ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1974 The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes abortion
• 1970 The Boeing 747 takes off on its first scheduled flight
• 1943 World record for fastest temperature change

NATIONAL

• IIM Indore signs MoU with the UP Police. ‘The main purpose of the MoU is to review the existing ‘beat policing system’ of the state police and make recommendations for further strengthening of the system. We would also aim at strengthening the law and order and exchange research personnel and technical expertise’, said OP Singh, Director General of Police (DGP), UP in a statement.
• PM Modi, Nepal's Oli jointly inaugurate check post at Jogbani-Biratnagar. Built with Indian assistance, the integrated check post is spread over 260 acres and is capable of handling 500 trucks on a daily basis.
• Andhra Assembly passes 3 capitals Bill after bitter debate. These Bills facilitate the development of Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as legislative, executive and judicial capitals.
• Yudvir Singh Malik appointed Unitech's CMD after govt supersedes board. The top court had approved the name of retired Haryana cadre IAS officer Yudvir Singh Malik as CMD of the new board and directed that the existing board of directors of the company would stand superseded.

INTERNATIONAL

• Honduras declares Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. Heavily armed Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group, has also been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
• Human-to-human transmission confirmed in China coronavirus. In Geneva, the World Health Organization announced it would convene an Emergency Committee meeting to determine whether the outbreak warrants being declared a global health crisis.

ENVIRONMENT

• France to train Indian flight surgeons for Gaganyaan mission. The flight surgeons, who will be Indian Air Force doctors specialising in aviation medicines and responsible for the health of astronauts before, during and after flight, will be shortlisted soon.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2001 A massive earthquake hits Gujarat, India
• 1950 India becomes a republic
• 1905 The world's largest diamond is found in South Africa

NATIONAL

• Bharat Parv 2020 to be celebrated from 26th to 31st January. The Central theme of this year’s Bharat Parv is ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ and ‘Celebrating 150 Years of Mahatma Gandhi’.
• Rajasthan Assembly passes resolution against CAA. The House also asked the Centre to withdraw the new fields of information which have been sought for updating the National Population Register (NPR) 2020.

ECONOMY

• Debashish Panda nominated to SBI Central Board. He is appointed with immediate effect replacing the earlier nominee Ravi Mittal, according to a bank filing

DEFENCE

• Six Army personnel awarded Shaurya Chakras; 19 top officers get PVSM. A total of 151 Sena Medals, eight Yudh Seva Medals to have been announced on the occasion of Republic Day.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1971 A 100 feet (30 meter) high wave destroys a Peruvian mining camp and kills hundreds of people
• 1990 East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections
• 1962 The Évian Accords are signed, ending the Algerian War

NATIONAL

• Coronavirus suspects under home quarantine to have their left hand stamped, Maharashtra. Greater Mumbai's Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi has issued an order to all officials at hospitals and the airport, asking them to 'stamp' behind the left palm of the home quarantined person concerned, the dates of isolation, with ink that would last for 14 days. This will identify them easily in case they mingle with the general public.
• Karnataka Assembly passes Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2020. With this amendment, the Lokayukta can delegate cases to any Upalokayukta if he does not want to hear or consider, or in any manner, deal with or dispose of, certain cases or complaints or matters, for reasons to be recorded in writing.
• Bill seeeking extension in upper limit for permitting abortions gets LS nod. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 was passed by a voice vote.

INTERNATIONAL

• China gives go-ahead for human trials of COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers at China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, affiliated to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), received approval to launch early-stage clinical trials of the potential vaccine starting this week. Researchers will do tests on 108 healthy persons.
• Spain nationalises all hospitals as it scrambles to curb coronavirus. The step was announced by Salvador Illa, Spain's health minister, that all private healthcare infrastructure will now be under public control as the country scrambles to prevent the coronavirus crisis from worsening.
• US begins first human trial of COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by the NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2003 The largest peace demonstration in history takes place
• 1965 Canada adopts its current national flag showing a maple leaf
• 1989 The Soviet Union pulls out of Afghanistan

INTERNATIONAL

• Amazon wins suspension of $10 bn 'JEDI' contract to Microsoft. A federal judge temporarily blocked the US military from awarding a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft, after Amazon claimed the process was tainted by politics.
• China’s capital Beijing imposes 14-day quarantine on arrivals. From now on, all those who have returned to Beijing must stay at home or submit to group observation for 14 days after arriving.

NATIONAL

• SC completely lifts ban on construction, demolition activities in Delhi-NCR. The apex court had on November 4 last year banned all construction and demolition activities in Delhi-NCR.

ECONOMY

• Adani Group, Airport Authority of India ink pacts for managing Ahmedabad and two other airports. Three subsidiaries of the group – Adani Ahmedabad International Airport Limited, Adani Lucknow International Airport Limited and Adani Mangaluru International Airport Limited – have signed concession agreements with the AAI.
• PAN to become inoperative after March 31 if not linked with Aadhaar: I-T dept. Persons whose PANs become inoperative shall be liable for all the consequences under the I-T Act for not furnishing, intimating or quoting the permanent account number.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1986 Diego Maradona coins the phrase “Hand of God”
• 1945 Okinawa falls to U.S. troops
• 1633 The Catholic Church forces Galileo Galilei to renounce his heliocentric world view

INDIA 

• The annular 'ring of fire' solar eclipse, wherein the Sun appears like a ring of fire, was visible in several states
• ISRO receives patent for Liquid Cooling and Heating Garment (LCHG) for human spaceflight
• Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Raj Mohan Vohra, awarded Maha Vir Chakra for bravery in 1971 India-Pakistan War, dies at 88
• Social worker Vidyaben Shah dies at 98 in Delhi; was ex-President of ICCW (Indian Council for Child Welfare), won Padma Shri (1992)

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

• With USD 157.4 billion, India becomes 12th largest holder of US govt securities at April end; Japan remained No: 1 with USD 1.27 trillion

WORLD

• International Day of the Celebration of the Solstice observed on June 21
• Solstice: derived from the Latin sol ("sun") and sistere ("to stand still")
• International Day of Yoga observed on June 21; theme: "Yoga for Health - Yoga at Home"
• World Music Day celebrated on June 21: started by Frenchmen Jack Lang and Maurice Fleuret in 1981
• 2968-metre Mount Merapi volcano erupts on the island of Java in Indonesia
• China to set up a "national security agency in Hong Kong to administer a new law aimed at cracking down on dissent

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1986 Diego Maradona coins the phrase “Hand of God”
• 1945 Okinawa falls to U.S. troops
• 1633 The Catholic Church forces Galileo Galilei to renounce his heliocentric world view

INDIA 

• The annular 'ring of fire' solar eclipse, wherein the Sun appears like a ring of fire, was visible in several states
• ISRO receives patent for Liquid Cooling and Heating Garment (LCHG) for human spaceflight
• Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Raj Mohan Vohra, awarded Maha Vir Chakra for bravery in 1971 India-Pakistan War, dies at 88
• Social worker Vidyaben Shah dies at 98 in Delhi; was ex-President of ICCW (Indian Council for Child Welfare), won Padma Shri (1992)

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

• With USD 157.4 billion, India becomes 12th largest holder of US govt securities at April end; Japan remained No: 1 with USD 1.27 trillion

WORLD

• International Day of the Celebration of the Solstice observed on June 21
• Solstice: derived from the Latin sol ("sun") and sistere ("to stand still")
• International Day of Yoga observed on June 21; theme: "Yoga for Health - Yoga at Home"
• World Music Day celebrated on June 21: started by Frenchmen Jack Lang and Maurice Fleuret in 1981
• 2968-metre Mount Merapi volcano erupts on the island of Java in Indonesia
• China to set up a "national security agency in Hong Kong to administer a new law aimed at cracking down on dissent

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1913 Works to build Australia's capital city commence
• 1877 Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake” is premiered
• 1962 The first U.S. citizen to orbit the Earth lands safely in the Atlantic Ocean

NATIONAL

• Cabinet approves Constitution of 22nd Law Commission of India for a term of three years. The Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body constituted by the Government of India from time to time. The Commission was originally constituted in 1955 and is re-constituted every three years. The tenure of twenty-first Law Commission of India was upto 31st August, 2018.
• Govt approves changes in PMFBY and RWBCIS to make it optional for farmers. Under the PMFBY, which was launched in February 2016 by PM Modi, it is mandatory for loanee farmers to take insurance cover under this scheme. Currently, 58 per cent of the total farmers are loanee.

ECONOMY

• CCEA okays formation of 10,000 FPOs by 2024 with Rs 4,496 crore outlay to boost farmers income. The scheme also envisages a further committed liability of Rs 2,369 crore for 2024-25 to 2027-28 period towards hand-holding of each FPO for five years from its aggregation and formation, taking the total size to Rs 6,865 crore. 
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw wins EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2019. Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Tuhin Parikh, senior managing director (Real estate), Blackstone India, was the first recipient of the Transformational Impact Person of the Year award.
• India to switch to world's cleanest Petrol and Diesel. India will join the select league of nations using petrol and diesel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur as it looks to cut vehicular emissions that are said to be one of the reasons for pollution in major cities. 

SPORTS

• Asian Wrestling Championship 2020: India claims three more bronze. India finished the Greco-Roman competition with four bronze and one gold to be placed fifth on the table. Iran topped with five gold, one silver, and three bronze.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2010 The beginning of the Arab Spring
• 1989 First episode of The Simpsons aired
• 1903 First flight of the Wright Flyer

NATIONAL NEWS

• Vice Chief Lt Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane set to become next chief of the Indian Army
• Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force pay tributes at National War Memorial in New Delhi on Vijay Diwas; India’s victory over Pakistan in Bangladesh liberation war of 1971
• Amitabha Bagchi wins DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 for his novel ‘Half the Night is Gone’
• Court annuls election of Samajwadi Party’s Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan as MLA from Suar, UP in 2017 for being underage (below 25 years)
• Delhi Development Authority (DDA) portal for registration of properties in unauthorized colonies in the city launched

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Bangladesh celebrates its 49th ‘Victory Day’ that marks its liberation from Pakistan; Indian Army contingent participates in Dhaka parade for the first time
• Global Refugee Forum to be held in Geneva on December 17-18 by UNHCR and the government of Switzerland

ECONOMY NEWS

• Wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation rises to 0.58% in November, was 0.16% in October
• India secures USD 277 million loan from Germany to establish an energy-efficient housing programme
• Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) tops Fortune India 500 list with a revenue of Rs 5.81 lakh crore in 2018-19 followed by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) with Rs 5.36 lakh crore
• Sridhar Patra appointed new CMD of National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO)
• Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to acquire telecom tower assets of Reliance Jio

SPORTS NEWS

• Alexandra Kosteniuk wins women’s FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Monaco; India’s Koneru Humpy finishes runner-up
• Tata Steel Kolkata 25K: Kenyan Leonard Barsoton (1:13:48) and Ethiopian Guteni Shone (1:22:09) win the elite men and women’s titles

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1998 Titanic becomes the first film to gross $1 billion
• 1995 Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated
• 1947 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed

NATIONAL

• SEBI chief Ajay Tyagi gets 6-month extension. The government has given a six-month extension to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Ajay Tyagi whose term at the helm was ending
• Prime Minister lays foundation stone for the Bundelkhand Expressway. To supplement the nodes of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, announced in February 2018, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 296-kilometres long Bundelkhand Expressway at Chitrakoot.

INTERNATIONAL

• Malaysia’s king appoints Muhyiddin Yassin as the new Prime Minister. The appointment of Muhyiddin, who heads Mahathir’s Bersatu party, will ironically bring back to power the United Malays National Organization, which was ousted by Mahathir’s ruling alliance in 2018 elections.
• US, Taliban sign historic peace deal for inclusive Afghanistan development. The U.S. is poised to sign a peace agreement with Taliban militants aimed at bringing an end to 18 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing U.S. troops to return home.
• US postpones ASEAN regional summit due to coronavirus. "As the international community works together to defeat the novel coronavirus, the United States, in consultation with ASEAN partners, has made the difficult decision to postpone the ASEAN leaders meeting," said a US official.

ECONOMY

• Facebook, Twitter, and Google threaten to suspend services in Pakistan over Internet law. The new set of regulations makes it compulsory for social media companies to open offices in Islamabad, build data servers to store information and take down content upon identification by authorities
• Proposed 3-day bank strike from March 11 deferred. The strike had been called by the constituents of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella body of the trade unions in the banking sector.

DEFENSE

• Turkey says it destroyed ‘chemical warfare facility’ in Syria. Thirty-three Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces in the Idlib region, the biggest Turkish military loss on the battlefield in recent years.

SPORTS

• Djokovic wins against Tsitsipas to claim fifth Dubai title. Both players looked solid on serve early in the opening set before Djokovic turned the screw to break in the eighth game with a searing crosscourt backhand winner

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2013 Pope Francis succeeds Pope Benedict XVI
• 1943 German troops liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków
• 1845 Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premiered

NATIONAL

• India's first Coronavirus death in Telangana. A 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who recently returned from Dubai was down with fever and took treatment at a private hospital. State Health Minister B Sriramulu in a tweet said the necessary contact tracing, isolation and other measures as per protocol were being taken.
• Parliament Passes The Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The bill was passed for amendments in Mines & Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 and The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015. It will transform the mining sector in the country boosting coal production and reducing dependence on imports.
• Parliament passes amendments to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill, 2020. The amendment was passed by voice vote in Rajya Sabha and approved by Lok Sabha on March 6. The bill seeks to remove bottlenecks and streamline the corporate insolvency resolution process. It aims to provide protection to new owners of a loan defaulter company against prosecution for misdeeds of previous owners.
• Forcible dispossession of a person’s private property a human right violation: Supreme Court. In a recent judgment by a Bench led by Justice S.K. Kaul, the court stressed, quoting from its judgments, that right to property is both a human right and a constitutional right- the latter under Article 300A of the Constitution.
• Delhi's IGI airport ranked world's best in over 40 MPPA category. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), which is undergoing a major expansion, has emerged as the best airport in the over 40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category in Asia-Pacific by the Airports Council International's Airport Service Quality Programme (ASQ) 2019 rankings.

INTERNATIONAL

• Indian-origin nonprofit organisation activates helpline for coronavirus response in US. Sewa International, an Indian-American nonprofit organization has activated a helpline in the US in response to the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 4,500 lives, including 37 in America. This is after the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a "pandemic."

