The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that Budapest will host the ‘World Athletics Championship’ in 2023. Budapest is the capital of Hungary. Budapest has twice hosted the IAAF world indoor championships and the European athletics championships. The 2019 ‘World Athletics Championship’ will be held in Doha and the 2021 edition in Eugene, Oregon.

The second meeting of the NITI Forum for the North East is being held in Guwahati, Assam. Minister of State for the Development of North Eastern Region, Dr Jitendra Singh and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar attended the meeting. NITI Forum for North East was constituted this year to periodically review the development status in the region. The members of the forum include Secretaries of various central ministries, Chief Secretaries of all eight North-eastern states, senior government officials and experts from various fields.

The first International Conference on Sustainable Water Management began on December 10 at the Indian School of Business in Mohali, Punjab. The theme of the conference deals with promoting integrated and sustainable development and management of Water Resources.

Kerala has become the first state in the country to have four international airports with the inauguration of the Kannur airport on December 9, 2018. Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan jointly flagged off the inaugural Air India Express flight, carrying 186 passengers to Abu Dhabi, at the airport near Mattannur town.

The Human Rights Day is observed across the world on 10 December to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first Human Rights Day was celebrated in 1950.

Charlotte Prodger , who works predominantly with moving image, sculpture, writing and performance has won the Turner Prize for the year 2018. Her work explores issues surrounding queer identity, landscape, language technology and time. The acclaimed prize is awarded to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the preceding year as determined by a jury.

Congress MP and Islamic cleric Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi died of a heart attack at his village home in Kishanganj district on Friday, family members said. He was 76 and is survived by two sons and three daughters.

India’s national academy of letters, Sahitya Akademi on December 6, 2018 announced the annual ‘Sahitya Akademi Awards 2018’, recognising the literary works of 24 writers in 24 different Indian languages. To name a few, this year’s winners include Sanjib Chattopadhyay for Bengali, Anees Salim for English, Sharifa Vijliwala for her essays in Gujarati, Chitra Mudgal for Hindi, and  S Ramesan Nair for his poetry in Malayalam.

Ajay Narayan Jha, a 1982-batch IAS officer of Manipur Tripura cadre, was appointed as the new Finance Secretary of India. He succeeded Hasmukh Adhia. The Finance Secretary is the Permanent Secretary-level civil servant, who plays a leadership role in the bureaucracy of the Finance Ministry.

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari inaugrated India Water Impact Summit 2018, jointly organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) in New Delhi.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently announced a new initiative ‘PEETHA’ to create awareness about various government schemes and improve transparency. It also aims at improving transparency in the distribution of individual and social benefits. The acronym ‘PEETHA’ stands for Peoples Empowerment Enabling Transparency and Accountability.

After over 15 years of successful career in Indian cricket, Indian Opener Gautam Gambhir on December 4, 2018 announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Gautam Gambhir was one of the most complete batsmen who opened well in all three forms of the game – Test matches, ODIs and T20s.

On December 7, 2018, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh announced Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Council’s approval to India’s proposal to observe an International Year of Millets in 2023. This was approved in the 160th session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Council, being held in Rome. Millets consists of Jowar, Bajra, Ragi and minor millets together termed as nutri-cereals. Earlier, India had observed 2018 as the National Year of Millets, which promoted cultivation and consumption of these nutri-cereals. This decision will thus enhance global awareness to bring back these nutri-cereals to the plate, for food and nutrition security.

On December 7, 2018, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired by PM Narendra Modi, appointed Krishnamurthy Subramanian as Chief Economic Advisor for a period of 3 years. He is currently serving as Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure) and Executive Director for the Centre for Analytical Finance at the Indian School of Business, a top business school in India. He would replace Arvind Subramanian who resigned from the post on 20 June 2018. His appointment comes barely 50 days before the Economic Survey released by GOI. He has done his MBA and PhD in Financial Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business under the advice of Professor and ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

On December 7, 2018, Luxembourg became the first country to abolish all fares on public transport by 2019. The move of free public transport was done to enhance the traffic congestion scenario in Luxembourg City, which is one of the worst traffic congestion-hit cities in the world.

On December 3, 2018, a four day 1st International Conference on Bears commenced in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. It concluded on December 6, 2018. Its objective was to share knowledge on principles of welfare of bears and other wild animals in zoos, sanctuaries and rescue centres. It was organized by Wildlife SOS, a conservation non-profit organisation in collaboration with Bear Care Group from the US and Canada. The conference focused on bear care, wildlife conservation and human wildlife conflict mitigation.

On December 7, 2018, 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.

On December 5, 2018, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari inaugurated 3-day annual India Water Impact Summit 2018 in New Delhi. It concluded on December 7, 2018. It was jointly organized by: The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and The Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga). The theme for the 2018 version was: ‘Showcasing and Enhancing Impacts of National and International Efforts on Ganga Rejuvenation.’

