- Writer and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was named among the winners for Sahitya Akademi Awards. He won the prestigious literature award for his novel ‘An Era of Darkness’ in the creative non-fiction category in English literature. The novel which was published in 2016 describes British rule in India.
- Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the ‘Jalsathi’ programme on December 18, 2019 with the aim to ensure supply of safe drinking water to all households in the state. The Odisha government has roped in women volunteers to serve the people as ‘Jalasathis’.
- India and the United States signed an industrial security agreement for the transfer of defence technology. The two nations also agreed to intensify their coordination with like-minded countries like Japan to ensure a peaceful Indo-Pacific region and jointly fight against terrorism.
- Goa Liberation Day is celebrated every year on December 19. The Indian Army liberated Goa, Daman and Diu from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961 by conducting ‘Operation Vijay Abhiyan’.
- B P Raju won the ‘India Cyber Cop of the Year 2019’ award of NASSCOM-DSCI. He won this award for solving an online entrance examination fraud case of an engineering college in Rajasthan. Raju had investigated the case and exposed the fraud in the online entrance examination.
- Kuldeep Yadav is the first Indian to take a hat-trick for the second time in international cricket. He first dismissed Shai Hope, Jason Holder and Aljari Joseph of West Indies.
- The Braille edition of the book “Exam Warriors” written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was released by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot recently.
- Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is holding a one-day special session today to pass a resolution to bring the state under the Inner Line Permit (ILP). Various social organisations and civil society groups have been demanding that ILP may be implemented in Meghalaya in view of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
- Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister (CM) of Haryana inaugurated the TRAKEA barcoding system of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Madhuban, Haryana.
- The fifth meeting of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) of the Fifteenth Finance Commission was held in New Delhi.
- India has slipped four places on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index 2020 to 112, due to rising disparity in terms of women’s health and participation in the economy. Moreover, India is now ranked in the bottom-five in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation.