Source: Cick Here

• India is Afghanistan's most reliable regional partner and the largest contributor of development assistance in the region, the US' Defence Department said in its semi-annual report to the Congress.


• India has interpreted the US' new South Asia strategy as an opportunity to increase its economic involvement in Afghanistan. The strategy calls upon Pakistan to stop providing safe havens to terrorists.

Source: Cick Here

• The UAE will deposit $3 billion in Pakistan's central bank to support its financial and monetary policy. The UAE's support comes amid the current financial crisis in Pakistan.


• Pakistan PM Imran Khan Thanked the UAE, and said "This reflects our commitment and friendship that has remained steadfast over the years."

Source: Cick Here

• The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first-ever negotiated global framework on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions, in Marrakesh, Morocco.


• The compact was adopted by the General Assembly with 152 votes in favour, 12 abstentions, and five votes against, namely by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, and the United States of America.


• The compact is aimed to address issues that concern the world’s 258 million people on the move and countries of origin, transit and destination.


• The Compact is the outcome of a long negotiation process and provides a strong platform for cooperation on migration, drawing on best practice and international law though it is non-legally binding.

Source: Cick Here

• External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi co-chaired the first-ever meeting of India-China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges in New Delhi.


• India and China had decided to set up people to people mechanism during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in China.

Source: Cick Here

• The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has laid the foundation stones for several national highway projects at Roing in Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh. The projects have been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 28000 crore.


• The Minister also inaugurated two bridges over the Lohit and Dibang River.


• He also laid the foundation for 472 km of national highways costing Rs 5583.92 Crore in Lower Subansiri District.

Source: Cick Here

• The Assam government has approved the release of second instalment of the Chah Bagicha ( tea estate ) Dhan Puraskar Mela.


• All the beneficiaries will get 2,500 rs in their bank accounts by January 15, 2019. The government will bear Rs 200 crore towards this.


• Previously Rs 2,500 was transferred to the each of over 7 lakh account holders in tea garden areas at 26 districts of the state.


• It may be recalled that the Assam government had announced that 5000 rupees will be provided to tea garden workers who had opened bank accounts after demonetization.

Source: Cick Here

• National Film Archive of India (NFAI) and Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for transfer of three acres of land for the construction of storage facility for films and film material.


• The land belonging to FTII at their Kothrud campus in Pune will be transferred to NFAI for this purpose. Shri Bhupendra Kanthola, Director FTII, and Shri Prakash Magdum, Director NFAI signed the MoU.

Source: Cick Here

• The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the “Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” to protect and conserve the population of Asiatic Lion and its associated ecosystem.


• The Asiatic Lion Conservation Project is aimed at the conservation and recovery of Asiatic Lion with the help of up to date techniques, instruments, regular scientific research studies, disease management, modern surveillance and patrolling techniques.


• The total budget of the project for 3 years amounts to around Rs 9784 lakh.

Source: Cick Here

• The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will lay the foundation of ‘Paradip Hyderabad Pipeline Product’ Project (PHPL) on 24 December 2018.


• He will also lay the foundation of Bokaro-Angul section of ‘Jagdishpur-Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra’ Gas Pipeline Project (PM Urja Ganga) and is being built by the Gas Authority of India Limited.


• PHPL is being built by Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Source: Cick Here

• India and Japan Exchanged notes on Japanese Official Development assistance loan of Yen 105.497 billion (approximately Rs 6668.46 crore) for three projects which are given below.


• Chennai Metro Project (Phase 2) for JPY 75.519 billion.


• Program for Japan-India Cooperative Actions towards sustainable Development goals in India for JPY 15 Billion.


• Project for Dairy Development for JPY 14.978 billion.


• The Notes were exchanged between Dr. C.S. Mohapatra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India in New Delhi.


• The Chennai Metro Project aims to build Mass Rapid Transit System in order to meet the growing traffic demands.


• Program for The Japan India Cooperative Action towards sustainable development goals(SDG) in India aims to contribute to promotion of SDGs in India and it will support India in achieving SDGs by 2030.

Source: Cick Here

• The government will infuse an additional Rs 41,000 crore into cash-starved public sector banks (PSBs).


• The outlay will go up from Rs. 65,000 crore to Rs. 1,06,000 crore in the current financial year to propel economic growth, cementing India’s position as the fastest growing economy of the world.


• This would enable infusion of over Rs. 83,000 crore in the coming few months in Public Sector Banks (PSBs). This is in addition to the Rs 2.11 lakh crore bailout package announced by the government in October 2017.


• The enhanced provision is mainly aimed at Providing capital to better-performing PCA Banks to achieve 9% Capital to Risk-weighted Asset Ratio (CRAR); 1.875% Capital Conservation Buffer and the 6% Net NPA threshold, facilitating them to come out of PCA.

Source: Cick Here

• Recurring deposits (RDs), like fixed deposits (FDs), offers interest rates based on tenure and your age. If you are a senior citizen, the interest rate is usually higher.


