1. The Union government launched a "Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) e-box BOX" in August 2016 for easy and confidential registration of complaints regarding sexual offence against children. This information has recently given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Krishna Raj in the Rajya Sabha.
2. India has been ranked 102nd among 136 nations in the 2016 Enabling Trade Index (ETI), as per recently published 'Global Enabling Trade Report 2016 of World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation. The list is topped by Singapore followed by the Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR, Luxembourg and Sweden. The index assesses the extent to which economies have in place the factors facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to their destinations. It takes into consideration various factors, including domestic and foreign market access, border administration, transport and digital infrastructure and operating environment.
3. India has recently signed Rs. 5,000 crore deal for 145 M777 ultra-light howitzers guns with the United States, which will be deployed in high-altitude areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, bordering China. The purchase of guns will be India's first deal for artillery guns since the Bofors scandal in 1980s. The deal was inked at the 2-day meeting of the 15th India-US Military Cooperation Group (MCG) held in New Delhi.
4. India's one of the ancient practices "Yoga" has been inscribed as an element in the UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. With this, Yoga has become the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. Previous ones includes Chhau dance,Buddhist chanting of Ladakh, Sankirtana-the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur, the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab and Ramlila- the traditional performance of the Ramayana.
5. The 2016 India International Science festival (IISF) will be held in New Delhi from December 7 to 11, 2016. The festival is being organized by ministries of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in collaboration with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA). The theme of the science festival is "Science for the masses". Approx 5000 young Indian scientists will showcase their scientific work to the public during the festival.
6. A 9-time Olympic gold medallist, Usain Bolt from Jamaica has won the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) male Athlete of the Year award for a record sixth time. Beside him, Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana, who broke the 10,000m world record by over 14 seconds in winning Olympic gold in 2016 Rio Olympics, won the 2016 IAAF female Athlete of the Year award.The awards were handed out by IAAF at a gala ceremony in Monaco.
7. The National Pollution Control Day (NPCD) is celebrated every year on December 2 in India with an aim to make aware the people and industries about the need of Pollution Control Acts. This day is observed in the memory of those who lost their lives in 1984 due to the Bhopal gas tragedy and who were left severely affected due to leakage of poisonous gas "Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)" from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. This catastrophe was the worst in the world's industrial history and people there still continue to witness physical and mental disabilities.
8. J Ravichandran has been appointed as the interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). He will be in charge till the NSE board appoints a new CEO. Ravichandran succeeded Chitra Ramkrishna, who quit the post due to personal reasons.
9. Kolkata has been bagged the C40 Award for best solid waste management improvement project of 2016 during the C40 Mayors Summit held in Mexico City. The Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project has achieved 60-80% segregation of waste at its source. The project aims to eradicate open dumping and burning of waste and to limit the concentration of methane gas generated in landfill sites. Kolkata is the only Indian city to receive the prestigious award. The C40 Cities Awards recognise the best and boldest work being done by mayors to fight climate change and protect people from risks.
10. The 6th Heart of Asia (HoA) ministerial conference has started at Amritsar in Punjab on December 42016 with focus on tackling terror in region. The conference will discuss peace, cooperation and economic development in Afghanistan. The main conference has been inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation. The delegates from nearly 40 countries will participate in the conference including India, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan and representatives of 17 supporting nations were deliberating on a vast range of issues facing the region.The theme of the conference is "Addressing Challenges, Achieving Prosperity".
11. The 7th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) has been held at Science City in Kolkata, West Bengal from December 1, 2016, The mega event is organized by the World Ayurveda Foundation with support of Ministry of AYUSH and the State Government of West Bengal. The focus of WAC is "Strengthening the Ayurveda Ecosystem". The major components of the program are public outreach session comprising of the Ayurveda Expo, the Ayurveda clinics for the general public and public lectures. To facilitate development and growth of AYUSH system of medicine, the Ministry of AYUSH has also organized AROGYA Expo from 1st-4th December, 2016 at Science City, Kolkata to coincide with the 7th WAC.
12. Srinidhi Shetty of India has won the 8th edition of Miss Supranational 2016 at the beauty pageant held at the Municipal Sports and Recreation Center of Krynica-Zdroj in Poland.
