20th December, 2022

1. The curtain raiser of India’s flagship energy event India Energy Week 2023 (IEW 2023) was organised at Bengaluru, Karnataka.
2. India has launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.
3. Panini code — the 2500-year-old grammatical algorithm in Sanskrit — has been cracked by Rishi Rajpopa, an Indian PhD student at the University of Cambridge.
4. President Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to launch an EV yatra portal and a mobile application, developed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
5. Lok Sabha has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include the Hattee community in the Trans-Giri region of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State.
6. Central Government has announced that all Child Care Institutions have to be compulsorily registered with the district authorities and if they fail to do so then they will be asked to shut down.
7. Union Cabinet has approved the National Geospatial Policy to boost entrepreneurship for the socio-economic development of the country.
8. Union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has inaugurated ICMR-NARFBR (National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research) at Genome Valley, Hyderabad.
9. Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Vice President of CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), launched the “One Week, One Lab” countrywide campaign from 6th January, 2023.
10. Dharti Agro Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. is the first in the world to introduce GMS-based Cowpea Hybrids in the market and has released three hybrids in Cowpea – Bubbly, Sherly and Poorvaja.
11. Indian Naval Ship (INS) Mormugao, a P-15B stealth-guided missile destroyer, was commissioned into the Indian Navy.
12. Romania, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement on the Black Sea submarine cable for the transport of electricity from the Caspian area to Romania.
13. Japan has unveiled a $320 billion plan for raising its military build-up – the largest since the Second World War.
14. European Union members have agreed to implement a minimum tax rate of 15% on big businesses in accordance with Pillar 2 of the OECD’s Global Tax Agreement framed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last year.
15. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially unveiled the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
16. The 11th Global Food Security Index has been released by the British weekly The Economist.
17. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has increased its stake in Indian Railway Catering and Tourism (IRCTC) to 7.2% approx.
18. Wipro has signed a multi-year partnership with fintech firm Finastra for the digital transformation of corporate banks in the Middle East.
19. Google has partnered with DigiLocker, a government-authorized identification storage system, to bring local storage of government-issued IDs on Android devices.
20. Indian Bank has launched a special retail term deposit product named “IND SHAKTI 555 DAYS”e.f., December 19, 2022.
21. DBS Bank India has partnered with Gofrugal Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a seller-centric platform offering Omnichannel ERP solutions.
22. IDFC FIRST Bank announced ZERO Fee Banking on savings accounts and waived fees on 25 commonly used banking services such as transaction charges, ATM transaction charges,
23. The 48th edition of the GST Council was held virtually, under the chairpersonship of Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister.
24. Indian-origin Leo Varadkar has been elected as the Prime Minister of Ireland for a 2nd
25. Minorities Rights Day in India to create awareness about rights of religious minorities in India
26. International Migrants Day
27. World Arabic Language Day; Theme – The Contribution of the Arabic Language to Human Civilization and Culture
28. NMDC won the coveted IEI (Institution of Engineers, India) Industry Excellence Award 2022.
29. Sargam Koushal (from Jammu) has been crowned as Mrs World 2022 in the USA.
30. Namami Gange initiative has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the Top 10 World Restoration Flagships to revive the natural world.
31. Union Ministry of Power has announced the National Energy Conservation Awards – 2022.
32. India has won the inaugural FIH Women’s Hockey Nations Cup by defeating Spain held in Spain.
33. Argentina won the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Doha, Qatar by defeating France at Lusail Stadium.
34. Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was the most written-about track and field athlete in 2022.
35. Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Anurag Thakur has launched the Trophy Tour of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar – Rourkela.
36. India defeated Bangladesh to win its third consecutive T20 World Cup for the Blind by 120 runs.

