On December 28, 2019, NASA Astronaut Christina Koch created the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, which was earlier held by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2017.

The fund raising through IPOs plunged to a low Rs 12,362 crore in 2019, down a full 60 per cent from 2018 when the street mopped up Rs 30,959 crore. The outgoing year saw only 16 initial public offerings (IPOs) as against 24 in 2018.

Both A and B

Deepika Kumari is associated with Archery.She was in news recently because she won 2nd Olympic Quota for India. It is also to be noted that the Indian men’s recurve team had already secured the Olympic quota during the 2019 World Archery Championships that was held in the Netherlands.

On 2nd December 2019, Yeduguri Sandinti Jaganmohan Reddy, Chief Minister (CM) of Andhra Pradesh (AP) launched the YSR Aasaraa Scheme in Guntur Medical College, Guntur Andhra Pradesh.The YSR Aasaraa scheme provides postoperative sustenance allowance of Rs.225 medical allocation for each person for a day or or Rs 5000 per month, who come under the Aarogyasri Scheme, this scheme is a Community Health Insurance Scheme launched in 2008 in Andhra Pradesh.

The 21st Asian Archery Championship for the year 2019 was held at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand from November 21-28, 2019. India secured second position in the overall medal tally while South Korea topped the list. The third position was obtained by China.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2019-20 on December 30, 2019. This is the second edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index, which indicates where the country and its States and UTs currently are on SDG implementation.

General Bipin Rawat took over as the first CDS on 1st January 2020. He will serve a full three-year term till December 2022.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was declared as the ‘most famous teenager in the world’ by the United Nations in its ‘decade in review’ report released on December 23, 2019. The young education activist was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while taking a bus from school in October 2012.

On December 30, 2019 Government of India signed MoU with Flipkart for selling the products made by women self-help groups under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) on the e-commerce platform.DAY-NULM consists of 44 lakh women across the country which aims to make women financially independent.According to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, 12 lakh people have trained in the past five years and nearly 5.06 lakh people were given funds by the government to start their own business.

A function was organized to commemorate the 76th Anniversary of First Flag Hoisting by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Port Blair on 30 Dec 2019.

Lt. Governor Admiral D.K. Joshi, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey hoisted the National Flag at Flag Point, Port Blair.

Subhash Mela Committee Swarajdweep organised bike rally on 30 Dec 2019.

Five Indian women boxers booked their place for the Olympic qualifiers at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.

Mary Kom defeated Nikhat Zareen 9-1 in 51kg category while in 57kg Sakshi Chaudhary outclassed her opponent.

In the 60kg event, Simranjit Kaur won her bout.

In the 69kg and 75kg category, Lovlina Borgohain and Pooja Rani won their respective matches.

Dr Noonsavath Thirumala Naik appointed as new labour commissioner

Indian ophthalmologist from Pune (Maharashtra) & director of the Department of Ocular Oncology and Oculoplasty at Centre for Sight, Hyderabad, Telangana, has become the 1st Indian Ophthalmologist (doctor who specializes in eye and vision care) to won the Life Achievement Honor Award 2019, the highest award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) conferred to its members.

On December 21, 2019, Harjeet Kaur Joshi has been appointed as the full-time Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD) of privatization-bound Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). With this appointment, she became the 13th CMD and also the 1st ever woman CMD of SCI and will serve till her superannuation on May 31, 2022, or until further orders. Joshi has replaced Capt. Anoop Kumar Sharma who served as the CMD for the past three years. Meanwhile, the government has also decided to sell its 63.75% stake in SCI, to a private strategic buyer and the stake sale is in process.

In Golf, Udayan Mane claimed a one-shot win at the season-ending TATA Steel Tour Championship in Jamshedpur on 29 Dec 2019.

His 67-66-64-65 determined final round effort saw him establish a new PGTI record for the lowest tournament total as he closed the week with a 26-under-262 at the Golmuri Golf Course.

It was his 8th professional title and his 2nd win on the PGTI this season.

HDFC Life Insurance partnered with Paytm to expand its distribution.The main objective is to enable customers of Paytm to purchase insurance products from HDFC Life.

India’s female chess player Koneru Hampi won the title by defeating China’s Lei Tingji in the World Rapid Chess Championship in the tiebreaker’s series (Armageddon). Koneru Hampi has been awarded the ‘Arjuna Award’ in the year 2003 and ‘Padma Shri’ in the year 2007.

On December 27, 2019, Assam Chief Minister (CM) Sarbananda Sonowal has launched an Education Loan Subsidy scheme called “Abhinandan”, during a programme held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati. The scheme will provide a one-time subsidy of up to Rs 50,000 to all educational loans that sanctioned till 31st March, 2019.The CM also distributed subsidy sanction letters under this scheme to 1,546 students during the event.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Managing Director of Hiranandani Groups has taken the charge of Assocham’s (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) new President on December 23, 2019. He replaces Welspun Group Chairman Balkrishan Goenka. Asscham has celebrated its centenary meet in New Delhi recently. PM Modi was the chief guest for the event and spoke about the economic challenges and the preparations to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy.

Eight countries in West Africa have decided to change the name of their common currency to ‘Eco’. These countries also decided to leave the current currency ‘CFA franc’. Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo in West Africa are currently using this currency.

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj had recently awarded the “Best Performing Bank Award” to the Andhra Bank for the financial year 2018-19. It was awarded for setting up 14 Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Kerala. The RSETIs function under the Andhra Bank Rural Development Trust.

No Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) will be applicable on transactions through homegrown RuPay and UPI platforms beginning 1 January 2020.

Nirmala Sitharaman announced this in New Delhi recently.

MDR is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from their customers via digital means.

The merchant discount rate is expressed in percentage of the transaction amount.

NITI Aayog launches the Dashboard 2019-20. The SDG India Index and Dashboard track the progress of States and rank all States and Union Territories on 100 indicators drawn from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s National Indicator Framework comprising 306 indicators.

Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on December 30, 2019. Besides him, Aditya Thackeray and 36 new MLAs from Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress were also sworn in as ministers

India’s renowned sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik has won the People’s Choice Prize recently held International Sand Art Championship at Boston. Total of 15 sculptors participated in the competition. He wowed the American public with his sculpture that had the message of combating plastic pollution in oceans” Stop Plastic Pollution, Save Our Ocean”.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran

Scientists at IIT Hyderabad have developed low-cost, environment-friendly solar cells by employing an off-the-shelf dye used to make kumkum or vermilion in India.

Communist Party of China

On December 25,2019, To promote Digital India and make the internet accessible to the rural people, the central Government will provide free Wi-Fi will be provided to all villages across the country through BharatNet project.