13. The first-ever International Gita Mahotsav will be held in Kurukshetra, Haryana on December 6, 2016. President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the Mahotsav and will also lay the foundation stone of Krishna circuit on the occasion. In a 5-day mega event, many spiritual leaders from different religions, scholars and artists from various countries will participate. The Mahotsav will set a world record with the recitation of Ashtadash Shaloki Gita by as many as 18 thousand students at one go. During Mahotsav, youths from 574 districts of the country will reach Kurukshetra, showcasing one Shloka each scripted on their traditional dresses.
14. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the online reader's poll for TIME magazine's Person of the Year 2016 with 18% of the vote. Though, TIME Magazine's Person Of The Year will be announced on December 7 and is selected by TIME Magazine editors.
15. The annual bilateral maritime exercise "KONKAN 16" has started between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy from Dec 05, 2016 at Mumbai and will continue till December 16, 2016. The exercise will be conducted in two phases at Mumbai and Goa. The first phase, to be held from 05 – 09 Dec 16, would be a Command Planning exercise involving the two navies, where planners from both sides will undertake planning for combined maritime operations. The second phase is a LIVE EXERCISE (LIVEX), to be held from 12-16 Dec 2016 at Goa, which involves interaction between the IN Marine Commandos (MARCOs) and the Royal Marines.
16. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart, have been jointly named as the "Asian of the Year 2016" by Singapore-based newspaper The Straits Times as part of a group called the "The Disruptors". The "Asian of the Year 2016" award recognises entrepreneurs operating at the frontiers of technology's interface with business who have launched companies that have disrupted traditional business model for the benefit of end consumers.
17. Bernard Cazeneuve has been named as the new Prime Minister of France. He succeeded Manuel Valls, who resigned in order to make a bid for the Presidency 2017. Cazeneuve will be in charge of the Socialist government until June's Parliamentary elections. He has played a key role in managing France's security since the terror attacks in Paris in 2015.
18. The 2016 Indra NAVY joint naval exercise will be held between India and Russia from December 14 to 21 in the south-eastern Indian coastal city of Visakhapatnam and in the Bay of Bengal. The joint naval exercise will consist of two stages – coastal and naval. The coastal part will be held on December 14-18 in the city of Visakhapatnam, while the naval will take place in the Bay of Bengal on December 19-21.
19. English has been ranked first in the top 10 most powerful languages in the world according to the 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI) published by World Economic Forum (WEF). It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada). The list is followed by Mandarin, French and Spanish. An Indian language "Hindi" has been ranked 10th in the 2016 PLI. The index measures the usefulness of a language to a representative human being and is not meant to apply to any particular person with their own set of conditions, preferences and geography.
20. The Vijayawada Parliamentary constituency has become the India's first parliamentary constituency to have health insurance for all from a new born to senior citizens. The constituency consists of 265 villages in Andhra Pradesh.The "Swastha Kutambham" health insurance scheme launched by Andhra Pradesh Government in association with Tata Trusts covers health for all in the rural areas and was introduced recently in the villages under Vijayawada MP Constituency. The health insurance will cover all the villagers for a year from December 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017.
21. Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswamy (81), the noted political satirist and founder editor of Thuglak magazine, has recently passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as Cho Ramaswamy and was an advisor to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
22. Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar has been appointed as the 44th Chief Justice of India. He will be sworn-in as the CJI on January 4, 2017. The current Chief Justice TS Thakur will hold on to the office till 3rd January, 2017. Justice Khehar will be the first Sikh to hold the post of CJI and would remain in office from January 4, 2017 till August 4, 2017 i.e. till he attains the age of 65.
23. US President-elect Donald Trump has named by Time magazine as its Person of the Year 2016 for his stunning victory in the US Presidential election.
24. The 5th India-Arab Partnership Conference will be held in Muscat, Oman on December 14, 2016 with an objective to enhance the economic relations between India and Arab countries and Oman. The 2-day conference is jointly organised by the Oman Foreign Ministry, Arab League Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs of India. The theme of the conference is 'Partnership towards innovation and cooperation in Information Technology'. The conference will have ministerial representation both from the Indian and Arab side. About 500 Arab and Indian government officials, academicians, businessmen and investors are likely to participate in the conference.
