ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1984 Hong Kong Treaty Signed
• 1972 Apollo 17 returns to Earth
• 2012 Election of First female President of South Korea

NATIONAL

• ‘Manthan- Impeccable Academia” organised in New Delhi by Media and Entertainment Skills Council (MESC) and HRD Ministry
• Eminent actor Shriram Lagoo dies at the age of 92 in Pune
• Urdu writer Mujtaba Hussain to return his Padma Shri (2007) award
• Braille edition of ‘Exam Warriors’, a book authored by PM Modi, released
• Odisha Govt. launches ‘Jalsathi’ programme to ensure supply of safe drinking water
• JSPL Foundation announces 27 winners of its ‘Rashtriya Swayamsiddh Samman’
• Sahitya Akademi announced winners of 2019 Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages

ECONOMY

• GST council announces single rate of 28% on state-run and state-authorised lotteries
• Import of gold and silver placed in ‘restricted’ category from the ‘free’ category: DGFT
• ADB to provide USD 250 million loan to EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Ltd) to expand energy efficiency investments in India
• NHAI launches ‘FASTag Lagao Aage Bado, India Ko Aage Badao’ TV commercial featuring Akshay Kumar
• First Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Tripura set up at Paschim Jalefa, Sabroom, South Tripura District
• NCLAT orders reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons; was ousted in 2016
• Patanjali Ayurved completes acquisition of bankrupt Ruchi Soya for Rs 4,350 crore; gets brands such as Nutrela, Mahakosh and Ruchi Gold
• Piaggio launches electric three-wheeler Ape E-City at Rs 1.97 lakh
• Devesh Srivastava appointed new CMD of General Insurance Corporation of India
• The second India-US 2+2 dialogue was held on December 18, 2019 at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department in Washington.

INTERNATIONAL

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visits Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk in US
• European Space Agency (ESA) launches Characterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) from Kourou, French Guiana on a three-year mission to study planets in other solar systems.
• India (1,35,788) was world’s third largest publisher of science and engineering articles after China (5,28,263) and US (4,22,808) in 2018: US National Science Foundation (NSF)
• International Migrants Day celebrated on December 18
• Arabic Language Day celebrated on December 18
• Noted American vibraphonist and percussionist Emil Richards dies at 87
• Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Peugeot announce merger deal
• Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) acquires Bowler, a UK-based manufacturer of all-terrain performance cars

SPORTS

• India beat West Indies by 107 runs in second ODI at Visakhapatnam
• Former West Indies batsman Basil Butcher (3104 runs in 44 Tests) passes away at the age of 86

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