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- Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, who is all set to retire on 31st December, has been appointed as the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the principal military adviser to Defence Minister and head of the new Department of Military Affairs with effect from 31st December, 2019. The cabinet committee on security (CCS) on 26th December created the post of CDS, which was first proposed after the 1999 Kargil war.
- Sustainable Development Goals Index 2019-20 was released by NITI Aayog on 30th December, 2019. As per the report, India’s composite score improved from 57 in 2018 to 60 in 2019. Kerala topped the index with a score of 70, followed by Himachal Pradesh with 69. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu were ranked at third position with a score of 67. The least performing states were Bihar, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh.
Christina H Koch - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Christina H Koch on 28th December, 2019 set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, after crossing the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. Koch still has six weeks to go before returning to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). In October, she was part of the first all-female spacewalk.
- Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2019 on 30th December, 2019. The ISFR is a biennial exercise that covers an inventory of forest, tree cover, bamboo resources, carbon stock and forest fires. As per the report, the country’s tree and forest cover has increased by 5,188 square kilometres in 2019 from 2017. Forests alone cover 712,249 sq.km. which is equivalent to 21.67% of the country’s geographical area. It is 0.12% more than that of 2017’s. The top three states showing an increase in forest cover are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively.
- Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy defeated China’s Lei Tingjie in the final to win the 2019 Women’s World Rapid Chess Champion title in Moscow, Russia. World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament being held since 1987, to determine world champion in chess played under rapid time controls.
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 28th December, 2019 launched eBkray, an online auction platform to increase the transparency in auctioning of assets attached by banks. A total of 35,000 properties were uploaded on the platform by Public Sector Banks (PSBs). The site is equipped with property search tools and navigational links to all PSB e-auction sites.
- All India Radio (AIR) organised the National Symposium of Poets 2020 on 27th December, 2019 which was attended by selected poets of all 22 languages recognized in the constitution. Being organised every year since 1956, National symposium is broadcasted on the eve of Republic Day at all the centers of AIR at 10:00 PM. All India Radio was established in 1936.
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