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- Skymet, a private weather monitoring company, released a report on the Kharif Crop outlook. Apart from cotton, it can be expected that the other Kharif crops will witness a drop by 4.5% to 12% in their production, as compared to the production in 2018-19. Due to excess rainfall in some areas and rainfall deficit in the others, several crops such as groundnut, soybean, tur, cotton and urad were adversely affected, especially those crops growing in the state of Maharashtra. Kharif crops are those crops that are grown in the months of south west monsoon and the coastal regions in India bring the highest yield of these crops.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provided the details of tiger corridor mapping made by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India in the Rajya Sabha on 2nd December 2019. The two institutes have mapped 32 corridors in total and have grouped them under four major categories – Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains, central India and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats and the North Eastern Hills. Under the Tiger Conservation Plan, which is protected and implemented under Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, these four corridors are being operated. India is home to 70% of the tiger population in the world, with Central India having the highest genetic diversity of tigers.
Tony Joseph - The 12th Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize was awarded to English author Tony Joseph for his book ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came’. The award was instituted in 2008 and seeks to celebrate new writing in any genre from the South Asian countries.
- The Parliament has passed the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, 2019. The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan had introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha. Any person breaking the law will be punishable with imprisonment of up to 1 year or a fine of up to 1 lakh rupees or both.
- According to the “Top 100 City Destination Ranking” released by the Euro Monitor International, Delhi is ranked 11th. Various cultural traditions and enriching history gave Delhi this pedestal. For three consecutive years, Hong Kong has remained at the top. There are seven other Indian cities in the top 100 and 43 Asian cities feature in the list as well.
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) awarded a 4-star rating to the Mumbai Central Terminus of the Western Railway and also certified it as India’s first ‘Eat Right Station’. The certification was awarded as part of the ‘Eat Right India’ movement that was started in 2019.
- Under the schemes PRASHAD and Swadesh Darshan, the Ministry of Tourism sanctioned 18 projects in order to develop the North Eastern region as a tourist destination. An amount of Rs. 1456 crores has been allocated for these projects and television campaigns on private channels as well as Doordarshan have been released. In addition to these efforts, the Ministry of Tourism also organizes International Tourism Mart every year in the North East.
- The Christopher Martin Jenkins Spirt of Cricket Award for 2019 was awarded to the New Zealand team. The award comes in light after due recognition was given to the New Zealand team for their sporting conduct following a dramatic defeat by England in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 final at Lord’s in July 2019. The award was created in 2013 in memory of Martin-Jenkins, former Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) President and BBC Test Match Special commentator to honour his longstanding desire to see the game of cricket being played in the right spirit.
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