The government has appointed Shaktikanta Das as the new RBI governor, a day after Urjit Patel resigned as RBI Governor. He is the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. A former economic affairs secretary from 2015 to 2017, Das worked closely with the central bank. He is currently a member of the Finance Commission of India, and the government’s representative at the Group of 20 summits.

Scientists from the Fujian Normal University in China developed a “rewritable” paper that can be drawn or printed on over and over again by changing the temperature. The new material consisted of three layers in a sandwich-like structure where the text could be changed or wiped clean over 100 times by changing the temperature. According to a study published in the journal ACS Applied Material & Interfaces, the messages can last more than half a year, compared to other re-writable papers. It can be used in practical applications such as long-lasting information recording and reading, rewritable label, reprintable display.

Axis Bank inducted Amitabh Chaudhry as additional director on its board. He will replace incumbent Shikha Sharma whose fourth term has been curtailed by the RBI by nearly two-and-half years. The board also gave its nod for the reappointment of Samir Barua, Som Mittal and Rohit Bhagat as independent directors. Amitabh Chaudhry, the former MD and CEO of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company, was in September named the MD and CEO of Axis Bank for a period of three years, with effect from January 1, 2019.

A Nishidhi stone inscription from the 12th century was found at Nandi Basaveshwara temple in Harakere village in Shivamogga district, Karnataka. The Nishidhi stone inscriptions are issued to commemorate Jain ascetics who perform Sallekhana vratha and inscription found here proves that there was a strong influence of Jainism in the region. R. Shejeshwara, Assistant Director, Department of Archeology, Heritage and Museums, and Jagadeesh, historian, discovered the inscription during a field work undertaken in Harakere. The inscription is of 60 cm long and 15 cm wide and is chiselled from a schist rock slab.

December 11 is observed as International Mountain Day. Theme for the 2018 edition of the International Mountain Day is: “#MountainsMatter”. It is celebrated by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to spread awareness about the contribution of mountains in the biodiversity as it consists of approximately a quarter of the terrestrial biological diversity. Also to commemorate the day, there will be an IMD side event on “Mountain adaptation: Vulnerable peaks and people” at UNFCCC COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

On December 11, 2018, Senior Congress leader and former Kerala minister CN Balakrishnan passed away at 87 in Kochi, Kerala. He was the Thrissur district Congress committee president for 17 years and the state unit treasurer. In 2011, he became the state Cooperation Minister in the Oommen Chandy cabinet.

On December 11, 2018, Indian economist Surjit Bhalla announced his resigned from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC). His resignation is effective from December 1, 2018. After the resignation, he joined the CNN IBN group. Also he released a book called Citizen Raj: Indian Elections 1952-2019, focusing on Indian elections since 1952.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has secured a simple majority in the 119-member state assembly of Telangana by winning 87 seats on December 11, 2018. While the Congress came second with 19 seats, the TDP managed to win 2 seats, the BJP won one and the others won 9.

The Mizo National Front, a former ally of the BJP has won majority in the Mizoram State Assembly Elections 2018. In a crystal clear mandate, the party won 26 seats in the 40-member assembly, followed by Congress in the second position with 5 seats.

After the approval of the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court, a pilot project for e-payments service will be started at the Pune District Court complex in Shivajinagar on December 15 to bring transparency to cash transactions.

The 3-day Military Literature Festival (MLF) 2018, commenced at Lake Club in Chandigarh. The festival is a joint initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Sing, Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore and The Western Command, Indian Army. First session on ‘Role of Cross Border Operations & Surgical Strikes’, Second session on the ‘Contribution of India towards the First World War’, Third session was on sessions ‘Two Battles For Survival – Ferozshah 1848 and Chilianwala 1849’, and ‘Indian Cavalry Charges of the First World War and the Gallipoli Campaign’.

James Quincey was elected as the 14th chairman of the Coca-Cola Company, succeeding Muhtar Kent, who plans to retire in April after a Coca-Cola system career that started in 1978. Quincey, currently serves as president and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company and will become chairman following the company’s annual meeting in April 2019. Brian Smith will become president and chief operating officer of the company on Jan. 1, 2019. The company also announced that Sam Nunn, the Coca-Cola director, will also retire and Maria Elena “Mel” Lagomasino, will succeed Nunn as an independent director.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted combined guided weapons firing of Surface-to-Air Missiles from the Air Force Station located at Suryalanka, Andhra Pradesh. The first-of-its-kind exercise for the Air Force was code-named ‘CROSS BOW-18’. CROSS BOW-18 saw the successful firing of four different classes of missiles like Akash, Spyder, OSA-AK-M and IGLA.

On 9th December 2018, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, launched jersey for Khelo India Youth Games and announced that 2nd edition of the national-level competition is moving out of the Capital and will be held in Pune, Maharashtra from January 9 – January 20, 2019. In its second edition, the games, has expanded its scope, and will allow participants to compete in two categories, (Under 17) and (Under 21), besides allowing students from colleges and Universities to compete. In 2019 the number of participants will almost be tripled with 9000 athletes as compared to 3500 young athletes that had participated in the games, in 2018. The 1st edition of the game had chosen 1500 children under this scheme, all of who are being funded with Rs 5 lakh each and are being provided the best training that they need to ensure that they win at the highest international levels.