On 06th December 2018, noted agriculturalist Jayaraman, who pioneered the protection and propagation of indigenous paddy varieties in Tamilnadu, passed away in Chennai. Hailing from Thiruthuraipoondi, in the heart of Tamil Nadu’s delta rice bowl, Jayaraman has been credited with documenting and protecting more than 170 paddy varieties. His diligent work in the field of protecting the gene prototypes of indigenous paddy varieties won him the National Award in 2015 and a state award in 2011.

Forbes India rich list 2018 consisting of 100 richest Indians was released on 6th December 2018. Mukesh Ambani topped the chart with a net worth of $47.3 billion. He is followed by Azim Premji (Wipro) and Lakshmi Mittal (Arcelor Mittal) ranking 2nd and 3rd respectively. Hinduja Brothers of Ashok Leyland and Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji Group closed off the top 5 ranks.

On 5th December 2018, 52 years old veteran Tamil Writer S Ramakrishnan honoured with Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel “Sancharam” which deals with the lives of nadhaswaram artistes. S Ramakrishnan has been writing since last 27 years and he had written short stories, novels, plays, children’s literature and translations. Ramakrishnan has authored and published 5 novels , 4 books for children, 10 collections of short stories, 24 collections of articles and nine plays. He had won Tagore Literary Award, Sangeetha Nataka Academy, Iyal Award and award for best novel from Tamilnadu Government.

On December 8, Shubhankar Sharma has become the fifth and the youngest Indian golfer to clinch the Asian Tour Order of Merit after a groundbreaking year of achievements. With this achievement, He joined the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved the feat in the past – Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).

IIT Kharagpur has won the DSCI Excellence Award 2018 for cyber security education by Data Security Council of India (DSCI), an industry body on data protection set up up by NASSCOM. The institute was awarded for its focused curricula and research work in cryptography, hardware security, cyber security, Internet of Things (IoT) security, and network security. A number of research ventures led by Professor Debdeep Mukhopadhyay at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur were primarily considered for this award. Some of the ventures include the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-funded projects on developing lightweight protocols for authenticating IoT nodes, IC reverse engineering and trojan detection and the DST-funded ‘Swarnajayanti’ project on secure authentication protocols for smart grids.

Prathamesh Maulingkar from India has created history by becoming the first Asian/Indian to win 2018 Mister Supranational title in a competition held in in Krynica-Zdroj, Poland. He defeated 37 contestants from all over the world in the final round to win the coveted title. At the same pageant, Mister Supranational Poland was adjudged first runner-up, Mister Supranational Brazil was adjudged second runner-up and Mister Supranational Thailand was announced as the third runner-up.

Prof. Rattan Lal , a distinguished university professor of soil science at the Ohio State University, has won the ‘Glinka World Soil Prize 2018’ in a ceremony at the headquarters of UN FAO in Rome for his remarkable contribution to sustainable soil management. The Glinka World Soil Prize, named after the pioneering Russian scientist Konstantin D. Glinka, is considered the highest honour in the soil science profession. Lal was born in Gujranwala in West Punjab, Pakistan, and his family came to India as refugees in 1948. He studied in India and later came to the US to work on his doctorate in soils, which he completed in 1968. He has been listed among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (2012) and among the top one per cent of all researchers in agriculture.

The United States re-established a “permanent diplomatic presence” in Somalia for the first time in 27 years. The department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the new move another step forward in formalising US diplomatic engagement in Mogadishu.

On December 4, 2018, Arton Capital launched the passport index named – Global Passport Power Rank 2018, in which United Arab Emirates (UAE)topped the charts, among 197 nations, as the nation having the most powerful passport. The index, compiled by Arton Capital, ranks national passports based on the number of countries a holder can enter without a visa or by obtaining one on arrival. UAE passport holder can fly to 113 countries without Visa and a total of 167 countries without prior-visa requirement. UAE is followed by Singapore & Germany in the 2nd place with 166 countries. The bottom 5 countries in the list consist of: Afghanistan at 93rd position, Iraq at 92nd , Pakistan at 91st, Syria at 90th and Somalia at 89th position. India stood at 66th position.

On December 4, 2018, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment chaired the 223rd meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), EPFO in New Delhi. The Board approved the constitution of the following committees and authorized Chairman CBT, EPFO to nominate members to the committees:-
• Finance, Investment and Audit Committee
• Pension & EDLI Implementation Committee
• Exempted Establishments Committee

On December 4, 2018, 37-year-old, former Indian opening batsman, Gautam Gambhir announced his retirement from all forms of Cricket. Gambhir’s career began in 2003 with an ODI against Bangladesh and the Delhi-Andhra Ranji Trophy (scheduled on December 5, 2018) would mark the conclusion of his career in cricket. Gambhir played in 58 Tests between 2004 and 2016, scoring 4,154 runs at an average of 41.95, with the help of nine hundreds and 22 fifties. He also played in 147 ODIs between 2003 and 2013, besides featuring in 37 T20 Internationals. The aggressive opener was India’s top-scorer in the finals of the 2007 World T20 in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup.