ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1985 The U.K. miners' strike ends
• 1974 All 345 people on board a Turkish Airlines jet die as it plunges to the ground near Paris, France
• 1938 The world's fastest steam locomotive is built

NATIONAL

• In Tamil Nadu, primary health centres have now been transformed into Ayushman Bharat health and wellness centres. A total of 1,384 existing PHC and 460 urban PHCs across Tamil Nadu have been transformed and will now screen for diabetes, hypertension and cancer and also provide trauma care.
• Delhi Assembly panel to launch number, email ID for hate message complaints. AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj said after scrutiny of complaints, the committee will send them to the police for criminal prosecutions.

ECONOMY

• Govt allows onion exports from March 15, removes MEP as prices fall. The government last week decided to lift ban on export of onions in view of projected sharp fall in prices due to bumper rabi crop
• RBI receives Rs 1.71 trn in third LTRO conducted for Rs 25,000 crore.The central bank received 66 bids in the three-year tenor LTRO, which has reversal date on March 1, 2023. The total bids that were received amounted to Rs 1,71,965 crore, implying a bid to cover ratio of 6.9

SPORTS

• International Archer Jyothi Surekha creates new records. By scoring 709 out of 720 points, she created a new national record in the world cup selection trials. The archer has been selected for participation in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 to be conducted in May at Antalya of Turkey.

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INTERNATIONAL

Italy and Spain had managed to tamp down the initial ourbreak with some of the world's strictest national lockdowns. The easing of those measures before the summer travel season contr

Last week, SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites aboard Falcon 9 rocket to be deployed in low-Earth orbit, bringing the constellation to 788 as the company gears up for a public beta of the affordable satellite broadband service.

Dubai, which sees itself as a leading "smart city" in the Middle East, has ambitions to become a hub for technology and artificial intelligence.

INDIA

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has allowed a Nanded gurudwara to conduct its annual Dussehra celebrations occurring for three centuries.

However, Takht Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchal Nagar Sahib must observe strict pointers laid down by the court docket, which embody necessary COVID-19 check and no congregation distributed to a new wave of cases that risks overwhelming the countries' health-care systems if unchecked.

BUSINESS

The relief will be available to borrowers irrespective of whether moratorium on loan repayment has been availed or not.

Sabarmati and Sardar Sarovar -- Statue of Unity route are included in the 16 seaplane routes identified in the country.

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.

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

INTERNATIONAL

Three-time Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was renamed to the post on Thursday to create a cabinet that can lift the country out of its worst econ

Saudi Arabia wants to train 20,000 people over the next decade in the field of AI. The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence on Thursday signed memorandums of understanding with IBM, Alibaba and Huawei in areas of artificial intelligence (AI) at a summit in the kingdom.

BUSINESS

The decision to continue with the two existing Quick Response (QR) codes was based on the recommendations of the committee to review the current system of such codes in India and suggest measures for moving towards interoperable QR codes.

INDIA

Conceptualised and designed entirely in India, JioPages supports eight Indian languages - Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali, besides English.

NATIONAL

E-auction of mining near 50km radius of eco-sensitive zone may not be allowed , says SC. The top court observed that it may stay the e-auction of coal blocks at other places of the country, if it is brought to the notice of the court that the area is close enough to the eco-sensitive zone.

Prasar Bharati signs MoU with Electronics and IT Ministry to launch 51 education TV channels. The services will be available free of cost for all the viewers 24x7, in line with improving skill development and providing quality education, the government said in a statement.

INTERNATIONAL

The Trump administration has notified Congress that it has approved the sale of $600 million in armed drones to Taiwan, the latest in a series of arms transfers for the island.

BUSINESS 

CCEA okays Rs 1,810-cr investment for 210 MW hydropower project in Himachal

Expats will no longer need employers' permission to change jobs, travel or leave Saudi Arabia

DEFENSE

Three more Rafale jets arrive in India after flying non-stop from France

NATIONAL

Earlier in May, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had commissioned Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Sachet and two interceptor boats (IBs) C-450 and C-451 in Goa. The ICGS Sachet, the first in the series of five offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) has been designed and built indigenously by Goa Shipyard Limited.

India has granted tax free status to Abu Dhabi's Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) - MIC Redwood 1 RSC Ltd - to expedite foreign investment in the country's priority areas during the Covid pandemic

BUSINESS

Ant said that its listing had been suspended by Shanghai following a recent interview regulators held with its founder Jack Ma and top executives.

E-commerce giant Flipkart has strengthened its gaming strategy through the acquisition of intellectual property (IP) from Mech Mocha, a mobile gaming start-up that runs India's first live-social gaming platform.

BANKING

Chinese short-video making app TikTok has announced a new licensing agreement with Sony Music Entertainment

INTERNATIONAL

Priyanca Radhakrishnan becomes New Zealand’s first-ever Indian-origin minister. Born in India, she went to school in Singapore before moving to New Zealand to further her education.

BANKING

Nokia Mobiles Global VP Ajey Mehta quits to start own venture in healthcare. Nokia Mobiles Global VP Ajey Mehta quits firm, to start own IoT venture. Ajey Mehta, India VP for HMD Global, will now start his own internet of things (IoT) venture, ikiva, that will focus on the healthcare domain.

Bengaluru based Manipal Hospitals to acquire Columbia Asia for Rs 2000 cr. Manipal Hospitals on Monday announced its intent to acquire 100 percent stake in Columbia Asia Hospitals Private Limited (Columbia Asia) for about Rs 2,000 crore. Manipal Hospitals said the acquisition offers it a “remarkable geographical and cultural fit”, and provides a larger national footprint.

SPORTS

Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. The 39-year-old will hang up his boots after an illustrious career during which he won two ICC Men's Cricket World Cups and two ICC Champions Trophy titles.

NATIONAL

Uttarakhand government schools set to open on Monday after 7 months. The school education department has made all the preparations to open schools ensuring social and physical distancing.

NEET 2020: Telangana invites online applications for admission to UG Medical. NEET 2020: Candidates who have qualified the NEET UG 2020 exam can apply for the admission process online at knruhs.telangana.gov.in on or before November 8, 2020, until 5 pm.

INTERNATIONAL

6.3-magnitude quake jolts Indonesia. The meteorology and geophysics agency did not issue a tsunami warning, as the quake did not potentially trigger giant waves, reports Xinhua news agency.

BUSINESS

No LPG cylinder will be delivered at your home if you don’t do this from today. All LPG customers across the country will now need to furnish a one-time password (OTP) in order to get the home delivery of gas cylinders. Oil companies have implemented a Delivery Authentication Code (DAC) for the customers who need gas cylinders at their homes.

BANKING

Abhay Choudhary takes over as Director (Projects) of Power Grid Corporation

SPORTS

Hamilton wins at Imola as Mercedes clinch constructors’ title. Lewis Hamilton took a record-extending 93rd career win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday as his Mercedes team clinched an unprecedented seventh successive Formula One constructors' title with four races to spare.

NATIONAL

Rajasthan government introduces three bills to negate the impact of Centre's farm laws. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal introduced the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020.

Rajasthan govt tables Bill to make wearing face mask mandatory. In a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Rajasthan government on Saturday introduced an amendment bill in the state assembly to make wearing face mask mandatory.

BUSINESS

ISc and Indian Oil R&D sign MoU for hydrogen-generation technology

BANKING

Air India appoints new chiefs in three of its subsidiaries

SPORTS

Adille Sumariwalla elected as AFI president for third term. Madhukant Pathak and Ravinder Chaudhary were elected as treasurer and general secretary of AFI respectively.

Sports minister Kiren Rijiju flags off 200 km long 'Fit India Walkathon' with ITBP. The walkathon march will continue day and night and will also pass through the dunes of the Thar desert in the area located along the India-Pakistan border.

NATIONAL

Kerala, Goa and Chandigarh best governed states and union territory, says PAC ranking. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar were at the bottom of the ranking, scoring negative points in the category. They got - 1.461, -1.201 and -1.158 points respectively.

KK Sharma resigns as advisor to J&K L-G, appointed State Election Commissioner. Sharma, a 1983-batch IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, was appointed advisor to the Lieutenant Governor in November last year.

PM Modi inaugurates 'Arogya Van' near Statue of Unity. The Arogya Van comprises a lotus pond, alba garden, aroma garden, yoga and meditation garden, indoor plant section, digital information centre, souvenir shop and a cafeteria serving ayurveda foods, among other things, the release said.

INTERNATIONAL

for strategic alliance

The final agreement follow a memorandum of understanding between the two companies, signed in December last year, and closing is expected during the first half of 2021, Volvo said in a statement.

BANKING

Electronics Sector Skill Council of India appoints PVG Menon as CEO

The Electronics Sector Skill Council of India (ESSCI) on Friday announced appointment of PVG Menon as its chief executive officer.

