The Daily Brief – 11th December 2019

Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old transport minister of Finland, has become the world’s youngest sitting Prime Minister after she was selected by the Social Democratic party of Finland to become the prime minister of the country. She will take over the charge from the outgoing leader Antti Rinne, who had resigned earlier.

The Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), which will provide multifaceted online smart services to people, has been inaugurated by the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Gurgaon on 7^th December, 2019. The Center has been built a cost of Rs. 38 crores.

The Armed Forces Flag Day or the Flag Day of India is observed annually in India on 7^th December for the collection of funds from people of India for the welfare of the Indian Armed Forces personnel. The day is being observed every year since 1949 to honour the soldiers, sailors and airmen of India.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Prakash Javadekar represented India at the 25^th session of Conference of Parties (COP) under the UN framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP25) in Madrid, Spain on 10^th December, 2019. A yearbook was launched at the conference that called on the governments to strengthen the UNFCCC agenda post 2020. A report on the oceans titled “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SPROCC)” was also released.

The Indian Representative to Palestine Sunil Kumar released the third tranche of funding worth 3 million USD for the construction of the India-Palestine techno-park in Palestine. India had made a commitment of investing 12 million USD as a part of India’s broader framework of capacity building in Palestine. The park aims to create an environment that supports the processes of industrialization and commercialization.

Former Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Girish Chandra Chaturvedi has been appointed as the new Chairman of the leading stock exchange National Stock Exchange (NSE) after an approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He is currently on the board of the ICICI Bank and is a member of the government-appointed board of the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS). He will succeed Ashok Chawla, who resigned from the post in January 2019.

Assam Government has set up 15 Anti-Depredation Squads of the Forest Department to deal with the human-wildlife conflicts in the state. It aims to mitigate the problem and ensure safety of both humans and wildlife. The state forest department engaged specially trained 50 frontline staff to handle conflict situations. According to the Assam Forest Department, a total of 359 people died in man-elephant conflicts in the state in the past four years.

Environment think tank Germanwatch released the Global Climate Risk Index 2020, which assessed 181 countries on 4^th December, 2019. As per it, Japan is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Philippines, Germany, Madagascar and India. Besides seeing one of the worst floods in Kerala, India’s east coast was hit by two cyclones – Titli and Gaja – in October and November 2018.