 Google searches for “Operation Twist” surged in India after the central bank announced its version of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary policy. Most searches for the term came from Delhi followed by Maharashtra. The central bank will buy long-term bonds, while simultaneously selling short-term government securities in an effort to cheapen long-term borrowing and boost bank lending. The Reserve Bank of India will buy longer-tenor bonds while selling shorter debt. The concept is similar to Operation Twist used by the Fed in 2011-2012 in an effort to cheapen long-term borrowing and spur bank lending. |
| Source: The Economic Times |
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) annual conference in Delhi. The theme of the event was ‘New India Aspiring for a USD 5 trillion economy’. The event was organised on the completion of 100 years of ASSOCHAM. |
| Source: The DD News on AIR |
 The 5th edition of ARTECH is being organised by Indian Army on ‘Technologies for Non-Contact Warfare’ which will be organised on 23 December 2019 at Manekshaw Centre, Delhi Cantonment. The seminar is the flagship event of the Indian Army which sets the agenda for focus areas of harvesting indigenous capabilities in the Defence sector. ARTECH Seminar was launched in 2016 as part of the overall vision of ‘Make in India’ of Hon’ble Prime Minister and is conducted every year as part of events leading to Army Day celebrations. ARTECH platform provides an opportunity to practitioners of military operations, policymakers in Ministry of Defence, industry and academia to put forth their contemporary Defence-related capabilities. It is also a forum for innovators in uniform to showcase their products and offer these to industry to refine & productions. |
| Source: The Press Information Bureau |
 Kannada writer and critic L.S. Sheshagiri Rao passed away. His first work was Idu Jeevana, an anthology of short stories was released in 1948. He is best known for his book “Hosagannada Sahitya Charitre”. He was best known for his critical works and an English-Kannada dictionary that he compiled. Proficient in Kannada and English, many of his works were bridges between the two languages. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Nationalist Congress Party’s Kerala State President and former Minister Thomas Chandy passed away. He represented Kuttanad constituency in Alappuzha district in the state Assembly. He was forced to quit as Kerala Transport Minister from the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in November 2017 after facing encroachment allegations. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 Scientists have discovered the remnants of world’s oldest fossil forest- an extensive network of trees around 386 million years old in a sandstone quarry in United States (US). According to the researchers from Binghamton University, and New York State Museum in U.S., the fossil forest in Cairo would have spread from New York all the way into Pennsylvania and beyond. The finding were published in journal Current Biology. |
| About World’s oldest Fossil forest The researchers team, mapped over 3,000 square metres of forest at abandoned quarry in the foothills of Catskill Mountains in Hudson Valley, New York. The forest is nearly 2 or 3 million years older than what was until now believed to be world’s oldest forest at Gilboa (or Gilboa Fossil Forest, also located in New York State). As per the researchers, the Cairo forest is older than the one at Gilboa because fossils were lower down in sequence of rocks that occur in the Catskill mountains. |
 Ethiopia launched its first satellite, ‘Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite’ (ETRSS) from China. ERSS is a remote-sensing microsatellite, that was launched in order to help African country’s research into climate change. It was sent into space together with 8 other satellites by a Long March-4B carrier rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) in Shanxi Province of north China. |
| About Ethiopian Remote Sensing Satellite (ETRSS) This wide-range multispectral remote-sensing microsatellite weighs about 65 kg and has a design life of 2 years. It can obtain remote-sensing data for agriculture, forestry, water conservation, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation. The satellite was donated to Ethiopia by China and this microsatellite program has helped establish strong collaboration between Ethiopia and China. The satellite was designed by Chinese and Ethiopian engineers and Chinese government paid about $6m of more than $7m manufacturing costs. |
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 The Ministry of Minority Affairs will organize more than 100 Hunar Haat in the next five years. The move aims to increase employment opportunities to craftsmen, artisans and culinary experts and also to increase their market exposure. |
| Highlights The Ministry will organize Hunar Haats in Chennai, Delhi, Kolakata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Patna, Dehradun and Indore. The ministry has also sanctioned to set up more than 100 Hunar hubs in different parts of the country. The Ministry in its report said that more than 65,000 artisans and craftsmen have been employed through Hunar Haats in the last 2 years. |
| Significance Indian Handicrafts have great recognition in international market. US and EU are the major destinations that account to 65% of export of Indian handicrafts. China is a new buyer. Other countries where Indian crafts have great market includes Israel, Uruguay, Columbia and chile. In 2019, India exported 128 billion rupees worth handicrafts. Last year, it stood at 118 billion rupees. The increase is 9%. |
| Government measures The GoI has taken several steps to develop the handicraft sector. Government set up Indian Institute of Carpet at Bhadohi. It also reduced interest rates to MUDRA loans provided to handicrafts and artisans. The custom duties and exercises that were paid for importing inputs of handicrafts were refunded through Duty Drawback Channel. |
 The Indian men’s football team remained static at 108th spot in the year-ending FIFA rankings. India lost 11 places throughout the year. With 1187 total points, India is placed at 19th spot among Asian countries headed by Japan 28th. |
| Source: The News on AIR |
 The Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) has been recognised formally by the National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. With this Afghanistan has become the 1st country to recognize IP pursuant to the efforts of Department of Commerce and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. IP is an officially recognized book of standards as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 thereunder. It specifies the standards of drugs manufactured and marketed in India in terms of their identity, purity and strength. To ensure the quality of medicinal products, the legal and scientific standards are provided by Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) in the form of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). |
| Source: The Press Information Bureau |
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