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- The Union AYUSH Ministry launched ‘Swasthya Raksha Programme’ to promote health and health education in villages by providing medical support, organizing camps and creating awareness. AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.
Christine Lagarde - Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel will be briefing the Parliamentary Committee on Finance about the demonetisation process & its impact.
- The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has lowered the interest rate on provident fund deposits to 8.65 per cent for the current fiscal, from 8.8 per cent in 2015-16.
- The government has revised the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy and added that all payments will be made through Direct Benefit Transfer. Further, the subsidy for the new industrial units going for substantial expansion will be limited to Rs 5cr per industrial unit operating in manufacturing sector & Rs 3cr per industrial unit operating in services sector.
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that small traders with a turnover of up to 2 crore rupees will pay less tax if they accept digital payments or payments via banks.
- Cyrus Mistry has stepped down from the boards of all Tata Group companies, eight weeks after he was moved out as the Chairman of Tata Sons.
- PNB MetLife has launched a virtual reality-based customer service platform conVRse. This is the first time such technology is being used in the insurance sector.
- Amazon India launched its online wallet Amazon Pay Balance to increase cashless transactions. Customers can store balance in it to pay for items instead of CoD.
- UN Security Council has unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to send observers to Aleppo in Syria to monitor the ongoing evacuations there. This proposal was made by France.
- The Russian ambassador to Ankara, Turkey, Andrei Karlov, died after being shot at an art exhibition. The attacker was subsequently killed by Turkish special forces.
- Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote by surpassing the necessary 270 votes, getting 304 electoral votes as opposed to Hillary’s 227. The result will be officially announced on 6th January in a special joint session of Congress.
- International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde has been convicted by a special French Court of negligence for her role in a controversial 2008 arbitration award to a businessman where she approved an award of €404m to businessman Bernard Tapie for the disputed sale of a firm while being the French Finance Minister.
- Japanese Softbank is going to invest $1bn in US space start-up OneWeb, that is working on satellites that will help bring faster internet to developing countries.
- Kuheli Gangulee of CISF won the women’s 50m rifle event at the 60th National shooting championship.
Today’s Quiz
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