- Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite died from a heart attack at 99 at her Los Angeles home
- Dr Henry Heimlich, who became famous in the 1970s for creating the technique to save choking victims, passed away at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati on December 17, 2016. He was 96.
- The world’s first cloned goat with superfine Cashmere wool was born in northChina’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
- Sarbananda Sonowal led assam government has roped Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra as the brand ambassador of the state tourism.
- US based Amazon India launched the wallet Amazon Pay Balance in a bid to increase cashless orders and it is limited to Amazon-based transactions.
- The five day India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival (INCF-2016) begins in Kathmandu, Nepal on December 19, 2016 to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries . Aim: To promote crafts based bilateral relations and enhance cultural exchanges between the artisans of India and Nepal
- The British Library is set to digitise 4,000 early printed Bengali books amounting to more than 800,000 pages as a part of a project under the UK India Year of Culture plans for 2017.
- President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon was on a five-day visit to India fromDecember 14-18, 2016 to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr Rahmon landed in Cochin, Kerala on December 14. He arrived New Delhi on December 16, 2016.
- To conform with the concept of Skill India Campaign, and make India the Skill Capital of the World, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid down the foundation stone of the first ever “Indian Institute of Skills” at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh on December 19, 2016, which would empower the youths to be more employable and self-sustainable.
- The Centre has planned to set up a single, permanent Tribunal to adjudicate all Inter-State River Water Disputes, subsuming existing tribunals, to resolve grievances of states in a speedy manner.
- The Center is planning to merge Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CyAT) with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to avoid identical functions.
- Retirement fund body, Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on December 19, 2016, reduced interest rate on employee provident fund (EPF) deposits to 8.65 per cent for 2016-17 from the current 8.8 per cent.
- Maharashtra based YES Bank has partnered with Indian online transportation network company Ola to provide cash-on-demand at customer’s doorstep.
- Andy Murray was honored with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2016 for a record third time on December 18, 2016. The award was presented by Jessica Ennis Hill and Prince William at a ceremony in Birmingham.
- Stephanie Del Valle from Puerto Rico was crowned the Miss World 2016 at the event’s grand finale held at the MGM National Harbor near Washington DC
- The weekly magazine The Week and Varun Bhatt of daily hindi magazine Rajasthan Patrika have been named for the International Press Institute’s (IPI) India Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2016, for outstanding journalistic work done during 2015.
- Scientists from US based Harvard University‘s John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed the world’s smallest radio receiver using atomic-scale defects in pink diamonds.The study was published in the journal Physical Review Applied.
- Indian cricketer Karun Nair scored a triple century in the 5th Test match against England held in MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, and became the second Indian cricketer to score triple century in Test Cricket after Virendra Sehwag. This was his 3rdtest match.
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