SPORTS

Boxers Panghal, Sanjeet win gold in France

Panghal defeated USA’s Abraham Rene Perez 3-0 in final of 52kg category. There were four boxers in the 52kg draw and Panghal won both bouts comfortably.

NATIONAL

Two teachers from Hubballi Ashok Shettar, who modified the engineering schooling state of affairs in North Karnataka, and B.F. Dandin, who regardless of coming from a humble background went on to construct 65 academic establishments, have been chosen for the Rajyotsava Award this 12 months.

INTERNATIONAL

The conservative Lee, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, had been out on bail awaiting the ruling and was not in court for the decision, but police were seen at his Seoul home to take him away

Stakeholders have 30 days to respond to the notification, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday, less than a week before the US presidential election.

BUSINESS

"An e-commerce operator will be a "non-resident who owns, operates or manages digital or electronic facility or platform for online sale of goods or online provision of services or both," the CBDT said in the notification.

A decision to extend the norms for mandatory packaging in jute materials was taken by the Union Cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said while briefing reporters about the meeting. The decision, 

he said, will benefit about 4 lakh workers engaged in the jute sector along with thousands of farmers.

BANKING

Toyota announced the launch of its first regional stockyard in Guwahati, which aims at reducing delivery time from the current 13 days to a maximum of two days for dealers in the northeastern states

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1985 The U.K. miners' strike ends
• 1974 All 345 people on board a Turkish Airlines jet die as it plunges to the ground near Paris, France
• 1938 The world's fastest steam locomotive is built

NATIONAL

• In Tamil Nadu, primary health centres have now been transformed into Ayushman Bharat health and wellness centres. A total of 1,384 existing PHC and 460 urban PHCs across Tamil Nadu have been transformed and will now screen for diabetes, hypertension and cancer and also provide trauma care.
• Delhi Assembly panel to launch number, email ID for hate message complaints. AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj said after scrutiny of complaints, the committee will send them to the police for criminal prosecutions.

ECONOMY

• Govt allows onion exports from March 15, removes MEP as prices fall. The government last week decided to lift ban on export of onions in view of projected sharp fall in prices due to bumper rabi crop
• RBI receives Rs 1.71 trn in third LTRO conducted for Rs 25,000 crore.The central bank received 66 bids in the three-year tenor LTRO, which has reversal date on March 1, 2023. The total bids that were received amounted to Rs 1,71,965 crore, implying a bid to cover ratio of 6.9

SPORTS

• International Archer Jyothi Surekha creates new records. By scoring 709 out of 720 points, she created a new national record in the world cup selection trials. The archer has been selected for participation in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 to be conducted in May at Antalya of Turkey.

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

INDIA

Residents could not buy any immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the fresh changes have paved the way for non-residents to buy land in the union territory. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha told reporters that the amendments did not allow transfer of agricultural land to non-agriculturists.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will launch 'Green Delhi' mobile application, using which citizens can bring pollution-causing activities to the government's notice, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said.

INTERNATIONAL

The Nasdaq Dubai Growth Market will allow SMEs to list if they are valued below $250 million, with a minimum operating history of one year, compared to three years for Nasdaq Dubai's main market, the Dubai Media Office said.

The latest threats came amid California's worst wildfire season on record in terms of landscape burned, with more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) scorched since the start of the year, along with thousands of homes destroyed and 31 lives lost.

BANKING

The Uber association, which will be valid from October to December 2020, will enable their safe access to educational and training institutes as well as work places in eight cities, a statement said

INDIA

The order said proceedings of the Division Bench No 1 [First Court] of the High Court will be telecast live, purely on an experimental basis.

INTERNATIONAL

India and US militaries have decided to ink a deal to share real-time geospatial intelligence, information on maps and satellite images for defence.

A team of South Korean researchers have developed a faster charging and longer lasting battery material that can juice up electric cars up to 90% in just six minutes.

ECONOMY

Radio frequency interference (RFI) is the long-term nemesis of radio astronomers. Jodrell Bank - the earliest radio astronomy observatory in the world still in existence - was created because of RFI

INTERNATIONAL

Italy and Spain had managed to tamp down the initial ourbreak with some of the world's strictest national lockdowns. The easing of those measures before the summer travel season contr

Last week, SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites aboard Falcon 9 rocket to be deployed in low-Earth orbit, bringing the constellation to 788 as the company gears up for a public beta of the affordable satellite broadband service.

Dubai, which sees itself as a leading "smart city" in the Middle East, has ambitions to become a hub for technology and artificial intelligence.