ECONOMY

• RBI opens six-month dollar sell-buy swap window to pump liquidity in the foreign exchange market. The central bank will conduct U.S. dollar-rupee sell-buy swaps worth $2 billion on March 16, to begin with, in its effort to fight market volatility.
• India’s current account deficit narrows sharply to USD 1.4 billion in Q3. The deficit had stood at 2.7 percent in the corresponding quarter a year ago and 0.9 percent in the previous quarter. The sharp contraction in the deficit was mainly due to a lower trade deficit of USD 34.6 billion, and a rise in net services receipts, the central bank said.
• BSNL, SBI partner to launch Bharat InstaPay - UPI-based payment platform. According to BSNL officials, the new payment facility developed by the company will enable its partners, especially prepaid sellers, to buy service immediately for sale. Bharat InstaPay will help its partners do digital transactions on a real-time basis.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2011 The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster strikes Japan
• 1990 Lithuania becomes the first Soviet republic to declare its independence
• 1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Rigoletto, receives its premiere

NATIONAL

• Jyotiraditya Scindia set to begin new innings with BJP, bids bitter bye to Congress. Within hours of Scindia's exit, more than 20 party MLAs close to him submitted their resignation from the assembly putting the Congress in an apparent minority in Madhya Pradesh. This was known after a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

INTERNATIONAL

• Saudi Arabia increases oil output to a record high of 12.3 mbpd. The clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a 25% slump in crude prices on Monday, triggering panic selling and heavy losses on Wall Street’s main stock indexes, already hit badly by the coronavirus outbreak.
• Italian premier locks down entire country to stop coronavirus. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has taken strict measures to combat the coronavirus, banning all but the most important travel and putting the final kibosh on social gatherings after Italians failed to take previous warnings to heart amid skyrocketing infections.

ECONOMY

• Mukesh Ambani lost Asia wealth crown to Jack Ma in $5.8-billion rout. Jack Ma, the Alibaba Group Holding founder, who ceded the No. 1 ranking in mid-2018, is back on top with a $44.5 billion fortune, about $2.6 billion more than Ambani. This was after oil prices collapsed along with global stocks.
• Hero chairman Pawan Munjal to pump USD 950,000 into Ola Electric. Munjal is investing in India’s only Electric Vehicle (EV) unicorn, Ola Electric under the entity name Pawan Munjal Family Trust, the regulatory filing sourced from financial data platform, paper.vc, indicated and Ola E. is likely to receive investment in Series-B funding in a bid to consolidate its fast-growing EV business.

SPORTS

• Vikas Krishan and Simranjit Kaur enter finals of Asian Qualifiers. M C Mary Kom and Amit Panghal, Lovlina Borgohain and Pooja Rani signed off with bronze medals at the Qualifiers in Amman. All the six boxers have already secured their tickets to the Olympic Games by making the semifinals but Krishan and Kaur will come back with at least silver medals after entering the finals.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1971 A 100 feet (30 meter) high wave destroys a Peruvian mining camp and kills hundreds of people
• 1990 East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections
• 1962 The Évian Accords are signed, ending the Algerian War

NATIONAL

• Coronavirus suspects under home quarantine to have their left hand stamped, Maharashtra. Greater Mumbai's Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi has issued an order to all officials at hospitals and the airport, asking them to 'stamp' behind the left palm of the home quarantined person concerned, the dates of isolation, with ink that would last for 14 days. This will identify them easily in case they mingle with the general public.
• Karnataka Assembly passes Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2020. With this amendment, the Lokayukta can delegate cases to any Upalokayukta if he does not want to hear or consider, or in any manner, deal with or dispose of, certain cases or complaints or matters, for reasons to be recorded in writing.
• Bill seeeking extension in upper limit for permitting abortions gets LS nod. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 was passed by a voice vote.

INTERNATIONAL

• China gives go-ahead for human trials of COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers at China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, affiliated to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), received approval to launch early-stage clinical trials of the potential vaccine starting this week. Researchers will do tests on 108 healthy persons.
• Spain nationalises all hospitals as it scrambles to curb coronavirus. The step was announced by Salvador Illa, Spain's health minister, that all private healthcare infrastructure will now be under public control as the country scrambles to prevent the coronavirus crisis from worsening.
• US begins first human trial of COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by the NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

--------------------------------

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1979 USSR invades Afghanistan
• 1989 Romanian President Nicolae Ceau?escu and wife Elena were executed
• 1809 First abdominal surgery performed

NATIONAL

• Jharkhand Assembly election results (81/81): AJSU Party: 2, BJP: 25, CPI-ML: 1, Independent: 2, Congress: 16, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha: 30, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik): 3, NCP: 1, RJD: 1
• Jharkhand: Outgoing BJP Chief Minister Raghubar Das lost from Jamshedpur East constituency to Independent Saryu Roy by a margin of 15,815 votes
• Cabinet approves creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff in the rank of four star General
• IAF’s last MiG 27 squadron to be decommissioned at the Jodhpur Air Base on December 27
• Cabinet approves conduct of Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register
• NITI Aayog to launch Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index & Dashboard 2019–20 on December 30
• India’s first long range CNG bus that can travel 1000 kms in a single fill launched by Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL)
• 8 km long strategic tunnel under Rohtang Pass in J&K to be named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

ECONOMY

• Gross nonperforming asset (GNPA) ratio of the banking system declines from 11.2% in 2017-18 to 9.1% in 2018-19: RBI
• Net NPAs of the banking system declined to 3.7 per cent in FY19 from 6 per cent in FY18: RBI
• Total frauds at banks rise 74% to Rs 71,543 crore in 2018-19: RBI
• RBI introduces semi-closed prepaid payment instrument (PPI) for purchase of goods and services up to a limit of Rs 10,000

INTERNATIONAL

• Russia is the only country in the world that has hypersonic weapons: President Vladimir Putin

SPORTS

• ‘Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games’, book by Boria Majumdar & Nalin Mehta, to release 

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1998 Titanic becomes the first film to gross $1 billion
• 1995 Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated
• 1947 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed

NATIONAL

• SEBI chief Ajay Tyagi gets 6-month extension. The government has given a six-month extension to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Ajay Tyagi whose term at the helm was ending
• Prime Minister lays foundation stone for the Bundelkhand Expressway. To supplement the nodes of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, announced in February 2018, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 296-kilometres long Bundelkhand Expressway at Chitrakoot.

INTERNATIONAL

• Malaysia’s king appoints Muhyiddin Yassin as the new Prime Minister. The appointment of Muhyiddin, who heads Mahathir’s Bersatu party, will ironically bring back to power the United Malays National Organization, which was ousted by Mahathir’s ruling alliance in 2018 elections.
• US, Taliban sign historic peace deal for inclusive Afghanistan development. The U.S. is poised to sign a peace agreement with Taliban militants aimed at bringing an end to 18 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing U.S. troops to return home.
• US postpones ASEAN regional summit due to coronavirus. "As the international community works together to defeat the novel coronavirus, the United States, in consultation with ASEAN partners, has made the difficult decision to postpone the ASEAN leaders meeting," said a US official.

ECONOMY

• Facebook, Twitter, and Google threaten to suspend services in Pakistan over Internet law. The new set of regulations makes it compulsory for social media companies to open offices in Islamabad, build data servers to store information and take down content upon identification by authorities
• Proposed 3-day bank strike from March 11 deferred. The strike had been called by the constituents of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella body of the trade unions in the banking sector.

DEFENSE

• Turkey says it destroyed ‘chemical warfare facility’ in Syria. Thirty-three Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces in the Idlib region, the biggest Turkish military loss on the battlefield in recent years.

SPORTS

• Djokovic wins against Tsitsipas to claim fifth Dubai title. Both players looked solid on serve early in the opening set before Djokovic turned the screw to break in the eighth game with a searing crosscourt backhand winner

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1970 Fijian independence
• 1964 The Tokyo Summer Olympics Begin
• 1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 explosion

ECONOMY

• India will get more capacity to assess huge multinationals, for example, Google, Apple and Facebook working together inside their fringes under a proposed upgrade of decades-old principles.
• The new toll policy considers exempting e-cars from toll or provide up to 50% discount.
• India's negotiating position has emerged as a challenge to concluding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership due to its stance that it has witnessed limited benefits from the earlier trade agreements.

DEFENSE

• Third suspected Pakistani drone spotted in Punjab
• President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday displayed the lofty President's Colors to the Army Aviation Corps at a function here. 
• India has denounced any direct or indirect money related help to terrorists and dread gatherings by countries that empower them to pursue their actions, including in shielding criminal arguments against them. 

ENVIRONMENT

• Three scientists are awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
• A lawsuit brought by 16 Alaska youths claims climate change will devastate the environment.

WORLD

• A New Orleans-based hereditary qualities testing organization and its three principals will pay $42.6 million to determine charges they cheated the national government by paying kickbacks for referrals and charging for therapeutically pointless tests, the U.S. Branch of Justice said on Wednesday.
• Turkish soldiers and their Syrian agitator partners assaulted the Kurdish state army in upper east Syria on Wednesday, beating them with airstrikes and gunnery before beginning a cross-outskirt ground activity that could change an eight-year-old war.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

• The headquarters of the International Court of justice is at The Hague.
• The first summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Corporation (FIPIC) was held in New Delhi
• The first Asian Secretary-general of U.N.O. was Trygve Lie

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1984 Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan First American Woman to walk in Space
• 2000 100th Mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program
• 1899 Second Boer War Begins

ECONOMY

• Kaveri Seeds to adopt GMS technology for hybrid cotton seeds
• Indian buyers slash Malaysian palm oil purchases fearing duty hike: Traders
• India’s wholesale inflation eased to 0.33% in September, its lowest in more than three years led by lower inflation in fuel and manufactured goods.

DEFENSE

• Ever since the abrogation of article 370 on August 5, there has been significant improvement in all the violence parameters in Kashmir," Lt Gen Singh told reporters here.
• Amid drone sightings, security forces cleared to shoot down UAV on the international border
• India calls for cooperation between FATF, UN to combat terror financing

ENVIRONMENT

• Prehistoric humans ate bone marrow like canned soup 400,000 years ago
• Almost 400 all-time high temperatures were set in the northern hemisphere over the summer, according to an analysis of temperature records.
• Central heating boilers 'put climate change goals at risk'

WORLD

• Trump says acting Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan is stepping down
• One man dies as wind-driven Los Angeles wildfire forces 100,000 to flee

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

• The first UN agency to accept Palestine as its full member in October 2011 is UNESCO.
• National Dairy Research Institute is located in Karnal.
• The office of the UN General Institute Assembly is in New York.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1969 Golda Meir becomes Israel's first female Prime Minister
• 1959 The Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
• 1941 The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington. D.C.

NATIONAL

• Manikaran Power becomes the first member of Indian Gas Exchange. The gas trading platform of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has found its first member in Manikaran Power Ltd (MPL), called the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX). It will be India’s first gas trading platform.IGX would offer spot and forward contracts at Dahej, Hazira and Kakinada.
• Lok Sabha passes Appropriation Bill 2020-21. The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Appropriation Bill 2020-21 that empowers the government to draw over ?110 lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working, as well as for the implementation of its programs and schemes. The house passed the bill after the Speaker applied 'guillotine' on the demands of grants for various ministries.
• Health ministry activates new toll-free number 1075 for queries on Covid-19. The previous helpline number, 011-239 78046, will also remain operational. Besides the toll-free numbers, the ministry also issued a helpline email ID ncov2019@gmail.com.
• West Bengal invokes Epidemic Diseases Act,1897. The Centre has advised States and Union Territories to invoke provisions of Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 so that all advisories being issued from time to time are enforceable. The West Bengal Government also extended the closure of educational institutions from March 31 to April 15.

INTERNATIONAL

• Clinical trial for coronavirus vaccine begins in US. Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.
• Nike, Under Armour to close all US stores due to coronavirus. Under Armour will shutter all of its stores in North America from Monday for about two weeks, while Wisconsin-based apparel retailer Lands End Inc said it is closing all retail stores in the United States through March 29. However, Nike-owned stores in South Korea, Japan, most of China and in many other countries are currently open and will continue their normal operations.

ECONOMY

• Moody's upgrades YES Bank's ratings. Global rating agency Moody's has upgraded YES Bank's long-term foreign currency rating from "Caa3" to "Caa1" on bail-out package involving fresh equity capital infusion. It has confirmed the bank's long-term foreign and local currency bank deposit ratings at Caa1.
• France hits Apple with record $1.2 bn fine for anti-competitive practices. The authority said it found that Apple acted to prevent independent retailers in France from competing on price and abused its economic power over them
• PhonePe integrates Swiggy on its 'Switch' platform. With this partnership, PhonePe's 200 million registered users can now access the Swiggy app and order the food from within the PhonePe app itself. The service will be available across all 520 cities where Swiggy delivers food in India.
• Wholesale inflation cools to 2.26% on food articles. India’s wholesale inflation eased to 2.26% in February, on the back of lower inflation in food articles especially onion and vegetables, data released by the commerce and industry ministry.

SPORTS

• 21-year-old football coach Francisco Garcia dies from Coronavirus.Francisco Garcia, who worked with Atletico Portada Alta, was suffering from leukemia which made him vulnerable against the pandemic and he was taken to the hospital with severe coronavirus symptoms.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1971 A 100 feet (30 meter) high wave destroys a Peruvian mining camp and kills hundreds of people
• 1990 East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections
• 1962 The Évian Accords are signed, ending the Algerian War

NATIONAL

• Coronavirus suspects under home quarantine to have their left hand stamped, Maharashtra. Greater Mumbai's Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi has issued an order to all officials at hospitals and the airport, asking them to 'stamp' behind the left palm of the home quarantined person concerned, the dates of isolation, with ink that would last for 14 days. This will identify them easily in case they mingle with the general public.
• Karnataka Assembly passes Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2020. With this amendment, the Lokayukta can delegate cases to any Upalokayukta if he does not want to hear or consider, or in any manner, deal with or dispose of, certain cases or complaints or matters, for reasons to be recorded in writing.
• Bill seeeking extension in upper limit for permitting abortions gets LS nod. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which seeks to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 was passed by a voice vote.

