the fundamental interests of both countries.
  
  They reiterated their commitment to achieve a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the India-China boundary question at an early date.
  
  The two sides agreed that pending the final resolution of the boundary question, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. In this regard, the Special Representatives exchanged ideas on various confidence building measures.
  
  They also reviewed the development of India-China bilateral relations and agreed to maintain regular contact and to advance the development of bilateral relations in all areas.
  
• Lalu Yadav convicted in fodder scam, taken into custody
  A special CBI court on 23rd December convicted former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and 15 others in a fodder scam case while acquitting six including another former chief minister Jagannath Mishra.
  
  CBI judge Shivpal Singh pronounced the verdict in the case pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994. The court will pronounce on 3rd of next month the quantum of punishment to Lalu Prasad and 15 others convicted in fodder scam case.
  
  Lalu Prasad, the chief of RJD, and other convicts were taken into custody immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict. Lalu Prasad has been taken to Ranchi's Birsa Munda jail.
  
  A charge sheet was filed against 38 persons on October 27, 1997. Eleven of them died and three turned approvers while two other accused confessed and were convicted in 2006-07.
  
  The RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has already been convicted in another fodder scam case that cost him his Lok Sabha seat and his disqualification from contesting elections.
  
• A Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others acquitted in the 2G spectrum scam case
  A special court in Delhi on 21st December acquitted former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi along with 15 other accused in the 2G spectrum scam case. Three companies were also acquitted. Those acquitted in the case include former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and others.
  
  Special CBI Judge O P Saini pronounced the judgement, the CBI had alleged, in its charge sheet filed in April 2011 against Raja and others that there was a loss of 30,984 crore rupees to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum. The licences were scrapped by the Supreme Court on 2nd February 2012. All the accused facing trial in these cases had denied allegations leveled against them by the CBI and the ED.
  
  The court had in October 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
  
  Special Judge O P Saini also acquitted A Raja and Kanimozhi and 17 other in the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case relating to the 2G scam.
  
  In its charge sheet, the ED had also named DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal as an accused in the case in which it had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
  
  In its final report, the ED had named 10 individuals and nine companies as accused and listed them in the charge sheet for the offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. CBI will file an appeal against the acquittal of accused persons in the 2G scam case.
  
  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also decided to appeal against the judgement of the special court that acquitted 19 people in the money laundering case.
  
  Economy:
• Indian exports increase 30.55% to USD 26.19 bn in November
  Country's exports rose by 30 point 55 percent to 26 point 19 billion US Dollars in November on account of improved global demand, government incentives and simplification of GST refund process.
  
  The data released by the commerce ministry said, the month witnessed robust growth in outward shipments of gems and jewellery, engineering goods, chemical and pharmaceutical products.
  
  The government has simplified the process for exporters to claim refunds under the GST. Input Tax Credit and Integrated-GST refunds for exporters are being expedited for quick unlocking of their capital.
  
  Earlier this month, the government had announced 8,450 crore rupees incentives for exporters in sectors like leather and agriculture.
  
  Exports had witnessed a decline of 1.12 percent to 23 billion dollars in October this year, retreating from a six-month high growth rate in September. The data said, imports also grew by 19.61 percent to 40 billion Dollars in November from 33.46 billion dollars in the same month last year.
  
• ASEAN free trade pact: House panel calls for better access to Indian goods
  The Department of Commerce should furnish a note on the assessment of the working of India-ASEAN trade in goods agreement and seek better market access for goods in order to have more balanced trade, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce on ‘Trade with ASEAN countries’ has recommended.
  
  The report, presented to the Rajya Sabha on 18th December, by the Parliamentary Committee headed by Naresh Gujral, points out that a number of items including farm products, textiles, leather and steel have been adversely affected due to the provisions of the agreement. The India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement came into force on January 1, 2010.
  
  The report pointed out that better market access in terms of higher export has not materialised for India and this was a matter of concern.
  
  The Committee is of the view that if this approach or argument is subscribed, then there was no need for the trade agreement with ASEAN, various trade instruments/agreements must aim towards better market access.
  
  The Commerce Department may look into the cause of huge trade deficit with Indonesia and review the existing trade policy framework in respect of the country, the report said. Trade with CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam) is also not at desired level.
  
  The Committee desires that the Department may engage the ASEAN member States for giving better market access to Indian goods where we have an edge over them like leather goods and pharmaceuticals, so that trade balance improves.
  
  On the decline in exports of agriculture commodities to the ASEAN, the Committee said that it was a matter of concern and should be dealt with strictly.
  
• Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 introduced in Lok Sabha
  The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 18th December. The proposed legislation will put an end to the need for getting inter-state permit to transport bamboo. The government is protecting interest of the trader and the not the farmers.
  
  The other bills introduced by the government amid the uproar included National Council for Teacher Education (Amendment) Bill, Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
  
• Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed in Parliament
  Parliament has passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 with the Rajya Sabha adopting it on 19th December. The Lok Sabha had passed it earlier in the monsoon session. The bill seeks to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business. It provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous UPA regime.
  
• I-T made ‘exaggerated’ demands on large firms: CAG
  As the Central Board of Direct Taxes races to meet its revenue collection target for the fiscal year, it has been rapped by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for making “exaggerated” tax demands on large corporate firms which were refunded in the next financial year.
  
  The income tax department had raised exaggerated demands on certain corporate assessees like State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Air India, Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Ltd, to achieve its revenue collection targets, by resorting to methods that were irregular and unwarranted
  
  The report, which was tabled in Parliament on 19th December, further noted that the demands so collected were refunded in the next financial year along with interest, which eventually put a heavy burden on the Exchequer.
  
  The CAG also noted that there were “persistent and pervasive irregularities in respect of corporation tax and income tax assessments cases over the years” with arithmetical errors in calculating income and corporate tax in nearly 500 cases.
  
  These include 320 high-value cases involving Rs. 3,851 crore of corporate tax and 131 cases of income tax and six cases of wealth tax involving a combined tax effect of Rs. 336 crore.
  
  The CAG also pulled up the department for not adopting a uniform approach to deal with cases of fictitious donations or bogus purchases that are generally used to launder money. This caused a revenue loss to the government.
  