INDIA

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has allowed a Nanded gurudwara to conduct its annual Dussehra celebrations occurring for three centuries.

However, Takht Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchal Nagar Sahib must observe strict pointers laid down by the court docket, which embody necessary COVID-19 check and no congregation distributed to a new wave of cases that risks overwhelming the countries' health-care systems if unchecked.

BUSINESS

The relief will be available to borrowers irrespective of whether moratorium on loan repayment has been availed or not.

Sabarmati and Sardar Sarovar -- Statue of Unity route are included in the 16 seaplane routes identified in the country.

NATIONAL

Justice Medhi completed his schooling from the Don Bosco School, Guwahati and was enrolled as a LLB student in Campus Law Centre in the University of Delhi from 1991 to 1994. He was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Gauhati High Court on November 19, 2018.

RAILWAYS

The Northern Railways will hand over the reins of the Parliament canteen to ITDC on November 15, bringing to an end its 52-year legacy of serving food

INDIA

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said students will have an option to either attend the classes physically or online or can go in for blended learning by using both options

Delhi High Court restrains Arnab Goswami's Republic TV from using 'News Hour' title

The court found no merit in Republic TV's argument that the words 'News Hour' are generic, widely used and as such Times Group cannot claim a proprietary right.

INTERNATIONAL

Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997 and the sides have increasingly feuded over civil rights in the territory. Britain accuses China of failing to live up to its pledges to maintain freedoms in the special administrative region, while Beijing says London is interfering in its internal affairs.

INTERNATIONAL

Three-time Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was renamed to the post on Thursday to create a cabinet that can lift the country out of its worst econ

Saudi Arabia wants to train 20,000 people over the next decade in the field of AI. The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence on Thursday signed memorandums of understanding with IBM, Alibaba and Huawei in areas of artificial intelligence (AI) at a summit in the kingdom.

BUSINESS

The decision to continue with the two existing Quick Response (QR) codes was based on the recommendations of the committee to review the current system of such codes in India and suggest measures for moving towards interoperable QR codes.

INDIA

Conceptualised and designed entirely in India, JioPages supports eight Indian languages - Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali, besides English.

INDIA

• In addition to clinical trials of repurposed drugs and vaccines, CSIR has been involved in clinical trials of diagnostics and devices.
• “As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, UNICEF has begun laying the groundwork for the rapid, safe and efficient delivery of the eventual vaccine by purchasing and pre-positioning syringes and other necessary equipment,” the UN agency said on Monday.

BUSINESS:

• Reliance Jio and Qualcomm Technologies Inc have expanded their efforts to develop 5G solutions in India and have achieved a speed of 1 Gbps during trials. The companies announced on Tuesday that the partnership aims to fast track the development and roll out indegenious 5G network infrastructure and services in India.

ECONOMY

• "Tata Communications has appointed Kabir Ahmed Shakir as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Kabir will join on October 21, 2020 and will be responsible for the strategic financial management of the company, including investor relations," the company said in a statement

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

NATIONAL

• The Central theme of this year’s Bharat Parv is ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ and ‘Celebrating 150 Years of Mahatma Gandhi’.
• Rajasthan Assembly House 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 

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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1969 The Boeing 747 flies for the first time
• 1959 The world's first intercontinental ballistic missile becomes operational in the USSR
• 1950 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy launches his anti-communist campaign

ECONOMY

• India's fiscal gap one of the highest in emerging markets. Total government expenditure was equivalent to around 27.1 per cent of GDP while total government revenue was around 19.6 per cent of GDP in the last calendar year
• SBI cuts MCLR by 5 bps across all tenors. The move is expected to further lower home and auto loan rates.  The bank also trimmed deposit rates sharply by 10-50 bps across various tenors.

NATIONAL

• Anil Ambani to pay $100 million in conditional order for Chinese banks: UK court. The Reliance Group indicated that it plans to appeal against the ruling, which will involve a process of seeking permission to appeal.

ENVIRONMENT

• Latest solar probe to get first close up of the sun's polar regions. Mapping the suns poles could allow scientists for the first time to observe the concentrated source of solar wind a stream of plasma and charged particles that beam outward and sustains the solar systems protective outer bubble that breathes in and out in harmony with the solar wind.

SPORTS

• Premier Badminton League | Chan-Won duo clinches it for Raptors. In men’s singles, World No. 39 Brice Leverdez of Raptors put his team back in the hunt, warding off a spirited challenge from the 21-year-old World No. 131 Mithun Manjunath, a trainee of the Prakash Padukone Academy.

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