INTERNATIONAL

• China gives go-ahead for human trials of COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers at China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, affiliated to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), received approval to launch early-stage clinical trials of the potential vaccine starting this week. Researchers will do tests on 108 healthy persons.
• Spain nationalises all hospitals as it scrambles to curb coronavirus. The step was announced by Salvador Illa, Spain's health minister, that all private healthcare infrastructure will now be under public control as the country scrambles to prevent the coronavirus crisis from worsening.
• US begins first human trial of COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by the NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1965 Police brutally attack civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama
• 1926 The first two-way transatlantic telephone takes place
• 1965 Police brutally attack civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama

NATIONAL

• Govt reconstitutes National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction with Amit Shah as head. The govt has reconstituted the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as its chairperson and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others, as its members.
• Intel joins CBSE to empower 1 lakh Indian students in Artificial Intelligence.Initiatives include the roll-out of an Artificial Intelligence curriculum framework for grades VIII, IX and X for 22,000 schools, with the aim to empower 1 lakh students within 2020, Intel said

ECONOMY

• Lok Sabha passes Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill amid noisy protests.Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought the cooperation of the members to pass the Bill in the House.
• EPFO cuts rate on employee provident fund to 7-year low of 8.5% for FY20. The EPFO had given an interest rate of 8.65% in the previous financial year to roughly 170 million subscribers
• PhonePe, other digital transaction apps affected with Yes Bank's. Yes Bank handles UPI transactions for third-party apps such as PhonePe and BharatPe while the private lender is the sole payments service providev for key businesses such as Cleartrip and Airtel.
• With Aadhaar-enabled system, now avail banking services at your doorstep. People living in areas without banks or ATMs will no longer have to walk long distances to avail such services.
• Prashant Kumar takes charge as Yes Bank administrator. The private sector lender was on Thursday placed under a moratorium, with the RBI capping deposit withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account for a month and superseding its board. 
• Yes Bank crisis’ solution found- RBI unveils reconstruction plan, SBI may invest Rs 2,450 crore. The Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced a reconstruction plan for troubled private lender Yes Bank, just a day after a moratorium and curb on withdrawals created widespread panic among depositors and investors.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1979 The compact disc is presented to the public
• 1910 Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman with a pilot's license
• 1817 The New York Stock Exchange is founded

NATIONAL

• Assam to come up with 140 MW solar power project at Dima Hasao district and at Amguri in Sivasagar. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal administered the agreement signing for two solar power projects of 70 MW each at Dima Hasao district and at Amguri in Sivasagar district.
• COVID-19: Haj House to become 500-bed isolation centre. The Ghaziabad district administration will set up a 500-bed isolation centre at Ala Hazrat Haj House in Arthala here to combat the coronavirus, officials said.
• Puneeth Rajkumar named brand ambassador for Chamarajanagar District. Actor accepts request from new DC to highlight development efforts and plans for the comprehensive development of the region besides taking steps for conservation of natural resources, environment and wildlife, and beautification of towns and urban areas.

ECONOMY

• ED expands YES Bank probe, searches homes of Rana Kapoor's three daughters. The source said the searches are being carried out at the residential premises of all three daughters -- Rakhee Kapoor Tandon, Roshni Kapoor and Radha Kapoor

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2011 The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster strikes Japan
• 1990 Lithuania becomes the first Soviet republic to declare its independence
• 1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Rigoletto, receives its premiere

NATIONAL

• Jyotiraditya Scindia set to begin new innings with BJP, bids bitter bye to Congress. Within hours of Scindia's exit, more than 20 party MLAs close to him submitted their resignation from the assembly putting the Congress in an apparent minority in Madhya Pradesh. This was known after a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

INTERNATIONAL

• Saudi Arabia increases oil output to a record high of 12.3 mbpd. The clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a 25% slump in crude prices on Monday, triggering panic selling and heavy losses on Wall Street’s main stock indexes, already hit badly by the coronavirus outbreak.
• Italian premier locks down entire country to stop coronavirus. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has taken strict measures to combat the coronavirus, banning all but the most important travel and putting the final kibosh on social gatherings after Italians failed to take previous warnings to heart amid skyrocketing infections.

ECONOMY

• Mukesh Ambani lost Asia wealth crown to Jack Ma in $5.8-billion rout. Jack Ma, the Alibaba Group Holding founder, who ceded the No. 1 ranking in mid-2018, is back on top with a $44.5 billion fortune, about $2.6 billion more than Ambani. This was after oil prices collapsed along with global stocks.
• Hero chairman Pawan Munjal to pump USD 950,000 into Ola Electric. Munjal is investing in India’s only Electric Vehicle (EV) unicorn, Ola Electric under the entity name Pawan Munjal Family Trust, the regulatory filing sourced from financial data platform, paper.vc, indicated and Ola E. is likely to receive investment in Series-B funding in a bid to consolidate its fast-growing EV business.

SPORTS

• Vikas Krishan and Simranjit Kaur enter finals of Asian Qualifiers. M C Mary Kom and Amit Panghal, Lovlina Borgohain and Pooja Rani signed off with bronze medals at the Qualifiers in Amman. All the six boxers have already secured their tickets to the Olympic Games by making the semifinals but Krishan and Kaur will come back with at least silver medals after entering the finals.

