On 8 December 2019, the Supreme Court reinstated Alok Verma as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director. The court ruled that he not to take any policy decisions till the statutory committee meets within a week and decides further on the matter. The committee comprises the Prime Minister, CJI and the Leader of the Opposition.

The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal for introduction of a bill that seeks to extend 10 per cent quota to the economically weaker sections in the general category who are not covered by any of the existing schemes of reservation.

On 4th January 2019, The Minister of state (I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep S Puri launched the fourth edition of annual cleanliness of Urban India known as “Swachh survekshan 2019”. The Survey will be conducted across 4237 towns and cities between 4th January to 28th January 2019 by independent third party. The survey is completely paperless and digital and will be completed in a record time of 28 days. For the first time the survey will be conducted without giving any prior information. Data will be collected from 4 broad sources which are Service Level Progress, Direct Observation,Citizens feedback and Certification.

The Coimbatore city police launched the ‘Police-E-Eye’ mobile application on 7 January 2019. The app will enable the public to take photographs of traffic rule violators and upload them to the police. Based on this, the traffic department would issue photo challans to the violators’ place to collect the fine amount.

The value of monthly transactions made using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the first time in December 2018, show data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) imposed a ban on single-use plastic items at its 129 airports across the country. The Authority undertook various steps to eliminate single-use plastic items at passenger terminals and city side. These steps include banning of single-use plastic items like straws, plastic cutlery, plastic plates etc.

On 5 January 2019, United Bank of India and Srei Equipment Finance signed an agreement for financing the MSME and agriculture sectors. Under the pact, UBI will leverage its low-cost loans with Srei to enable the purchase of equipment and vehicles in a seamless manner. Ashok Kumar Pradhan is the United Bank of India’s MD and CEO.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on January 4, 2019 imposed Rs 100 crore fine on Meghalaya government for failing to curb illegal coal mining. It also asked the state government to deposit Rs. 100 crores with the central pollution control board towards restoring the environment.

The Lok Sabha on January 7, 2019 passed the Personal Laws (Amendment Bill), 2018, which seeks to remove leprosy as a ground for divorce. Leprosy is being removed as a ground for divorce as it is now a curable disease as against the earlier notion of it being incurable.

In Thailand, Tropical storm Pabuk caused floods and blackouts leaving nearly 30,000 people in evacuation shelters across the southern part of the country on January 5, 2019. Pabuk packed winds of up to 75km an hour and brought heavy rains and storm surges as it lashed the entire south of the kingdom. It is expected to be the worst storm to hit the region in 30 years. The storm was downgraded to a depression early today as it moved into the Andaman Sea. Meanwhile, ‘yellow’ alert has been issued for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As per the latest data, no warning has been issued for Odisha but due to cyclonic activities near the Andaman Islands, weather in the eastern Indian state will be cloudy and dry. IMD has predicted heavy rainfall over the Andaman Islands from the evening of January 5. People in the Andaman Islands have been advised to remain in safe places and IMD has advised fishermen to stay out of the sea.

The Andhra Pradesh government bagged the Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP) award for speedy execution of Polavaram multipurpose project. It received the award in the category of ‘Best Implementation of Water Resources Project’ for better planning, implementation, and monitoring. Polavaram project multipurpose project on the Godavari river.

The 6th ‘Women of India Organic Festival’ will be held from 12 to 14 January 2019 in Chandigarh. The festival will be organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The aim of the festival is to celebrate and promote women farmers and entrepreneurs in the organic sector from the remotest parts of India.

The National Green Tribunal on January 4, 2018 imposed a fine of whopping Rs 100 crore on the Meghalaya government for its failure to curb illegal coal mining in the state. The green tribunal imposed the fine on the state government as a “deterrent” and for its “inaction” to curb illegal mining in the north eastern state.

Indian mountaineer Dr. Arunima Sinha has become the world’s first female Amputee to scale Antarctica’s Highest Peak – Mount Vinson on 4th January 2019. Apart from this, she was also the world’s first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest in 2013. Sinha was a national level volleyball player who was pushed from a running train by some robbers in 2011 while she was resisting them. As a result, one of her legs had to be amputated below the knee. Now, her aim is to climb all the continents’ highest peaks and hoist the National Flag of India. She has already scaled five peaks — Mt Everest, Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Ebrus, Mt Kosciuszko and Mt Aconcagua.

• Vijay Mallya became the first tycoon to be charged under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
• According to the new law, a fugitive economic offender is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for his or her involvement in economic offences involving at least Rs. 100 crore or more and has left India to avoid prosecution.
• The new law came into effect from August 2018.

The North Central Railway, NCR has launched a mobile application to help people navigate through Prayagraj city during Kumbh Mela starting from January 15. The ‘Rail Kumbh Seva Mobile App’ will also provide information regarding all the ‘Mela special’ trains that will run during the period.

China tested its most powerful non-nuclear weapon, dubbed as the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ on 4 January 2019. The bomb’s strength is only second to that of a nuclear weapon. It was dropped by a Chinese H-6K bomber. The bomb is five to six meters long but weighs less than America’s ‘Mother of All Bombs’ which was dropped in Afghanistan.

On 3rd January 2019, the Parliament following the approval from the Rajya-Sabha passed the National Council for Teacher Education (Amendment) Bill, 2019, to provide retrospective recognition to central and state government funded institutions offering B.Ed and related courses that are not recognized under the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Act. The NCTE (Amendment) Bill which will be a one-time measure would help over 17,000 students who have obtained B.Ed degrees from those institutions which do not have NCTE approval for the course under the 1993 law. 23 state and central universities and colleges offering B.Ed courses were found not recognised by the Council. The government would ensure that the quality of institutes offering B.Ed courses is maintained and proposes to start integrated course in B.ED as in Law and other courses from 2020. Lok Sabha has already passed this bill on July 23, 2018.

In the latest ranking of Singapore’s Asia Competitiveness Institute’s (ACI), Ease of Doing Business (EDB) index 2018, Andhra Pradesh emerged on top of the 21 states of India that were considered for the ranking, while Maharashtra and Delhi came in second and third place, respectively. Andhra Pradesh rose from the 5th rank in 2016 to the top spot in 2018. The ACI’s EDB index is based upon three parameters called ABC -Attractiveness to Investors, Business Friendliness and Competitiveness Policies. The index captured the business environment at the sub-national level on the basis of 72 hard and soft indicators. The Ease of Doing Business (EDB) list is compiled by a team of researchers led by Tan Khee Giap, who is the co-director of Asia competitiveness institute (ACI), and associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Suggestions regarding areas where improvement was needed in the state of Andhra Pradesh include bridging numerous institutional and infrastructural gaps in order to sustain its position in the future and improvement in sub environments such as facilitating business operations, infrastructure resilience and market potential.

The 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced on January 7, 2019 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the United States of America. The Best Actress in Motion Picture (Drama) went to Glenn Close for the film ‘The Wife’ and Best Actor in Motion Picture (Drama) went to Rami Malek for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.