POLITICAL & SOCIAL:

• India surpassed its colonial masters, the United Kingdom, to become the world’s sixth-largest economy in GDP terms. India is now behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France.
• President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev arrived in New Delhi on a four-day visit to India, which comprises a trade deal between two countries worth $27.99 million. The deal includes six MoUs regarding Tourism, Agriculture & Food industry, Youth development, Broadcasting & Exchange of audio-visual programs.
• Justice J S Khehar was appointed as the new Chief Justice of India after President Pranab Mukherjee’s approval.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the country’s first ever Indian Institute of Skills  (IIS) in Kanpur.
• The Union government has revised the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIP) oF 2007. All payments will be made through Direct Benefit Transfer.
• The government has decided to set up a ‘Single-Permanent Tribunal’ to solve all inter-state river water disputes subsuming the existing tribunals.
• The Election Commission of India (EC) has enlisted 200 political parties that will be eliminated from next elections, officials stated that most of those parties never contested in elections and might be actively participating as money-laundering platforms.
• The Union AYUSH Ministry has launched ‘Swasthya Raksha Programme’ to promote health and education in villages.
• The students of IIT Kharagpur took on to a ‘Hunger Strike’ against the institution’s decision to hike the tuition fee.

BUSINESS:

• Cyrus Mistry stepped down from the board of all Tata Group companies, eight weeks after he was ousted as the Chairman of Tata sons. Mistry was replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata on October 24th.
• EPFO lowered the interest rate on provident fund deposits to 8.65% from 8.8%, in 2015-16.
• The central govt has passed ‘Payment of Wages Act’ which allows business and Industrial establishments to pay salaries through cheques or electronically.
• Cabinet approved the creation of Indian Enterprise Development Service in the Office of Development Commissioner under the ministry of MSMEs.
• Out of 24 Life Insurance companies operating in India, only 19 ensures profitable statistics in 2015-16.
• Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank is honored as the Business Standard Banker of the Year for 2015-16.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that small traders with the turnover of up to Rs 2 crore rupees will pay less tax if they accept payments through banking & digital means.
• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council approved the primary drafts of Central GST & State GST laws.
• Reliance Communications has sold its tower business to Brookfield Infrastructure for $1.6 billion or Rs 11,000 crore.
• ‘Yes Bank’ has partnered with Ola to provide Cash-on-Demand at customer’s doorstep. Snapdeal also joined the activity partnering with multiple banks.
• eCommerce giant Amazon India has launched its online wallet ‘Amazon Pay Balance’, in a bid to increase cashless transactions.
• Domestic mobile wallet platform MobiKwik has tied up with Indian daily co-operative Amul to help customers make cashless payments at its outlets.

SPORTS:

• Team-India’s new-comer, Karun Nair scored a triple century in the 5th Test match against England held in MA Chidambaram stadium, Chennai. He became the second Indian cricketer to hit a triple century, meanwhile, Sehwag occupied the first place.
• Indian duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja made it to the top slots in the ICC Test rankings of bowlers. Jadeja betters his position bettered to 2nd and Ashwin topped the list. Meanwhile, India ended as No. 1 test cricket team
• Team-India’s off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin won the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and skipper Virat Kohli was chosen as the captain of the year 2016.
• India defeated Sri Lanka in U-19 Youth Asia Cup 2016 to lift the trophy in Columbo.
• Sixteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani has won the National title in 6-Red Snooker, the shorter format of the game.
• India’s first Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan clinched a gold medal at the Asian Luge Championships.
• India produced a clinical performance to outclass Belgium at 2-1 and clinched the second Hockey Junior World Cup title.
• Indian Women’s Under-18 team have clinched the Bronze medal in the 4th Asian Cup Hocket tournament.
• 5-time world champion & Olympic bronze medallist, Mary Kom was presented the AIBA Legends Award for her trailblazing boxing career. Vikas Krishnan was handed the APB Best Boxer trophy.
• Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Vijay Goel inaugurated the Conference on Youth Development in Delhi.
• Andy Murray has been voted as the ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year’ for a record third time (earlier in 2013 & 2015).
• Indore’s Holkar stadium is decided as the venue for the final match of Ranji Trophy that will be held from January 10th to 14th.
• Kuheli Gangulee won the women’s 50m rifle prone at the 60th National shooting Championship.

VIRAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Indian biopics MS Dhoni: The Untold Story & Sarbjit have made it to the long list of 336 feature films eligible for the Oscars.
• Aamir Khan’s Dangal released on 23rd December had some huge openings despite the demonetization issues.
• Twitter brutally slammed ICC for excluding Virat Kohli from ICC Test team of the Year.
• The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has posted the video of his new housemate: Jarvis, an artificial intelligence assistant. The prominent actor, Morgan Freeman gave voice over for Jarvis.
• PM Modi Mocks Rahul Gandhi’s Speech, Congratulates Him For Finally Learning ‘How To Speak’
• Twitter went crazy over Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor’s baby name ‘Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi‘, Kareena’s uncle Rishi Kapoor later slammed those people for their offensive comments on Twitter.
• The central government has declared 22nd December, the birth date of Srinivasa Ramanujan as the National Mathematics Day.
• Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan has become the top-earning celebrity of 2016 in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list.