25. The "Laureates and Leaders" Summit for Children will be hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi from December 10 to 11, 2016. The purpose of the summit is to advance the fight against Child Labour, child slavery and violence against Children. The summit being organized by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation will deliberate on the way forward in building a strong moral platform for protecting children from violence, and ensuring a world where children are free to be just children. The aim is to channelize in support of the above cause the collective leadership and moral authority of Nobel laureates, world leaders, thinkers, representatives of United Nations Agencies, award winning child/youth leaders and eminent persons from academia, business, cinema, sports and civil society.
26. The Allahabad High Court has termed the Islamic practice of divorcing a woman by uttering the word 'talaq (Talaq-e-bidat)' thrice as unconstitutional. The order was passed by single judge bench of Justice Suneet Kumar while deciding two separate writ petitions that the triple talaq practice, sanctioned under Muslim personal law that governs marriage, property and divorce – violated the rights of Muslim women. The High Court held that this form of instant divorce is cruel and most demeaning which impedes and drags India from becoming a nation.
27. The tropical cyclone 'Vardah' is expected to hit the Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Kakinada with the speed of 10 km/hr. The cyclonic storm over southeast Bay of Bengal has moved north- northwestwards and lies centered over southeast Bay of Bengal. Fishermen have been advised not to venture to the sea along and off Andaman Islands and adjoining sea areas during the next 12 hrs.
28. The Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, popularly known as Motera Stadium, is set to become the world's largest seating capacity cricket stadium. The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) has handed the stadium's renovation project to Larsen and Turbo (L&T). Presently, the stadium can house 54,000 people, but with the new plans, it is projected to seat about 1,10,000 people. This will almost double its seating capacity and will surpass the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which has a capacity of 1,00,024 people.
29. Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is the South Korean Prime Minister, has become the acting President after Parliament voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye on December 9, 2016 over a corruption scandal. Due to the ratification of Park impeachment proposal, Hwang Kyo-ahn has assumed the presidential powers and duties as acting president.
30. India has been ranked 7th in the list of 163 countries most impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2016 released by Sydney-based think-tank "Institute for Economics & Peace". The list is topped by Iraq, followed by Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. The GTI score for a country is based on weightage assigned to the total number of terrorism-related incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage sustained in the year in question. The index also takes into consideration attacks that took place in the 4 previous years.
31. The book "Dipa Karmakar: The Small Wonder" has been authored by sports journalists Vimal Mohan, Digvijay Singh Deo and Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi. The book will have many untold stories of struggle and triumph besides rare archival photos from the Karmakars' private album as well as competition photos from the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. The book is set to release on August 2017.
32. The first edition of Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) will be held on the banks of river Mandovi in Panaji, Goa from December 16-23, 2016 to promote patronage of arts. The 8-day long festival will focus on performing, visual and culinary arts through a hundred events from the fields of music, theatre, dance, photography and food.
33. President Pranab Mukherjee has launched a "100 Million for 100 Million" campaign organized by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The campaign is a global initiative that seeks to support 100 million youth to be the voice of the 100 million children and youth across the world who have been denied basic rights and freedom. The campaign is with the objective to mobilise 100 million youth and children for the upliftment of 100 million underprivileged children across the world.
34. Sunil Gavaskar has been bestowed with the Golden Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award by the Sports Journalists' Association of Mumbai (SJAM) at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Gavaskar was presented with a citation and a certificate which has details of all his 34 centuries.
35. Paolo Gentiloni has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Italy by President Sergio Mattarella, after Matteo Renzi's resignation due to the results of the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, in which voters rejected constitutional reform. Previously, Gentiloni was Minister of Communications from 2006 to 2008, during the second government of Romano Prodi.
36. The Madhya Pradesh government has become the first Indian state to launch the biggest and first-ever crop insurance claim distribution programme worth Rs 4,416 crore in Ujjain. With this, Madhya Pradesh has become the first Indian state where the claims under Prime Ministers Crop Insurance schemes are being disbursed. Under the Crop Insurance Scheme, the farmers who lost Kharif Crop in the year 2015 due to natural calamities will be benefited. The insurance claim amount will be provided to the farmers in their bank accounts through online procedure.
