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- Salman Khan has been appointed as the ambassador of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s drive against open defecation and litter. The nonprofit organization, Being Human, will be donating five mobile toilets for this.
- Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav flagged off the Lucknow metro train, whose train run will take place on an 8.5km stretch. The rail has been completed in 26 months which is a record for any metro rail project in India. The services will be made available after March 2017. The trial was driven by two women operators- Pratibha and Prachi.
- The UNESCO included Yoga in its ‘List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’. Notably UNESCO has added Beer culture of Belgium, Bhojpuri folk songs of Mauritius, and carnival of Granville in France among others in the list.
- The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the merger of Bhartiya Mahila Bank ltd. (BMBL) with the county’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI). The combination is in the form of amalgamation whereby the business of BMBL, including its assets and liabilities, will be acquired by SBI.
- NITI Aayog under the banner of the Union Government constituted a 13-member committee to promote cashless economy. The committee will be headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. The committee will have the CM of various states who will also be representing different political parties to examine and promote the use of digital payment systems across the country.
- The World AIDS Day is observed on 1st of December across the world with the theme “Hands up for #HIVprevention”. This campaign explores different ways and aspects of HIV prevention and how can they relate to specific groups of people. The UNAIDS hosted a special event to commemorate the day and to reinforce the commitment to move forward together to end AIDS epidemic by 2030 as a part of sustainable development goals.
- The United Nations Department of Field Support (DFS) launched a new strategy to maximize peace operations’ efficiency. In the use of natural resources. The strategy will also help in minimizing peace operations’ risk to people, societies and ecosystems. The step was taken in order to highlight the significance of environment protection and management in the work of peacekeeping missions.
- Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vijiralongkom was formally proclaimed as King Rama X, the 10th King of Chakri dynasty, in a televised ceremony on Thursday. Vajiralongkom was proclaimed king after he accepted the invitation from the county’s parliament. The coronation ceremony for the king will take place after his recently deceased father’s cremation.
- The names of the four new elements discovered last year, that completed the 7th row of the periodic table, have been officially announced by the IUPAC (The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). The newly discovered elements with the atomic number 113, 115, 117 & 118 have officially been named Nihonium(Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts) and Oganesson (Og). With this Nihonium (Nh), 113, has become the first ever element to be discovered by an Asian country. This element was discovered and proposed by the RIKEN collaboration team in Japan in December last year.
- Singer Katy Perry was honored with the ‘Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award’ for her work as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador at a UNICEF event in New York. She was presented the award by 2016 Democratic US Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
- Cheng Wei, Co-founder and CEO of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has been named Forbes Asia’s 2016 Businessman of the Year. The business reportedly commands 85% of China’s ride sharing market.
Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved a controversial pipeline from Alberta oil sands to country’s Pacific Coast. This was done for tripling the capacity to get its energy resources to international markets. Though environmentalists criticized the pipeline over fears of oil spills as it will bring oil tankers to Canadian waters.
- Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography ‘Playing it My Way’ has won the Crossword Book of the Year Award in the autobiography category. The book was co-written by cricket historian Boria Majumdar.
- Hashim Mansoor, a seven year old boy from Kashmir’s Bandipora district, has won a gold medal at the Asian Youth Karate Championship in New Delhi. Mansoor won the gold in the sub-junior category.
- Muskan Sethi, a 27 year old from Delhi, is India’s 1st female professional poker player. She has been playing professionally since 2012 and participated in World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour and European poker Tour as the 1st Indian female professional.
- Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen beat Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin to clinch his 3rd consecutive World Chess Championship. Carlsen last defeated Viswanathan Anand in both the 2013 and 2014 chess championships.
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