• The interest rate on an FD and an RD is similar. State Bank of India (SBI) recurring deposit has terms period ranging from 12 months to 120 months.


• SBI RD interest rates vary between 6.70% and 6.85% for regular customers and an additional interest rate hike of 0.50 percentage points for senior citizens.


• For instance, SBI’s 1-year recurring deposit will fetch you 6.8% interest rate. For the same period, a senior citizen will earn at the rate of 7.30% per annum.

Source: Cick Here

• Federal indirect tax body, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will consider reducing tax rates on a host of products amid an intense political debate between Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government and the opposition Congress party on the tax reform’s implementation.


• The Concil’s 31st meeting will discuss reducing tax rate on items in the highest slab of 28% such as cement, cameras and dish washers as well as on products that are of local interest to individual states.


• However, there is no final word on the proposal for a disaster cess to raise resources for rebuilding states that face natural disasters. A panel of state ministers is still examining the issue.

Source: Cick Here

• According to a newly released report by Fan Zhang, Senior Economist, South Asia Region, World Bank.- “In the Dark: How Much Do Power Sector Distortions Cost South Asia,” India’s power sector has an “efficiency” gap that costs the Indian economy 4.13% of GDP a year, equivalent to $86 billion in fiscal year 2016.


• AThe fiscal cost, consisting of subsidies to distribution utilities was $ 8.8 billion (or 0.42 per cent of GDP) in financial year 2015-2016.


• A In India, about 178 million people still lacked access to power in 2017.


• A Connecting all of India’s population to reliable electricity would increase the income of rural households by $9.4 billion a year, while eliminating power shortages would prevent an estimated $22.7 billion a year in business losses.


• A Though India has world’s fourth-largest coal reserves, it fell 14% short of meeting coal demand in fiscal year 2016.

Source: Cick Here

• Sydney Thunder's 19-year-old Indian-origin batsman Jason Sangha became the youngest ever batsman to smash a fifty in the Big Bash League.


• The middle-order-batsman, playing his first ever Big Bash League match, scored 63*(36) against Melbourne Stars. Sangha, who had led Australia to the 2018 Under-19 World Cup final, smashed four fours and four sixes during his knock.

Source: Cick Here

• A FIFA report stated on Friday that a combined global audience of 1.12 billion watched the World Cup final between France and Croatia in July.


• The report further stated that a combined 3.572 billion viewers, more than half of the global population aged four and over, tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup for at least a minute.

Source: Cick Here

• C.R.I. pumps, one of the Leading Manufacturer of energy efficient pumps won the National Energy Conservation Award 2018 in the pumps category for the fourth time.


• C.R.I. Group joint Managing Director, Mr. G. Selvaraj receives the award.


• C.R.I. is the highest contributor in the country for the projects of EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Limited) to replace the old inefficient pumps with new 5 star rated smart pumps.

Source: Cick Here

• Gujarat has emerged as the Best-performing state in the Startup Ranking 2018. The National Report on States' Startup Ranking was unveiled by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi.


• Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan, with a score of more than 85 percentile, have been adjudged the top performers.


• Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have been recognised as Leaders. 27 states and 3 union territories participated in the ranking proce.

Source: Cick Here

• Three Indian-origin students have been named among the 25 most influential teens of 2018 by Time magazine for making a mark across numerous fields.


• Indian-American Kavya Kopparapu, Rishab Jain, and British-Indian Amika George are among the group who have become inspirations for youngsters across the world due to their spectacular achievements through their work and passion.

Source: Cick Here

• LinkedIn which is the Microsoft owned professional networking platform hires Mahesh Narayanan as the Country Manager for India. Mahesh Narayanan will join LinkedIn from January 7, 2019.


• Before Joining LinkedIn, Mahesh Narayanan had served music and audio streaming service Saavn and led Google India’s mobile advertising business from 2010 to 2013.


• Mr. Narayanan will report to LinkedIn’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) Mr. Olivier Legrand.

• Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary General, Rajeev Mehta has been elected the President of South Asian Fencing Body for a period of four years after the meeting of South Asian Fencing Federation (SAFF) at Hyderabad.


• Rajeev Mehta is also the President of Fencing Association of India (FAI).


• The Game of fencing has been included in the list of events for the South Asian games to be held in August next year in Nepal.


• The First South Asian Fencing Championship 2019 will be held in Chhattisgarh.

Source: Cick Here

• the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) re-issued safety guidelines regarding the use of the oral drug, Isotretinoin.


• This drug that is used to treat severe nodular acne in women may cause severe birth defects which is why CDSCO warned all the State and Union Territories ’ drugs controllers.


• According to the guidelines, all packs of Isotretinoin should carry a warning that the medicine can cause severe birth defects, the medicine should not be taken by a woman who is pregnant or likely to get pregnant.


• Additionally, Drug Controller General Dr. S. Eswara Reddy directed all the drug controllers of the state and UTs to monitor the distribution of the drug.


• The directions were based on recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) for Dermatology and Allergy, CDSCO.