• Lok Sabha passes Immovable Property Amendment Bill; Also clears Forest Amendment Bill
  The Lok Sabha has passed a bill amending regulations governing compensation amount payable for acquisition of immovable property by the central government for defence and security purposes. The 'Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017 seeks to amend a provision to allow the Centre to re-issue the notice of acquisition in order to ensure that the property's owner gets an opportunity to be heard.
  
  The bill will have retrospective effect from 1952. Replying to a debate on the Bill in the House, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said, the amendment is being done only for national security and defence purposes. He said, the government intention is to pay fair and just compensation land owner.
  
  Mr. Puri said, in cases where a notice has been re-issued, the property owner will be entitled to an interest on the compensation payable to them. However, the re-issue of notice will not apply to cases where the compensation has already been awarded and accepted by the claimants.
  
  The Lok Sabha has also passed the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The bill will replace the ordinance promulgated by the President on 23rd of November this year. The Bill seeks to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling and transit permit for its economic use.
  
• Cabinet approves new skill development scheme in Textiles sector
  Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 20th December gave its approval for a new skill development scheme covering the entire value chain of the textile sector excluding spinning and weaving.
  
  The Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector, SCBTS will have an outlay of 1300 crore rupees upto 2019-20. The scheme will have National Skill Qualification Framework compliant training courses with funding norms as per the Common Norms notified by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
  
  The objectives of the scheme is to provide demand driven, placement oriented skilling programme to incentivize the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organized textile and related sectors.
  
• Cabinet approves new Consumer Protection Bill
  Union Cabinet has approved a new Consumer Protection Bill that seeks to establish an authority to safeguard consumers' rights. The new bill also has provisions for penalty and jail terms in case of adulteration and misleading advertisements by companies.
  
  The celebrities endorsing misleading advertisements will also liable for fine and ban of up to three years as per the new bill. The Cabinet pm19th December approved introduction of the Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, which will result in withdrawal of a bill brought in 2015.
  
  In August 2015, the Centre had introduced the Consumer Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha to repeal the 30-year-old Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently said that consumer protection is the government's priority. Mr Modi had said that the stress is being given on consumer empowerment. Strict provisions are being contemplated against misleading advertisements, he had said.
  
• SEBI hikes FPI investment limit
  Capital market regulator, SEBI, on 20th December raised the investment limit for foreign portfolio investors in central government securities to over 1.91 lakh crore
  
  Currently, investment limit for foreign portfolio investors is 1.89 lakh crore rupees. The move is part of an effort by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to push inflow from overseas investors in the country's capital markets.
  
• Lok Sabha passes Supplementary Demands for Grants, Appropriation Bill, 2017
  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 21st December assured the Lok Sabha that every deposit of the people in public sector banks is safe and there should not be any apprehension in this regard.
  
  On members' demand for more money for Cyclone OCKHI hit States -Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Lakshadweep, Mr Jaitley said, as soon as the assessment report of the Central Team is finalised, the best possible relief will be given to these States.
  
  According to Finance Minister Jaitley, States are not losing revenue following the implementation of GST. Under the Constitution, the States are guaranteed 14 per cent increase per annum for next five years on base year 2015-16. He said, 80 per cent of GST goes to States, therefore, they cannot say that they are getting less money.
  
  Later the House voted the Supplementary Demands for Grants and passed the Appropriation bill to authorise the government to spend the money from consolidated fund of India.
  
  Under Supplementary Demands for Grants, the government proposes for additional expenditure of 66,113 crore rupees under different heads. Of the total expenditure, over 20,532 crore rupees will be provided for urea freight subsidy, while another 15,908 crore rupees towards National Highways.
  
• Union Cabinet approves new Consumer Protection Bill
  Union Cabinet has approved a new Consumer Protection Bill that seeks to establish an authority to safeguard consumers' rights, has the provisions for penalty and jail terms in case of adulteration and misleading advertisements by companies.
  
  Celebrities endorsing misleading advertisements will also be liable for fine and ban up to three years as per the new bill. The Cabinet on 20th December approved the introduction of the Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, which will replace a bill of 2015. In August 2015, the Centre had introduced the Consumer Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha to repeal the 30-year-old Consumer Protection Act of 1986.
  
  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently said that consumer protection is the government's priority. He had said that the stress is being given on consumer empowerment. Mr Modi said strict provisions are being contemplated against misleading advertisements.
  
• CRISIL lowers growth forecast, GDP to grow at 7.6% in 2018-19
  Rating agency CRISIL has lowered its projection of India's economic growth in 2017-18 to 6.8 per cent from 7 per cent estimated earlier. The gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 7.6 per cent in 2018-19, which is also lower than CRISIL’s earlier forecast of 7.8 per cent.
  
  The rating agency projected inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) will be 4 per cent in 2017-18. This is higher than the 3.7 per cent forecast by the Reserve Bank of India. CRISIL reckons inflation will rise to 4.6 per cent in 2018-19.
  
  The RBI's monetary policy committee has revised its inflation forecast for the next two quarters from 4.2-4.6 per cent to 4.3-4.7 per cent. CPI inflation rose to a 15-month high of 4.88 per cent in November, up from 3.58 per cent in October.
  
  CRISIL’s estimate of 6.8 per cent growth for 2017-18 requires the GDP to expand by 7.5 per cent in the second half of the year after having expanded by 6 per cent in the first half.
  
  India’s economic growth slowed down in the second half of 2016-17 due to demonetization. The GDP expanded by 6.9 per cent in the third quarter and by 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016-17, yielding 6.5 per cent growth in the second half of the previous fiscal year.
  
  The farm sector was expected to grow 3 per cent in 2017-18, CRISIL said. As much as 50 per cent of agricultural production was now contributed by horticulture and livestock.
  
  The IMF has projected the world economy will grow 3.6 per cent in 2017, up from 3.2 per cent in 2016, which was the weakest pace of growth since the 2008 global financial crisis. Advanced economies are expected to grow 2.2 per cent in 2017, up from from 1.7 per cent in 2016, while emerging market economies are expected to grow 4.6 per cent, up from 4.3 per cent.
  
