 Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy wins the World Women’s Rapid Chess Championship held in Moscow, Russia. She won the title after drawing the Armageddon game against Lei Tingjie of China. Humpy lost the first tie-break game and then won the second to reach the Armageddon game. China’s Lei Tingjie won the silver and Ekaterina Atalik of Turkey settled with bronze. Humpy is only the second Indian to win the rapid gold in the current format after Vishwanathan Anand who won it in 2017. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Indian Army General Bipin Rawat has been named as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). The Chief of Defence Staff will be a 4-star General, the principal military advisor to the defence minister, and will head the new Department of Military Affairs. The Chief of Defence Staff will ensure the jointness in training, logistics and procurement of the three services. General Rawat is the first officer to hold the post of the Chief of Defence Staff The Defence Ministry had also amended the army, air force and navy rules by bringing in a new clause that allows the CDS to serve upto a maximum age of 65 years. The CDS will administer all tri-services organisations, but their command will be with the Chief of the service which has a predominant role in their functioning. |
| Source: The Economic times |
 NASA Astronaut Christina Koch has created a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. She has surpassed the earlier record of 288 days in space which was previously established by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2017. She would return to Earth in February 2020. Till then, she would have spent more than 300 days in the space. She is onboard the International Space Station since 14th March 2019. The world record for the single longest mission by any space explorer whether man or woman, is held by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 438 consecutive days on board Russia’s former space station Mir from January 1994 to March 1995. |
| Source: The News On AIR |
 Finance Minister has launched an e-auction platform “eBkray“. The platform will enable online auction of attached assets by banks. The platform provides navigational links to all PSB e-auction sites, property search feature. It also presents single-window access to information on properties up for e-auction, comparison of similar properties, and also contains videos and photographs of the uploaded properties. Indian Banks Auctions Mortgaged Properties Information (IBAPI) portal is an initiative of Indian Banks Association under the policy of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance was launched to provide a platform to give details of mortgaged properties to be auctioned online by Banks, starting with PSBs. |
| Source: The Economic Times |
 State Bank of India will introduce One Time Password (OTP)-based ATM cash withdrawals. The step has been taken to reduce the occurrences of unauthorised transactions happening at ATMs. SBI will introduce one-time password for every cash withdrawal of Rs 10,000 and above between 8 am and 8 pm. The OTP-based cash withdrawal will be effective from January 1, 2020 across all SBI ATMs. When an SBI cardholder will enter the amount of cash he/she wishes to withdraw, a screen will appear asking for the OTP. The customer will then have to put the OTP that the bank will send to the registered mobile number. OTP is a system-generated string of numeric characters that allow users to make a single transaction. The facility will not be applicable at other banks’ ATM as this functionality has not been developed in National Financial Switch (NFS). |
| Source: The Economic Times |
 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Jharkhand. Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi Murmu has administered the oath of office and secrecy to Soren, in the presence of senior political leaders and chief ministers from across states. This will be the 44-year-old JMM leader’s second stint as Jharkhand Chief Minister. In the just-conducted Assembly elections, the JMM, Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance triumphed over the BJP, winning 47 seats in the 81 member House. |
 All India Radio organized the National Symposium of Poets 2020. Select poets of all 22 languages recognized in the constitution participated in the symposium. It is being held every year since 1956. The poets from all corners of the country gave their presentations and captivated the hearts of the people during the symposium. The symposium will be broadcasted on the eve of Republic Day and at all the centers of AIR. |
| Source: The News On AIR |
 Russia’s 1st missile unit equipped with Avangard Hypersonic glide vehicle enters into service. Russia’s defence ministry stated that a new hypersonic weapon with latest strategic missiles of intercontinental range has became operational. The nuclear-capable missiles can travel more than 20 times the speed of sound. They have a “glide system” that affords great manoeuvrability and could make them impossible to defend against. The Avangard can carry a nuclear weapon of up to 2 megatons. Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 Celsius resulting from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. |
| Source: The BBC News |
 China has successfully launched its largest carrier rocket “Long March-5“. The rocket was launched from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province. The rocket is also known as CZ-5. It was China’s third attempt to launch the rocket. The Chinese rocket carried the Shijian-20 satellite, a communication satellite and placed it into its designated orbit. The Shijian-20 satellite will lay the foundation for the development of highly sensitive space probes. It is China’s heaviest and most advanced communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit. |
| Source: The Business Standard |
 The Reserve Bank of India has directed large cooperative banks to report all exposures of Rs 5 crore and more to the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC). The move is aimed at early detection of financial distress. The aggregate exposure will include all fund-based and non-fund based exposures like partial credit enhancement, including investment exposure on the borrower. As per the new rules, Urban Cooperatives Banks are required to submit CRILC report on quarterly basis with effect from December 31, 2019. The CRILC was created by the Reserve Bank of India. CRILC constitutes commercial banks, all India financial institutions and certain non-banking financial companies with multiple objectives, which, among others, include strengthening offsite supervision and early recognition of financial distress. |
| Source: The Economic Times |
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