The Daily Brief – 12th December 2019

The Hornbill Festival of Nagaland is held annually at the Naga Heritage Village in Kisama from 1^st December to 10^th December to encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote the cultural heritage of Nagaland. The first festival was held in 2000. Also known as the ‘Festival of Festivals’, it aims to protect and revive the rich culture of Nagaland.

The ‘Diwali – Power of One’ Award 2019 has been presented to four prominent diplomats in recognition and celebration of their work, especially at the United Nations, for a secure and peaceful world. The four diplomats are Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, Nicholas Emiliou of Cyprus, Frantisek Ruzicka of Slovakia and Volodymyr Yelchenko of Ukraine. The awards, also known as ‘Oscars of Diplomacy’, were established by the Diwali Foundation USA Inc. in 2017.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published a new report on the Arms Industry Database on 9^th December, 2019. As per the report, arms’ sales rose by nearly 5% worldwide in 2018 in a market dominated by the United States. The turnover of the 100 biggest arms manufacturers came to $420 billion. The US manufacturers alone accounted for 59% of the market. Russia was second in the rankings for arms production, with 8.6% of the market.

South Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi was crowned as “Miss Universe 2019” at an event held in Atlanta, United States. Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray of Philippines presented the crown to the 26-year-old Zozibini. India was represented by Vartika Singh in the beauty pageant, who failed to enter the top 10 of the Miss Universe 2019 competition. After Lara Dutta had won the crown in 2000, no Indian contestant has been able to win the Miss Universe title in all these 19 years. This year was the 68th edition of the Miss Universe pageant.

The Lok Sabha passed The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, under which any person belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian faith from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan will not be considered an illegal immigrant, if the person entered into India on or before December 31, 2014. The bill provides for such refugees to be eligible for Indian citizenship after residing in India for five years, instead of 11 years earlier. It also makes amendments to the provisions related to OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cardholders.

International Anti-Corruption Day is observed every year across the world on 9^th December to raise public awareness about corruption and of the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in fighting and preventing it. This year, the theme is ‘United Against Corruption’. The United Nations General Assembly on 31^st October, 2003, adopted the Convention and designated December 9th as International Anti-Corruption Day. This convention came into force in the year 2005 and since then, the day is being observed annually. The global campaign #UnitedAgainstCorruption focuses on corruption as one of the biggest obstacles to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Human Library Organization, an international non-profit organization, organised a Human Library, a concept which seeks to replace books with humans, for the first time in Mysuru, Karnataka. This event provides readers of the human library an opportunity to borrow Human Books and to engage in conversation with the books. The Human Library Organization is a registered international non-profit organization headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was initially launched in the year 2000 and currently exists in more than 85 countries.

A Nationwide GST (Goods and Services Tax) Stakeholder Feedback Diwas for the new GST returns was observed on 7^th December, 2019 to get an on-the-spot response to the new GST Returns to be introduced from 1^st April, 2020. As per the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), about 7,500 trade associations/stakeholders participated in the programme.