• Demonetization has increased the number of taxpayers by 19.5%
  The number of taxpayers post demonetization grew by nearly 20 per cent. During the current financial year (up to November 11), 3.89 crore income-tax e-returns were filed as compared to 3.25 crore e-returns filed during corresponding period of last financial year, which translates into a growth rate of 19.5 per cent
  
  According to provisional estimates, net direct tax collections also jumped up by 14.3 per cent to Rs. 4.8 lakh crore between April and November this fiscal as compared to Rs. 4.20 lakh crore collected a year ago. After demonetization of high value currency notes of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500, the tax authorities also began to tighten monitoring of tax evaders.
  
  Between November 2016 and March 2017, the tax authorities conducted searches on around 900 groups, where Rs. 7,900 crore of undisclosed income was admitted.
  
  During the same period, more than 8,200 surveys were conducted leading to detection of undisclosed income of more than Rs. 6,700 crore.
  
  Between April 2017 and October 2017, around 275 groups were searched by the by the Income-Tax Department in which undisclosed income of over Rs.7,800 crore was admitted.
  
  Further, in the same period, tax authorities also conducted over 3,100 surveys in which undisclosed income of over Rs. 2,400 crore was detected.
  
• Centre recognizes Odisha as Champion state in Export
  Odisha has been recognized as “Champion State” by the Centre for recording the highest growth in exports during 2016-17. The announcement was made during a Review meeting of Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Export performance of States and formulation of strategy at New Delhi on 23rd December. The Merchandise exports from Odisha have registered the highest growth rate of 114 per cent amongst all the states. Odisha exports have increased from Rs19,082 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 40,872 crore in 2016-17.
  
  Science and Technology:
• Work to integrate Brahmos missile on 40 Sukhoi aircraft begins
  Work to integrate Brahmos missile on 40 Sukhoi aircraft begins. The work has begun to integrate the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile on 40 Sukhoi combat aircraft. The fleet of 40 Sukhoi jets will undergo structural modifications at the state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for integration of the missile on them. The project is likely to be completed by 2020 and is expected to fulfill the critical needs of the Indian Air Force.
  
  The air-launched variant of the Brahmos, the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile, was successfully test fired from a Sukhoi-30 combat jet last month, marking a major milestone to enhance the precision strike capability of the Air Force.
  
  Brahmos is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on the Sukhoi-30. The missile is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organization and NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
  
  Environment:
• Construction activities will be prohibited in river Ganga: NGT
  Modifying its earlier order, the National Green Tribunal, NGT, on 18th December said that construction activities will be prohibited within 50 metres from the edge of river Ganga in hilly areas as it would now be treated as 'No-Development Zone.
  
  A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said that keeping in view the topography of mountainous regions, there was a necessity of revisiting its direction.No-development zones are areas where no construction including commercial or residential buildings can come up.
  
  In a detailed judgement, the tribunal had said in July that "till the demarcation of floodplains and identification of permissible and non-permissible activities by the state government of this judgement, we direct that 100 meters from the edge of the river would be treated as no development/construction zone between Haridwar to Unnao in UP.
  
• Kaleshwaram irrigation project gets environmental nod
  The Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has accorded environmental clearance for the Kaleshwaram irrigation project in Telangana. The project is estimated to cost about Rs. 80,499.7 crore and proposed to be completed in three years.
  
  However, it directed the State to take care of changes in the micro-climatic conditions in the project area during the construction and post construction period of the project as it involves submergence of a large area.
  
  While according clearance, the committee directed that there was a need to plan a greenbelt and reservoir rim treatment in consultation with the State Forest Department, focussing on local indigenous species.
  
  It wanted the government to take up construction work after following due procedure of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
  
  The State was directed to ensure that at no point of time, the losers of land have any grievances on compensation and the displacement shall be taken up only after completing the process of land acquisition, including providing full compensation to all the project oustees.
  
  It also called upon the State to file six monthly compliance reports to MoEF, Chennai, until completion of the modernisation works.
  
  The project envisages construction of a barrage across River Godavari near Madigadda village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. This aims to divert 180 TMC of water for providing irrigation facility in 7.38 lakh hectares covering seven districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Medak, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts. It also proposed to stabilise the existing command area of 7.62 lakh hectares.
  
  Apart from these, the project seeks to provide drinking water facility for Hyderabad and Secunderabad. As per estimates, the total land required is about 32,000 hectares and of this, about 2,866 hectares is forest land. The total submergence area is estimated to be about 13,706 hectares.
  
  Apart from Medigadda barrage, two more barrages between Medigadda and Sripada Yellampally are proposed to be constructed.
  
  The project will have a canal system of about 1,832 km. The project lies in the interstate boundary with submergence of 302 hectares in Maharashtra.
  
  Significantly, the project requires about 4,227 MW of power to be supplied by TS Genco. Public hearings for the project were conducted across 15 districts of the State and one district in Maharashtra.
  
• Centre formally launches Ganga Gram project
  Government on 23rd December formally launched 'Ganga Gram' project at Ganga Gram Swachata Sammelan in New Delhi.
  
  As part of its clean Ganga mission - Namami Gange, Ganga Gram project is an integrated approach for holistic development of villages situated on the banks of the holy river with active participation of villagers. According to Union Minister Uma Bharathi preserving Ganga is responsibility of both government and public. She said, Centre has declared all 4,470 villages on the banks of the Ganges, located in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, open defecation-free (ODF).
  
  The minister said, of these villages, the Centre and the state governments have identified 24 villages to be taken up under a pilot project to transform them into Ganga Grams.
  
  The project envisages solid and liquid waste management, renovation of ponds and water resources, water conservation, organic farming, horticulture, and promotion of medicinal plants.
  
  Sports:
• India wins ODI cricket series against Srilanka
  India won the ODI cricket series against Srilanka with 2-1. In the first match Srilanka won, where as remaining two matches were won by India. Jasprit Bumrah won the Man of the Series award.
  
• PV Sindhu settles for silver at Dubai World Badminton Superseries Finals
  Top Indian shuttler P V Sindhu suffered yet another final loss on17th December. In a pulsating women's singles summit clash of the Dubai World Super Series Final in Dubai, she went down fighting against World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. In the prestigious season-ending tournament finale, Sindhu lost in three games to Yamaguchi in the final. Sindhu won silver.
  