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1954 Willie Mosconi sets the world record for running most consecutive Pool balls without a miss
• 1962 Bob Dylan releases his first album
• 1945 Adolf Hitler orders the destruction of all industries in Germany

NATIONAL

• CBSE postpones board exams till March 31 in view of Covid-19 outbreak. "While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents," HRD secretary Amit Khare said in an official communication.
• Real Time Train Information System for Indian Railways. A Real-Time Information System (RTIS), developed in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is being installed on the locomotives for automatic acquisition of train movement timings at the stations, including that of arrival & departure or run-through.

INTERNATIONAL

• Australia declares emergency, warns coronavirus crisis could last six months. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday declared a "human biosecurity emergency" and said the country's citizens should abandon all overseas travel because of the coronavirus epidemic that he warned could last at least six months.
• UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak unveils GBP 330 billion rescue package in coronavirus fight. As part of his bailout package, Sunak extended a business rates holiday to all businesses in the retail and hospitality sector for 12 months as well as a cash grant to help them survive.
• CSIR scientists develope hand-sanitiser without harmful chemicals. Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Director of IHBT stated that “The natural flavours, active tea constituents and alcohol content in this hand-sanitizer have been used as per the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1954 Willie Mosconi sets the world record for running most consecutive Pool balls without a miss
• 1962 Bob Dylan releases his first album
• 1945 Adolf Hitler orders the destruction of all industries in Germany

NATIONAL

• CBSE postpones board exams till March 31 in view of Covid-19 outbreak. "While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents," HRD secretary Amit Khare said in an official communication.
• Real Time Train Information System for Indian Railways. A Real-Time Information System (RTIS), developed in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is being installed on the locomotives for automatic acquisition of train movement timings at the stations, including that of arrival & departure or run-through.

INTERNATIONAL

• Australia declares emergency, warns coronavirus crisis could last six months. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday declared a "human biosecurity emergency" and said the country's citizens should abandon all overseas travel because of the coronavirus epidemic that he warned could last at least six months.
• UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak unveils GBP 330 billion rescue package in coronavirus fight. As part of his bailout package, Sunak extended a business rates holiday to all businesses in the retail and hospitality sector for 12 months as well as a cash grant to help them survive.
• CSIR scientists develope hand-sanitiser without harmful chemicals. Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Director of IHBT stated that “The natural flavours, active tea constituents and alcohol content in this hand-sanitizer have been used as per the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 2000 Bulldozer Revolution in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• 1984 First Canadian to go into space - Marc Garneau
• 1962 James Bond makes his theatrical debut

ECONOMY

• The agriculture ministry has proposed a 5-7% increase in minimum support price (MSP) of rabi crops to improve farmers.
• Banks that are looking to move to the new tax regime will have to write off or reinstate deferred tax assets (DTAs).

DEFENSE

• Two squadrons of the Indian Air Force, who played a role in the Balakot airstrike, were appreciated on the 87th IAF Day.
• Three Indian engineers held by the Taliban since May 2018 have been freed by the militant group in exchange for 11 of its top members from Afghan jails.
• The Indian Air Force is prepared to fight and is fully ready to respond to any terror strike from Pakistan according to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria.

ENVIRONMENT

• The Jason-2 satellite provided insights into sea-level rise with tangible benefits to understand forecasting and meteorology. It has been discontinued today. These observations are being continued by its successor, Jason-3.
• The costs of major disasters like hurricanes or the massive tornado swarms in the Midwest have increased to a larger extent than those of lesser events.

WORLD

• Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday did not rule out asking Beijing for help, as the Asian financial hub struggles to deal with months of often violent anti-government protests that are damaging its economy.
• The People’s Daily lashed out on Tuesday at Apple for allowing an app on its app store that tracks the movement of police around Hong Kong and is used by protesters in violent demonstrations.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

• NASA's First Planetary Defense Technology told that we will collide with Asteroid in 2020
• The Financial service company, which has planned to invest $1 billion in India is Mastercard.
• Indian Navy's missile destroyer that INS Ranjit decommissioned recently is situated in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1943 The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end as the Axis Powers surrender
• 1922 “Ulysses” by James Joyce is published
• 1852 The first public flushing toilet is opened in London

NATIONAL

• For every rupee in government kitty, 64 paise come from taxes. According to the Union Budget 2020-21, goods and services tax collections will contribute 18 paise in every rupee revenue.
• Budget 2020 | Finance Minister proposes ‘taxpayer’s charter’ to boost trust. The charter, which would enumerate taxpayer’s rights, would be incorporated in the Income Tax Act through suitable amendments.

INTERNATIONAL

• Budget 2020: Non-taxpaying NRIs to be taxed in India, says FM. The Union Budget 2020 has now proposed to introduce a deeming provision that every Indian citizen who is not liable to tax in any other country, by virtue of his domicile or residence, shall be deemed as a resident of India. Consequently, his global income would be taxable in India.

SPORTS

• Kenin beats Muguruza to win Australian Open women's title. It was the final surprise in a tournament of upsets, where Williams went out in the third round and Kenin upset Australia’s world number one Ashleigh Barty in the semi-finals.