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- Haryana’s Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar has declared Kurukshetra and Sirsa as open defecation free districts.
Michael Jordan - Election Commission’s proposal to purchase new Electronic Voting Machines costing over one thousand crore rupees has been approved by the Union Cabinet. The approval has been given for purchase of 4 lakh 10 thousand Ballot units and 3 lakh 14 thousand control units during 2017-18 and 4 lakh 35 thousand Ballot units and 71 thousand control units during 2018-19.
- Mahila E-haat under the Women and Child Development Ministry has collaborated with India Post and SBI to offer more payment options to buy and simplify shipment of products bought from Mahila E-haat.
- Pune’s Metro project’s plan has finally been approved by the Central Government and is scheduled to be complete in 5 years. The project will be implemented by the Pune Metro Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MAHA-METRO).
- RBI has announced that Repo Rate will remain unchanged at 6.25% while reverse repo rate remains at 5.75% and Bank rate at 6.75%. The RBI has also lowered the GDP growth estimate to 7.1% in 2016-17.
- Yes Bank has launched SIMsePAY in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh which will enable account holders to do money transfers, pay bills and other services without a smartphone or internet connection.
- IOC,BPCL and HPCL have signed a MoU for a consortium agreement to establish India’s most ambitious mega refinery project. The location chosen is in the Konkan region in Maharashtra. All three will be equity partners where IOC will hold 50% stake and the remaining two will have 25% each.
- BSE’s INDIAINx has signed an agreement with Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange to reach out to global traders engaging in trade of various products and trading in INR-USD contract. INDIAINx will offer derivative exchange in rupee-dollar contract, products on silver, gold, copper and crude oil.
- The 5th India-Arab Partnership Conference will be held in Muscat, Oman. This conference is being jointly organized by Oman Foreign Ministry, Arab League Secretariat and Ministry of External Affairs in India. The theme for the conference in ‘Partnership towards innovation and cooperation in Information Technology.’
- The European Union unveiled its new headquarters in Brussels worth 321 million Euros saying it symbolized Joy. The building has been dubbed the ‘Space Egg’ and the union will start holding its full meetings here in January. European Union was founded on 1st November 1993 in Maastricht, Netherlands.
- British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a vote in the Parliament which supports her time schedule for negotiation of Britain’s exit from European Union. Brexit was initiated after a referendum in June 2016 and it intends to invoke Article 50 of the treaty on European Union for formally withdrawing by March, 2017.
- USA’s President elect Donald Trump has named Iowa’s Republican governor Terry Branstad as ambassador to China. This is a good sign as the governor is known for friendly relations with Chinese officials.
- Bali Padda,the Indian born current COO of Lego has been appointed as the CEO of the company January 1, 2017 onwards.
- The MCC world cricket committee met in Mumbai to formulate some important recommendations which will be put forward to the main committee before them become Laws. The recommendations are like thickness of edge and bat by proposing an upper limit to thickness of edge to 40mm etc.
- Actress Deepika Padukone has been named Sexiest Asian Woman of 2016 after beating 4-time winner Priyanka Chopra. The list was prepared by UK based newspaper Eastern Eye.
- Forbes Magazine has declared Michael Jordan as the highest-paid athlete of all time followed by golfer Tiger Woods.
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