• Sushil Kumar clinches gold at Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in South Africa
  Double Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar clinched a gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in South Africa on 17th December. In Johannesburg, returning to international wrestling after more than three years, Sushil defeated New Zealand Akash Khullar via a pinfall in the final of the 74kg freestyle category to clinch the yellow metal. It was his first medal in international wrestling since his gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
  
  Another Olympic medalist, Sakshi Malik, who won a bronze in the 2016 Rio Games, also clinched a gold medal in the championships. Sakshi defeated New Zealand's Tayla Tuahine Ford by a score of 13-2 in the final of the 62kg women's freestyle category.
  
  The other gold medals winners in the freestyle category for India on 18th December were Utkarsh Kale (57kg), Sharvan (61kg), Bajrang (65kg), Amit Dhankar (70kg), Jitender (79kg), Deepak (86kg), Somveer (92kg), Rubaljeet Singh (97kg) and Hitender (125kg).
  
  Rahul Aware (61kg), Arun Kumar (70kg), Praveen Rana (74kg), Veer Dev Gulia (79kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Sumit (125kg) won silver medals, while the bronze medals went to Sonu (65kg) and Azrudeen (92kg).
  
• ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year: Mithali Raj, Ekta Bisht selected
  India captain Mithali Raj was on 21st December named in the ICC Women's ODI Cricket Team of the Year while left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht was the lone cricketer to find a place in the both the ODI and T20 Teams of the year announced by the world body. Besides the duo, Harmanpreet Kaur has found out a place in the ICC Women's T20I Team of the Year.
  
  The ICC on 21st December announced the women's ODI and T20I teams of the year with England's Heather Knight named as captain of the 50-over side and Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies appointed skipper of the 20-over side. The teams were selected taking into consideration player performances from September 21, 2016 to date. Bisht is the only cricketer to feature in both the ODI and T20I teams of the year.
  
• IOC bans 11 Russians for life over alleged Sochi Games doping violations
  Sochi Games silver medallists Albert Demchenko and Tatyana Ivanova are among a group of 11 Russians disqualified for doping and handed lifetime bans by the International Olympic Committee on 21st December.
  
  The announcement comes following hearings by an IOC commission into allegations of state-sponsored doping by hosts Russia at the 2014 Winter Games.
  
  Demchenko and Ivanova were punished along with two speed skaters, three cross country skiers, two bobsledders and two ice hockey players. These latest IOC sanctions brings to 43 the number of Russians caught out by the Oswald Commission into doping at Sochi with three cases pending.
  
  The raft of punishments have seen Russia lose top spot in the Sochi medals table having been stripped of 13 of their original 33 medals for cheating, slipping down to fourth overall behind Norway, Canada and the United States.
  
  Russia has been banned from taking part at next year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea due to this widespread doping. However, athletes who prove themselves to be clean have been told by the IOC they can compete under strict conditions, and under a neutral flag.
  
  Awards:
• National Design Award for scientific adviser G Satheesh Reddy
   Satheesh Reddy: G Satheesh Reddy, scientific adviser to Defence Minister and Director General, Missiles and Strategic Systems has been conferred with the prestigious National Design Award.
  
  He bags this award for his contributions towards indigenous design and development of diversified missile systems, guided weapons, avionics technologies, and for his sustained efforts leading to the advancement of aerospace technologies and industries in India.
  
  Satheesh spearheads Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, ‘the Missiles hub of India,’ steering the design and development of wide variety of tactical and strategic missile systems. He will receive the award on December 21 in Chennai.
  
• Sahitya Akademi Awards 2017
  Sahitya Akademi announced its annual awards recognising the literary works of 24 writers writing in 24 Indian languages.
  
  "Seven books of novels, five of poetry, five of short stories, five of literary criticism and one of play and essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2017," K Sreenivasarao, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, said.
  
  The awards will be conferred upon the winners during a ceremony on February 12, 2017.
  
  Mamang Dais name has been selected for his English novel "The Black Hill", and Niranjan Mishra is in the list of winners for his Sanskrit novel "Gangaputravadanam", K P Ramanunni has won for "Daivathinte Pusthakam" in Malayalam and Nachhattar for his Punjabi novel "Slow Down".
  
  The poets who feature in the list of winners are Udaya Narayana Singh (Maithili), Shrikant Deshmukh (Marathi), Bhujanga Tudu (Santali), Inqulab (Tamil) and Devipriya (Telugu).
  
  Five writers awarded for their short stories are Shiv Mehta (Dogri), Autar Krishen Rahbar (Kashmiri), Gajanan Jog (Konkani), Gayatri Saraf (Odia), and Baig Ehsas (Urdu).
  
  Ramesh Kuntal Megh (Hindi), T P Ashoka (Kannada), Urmi Ghanshyam Desai (Gujarati), Bina Hangkhim (Nepali), and Neeraj Daiya (Rajasthani) have been recognised for their literary criticism.
  
  Jagdish Lachhani (Sindhi) for his essays and Rajen Toijamba (Manipuri) for his play are also among the winners.
  
  The award, given for books published between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015, includes a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.
  
  Sreenivasarao also took the opportunity to announce the theme for Sahitya Akademis next edition of Festival of Letters -- 70 years of Indian Independence.
  
  "A national seminar will also be organised on 70 Years of Indian Independence - Literary Portraits.
  
  "A dialogue between publishers and writers will be held during the festival where upcoming authors can talk about the problems they face like royalties, copyrights and translation. We have never held something like this before," he said.
  
  The Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize 2017 was also announced with names of 24 translators. The prize carries a cash award of Rs 50, 000.
  
  Persons in news:
• Swatanter Kumar: National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar on 19th December retired from the post after completing his five-year tenure. Justice Kumar resigned as Supreme Court judge after he was appointed NGT chairperson on December 20, 2012.
  
  During his tenure as NGT chief, he passed several landmark orders and judgements. These include the ban on 10- year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles, the slew of directions for rejuvenation of the Ganga and Yamuna, the demolition of illegal hotels in Himachal Pradesh and the ban on plastic items in Delhi, Haridwar and Punjab.
  
• Vijay Rupani: In Gujarat, Vijay Rupani will continue as Chief Minister while Nitin Patel will retain the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
  
  Union Minister and Central Observer Arun Jaitley made this announcement on 22nd December after the meeting of all the newly-elected BJP MLAs at party headquarters in Gandhinagar. According to Jaitley Mr. Rupani was unanimously elected as the BJP legislature party leader while Mr Patel was selected as deputy leader of the legislature by all the elected MLAs.

International: 
• World's largest amphibious aircraft AG600 makes maiden flight in China
  China's domestically developed AG600, the world's largest amphibious aircraft, performed its maiden flight on 24th December. It took off from the Jinwan Civil Aviation Airport at Zhuhai in Guangdong Province. State-owned Aviation Industry Corporation said, the plane has a 39.6-meter-long fuselage and 38.8-meter wing span.
  
• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny barred from running for president
  Russia's Central Election Commission on 25th December unanimously rejected top opposition figure Alexei Navalny's bid to run against President Vladimir Putin next year. The commission voted 12 to zero in barring Navalny from the presidential election, citing a controversial embezzlement conviction for which he received a five year suspended sentence.
  
  The decision prompted the 41-year-old protest leader -- who maintains that the court case against him was fabricated for political reasons to call for a boycott of the election.
  
• Syria rebel groups reject Sochi peace initiative
  More than three dozen Syrian rebel groups, including influential Islamists, have rejected a Russian-led initiative for talks next month in Sochi on ending Syria's war. Russia and Iran, both key allies of Syria's regime, agreed with opposition backer Turkey to hold a Congress of National Dialogue in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on January 29 and 30.
  
  Syria's government swiftly said it would attend but rebels have pushed back, calling it a Russian bid to eclipse a United Nations-led process in Geneva. Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 with anti-government demonstrations, but it has since morphed into a complex war drawing in world powers, including Russia.
  
• Afghanistan to be included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
  China on 26th December flagged the possible inclusion of Afghanistan in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a move that is likely to irk India.
  
  Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi mooted a possible opening of the doors for Kabul’s entry in the backdrop of the first Foreign Ministers’ trilateral dialogue between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. India has opposed CPEC, which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), on the grounds that it infringes on its sovereignty.
  
  China has called CPEC a “flagship project” of its Belt and Road Initiative, aimed at building connectivity along the Eurasian corridor. A joint statement released at the end of the one-day conference said that the three countries reaffirmed their commitment to “advancing connectivity under the Belt and Road initiative”.
  
• Nepal bans solo climbing on Mount Everest and other peaks to reduce accidents
  Nepal has banned solo climbers from scaling its mountains, including Mount Everest, in a bid to reduce accidents. The cabinet has endorsed a revision to the Himalayan nation's mountaineering regulations, banning solo climbing on its mountains. This is one of a string of measures being flagged ahead of the 2018 spring climbing season.
  
  Maheshwor Neupane, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said, the changes have barred solo expeditions, which were allowed before. Neupane said that the law was revised to make mountaineering safer and decrease deaths.
  
  The cabinet also endorsed a ban on double amputee and blind climbers, although Everest has drawn multitudes of mountaineers wanting to overcome their disabilities and achieve the formidable feat.
  
  National:
• Yoga Institute centenary celebrations launched
  Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on 24th December inaugurated the Centenary celebrations of the Yoga Institute in Mumbai. The institute was founded by Yogendraji Mani Haribhai Desai, the disciple of Paramahans Madhavadasji in 1918. It helps spread yoga practices.
  
• Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh launches e-HRMS on Good Governance Day
  Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh on 25th December launched the electronic-Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS) in New Delhi on the occasion of Good Governance Day. The Minister launched the 25 applications of 5 modules of the system. The e-service book launched for DoPT during March this year will also be integrated into the e-HRMS.
  
  Speaking on various other initiatives taken by the Government, Dr Singh said, Government has been able to expedite various stalled projects, due to the initiatives such as PRAGATI. He also said that the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is organizing regional conferences at different parts of country, which is taking good practices of governance to other parts outside Delhi.
  
  The Minister said, Government is adopting a policy of intolerance towards non-performing officers and encouraging the performing officers and all these initiatives are in the direction of citizen-centric approach of the Government.
  
  With launch of e-HRMS, employees will be able to not only see all their details likes service book, leave, GPF and Salary but also apply for different kind of claims or reimbursements, loans or advances, leave, leave encashment, LTC advances and Tour on a single platform.
  
• Home Ministry directs NGOs to open account in any designated bank in a month for transparency
  Union Home Ministry has directed all NGOs, business entities and individuals who receive funds from abroad to open accounts in any of the 32 designated banks, within a month for higher level of transparency.
  
  According to the ministry order, the directive to the NGOs, companies and individuals to open foreign contribution accounts in banks, which are integrated with the central government's Public Financial Management System (PFMS), came for providing a higher level of transparency and hassle-free reporting compliance.
  
  The order, issued on December 21, said the NGOs are directed to comply with the order within one month. The government also told them not to do anything detrimental to national interests.
  
  The central government has already decided that all banks where the FCRA registered persons and organisations have opened their foreign contribution accounts will be integrated with the PFMS for providing a higher level of transparency and hassle-free reporting compliance.
  
• 25% of Swachh Bharat cess hasn’t reached dedicated fund
  During the last two years, the government collected more than Rs 16,400 crore as Swachh Bharat cess, meant to fund sanitation schemes, but the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out nearly a quarter of the collection has stayed outside the dedicated fund.
  
  While collections through the 0.5% cess on all services was meant to be transferred to a non-lapsable Rashtriya Swachhta Kosh, over Rs 4,000 crore remained outside the RSK schemes.
  
  CAG said Rs 12,400 crore, around 75% of total collections, was transferred to the RSK and used for identified schemes in the last two years.
  
  The rules stipulated that the resources of RSK were to be distributed in the ratio of 80:20 between Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).
  
  However, the ministry of drinking water and sanitation expended the entire amount on Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) without leaving any provision for Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban)," the auditor pointed out on the portion of funds utilised.
  
  The national auditor has said that the experience was similar with other cesses. The CAG has found that in case of six major cesses, where total collections were to the tune of Rs 4 lakh crore till 2016-17, over Rs 1.81 lakh crore, or nearly 45% of the funds collected, remained unutilised and were not transferred from the government's Consolidated Fund of India to the dedicated funds or the intended schemes.
  
• Parliament passes Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill
  Parliament has passed the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 with Rajya Sabha approving it on 27th December. The bill will replace the ordinance promulgated by the President on 23rd of November this year. It seeks to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from definition of tree, thereby dispensing with the requirement of felling and transit permit for its economic use.
  
  According to Minister for Environment and Forest Dr Harsh Vardhan, 24 States and Union Territories have supported this bill. It will promote the cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas; improve the income of the farmers besides providing green cover in the country.
  
  Parliament has also passed the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill with the Rajya Sabha approving it on 27th December. The bill establishes the Institute at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and declares it as an institution of national importance. The Institute aims at providing high quality education and research focusing on the themes of petroleum, hydrocarbons and energy.
  
  According to Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the institution will be totally autonomous and academics session has already been started. Earlier initiating the discussion, P L Punia of Congress supported the bill and said shell gas should be promoted in the country because it has lot of opportunity.
  
• President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurates Andhra Pradesh Fiber Grid Project
  President Ram Nath Kovind formally inaugurated the Andhra Pradesh Fiber Grid Project at Amaravathy on 27th December. The project aims to expand high speed internet facility in the state.
  
  It aims to cover over 1.45 crore households, more than 12,000 panchayats and 60,000 schools. It will also provide internet facilities to 10,000 government offices, 96 municipalities, 14 Corporations and 6,000 Public Health Centres in the state.
  
• Cyclone Ockhi has affected Lakshadweep’s marine biodiversity
  Cyclone Ockhi has affected the marine biodiversity of Lakshadweep and washed up 80 tonne of plastic debris on the western coast of the country, minister of state in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change Mahesh Sharma informed the Lok Sabha on 29th December.
  
• Smart City Mission: Only 7% of Rs 9,860 cr used and Ahmedabad spent the most
  Out of Rs 9,860 crore released to 60 cities under the Smart City Mission only seven per cent, or about Rs 645 crore, have been utilised so far, an issue which has raised concerns in the Urban Affairs Ministry.
  
  Of the Rs 196 crore released to each of around 40 cities, Ahmedabad has spent the maximum amount of Rs 80.15 crore, followed by Indore (Rs 70.69 crore), Surat (Rs 43.41 crore) and Bhopal Rs 42.86 crore, according to a data of the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
  
  On the other hand, the data revealed that of the sanctioned funds Andaman and Nicobar could utilise only Rs 54 lakh, Ranchi 35 lakh, and Aurangabad Rs 85 lakh.
  
  Among cities which got around Rs 111 crore each from the Centre, Vodadara has spent Rs 20.62 crore, Namchi in Sikkim spent Rs 6.80 crore, while Salem, Vellore and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu could utilise only Rs five lakh, Rs six lakh and Rs 19 lakh, respectively.
  
  Ninety cities have so far been selected by the government under the smart city mission and each of them will get Rs 500 crore as central assistance for implementing various projects.
  
  The cities are required to set up Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to get funds from the Centre for the implementation of the project.
  
  In a review meeting recently, the official said cities in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were found to be "performing well", while those in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra needed to speed up the implementation process.
  
• India's push for farm issues at WTO remains unsuccessful
  India has struggled to achieve its trade goals on a multilateral platform such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the past, but the current year saw a drop in support for issues crucial to India and pushed back chances of the country achieving a permanent solution to food stockpiling.
  
  Earlier this month, the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, the largest global meet for multilateral trade talks held biennially, came to an end without any significant outcome as nations dug into their divergent positions and the US played spoilsport to India’s demands for a permanent solution on public stockpiling of foodgrain.
  
  Held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the meet had set the tone for global negotiations in trade rules over the next two years and pointed to a scenario where the development-based agricultural issues had been cast away not only by high-income economies but several smaller and economically weaker nations as well, many of whom had remained India’s allies on the matter, Abhijit Das, head of the Centre for WTO studies said.
  
  While the developing world led by India and China had thrown their weight behind a demand for a solution on food stockpiling, besides domestic subsidies to the agriculture sector, developed nations such as the United States, the European Union and Australia remained staunchly against it, he added. Das had sounded the alarm before the meet began by saying that no major country apart from India was actively talking about the Doha development agenda.
  
  With wide divergence in negotiating positions established before the onset of the summit, trade experts had confidently predicted that few, if any, outcomes would emerge.
  
  On the other hand, the richer nations strived to bring into the discussions a stream of issues from rules for small and medium enterprises to gender rights in global trade, which India has categorised as non-trade issues. Many of these proposals ran counter to India’s interests while also reducing the policy space for governments if norms were decided beforehand, JS Deepak, India’s ambassador at the WTO had said.
  
  Bilateral:
• India and Russia to remove trade barriers
   India and Russia have agreed to raise the level of the Joint Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation to that of Deputy Minister or Commerce Secretary level and creating a mechanism to discuss and remove barriers to trade. They also agreed for creation of Working Groups on Agriculture and Pharmaceuticals.
  
  External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj and Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin met in New Delhi on 23rd December. They co-chaired the meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC). The two sides decided to actively promote inter-regional cooperation to harness untapped potential and expedite implementation of the Green Corridor for exchange of pre-arrival data between Customs Administrations of the two countries.
  
  The IRIGC-TEC meeting noted the impressive growth of 22 percent in bilateral trade in 2016-17 and assessed the progress on issues concerning the most significant aspects of bilateral economic cooperation such as trade, economy, investment, industry, energy, transport, agriculture and space. The discussions also brought out action points for both sides which would assist in early realization of the full potential of this important relationship.
  
  During his visit, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and met Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
  
• India, Afghanistan launch 2nd air cargo route linking Kabul to Mumbai
  India and Afghanistan have launched the second air cargo route, linking Kabul to Mumbai on 27th December. The objective of the air corridors is to boost the export of fresh fruits and medicinal plants from Afghanistan. The first route from Kabul to New Delhi was launched in June.
  
  Inaugurating the first cargo flight, Afghan Vice President Sarwar Danish said the air corridor is very important for the Afghanistan and the government is hoping that the neighboring countries even consider the economy in their political policy.
  
  According to CEO of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, Atiqullah Nusrat, the cargo plane will carry 40 tonnes of fresh fruits from Kabul. The air corridors between Afghanistan and India are key to boosting exports to India and the rest of the world.
  
  Afghanistan has, so far, exported 1,600 tonnes of fruits, worth more than 20 million US dollars, to India via the air corridor.
  