37. Antonio Guterres, the former Prime Minister of Portugal, has been sworn-in as the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations. Guterres, who led the UN refugee agency for 10 years, will succeed Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2017.
38. Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani has won his 11th World Billiards (150-Up format) Championships title in the summit clash in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Advani defeated Peter Gilchrist of Singapore. He beats multiple world champion Gilchrist by six games to three in a gripping final contest, to wrap up his 16th world title overall.
39. Bill English, the leader of the National Party, has been sworn-in as the 39th Prime Minister of New Zealand at Government House in Wellington. He succeeded John Key, who had resigned due to personal reasons. Prior to this appointment, English was the Deputy Prime Minister from 2008 to 2016.
40. China has successfully launched "Feng-Yun-4" a new generation weather satellite into geostationary orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The launch marked the 242nd mission of China's Long March series of rockets. The FY-4 series is an improved generation of geosynchronous meteorological satellites. The satellite will make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atmosphere, clouds and space environment of China and surrounding regions, significantly improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts.
41. The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel "Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT)" has officially begin its regular rail service on December 11, 2016 in Switzerland. The 57 km twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel (GBT) will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe. The tunnel has overtaken Japan's 53.9 km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.
42. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team, has won the prestigious 2016 Ballon d'Or award at an awards ceremony in Paris, France. With this, he won the 4th Ballon d'Or title in his career.
43. The Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has been appointed as the UNICEF's newest Global Goodwill Ambassador at the UNICEF's 70th anniversary event in New York. As the Global Goodwill Ambassador, she has the responsibility to urge people from across nations to become the collective voice of oppressed children in the world and join forces to leave a better future for the coming generations.
44. India's largest indoor sports arena will come up in New Town area of Kolkata, West Bengal with a capacity to accommodate upto 15,400 people at one time. The proposed stadium will have solar power and will come up on 10 acres of land near the Deer Park in Eco Park. The facility will have lawn tennis, khokho khokho, kabaddi, badminton, basket ball and table tennis courts.
45. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has cut India's economic growth forecast to 7.0% from 7.4% for the financial year 2016-17 in the updated report of Asian Development Outlook 2016 due to weak investments, a slowdown in the country's agriculture sector and the lack of available cash due to the government's decision to ban high-denomination bank notes. Prior to this, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut India's growth forecast to 7.1% from 7.6% for FY 17 after the government's decision to ban high denomination bank notes. Beside this, Global rating agency Fitch has downgraded India's growth forecast to 6.9% from 7.4 % and rating agency Morgan Stanley has also cut the estimates to 7.3% from 7.6% for FY 17.
46. India is at 4th position in the list of top 10 defence spenders in the world, according to the recently published annual Jane's Defense Budgets Report by research firm IHS Markit. As per the report, India's defence budget was $50.7 billion in 2016, up from $46.6 billion in 2015. The worldwide outlook shows that global defense spending rose by 1% to $1.6 trillion in 2016, against 0.6% in 2015. The report has also estimated that India will surpass the UK in defence spending by 2018.
47. The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has become the 2nd airport in the Asia-Pacific region among all categories to achieve carbon neutral status. The airport has also declared the first in the Asia-Pacific region in the 5-15 million passengers per annum category to attain carbon neutral status. The Airports Council International (ACI) has certified Hyderabad International Airport with "Level 3+, Neutrality" under its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. It is the industry standard for assessment of airports' efforts to manage and reduce carbon emissions and a significant achievement. The carbon neutrality status is granted if the net carbon emission over an entire year is zero. This means the airport absorbs or offsets the same amount of emission that is generated.Prior to this, the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi has become the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve carbon neutral status.
48. PV Sindhu, an Indian female badminton player and Rio Olympics silver medallist, has been named as the 'Most improved player of the year 2016′ by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) at the Players' Reception and Gala Dinner in Dubai.
49. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked first among the 2016 World's Most Powerful People annual list of Forbes for a fourth straight year. In the list of 74 international personalities, US President-elect Donald Trump has stood at second position, followed by Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping and Pope Francis. Apart from this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked 9th among the top 10 most powerful people in the world by Forbes. Forbees stated that Modi has emerged as a key figure in the international effort to tackle climate change. It also took note of Prime Minister Modi's demonetisation decision.
