Vijay Diwas
observed on December 16 across India. The day is celebrated annually to commemorate
the victory of Indian Armed Forces over Pakistan in 1971 that led to the
creation of Bangladesh.
Irrfan Khan
honoured with the ‘Best Actor’ award for his exceptional performance in the
film ‘The Lunchbox’ at the 10thedition of Dubai International Film Festival
(DIFF).
Mahesh
Mangaonkar becomes the first Indian squash player to win the 6th IMET Open, PSA
World Tour Challenger 5 event.
The Supreme
Court has favoured punishment of life imprisonment to people indulging in
production and marketing of adulterated milk and has asked the state
governments to make amendment in laws.
Sushma
Singh appointed ( First ever lady ) new Chief Information Commissioner of India
(CIC). Lal Thanhawla (Congress) becomes the Chief Minister of Mizoramfor a
record fifth term.
India keep
their ‘Kabaddi World Cup’ record unblemished by defeating Pakistan 48-39 to
lift their 4th title in as many editions.
CVR
Rajendran appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank.
Kapil Dev,
former India cricket captain, awarded Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement
Award 2013 by BCCI, Ashwin gets Polly Umrigar Award.
Cabinet approves
”India Inclusive Innovation Fund’ an initiative of Ministry of Micro Small and
Medium Enterprises.
Ukraine
signs $15bn deal with Russia – to buy Ukrainian bonds of this value in addition
to reducing the price of its gas supplies to Ukraine by 1/3rd.
MK Goel
selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) to be the new
Chairman and Managing Director of Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC).
Senior BJP
leader L K Advani releases collection of three books(compilations of his blog
posts): My Take, Rashtra Sarvopari, andDrishtikon.
18th
December observed as Minorities Rights Day by National Commission for
Minorities, India.
Michelle
Bachelet wins presidential election in Chile; to succeed the incumbent
President Sebastian Pinera in March 2014.
Puneet
Kumar assumes charge as the New secretary general of AEPC (Apparel Export
Promotion Council).
P.H. Parekh
elected as the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for the
sixth time.
India and
Nepal agrees on a 14-point agenda to enhance trade, promote co-operation and
address concerns of imbalanced bilateral trade.
India and
San Marino signs Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) to bring more
transparency and strengthen tax cooperation.
Government
of India to issue Inflation Indexed National Savings Securities-Cumulative
(IINSS-C) for retail investors in December 2013.
European
Space Agency launches GAIA Satellite- one of its most ambitious project. It
will map the precise positions and distances to more than a billion stars
giving some idea about formation of our galaxy- Milky Way.
Miss
Venezuela Alyz Henrich on 7 December 2013 was crowned with the pageant of Miss
Earth 2013 at the Versailles Palace, Philippines.This was the 13th edition of
the annual Miss Earth. With this winning, Alyz Henrich has joined the roster of
beauty queens and will be an ambassador for environmental preservation.
Uruguay
senate legalises marijuana (cannabis) ; becomes world’s first country to legalise
its trade, production, distribution and sale will be now under Government
supervision which says that ultimate aim is to reduce its use.
International
Anti-Corruption Day is observed across the world on 9 December 2013 to raise
awareness about the menace of Corruption and what people can do to fight it.
The theme for the year 2013 is: Act against Corruption Today.
Somalia’s
president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appoints Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed as new prime
minister replacing Abdi Farah Shirdon.
Australia’s
highest court terms same sex marriage illegal unless law is made by Federal
Parliament in this regard.
Supreme
Court overturns Delhi High Court decision on homosexuality terming it illegal;
”unnatural” sex between two consenting adults under Section 377 of Indian Penal
Code would be an offence.
Muslim
Brotherhood declared as a terrorist organization byEgypt’s interim government
blaming it for a bombing this week that killed 16 people in the country.
2
Indian-Americans, Karunesh Ganguly and Hardeep Singh, to be conferred on the prestigious ‘Presidential Award’ by Barack Obama India observed 13th Kisan
Diwas on December 23. The day is celebrated honouring the birth anniversary of
Chaudhary Charan Singh - the fifth Prime Minister of India.
Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar succeeds Nirupama Rao as the next ambassador to the US.
Government
clears amendments in ‘Code of Conduct for Ministers‘ to prevent the misuse of bureaucracy
by them, both at the Centre and in thestates. Ministers now can not force civil
servants to take steps which are deemed to be in conflict with their duties and
responsibilities.
ICC annual
awards : Cheteshwar Pujara ‘Emerging Cricketer of the Year while Michael Clarke
ICC Cricketer and Test Cricketer of the Year.
Sheila
Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi resigned from her post on 8 December 2013
after Congress party faced a defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls.
Mary Barra
appointed as the next CEO of General Motors, first woman to head GM/ any major
car company.