  Economy:
• IRDAI frames guidelines for insurance firms to set up offices in financial service SEZs
  The country’s insurance regulator has cleared the way for setting up of IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) Insurance Offices (IIOs).
  
  With this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has put in place the process of registration and operation of insurers and re-insurers in IFSC Special Economic Zones, in alignment with the objectives of IFSC-SEZ.
  
  Insurers and re-insurers from India and abroad are eligible to apply for registration to set up IIOs, subject to certain norms.
  
  As per the IRDAI (Registration and Operations of IIOs) Guidelines, 2017, no person or entity shall commence or undertake insurance or reinsurance business from an IFSC without obtaining prior registration as an IIO from the Authority.
  
  The registered IIO may be permitted to transact direct insurance business within the IFSC, from other SEZs and from outside India. In the case of reinsurance business, the IIO may accept reinsurance business from within the IFSC, from other SEZs and from outside India.
  
  It may also accept reinsurance business from insurers operating in the Domestic Tariff Area in accordance with the order of preference for cession, as per the existing norms.
  
  IIOs may be registered for carrying on business in various classes/sub-classes of life, general, or health insurance as also reinsurance businesses.
  
  The applicant should demonstrate a minimum assigned capital of Rs. 10 crore. In case the applicant is a Foreign Direct Insurer, the applicant company shall possess paid-up equity capital as per existing provisions.
  
• E-commerce market may cross $50 bn in 2018
  The e-commerce market in the country is expected to cross $50 billion in value by the end of 2018 from the current level of $38.5 billion. This is due to a growing internet population and increased number online shoppers, according to a recent study.
  
  The digital-commerce market in India has grown steadily from $19.7 billion in 2015 to $13.6 billion in 2014, according to the study.
  
  The increasing mobile and internet penetration, advanced shipping and payment options, discounts, and the push into new international markets by e-businesses are the major drivers behind this unprecedented growth, it said. Banks and other players in the e-commerce ecosystem are providing a secured online platform to pay effortlessly through payment gateways.
  
• Govt releases Rs 167 cr to 9 states with international border for development of infrastructure
  Home Ministry has released 167 crore rupees to nine states with international border for the development of infrastructure in forward areas.
  
  The states which will benefit include Rajasthan and Punjab, both having international border with Pakistan, and West Bengal and Assam, which share boundary with Bangladesh. Official sources said the amount was recently released to Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal under the Border Area Development Programme.
  
  The fully centrally funded BADP programme covers all villages which are located within 0-10 km of the International Border in 17 states. However, priority is given to those villages which are identified by border guarding forces for speedy development of infrastructure.
  
• World Bank loan for Tamil Nadu irrigation overhaul
  Tamil Nadu will get a World Bank loan worth $318 million for the revival and modernisation of over 5,000 irrigation tanks and check dams, benefiting about 500,000 small and marginal farmers in the State.
  
  Central and State government officials on 26th December signed a loan agreement with a representative of the World Bank for the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation project, which is aimed at promoting climate resilient agriculture technologies.
  
  The funds will be used to rehabilitate and modernise about 4,800 irrigations tanks, 477 check dams, spread across 66 sub-basins in the State.
  
  The project is expected to bring over 1, 60,000 hectares of cultivated land, currently partially irrigated, into full irrigation and would help farmers increase the yield of rice, maize, and pulses by 18 to 20 per cent, the release said.
  
• India likely to be fifth largest economy in 2018
  India looks set to leapfrog Britain and France next year to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in dollar terms, a report showed on 26th December.
  
  The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) consultancy’s 2018 World Economic League Table painted an upbeat view of the global economy, boosted by cheap energy and technology prices.
  
  India’s ascent is part of a trend that will see Asian economies increasingly dominate the top 10 largest economies over the next 15 years.
  
  China is likely to overtake the United States as the world’s No 1 economy in 2032, CEBR said. While Britain looks set to lag behind France over the next couple of years, CEBR predicted that Brexit’s effects on Britain’s economy will be less than feared, allowing it to overtake France again in 2020.
  
  Russia was vulnerable to low oil prices and too reliant on the energy sector, and looked likely to fall to 17th place among the world’s largest economies by 2032, from 11th now.
  
• Lok Sabha passes GST (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill- 2017
  The Lok Sabha on 27th December passed the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill- 2017. The Bill will replace Ordinance which was promulgated in September this year. It amends the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017. The Act allows the central government to notify the rate of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Compensation Cess on items such as pan masala, coal, aerated drinks, and tobacco, subject to certain caps.
  
  The amount received by levying the GST Compensation Cess is used to compensate states for any loss in revenue following the implementation of GST.
  
  According to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the bill will enhance the Cess from 15 percent to 25 percent. Hike in Cess was necessitated to match the loss arising due to GST rate cuts on different items.
  
• Lok Sabha passes Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Amendment Bill
  The Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill -2017 with a voice vote. The bill prohibits certain persons from submitting a resolution plan in case of defaults. These include wilful defaulters, promoters or management of the company having an outstanding non-performing debt for over a year. The Bill also has provisions to bar the sale of property of a defaulter to such persons during liquidation.
  
• Fiscal deficit hits full-year target by November, 2017
  The government has missed its fiscal deficit target for the current financial year till November end, according to data revealed by the Controller General of Accounts.
  
  An official statement said the fiscal deficit as at the end of April to November 2017 for the current financial year stood at 112 per cent. Comparably, it stood at 85.8 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
  
  In absolute terms, the difference between government revenue and expenditure stood at Rs.6.12 lakh crore. The government was expecting the difference to be at Rs. 5.46 lakh crore during the period under consideration.
  
  The higher fiscal gap is due to the lower than expected revenue collections at the back of higher government expenditure during the current financial year.
  
  An official statement said the government has received Rs. 8.66 lakh crore till November 2017. This includes Rs. 6.99 lakh crore tax revenue, Rs. 1.05 lakh crore of non-tax revenue and Rs. 61,849 crore of Non- Debt Capital Receipts.
  
  Through these Non-Debt Capital Receipts, the government mopped up Rs. 9,471 crore through recovery of loans and Rs. 52,378 crore through disinvestment of public sector undertaking companies.
  
  Of the total collections, Rs. 3.85 lakh crore has been transferred to State governments as devolution of share of taxes by the government during this period.
  
  Total Expenditure incurred by government during the period stood at Rs. 14.78 lakh crore, out of which Rs.12.94 lakh crore is on Revenue Account and Rs. 1.84 lakh crore is on Capital Account.
  
• Centre allots Rs. 7,577 cr into 6 public sector banks
  Coming to the rescue of ailing banks, the Centre has pumped in capital of Rs. 7,577 crore in various weak public sector banks. This capital infusion is timely and would help these banks shore up their capital adequacy as they close the books for the December quarter, said a banking industry observer.
  
  The government has released Rs. 2,257 crore to Bank of India, which was recently placed under prompt corrective action by the Reserve Bank of India. The other big beneficiary of the latest capital infusion round is IDBI Bank, which has received Rs. 2,729 crore.
  
  While Central Bank of India has got capital support of Rs. 323 crore, Dena Bank has got capital support of Rs. 243 crore from the government.
  
  UCO Bank, another weak public sector bank, has got capital support of Rs. 1,375 crore. Bank of Maharashtra has received capital support of Rs. 650 crore, sources said.
  
  Reacting to the government move to release capital to these six public sector banks, the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary CH Venkatachalam expressed confidence that this capital support will help mitigate the immediate problems faced by these weak banks.
  
  The benefiting Banks
  • Bank of India Rs. 2,257 crore
  • IDBI Bank Rs. 2,729 crore
  • Central Bank of India Rs. 323 crore
  • Dena Bank Rs. 243 crore
  • UCO Bank Rs. 1,375 crore
  • Bank of Maharashtra Rs. 650 crore
  
  
• Investment in electronic manufacturing grew by 27% this year: Govt
  The government said that investment in electronic manufacturing grew by 27 per cent this year. The total volume of investment reached 1.57 lakh crore this year as compared to 1.43 lakh crore last year. In an year end review, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said, the flagship project of the government Digital India has made rapid progress and digital transactions witnessed a growth of over 300 per cent during this year.
  
  The Ministry said, there has been almost 60 per cent rise on the production of mobile phones, adding 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the sector.
  
  The Ministry said, with an objective to empower the people with a unique identity and a digital platform to authenticate anytime, anywhere, Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometrics based digital identity system. It said, total number of Aadhaar account holders reached to 119 Crore in 2017 compared to 104 Crore in 2016.
  
  Environment:
• Government comes up with 12-point draft plan to combat air pollution
  Coordinated action to combat stubble burning, commissioning studies and launch of a hotline and an app to report violations are some of the measures in the 12-point draft plan formulated by a high-level task force to combat air pollution in the NCR region.
  
  The draft action plan also calls for formulating a journey planner app which integrates the Metro, the DIMTS and the DTC services and integrated ticketing across the DTC, cluster and metro within six months.
  
  The high-level task force headed by the principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formulated the draft 'Air Action Plan Abatement of Air Pollution in the Delhi NCR' and has invited suggestions in 15 days to make it more "effective and practical".
  
  The draft proposes coordinated action to combat stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and also monitor enforcement measures to reduce stubble burning.
  
  It also calls for implementing rollout of a plan for properly disposing of crop stubble and ensuring that independent data on stubble burning is available in real time in collaboration with department of science and technology among others.
  
  The plan says that in collaboration with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), it should be ensured that the Delhi-NCR has an adequate network of air quality monitoring stations.
  
  For power plants in the NCR region, it calls for NOx curtailment measures in a time-bound manner by the NTPC and other operators and asks the Environment Ministry to develop a 'Dashboard' of all the 'Red Category' polluting units in the NCR. Each of these units should install a certified pollution meter within their premises, it said.
  
  Sports:
• India beat Sri Lanka in 3rd T-20 and wins series
  India beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the third and final Twenty 20 cricket International and won series 3-0 in Mumbai on 24th December.
  
• India finish as runners-up in SAFF U-15 Women's Championships
  India finished as runners-up in the SAFF Under-15 Women's Championships. India lost to Bangladesh 0-1 in the final at Dhaka on 24th December. India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan participated in this South Asian Football Federation tournament.
  
• India rise to second spot in latest ICC T-20 rankings
  In Cricket, Team India has risen to the second spot in the latest ICC Twenty-20 rankings. They leapfrogged England, New Zealand and the West Indies to move from fifth to second place, owing to a 3-0 whitewash in the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka. Pakistan is at the top of the list.
  
  In the rankings for batsmen, Indian captain Virat Kohli slipped from the first spot to third, due to his absence in the series against the Lankans. Lokesh Rahul jumped 23 places to grab the 4th spot. The list is led by Aussie opener Aaron Finch, followed by West Indian Evin Lewis.
  
  Among the bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah has been pushed to the third spot behind Pakistan's Imad Wasim and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan.
  
  Bumrah had missed out on the final T20 and went wicket-less in the first two games against Sri Lanka. Yuzvendra Chahal gained 14 places to 16th.
  
• Viswanathan Anand wins World Rapid Chess Championship
  Vishwanathan Anand has won World Rapid Chess Championship title in Riyadh on 28th December. In the final, Anand beat Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev to reclaim the title he had won in 2003.
  
• Jitu Rai wins Men's 50m pistol national title
  In Shooting, ace Indian marksman Jitu Rai won the Men's 50-metre pistol national title, setting a new record score of 233 at the 61st National Shooting Championships in Thiruvananthapuram.
  
  Rai got the better of Navy man Omkar Singh who shot 222.4 in the finals. Jitu's army teammate Jai Singh secured bronze with an effort of 198.4.
  
  Rai's score of 233 was a new record in the finals of the event. Rai also won the team gold in the event combining with Jai and Omprakash Mitherwal for a total of 1658, besting Team Air Force, who managed a total of 1626.
  
  Arjun Singh Cheema of Punjab won the junior men’s 50-metre pistol event. A total of 4800 men and women shooters from across the country are participating in the Championship including 200 wildcard entries.
  
  Persons in news:
• M Malakondaiah:
   The Andhra Pradesh government appointed 1985-batch IPS officer M Malakondaiah as the Director General of Police. Malakondaiah, currently managing director of AP State Road Transport Corporation, will take charge of his new assignment from Nanduri Sambasiva Rao, who is retiring tomorrow. Malakondaiah will retire from service on June 30 next year.