50. The 7th edition of India-Maldives joint military exercise "EKUVERIN 2016" has started at Kadhdhoo, Laamu Atoll, Maldives. The purpose of the 14 day joint exercise is to acquaint both forces with each other's operating procedures in the backdrop of amphibious and counter insurgency/ Counter terrorism environment and also to increase the existing military relationship between the Indian Army and the Maldivian National Defence Force.
51. V G Kannan, a former MD of State Bank of India (SBI), has took charge as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA). He succeeded M V Tanksale, who demitted office as Chief Executive on August 9, 2016 after being at the helm for three years. IBA is a self-regulatory organization of banks. The purpose of IBA is to promote and develop in India sound and progressive banking principles, practices and conventions and to contribute to the development of creative banking.
52. Amina Mohammed, the environment minister of Nigeria, has been named as the new UN's Deputy Secretary-General. She has been appointed on this post by Antonio Guterres, who is newly elected Secretary General of the United Nations and will succeed Ban Ki-moon in 2017.
53. The world famous river island and seat of Vaishnavite culture "Majuli district" will soon become the India's first-ever carbon neutral district by 2020. To achieve this goal, the Assam government has launched a project "Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development in Majuli" ( SACReD Majuli) to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
54. V K Sharma has become the new chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for 5 years. Sharma, who is the managing director of LIC, was acting as chairman since September 2016 when the then chairman S K Roy resigned from the post due to personal reasons.
55. Rajiv Jain, an IPS officer of 1980 batch of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed as the new Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) for a period of two years. Currently, he is working as Special Director in the IB. He will take over the post from Dineshwar Sharma on January 2017, who completes his two-year tenure on December 31, 2016. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is the internal intelligence agency of India and reports to Ministry of Home Affairs.
56. Anil Kumar Dhasmana, an IPS officer of 1981-batch Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a period of two years. Dhasmana's domain of expertise is considered to be Balochistan, counter-terrorism and Islamic affairs. He will succeed Rajinder Khanna, who completes his two-year tenure on January 31, 2017. RAW is the external intelligence agency of India and the head of RAW is designated "Secretary (Research)" in the Cabinet Secretariat and is under the direct command of the Prime Minister and reports on an administrative basis to the Cabinet Secretary of India, who reports to the Prime Minister.
57. The Vice Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt General Bipin Rawat will be the new Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army. Lt. Gen Rawat is known for his balanced approach towards soldiering, compassion, and connect with civil society. He will succeed General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who will retire on December 31, 2016. The primary mission of the Indian Army is to ensure national security and unity, defending the nation from external aggression and threats, and maintaining peace and security within its borders. The President of India serves as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army.
58. The Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS), Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa will be the new chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF). He will assume the post of Air Chief on January 1, 2017 after Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha retires. The primary responsibility of IAF is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict. The President of India serves as Supreme Commander of the IAF.
59. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently laid the foundation stone of the first-ever "Indian Institute of Skills" at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The Institute has been conceptualized by Prime Minister Modi during his visit to Singapore's Institute of technical education. The first-ever of its kind institute will be open by the Skill Development Ministry in partnership with the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore. Beside this, Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Kaushal Pradarshini (Skill Exhibition) for the youth. The Exhibition will showcase state-of-the-art vocational training practices of various sectors. He will also launch a number of skill development initiatives including Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and Drivers' Training Institutes.
60. Stephanie Del Valle, a Puerto Rican musician and model, has won the 66th edition of the Miss World pageant "Miss World 2016" in Washington, United States on December 18, 2016. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and its capital is San Juan.
61. India's first cashless bazaar has come up in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Now, over 900 shops of this 'Smart' bazaar are providing customers the facilities of cashless payments using POS, UPI and other digital systems. Currently, Chhattisgarh is leading in the nation in training its people in digital transactions. According to data on a central government website, Chhattisgarh has trained over 5 lakh people in cashless payments in first 10 days of training.
62. The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot has released the first issue of a National Newspaper 'Saanjhi Saanjh' for senior citizen in New Delhi. This newspaper for senior citizen is edited by J.V Manisha Bajaj, Secretary of Harikrit, an NGO for elderly people. The bilingual newspaper has 8 pages which will be published from Delhi by Harikrit publishers. The newspaper will carry important and useful news pertaining to elderly persons besides inspirational stories. It will serve as a bridge between old and new generations.
63. The Assam government has appointed Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra as the state's tourism brand ambassador for two years to promote the new brand entity "Awesome Assam". The actress will not charge a fee for the brand ambassador assignment. She will charge professional charges for the work she will do in photoshoots and television commercials.
64. M C Mary Kom , an Olympic bronze-medallist and a five-time world champion, has been honoured with the 'Legends Award' by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for her trailblazing boxing career in Montreux, Switzerland. Beside her, Vikas Krishan has also won the AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) Best Boxer trophy at the AIBA's 70th anniversary event.
65. Tamil writer Vannadasan has been selected for 2016 Sahitya Akademi award for his book "Oru Siru Isai", a collection of short stories. He has been active in the modern Tamil literary field for more than 30 years and contributing immensely to the literature, particularly in the field of short story and poetry.
66. Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has bagged the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, after he has been named the 'ICC Cricketer of the Year' at ICC Awards 2016 in Dubai. Additionally, he also won the ICC?Test cricketer of the Year 2016 award. With this, he became the 2nd Indian player after Rahul Dravid to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year. In 2016, Ashwin picked up 72 wickets in 12 test matches at an outstanding average of 23.90 and scored 612 runs at an average of 43.17. He is the only Indian in ICC's Test Team of the Year. Apart from this, Virat Kohli has been named captain of the ICC?ODI?Team of the Year, while Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma also featured in the ODI?Team of the Year.
67. Has been ranked 4th in 2016 Global Wind Power Installed Capacity Index with cumulative installed wind power generation capacity of India is 25,088 MW. The index was released as part of Global Wind Report: Annual Market, the flagship publication of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The list is topped by China, followed by United States and Germany with cumulative installed wind power generation capacity of the USA is 1,45,362 MW, 74,471 MW and that of Germany is 44,947 MW.
68. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recently successfully launched solid fuel rocket "Epsilon-2" from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. Through Epsilon-2, the Arase satellite has successfully launched into orbit to study the Van Allen belts around the earth. The former name of Arase satellite was Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG).
69. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been ranked first on the 2016 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List with an estimated income of Rs 270.33 crore. The Forbes' ranking is based on two parameters: estimates of entertainment-related earnings and estimates of fame during the period October 2015 to September 2016. Beside him, Shah Rukh Khan has been ranked second, followed by Virat Kohli, actor Akshay Kumar and MS Dhoni.
70. The Argentina national football team has won the 2016 FIFA Team of the year title.
71. The first-ever joint military exercise "Pratikar-I" will be held between Nepal and China on February 10, 2017. The focus of the military exercise will be on training Nepali forces in dealing with hostage scenarios involving international terror groups.
72. In 1759, the Nicobar Islands were made a Danish colony, first named New Denmark and later as Frederick's Islands.
73. France became the first country in the world to use drones for national mail service. French postal service announced a drone delivery program to deliver parcels on a 14-kilometre route once a week to reach mountainous regions. These mail drones will have a range of 19 km and a top speed of 30.5 kmph. They also have parachutes for safe emergency landing.
74. Shankha Ghosh, the well-known Bengali poet, critic and academician, has been selected for the prestigious 52nd edition of the Jnanpith Award (2016) by the Government of India (GoI) for his poetic idiom and experiments with various poetic forms mark his greatness as a creative talent. With this, Ghosh has become the 6th Bengali author to win India's highest literary award after Mahasweta Devi, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Subhash Mukhopadhyay and Bishnu Dey. The Jnanpith Award is presented every year to a literary figure for their outstanding contribution in literature. The award carries a citation, prize money of Rs. 12 lakh and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati.