Star India
will replace Sahara as the title sponsor of the Indian cricket team, according
to Gautam Roy, member, Board of Control for Cricket in India. The title sponsor
takes effect from January 1.
The world’s
largest retailer Walmart appoints Krish Iyer as the President and CEO of its
India operation w.e.f January 2014.
Lt Gen
Dalbir Singh appointed Vice Army Chief of India; to succeed Lt Gen S K Singh as
such at the end of December 2013.
Shah Rukh
Khan tops the 2nd edition of ‘Forbes India’s Top 100 Celebrity List’ for second
year running. He is followed in the ranking byMahendra Singh Dhoni, Salman
Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan respectively.
Athletics
Federation of India bans six states namely Delhi,Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar ,
Madhya Pradesh and
Uttar Pradeshfor a year on the charge of fielding overaged athletes.
The world’s
largest online retailer Amazon is testing unmanned drones, called
‘Octocopters’, to deliver goods to customers.
The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), in a move aimed at minimising frauds and other misuse of
Debit Cards, makes punching in of the PIN mandatory for all
shopping-transaction from December 1, 2013.
Judicial
Appointments Commission (JAC) to have constitutional status. It will replace
the earlier collegium system which dealt with the appointment and transfer of judges
to the higher judiciary.
Deepika Kumari clinches her 6th consecutive
individual title at the 34th National Archery Championships held at Jamshedpur,
while Atanu Das claims the men’s individual title.
J.N.Choudhury appointed as the Director
General of NationalSecurity Guard (NSG) while Arvind Ranjan
becomes the Director General of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
Arun Tiwari
appointed as the new Chairman and ManagingDirector (CMD) of Union Bank of
India.
ISRO
successfully completes first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) of
Mangalyan- India’s maiden mission to Mars.This is First of the four TCM planned
by ISRO to keep spacecraft in the intended trajectory by finetuning it time to
time using Thrusters (uses monomethyl hydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide
as oxidizer) World celebrates “International Day for People with Disabilities”
on December 3.
Department
of Posts rolls out 2 new ’swift and secure’ premium parcel services namely
‘Express Parcel’ and ‘Business Parcel’ with ‘Cash on Delivery’ facility.
‘Express Parcel’ is to be an air mail service.
Indian
shuttler PV Sindhu clinches the women’s singles title at the Macau Open Grand
Prix Gold Tournament by crushing Li Michelle (Canada) 21-15, 21-12 in the
final. Its her second Grand Prix title after Malaysia Open.
Constitutional
Council of France okays “Millionaire’s Tax”- 50% tax (on companies not
individuals) on part of the wage exceeding 1million Euro/year. a maximum cap of
5% of companies’ turnover has been kept.Indian History Congress holds its 74th
meet at Cuttak, Odisha.
726 MW
Palatana gas based power plant (India’s only plant to be certified as “Green
Power Project”) in south Tripura to soon restart producing electricity
following a technical snag in June 2013. Its a joint Venture of ONGC and
Tripura government and will supply electricity to Bangladesh following a deal between
the two governments.
India is
expected to become the third largest economy in the world after China and
United States in 2028 as per Cebr’s ‘World Economic League table report for
2013′.
2013 UN
Human Rights Prize to Malala Yousafzai ; places her in the company of the
greats like Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela, former South African President
(first Black President) and anti-apartheid icon, dies at the age of 95.
The Reserve
Bank of India will soon introduce cash-settled interest rate futures on 10-year
government bonds and has also permitted exchanges to launch these derivatives
in other smaller tenure securities in the future.
India to
host FIFA under-17 Football World Cup in 2017 ; first ever FIFA event in India.
India
ranked 98th out of 145 nations in the Forbes list of world’s best countries for
doing business Surface-to-surface missile Prithvi-II successfully test fired by
Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army from Integrated Test Range near
Balasore, Odisha.
P
Madhusudan appointed as the new Chairman and managing director of Public sector
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL).
India
ranked 94 out of 177 countries and territories in the Transparency
International’s Corruption Perception Index 2013.
The Union
Cabinet on 5 December 2013 approved the 10 districts Telangana draft Bill. The
29th state of India, Telengana will consist of ten districts, whereas Andhra
Pradesh will have 13 districts. Hyderabad will be the common capital for Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana for a period of 10 year. Both the states will have
special status under Article 371-D of the Constitution for equitable opportunities
for education and public employment.
Category-2
Tropical Cyclone Christine hits Australia’s north-west coast bringing high
velocity winds (170km/hr.) and torrential rain on 31 December 2013 .
Prime
Minister lays foundation stone of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research
Centre (HBCHRC) at Mullanpur Garibdas(Mohali, Punjab), near Chandigarh.
Army Chief
General Bikram Singh takes over as the new Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC), succeeds Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne following
his superannuation.
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