On December 10, 2018, 24th Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Urjit Patel, resigned citing personal reasons. The resignation of the former governor was imminent from the recent government-RBI tussles on a host of issues, including: central bank autonomy, the government reportedly seeking a share of the RBI reserves and relaxing the restrictive prompt corrective action (PCA) framework for state-owned banks. With his resignation, he has become the first governor since 1990 to step down before the end of his term. He succeeded ex-RBI Raghuram Rajan in September 2016 and his term was due till September 2019. Prior to being the governor of the central bank, he was the deputy governor in RBI.

On December 9, 2018, Arunachal Pradesh got Shi Yomi as its 23rd district after its inauguration by Chief Minister Pema Khandu in presence ofUnion Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju. The district, consisting of four circles — Mechuka, Pidi, Tato and Monigong — was carved out of West Siang district. This including two other districts- Pakke-Kesang, Lepa Rada– was created after the approval of District Re-Organisation Bill, 2018 on August 29, 2018. The Pakke-Kessang district was carved out of East Kameng district with five administrative units namely Pakke-Kessang, Seijosa, Pijiriang, Passa Valley and Dissing Passo with district headquarters at Lemmi. Lepa Rada was created by bifurcating the Lower Siang district with headquarters at Basar with four administrative units – Tirbin, Basar, Daring and Sago.

The Tamil Nadu government has launched a 24-hour toll-free helpline for women facing domestic violence and sexual harassment. The initiative was launched by the state’s Chief Minister K Palaniswami. The helpline initiative has been developed at a cost of Rs 62.70 lakh.

Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore launched the jersey for the Khelo India Youth Games 2019, which will kick start from January 9, 2019 in Pune.

The yellow vests have engulfed the nation of France with protests and demonstrations. Around 1 lakh protestors took to the streets in France on December 8, 2018 demanding reduction in fuel taxes, living costs and the resignation of the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

On December 7, China has launched its first-ever space mission ‘Chang’e-4’ to land a robotic craft on the far side of the Moon. It was launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre, which will explore the Von Karman crater. The mission, which consists of a stationary lander and a rover, will perform a variety of science work and plant a flag for humanity in a region that remains largely unexplored to date. No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, hence positioning China as the first nation to explore the terrain. The mission will pave the way for the country to deliver samples of Moon rock and soil to Earth. The moon’s far side is also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth and remains comparatively unknown. If successful, the mission would propel the Chinese space program to a leading position in one of the most important areas of lunar exploration. The name “Chang’e” comes from the Chinese goddess of the moon, and the “4” indicates that this is the 4th robotic mission in China’s decade-long lunar exploration program.

India and the UAE signed two agreements, including one on currency swap, as External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj held exhaustive discussions with her counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to step up cooperation in areas like trade, security and defence.

Prominent Indian-origin lawyer ShamilaBatohi has been appointed to head South Africa’s prosecuting authority, the first woman to head the agency facing criticism for its handling of the investigations against former president Jacob Zuma over corruption charges

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Government of Goa hosted the annual #startupindia Global Venture Capital Summit in Goa. The theme of the Summit was: ‘Mobilizing Global Capital for Innovation in India.’ The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a sister organisation of the World Bank Group, Invest India and the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) were the partners for this initiative. Participation came from around 100 funds from countries like United States of America, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Government of Goa through its participation aims to make the state, one of the most preferred start-up destinations in India, and one of the top25 start-up destinations in Asia by 2025.

The government appointed Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian as the new Chief Economic Advisor. Dr. Subramanian will have a tenure of three years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared his name. He is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. A Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a top-ranking IIT-IIM alumnus, Subramanian is one of the world’s leading experts in banking, corporate governance and economic policy.

The government appointed Lalit Kumar, a 1995-batch Indian Economic Service (IES) officer as the new government nominee on private sector ICICI Bank. He is currently an Economic Advisor in the department of financial services of the finance ministry. He would replace Lok Ranjan, who has been laterally transferred to Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT). Lalit Kumar had also worked with the insurance regular (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India) as an executive director and financial adviser.

Four new aircraft have joined the fleet, including two Airbus A320 ceo (VT-IKA and VT-IKB) and two A320 neo (VT IZK AND VT-IZI), taking the fleet count to 200 and number of deliveries to 226. IndiGo currently offers over 1,200 flights to 63 domestic destinations, which include 49 domestic and 14 international ones. The airline, founded by billionaires Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal, started operations in August 2006 with a Delhi-Imphal flight.

07 December is observed as Armed Forces Flag Day throughout India to honour the martyrs as well as men and women in uniform, who valiantly fight on our borders to safeguard the country’s honour. The ‘Armed forces Flag Day Fund’ (AFFDF) has been constituted by the Government of India for the welfare and rehabilitation of the Ex-Servicemen (ESM) community. The fund collection throughout the country is managed by local arms of the Kendriya Sainik Board, which is part of the Ministry of Defence.