75. The 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup will be held between July 7–21, 2018 in London, England. Recently, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has adopted some changes regarding to 2018 Hockey World Cup viz. a 16-team competition per gender, 4 pools of 4 teams each, winners of each pool qualifies for Quarter Finals, last placed team in each Pool eliminated, ranking of eliminated teams based on their performance at the time of elimination, etc. It was also decided that the 2022 Hockey World Cup would also be a 16-team competition, per gender. The 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup will held from 28 November to 16 December 2018 in Odisha, India.
76. The powerful typhoon "Nock-Ten" has recently hit the coast near Catanduanes Island in Philippines with winds up to 140 km/ hour. The typhoon, locally known as Nina in the Philippines, damaged homes, uprooting trees and knocked down communications. The typhoon is expected to pass across the main island of Luzon, before heading into the South China Sea.
77. Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan has been conferred honorary doctorate at the 6th convocation of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad for extraordinary contribution towards promotion of Urdu language and culture. Beside him, Rekhta Foundation founder Sanjiv Saraf has also conferred the 'honorius causa' (doctor of letters) at the convocation.
78. Vera Rubin (88), an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates, has recently passed away in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1974, Rubin discovered that the stars at the edges of galaxies moved faster than expected. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves. To reconcile her observations with the law of gravity, scientists proposed there was matter we cannot see and called it dark matter. Dark matter is an unidentified type of matter comprising approximately 27% of the mass and energy in the observable universe.
79. The book "Emperor Chandragupta" has been authored by Adity Kay. This is the story of a youth who fought against all odds – within and without – to become one of the greatest emperors ever known. This is the story of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire in India.
80. Samit Gohel, the opening batsman of Gujarat, has broke a 117-year-old record in the first-class cricket by notching up the highest score while carrying his bat through the innings of 359 not out during his team's Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Odisha at Jaipur, Rajasthan. Gohel broke the record of Surrey's Bobby Abel, who had scored 357 for Surrey against Somerset at the Oval in 1899 to register the highest score by an opener carrying his bat in first-class cricket.
81. Meghalaya will host the 2022 National Games, which is coinciding with its 50 years of statehood. The Meghalaya State Olympic Association president John F Kharshiing has stated that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has accepted Meghalaya's bid to host the prestigious games following the successful South Asian Games, which was co-hosted by Shillong and Guwahati in 2016. Meghalaya had pledged Rs. 5 crore as the bid amount for the game. Till date, only two states in the North-East have hosted the National Games – Manipur in 1999 and Assam in 2007.
82. Prof. Viral Acharya, an economics professor of the United States University, has been appointed as the new deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a term of 3 years. The post was vacant after elevation of Urjit Patel as the Governor of RBI in September 2016.
83. President Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated the 77th session of Indian History Congress (IHC) at University of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on December 29, 2016. Over 3,000 historians and research scholars will attend the 3-day session of Congress. The IHC is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians with over 10,000 members. It's current President is Radha Champakalakshmi of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
84. Anil Baijal, a 1969 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as the new Lt Governor of Delhi. He succeeded Najeeb Jung, who recently resigned from the post. Baijal had served as Union Home Secretary under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government besides holding key positions in other ministries.
85. Debbie Reynolds (84), the legendary actress of Hollywood, has recently passed away in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 2016. She is known for role in "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis", "Bundle of Joy", "The Catered Affair", etc. Reynolds died one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away. Carrie Fisher was the well-known actress, author and screenwriter who brought a rare combination of nerve, grit and hopefulness to her most indelible role, as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" movie franchise.
86. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched an Aadhaar-based mobile app "Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)" to promote easier digital payments and transactions at Digi Dhan Mela at talkatora stadium in New Delhi. The Bhim app is named after Dr B R Ambedkar and will empower small traders, tribals and farmers. The app is inter-operable with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and it connects directly to your bank account. The application is developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The application allows users to check the bank balance directly from the app. There is a limit of Rs 10,000 per transaction and a 24-hour limit of Rs 20,000.
87. The world's highest bridge "Beipanjiang Bridge" has been opened to traffic in China. The bridge soars 565 metres (1,854 feet) above a river and connects the two mountainous provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou and is expected to reduce road travel times from Liupanshui to Xuianwei from 4 hours to 2 hrs. The bridge overtook the Si Du River Bridge in the central province of Hubei to become the world's highest bridge.