National News

1. The curtain raiser of India’s flagship energy event India Energy Week 2023 (IEW 2023) was organised at Bengaluru, Karnataka.
   • Tagline of the event: “Growth, Collaboration, Transition”
   • It is being organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and supported by the Indian Oil and Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry.
   • It will be held from 6-8 February 2023 in Bengaluru during India’s G20 Presidency.
2. India has launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.
   • India, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal are co-chairs of the ‘Group of Friends to Promote Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers’ launched during India’s current presidency of the UN Security Council.
3. Panini code — the 2500-year-old grammatical algorithm in Sanskrit — has been cracked by Rishi Rajpopa, an Indian PhD student at the University of Cambridge.
   • His thesis is titled as “In Panini, We Trust: Discovering the Algorithm for Rule Conflict Resolution in the Astadhyayi”
   • Panini is a famous Sanskrit scholar, philologist and grammarian.
   • He lived around the 5th century BCE in India and is considered the “first descriptive linguist”. The western scholars consider him as the “father of linguists”.
   • The most famous work of Panini is Astadhyayi book, which defines the ancient language of Sanskrit.
4. President Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to launch an EV yatra portal and a mobile application, developed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
   • The mobile application helps to facilitate in-vehicle navigation to the nearest public EV charger, and a website to disseminate information on various central and state-level initiatives to promote e-mobility in the country.
   • BEE has also developed a web-portal to enable charging point operators (CPOs) to register their charging details securely into the National Online Database.
5. Lok Sabha has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include the Hattee community in the Trans-Giri region of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State.
6. Central Government has announced that all Child Care Institutions have to be compulsorily registered with the district authorities and if they fail to do so then they will be asked to shut down.
7. Union Cabinet has approved the National Geospatial Policy to boost entrepreneurship for the socio-economic development of the country.
   • Already, a National Geospatial Policy, 2021 is under implementation in India.
   • Objective – It is a citizen-centric policy that liberalizes the geospatial sector and democratizes the datasets generated by the use of public funds.
   • It aims to develop the Geospatial Infrastructures and also seeks to strengthen the national and sub-national arrangements for the generation and management of geospatial information.
   • As per the policy, the Geospatial sector in India is growing at 15% per annum, however, it has a potential to grow at 25% p.a. and more. It can contribute to the economy to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore and employ nearly 10 lakh people by 2029-2030.
   • Government will constitute at the national level an authority named as the Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee (GDPDC) who shall be the apex national authority for formulating and implementing policies for promoting the geospatia
8. Union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has inaugurated ICMR-NARFBR (National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research) at Genome Valley, Hyderabad.
   • The facility will help in the study of animals in biomedical research for discovering causes, diagnosis and treatment of zoonotic agents and diseases.
   • Director General of ICMR and Secretary of the Department of Health Research – Dr Rajiv Bahl
   • Director of ICMR-NARFBR – Dr Ramchandra S.G.
9. Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Vice President of CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), launched the “One Week, One Lab” countrywide campaign from 6th January, 2023.
   • Purpose – each and every lab of CSIR will display their innovations one by one every week to the common citizens of India
   • There are a total of 37 CSIR institutes/laboratories spread across the country.
   • The campaign was launched during the 200th Governing Body Meeting of CSIR at the Science Centre in New Delhi.
   • A new tagline for CSIR has also been unveiled, which is “CSIR-The Innovation Engine of India”.
   • The implementation of paperless E-office across all labs with effect 01 April 2023 and E-performance appraisal system for admin cadre staff for Reporting Year 2022-2023 was also approved.

Agriculture and Rural Development

1. Dharti Agro Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. is the first in the world to introduce GMS-based Cowpea Hybrids in the market and has released three hybrids in Cowpea – Bubbly, Sherly and Poorvaja.
   • Cowpea is easily affordable and provides rich source of protein and micronutrients.
   • Being a leguminous crop, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen, is involved in carbon sequestration and soil amelioration, thus reducing agriculture’s contribution towards volumes of crop protection products, enhancing and sustaining soil health.

Defence News

1. Indian Naval Ship (INS) Mormugao, a P-15B stealth-guided missile destroyer, was commissioned into the Indian Navy.
   • This was the second ship to be inducted as a part of the four ‘Visakhapatnam’ class destroyers.
   • Indigenously designed by the Navy’s in-house organisation Warship Design Bureau and constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in the country’s financial capital Mumbai.

International News

1. Romania, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement on the Black Sea submarine cable for the transport of electricity from the Caspian area to Romania.

2. Japan has unveiled a $320 billion plan for raising its military build-up – the largest since the Second World War.
3. European Union members have agreed to implement a minimum tax rate of 15% on big businesses in accordance with Pillar 2 of the OECD’s Global Tax Agreement framed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last year.
4. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially unveiled the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

Reports and Indices

1. The 11th Global Food Security Index has been released by the British weekly The Economist.
   • Parameters – Affordability, Availability, Quality and Safety, and Natural Resources and Resilience
   • India is ranked at the 68th position, along with Algeria with an overall score of 58.9. In 2021, India was ranked at 71st
   • China’s position is 25th with a score of 74.2.
   • A total of 113 countries have featured on this list.

Banking and Economy

1. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has increased its stake in Indian Railway Catering and Tourism (IRCTC) to 7.2% approx.
2. Wipro has signed a multi-year partnership with fintech firm Finastra for the digital transformation of corporate banks in the Middle East.
   • Wipro, in partnership with Finastra, will help banks transform and digitize the entire financial process in the region.
3. Google has partnered with DigiLocker, a government-authorized identification storage system, to bring local storage of government-issued IDs on Android devices.
   • This announcement was made at the Google for India conference.
   • The partnership is part of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) offerings that include on-device processing of text and images to identify important documents and organise them in a locally stored ‘Files’ folder.
4. Indian Bank has launched a special retail term deposit product named “IND SHAKTI 555 DAYS”e.f., December 19, 2022.
   • Interest rate – 7% for general and 7.15% for senior citizens
   • Tenure – 555 days
   • Amount – Rs 5000 to 2 Crore
5. DBS Bank India has partnered with Gofrugal Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a seller-centric platform offering Omnichannel ERP solutions.
   • The company empowers enterprise customers, including micro, small and medium enterprises and retail merchants, to adopt Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and enables them to expand their digital commerce footprint.
   • Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an initiative by the Government of India, is a platform based on an open protocol that will enable local commerce across mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel etc.
6. IDFC FIRST Bank announced ZERO Fee Banking on savings accounts and waived fees on 25 commonly used banking services such as transaction charges, ATM transaction charges,
7. The 48th edition of the GST Council was held virtually, under the chairpersonship of Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister.

Appointments

1. Indian-origin Leo Varadkar has been elected as the Prime Minister of Ireland for a 2nd term.

Important Days

1. December 18 –
   • Minorities Rights Day in India to create awareness about rights of religious minorities in India
   • International Migrants Day
   • World Arabic Language Day; Theme – The Contribution of the Arabic Language to Human Civilization and Culture

Awards

1. NMDC won the coveted IEI (Institution of Engineers, India) Industry Excellence Award 2022.

2. Sargam Koushal (from Jammu) has been crowned as Mrs World 2022 in the USA.
   • She brought this accolade to India after 21 years. Aditi Govitrikar became the first Indian woman to win the honour for India in 2001.

3. Namami Gange initiative has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the Top 10 World Restoration Flagships to revive the natural world.
   • Director General, Namami Gange, G Asok Kumar, received the award in the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada.
   • The Namami Gange initiative is committed to reviving the Ganga River, and was started in 2014.
   • 2021 to 2030 – United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
   • Other winners –

• At the COP-15, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), having 4 goals and 23 targets, was adopted.
  • The Framework aims to address the loss of biodiversity and restore natural ecosystems by 2030.
  • 188 countries, 95% of which are parties to the CBD, have approved the Framework, in addition to the USA and the Vatican City.

4. Union Ministry of Power has announced the National Energy Conservation Awards – 2022.
   • Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL) has won the first prize in the State Designated Agency (SDA Group-1) sector.

Sports

1. India has won the inaugural FIH Women’s Hockey Nations Cup by defeating Spain held in Spain.
   • By virtue of winning the Nations Cup, the Indian team has been promoted to the 2023-24 FIH Hockey Women’s Pro League, a key event ahead of next year’s Asian Games and 2024 Paris Olympics.
2. Argentina won the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Doha, Qatar by defeating France at Lusail Stadium.
   • Slogan of FIFA 2022 – Now is All
   • Mascot of FIFA 2022 – La’eeb
   • Official match ball – Al Rihla (meaning ‘The Journey’) designed by Adidas
   • Trophy of FIFA 2022 – Jules Rimet Trophy (unveiled by Deepika Padukone)

• Awards of FIFA World Cup 2022 –

• FIFA World Cup 2026 will be held in Canada, Mexico, and the USA.

3. Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was the most written-about track and field athlete in 2022.
   • He has displaced Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt from the top of the list after years.
4. Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Anurag Thakur has launched the Trophy Tour of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar – Rourkela.
   • In this tour, the coveted trophy will travel across 13 states and one Union Territory before returning to Odisha on 25 December.
   • The World Cup will be organized from 13-19 January 2023.
5. India defeated Bangladesh to win its third consecutive T20 World Cup for the Blind by 120 runs.
   • Venue – India

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